It was back in the sixties I believe, or early seventies, I saw my first compound advertised in a magazine. I thought, this won't ever catch on. Boy, was I wrong! It wasn't long before the hunting magazines had bowhunting stories only featureing these devices. Wooden arrows disappeared. Sporting goods stores and Kmart no longer offered recurves or even strings. Bowhunting as I knew it no longer existed. Even the top archery companies were chasing the dollar. All my hunting buddies bought into the quick and easy, " instant accuracy without practice" concept. Actually I did almost quit hunting for a few of my prime years when I should really have been enjoying it the most. But now I make my own bows, strings, and arrows and am glad to see return of traditional archery to the extent it has. I hope the trend continues until when you say "bow" folks will think of a real bow.
barley40, I did leave and came back.Got into compounds for a bit more than a year upon my return.
A lot of blank spaces between 1970 and 2000.
Today, I'm fulfilled. 3 old recurves and 3 longbows, all used at an investment of $200 each or less.
I would like to replace one of those high priced ones I use to own (GN Ghost) Osage on Osage that fit me like skin on a drum.
But for now I'm good to go.
By the way, I didn't know that compounds were available back then. I don't know if I could be considered a redneck by standards, but I am from the sticks.
It never left my blood. i started with an early browning cobra compound about and went out for 25 years ago then was trying to burn some time and went into an archery shop. i thought the new compounds were so cool like Star Trek i just had to start again and swiftly was attracted by the art of trad bows and now am bit by the bug in a whole new way. Jim
I'll be 70 next birthday , been bowhunting about 50 of those years. I never got caught up in the compound craze, maybe that's why quitting never entered my mind , not even a little bit! Shooting and hunting with a longbow or recurve is just too much fun!!
Honestly...if you're a hunter, we're brothers. I don't really care which weapon you carry.
Is this thread about leaving hunting?
In a word NO
QuoteOriginally posted by GMMAT:
Honestly...if you're a hunter, we're brothers. I don't really care which weapon you carry.
Is this thread about leaving hunting?
???????
Dayton is asking if anyone has ever considered quiting....for one reason or another.
He is describing
his reaction to the sudden influx of technology (ie: compound bows with cams!) into archery.
Dayton..I've never considered giving up the bow, although there have been times of what we will call "non-activity". The military sometimes has an impact on extra-currricular activities. The desire has never left!
Hay...
I read it like that, also. That's why I asked the question I did.
I was away from archery for a time but I have an excuse..lol I started out to just go for a hunt with a (now) friend behind his dog(Elvis Presley) an OMCBA squirrel and coon dog deluxe. I ended up buying a pup named Trouble with the Truth aka Liar.
It takes more than you can imagine in time, money, travel and commitment to get to World Champion X4, Missouri State Coon and squirrel Champion X3, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota State Champion on squirrel and coon. Liar must have looked better than I thought too because he's a couple of wins away from being Super Grand on the bench.
A couple of years ago Liar took a fall out of a tree(18-20ft) and injured his back. I developed a bad back myself so we retired from the circuit. Now he's just my best buddy and has a few girl friends from time to time but his hunting days are over. I've tried(because of his desire to hunt) to allow him to hunt for short periods of time(1/2 hr) and he gets so much pain afterwards he can't get up on his couch.
Since I stopped with the dogs I got back into archery and I am so glad I did. I never realized just how much I had missed it.
My intention is to do this until I can't.
Thanks to all of Tradgang and its members for accepting me back.
God bless,Mudd
I had to back way off for 5 years in collage because I was going to school in a city, but I still shot when home. Other than that no. I will not even think of giving it up until my body fails me. I will hunt us along as I can drag my self into the woods even when I can't pull a bow anymore.
Nope. Addicted since the age of 5 when I got my first fiberglass bow with them suction tip arrows. I actually thumped a cottotail in the butt with bow once....game on since then :D
Not really but I was sidetracked during the compound years like others and then other hobbies moved into the forefront. Archery has always been there in one form or another but not my main interest throughout my entire life. It still shares my time with a couple of other passions and it will for the rest of my life.
I stopped bow hunting for about 5 years back in the 80's.Trad stuff was scarce in my neck of the woods.Something magical was missing from hunting and I realized it was archery.Got back into it with trad gear.Didn't get much support from other hunters,in fact some said I had no business being in the woods with such equipment.Read in a magazine where a popular bowhunter said instinctive archery was a hap-hazard way to shoot.Stuck with it though because I realized archery is not what I did,it's who I am.
Never had the urge to quit. Bowhunted every year since I was 14(I'm 46 now). Since I got rid of my training wheels and switched to trad. I love it more than I ever have. God willing, my two boys will find the same happiness that I have. They're trad. all the way. So far so good.
No - what equipment others hunt with has no bearing on what I choose.
To answer your question, no. I actually shot compounds from 1976 through 1979...they were really primitive compared to what they have now. There were plenty of times I questioned why anyone would want to shoot 29" long bows with trigger releases, but I guess they get something out of it.
Frankly I wouldn't give you a nickle for a dozen of those machines, other than to resell them 8^).
Nowadays there is plenty of traditional equipment to choose from. I tend to like the old stuff best anyhoo. Smoke em' if you got em'.
:p
No. If you went to Kalamazoo and didn't see all the new technology in building recurves and longbows then a person had their eyes closed.
It's not "new technology", it's what they do with the new technology. It can be used many ways that don't cheapen ones experience in the woods.
The only time I almost gave it up was because I had target panic so bad I wouldn't go hunting. I
finally got it under control, and I've been back in the woods with a bow in my hands ever since.
Barley40, I remember thinking the exact same thing back in the 70s when I started seeing compound devices in shops--"those things will never catch on." I guess we're alike in our prophetic skills, huh? I did try the compound route for a while as all of my buddies were into them but never left my recurves--just added a compound which I never liked. I seriously worried that archery as I had known it most of my life (I'm 66 now) was going to be a thing of the past so I would pick up recurves at sporting goods stores or bow shops that had them to save them up for when there weren't going to be any more. :eek: Most shop owners were delighted to get rid of them for whatever they could get. I recall seeing Bear Kodiak Hunters and Browning Wasp bows for sale for $10-15 brand new. Then I started seeing ads in Bowhunter magazine by a guy named Asbell who was actually making them to sell--and asking $150. Didn't see how on earth he was going to make it since almost nobody seemed to want the old style stuff any more. Thanks to Fred and some others who swam against the current we now have a thriving and exciting world of real archery again. But during those dark ages I never considered giving it up--just getting enough bows to last me as long as I was hoping to need them.
Like alot of others, I started with recurves but I jumped on the compound wagon in the late 70s.
About 10 or 12 years ago, I had quit bowhunting and modern gun hunting because it didn't stir my soul anymore. I used flintlocks when I did hunt.
A little over a year ago, I found my old recurve in the basement and started shooting it. I joined a bowhunting club and shot my first 3D shoot last summer.
Last November, I harvested a small whitetail buck and had the greatest feeling of accomplishment since my first bow harvest as a teen. If I hadn't come across my old recurve I'm sure I would have not hunted the last couple years.
To answer your question ... NO !!! I'm 37 and have had a bow lying around since i was 4 years old . i grew up shooting recurves , longbows and for a while , compounds ...always coming back to longbows and curves . i competed seriously with wheels shooting FITA for about 2 years but after just one hunt with wheels they never came bush again ... only my stickbows do . That's not a judgement on equipment , thats just how i roll !!!!! stump shooting with wheels ain't no fun !!!
Regardless of equip etc , flinging arrows is part of who i am .... to give that up would be unconscionable .
Nope...never had a thought of giving any of it up.
When compounds came on the scene I just thought it would make things easy enough so that people who would have quickly lost interest before would last a little longer. Well, guessed right on that one but never could have predicted how the tables have since turned...or how much more difficult it would become to teach "old school" once the new kid started redefining things.
All of my friends switched over for a while, but I never did...and they all came back, with their kids in tow. There's no way I can give this up...never has been...it's my identity. Rick.
Give up on bowhunting. It has never crossed my mind.
Still love shooting my bow and kicking around in the woods. But for some reason I've lost my desire to kill. Don't know what has come over me. :confused:
QuoteOriginally posted by barley40:
I hope the trend continues until when you say "bow" folks will think of a real bow.
You're not alone!
Actually yes. About 1957 or 58 two of my nephews got a hold of my bow and one of them almost lost an eye. I felt really guilty for allowing that to happen so I threw the bow away and swore I would never shoot a bow again..
Probably 10 years later I realized that my hiatus was solving nothing, and I drifted back into it. (His eye is fine and he is a bow hunter too)
Since about 1968 I think I missed one year of hunting and that was because we had a new baby in the house and I flat could not afford the permit or the gas to go hunting.
QuoteI hope the trend continues until when you say "bow" folks will think of a real bow.
I kind of eluded to this in my first post on this subject. But, I can't help it....how the "other guy" does it means absolutely NOTHING to me (esp. if what he's doing is legal and ethical). And, if he's hunting, he's got an ally in me whether I happen to like how he hunts......or not.
Does it really bother some of you guys that people hunt with compounds? I'm just trying to decide of I should be mad or not.....lol. :D
In my mid-20's, I got married, built a house on a golf course and started learning to play golf. My new father-in-law played every day and I tried to build a relationship with him. I put the bow down and chased that stupid white ball for a couple of years.
One day, I was in a fairway waiting to hit into the green when I heard something running toward me from behind. I turned, thinking that a big dog was about to rip me a new one, and saw four does scatter all around me. When I got back home, all I could talk about were those four deer. I came to the realization that I was more excited seeing deer than I have ever been hitting that golf ball.
So, I picked up the bow again and headed out to the woods. Granted, I used compounds at that time. I just recently returned to my roots of shooting instinctively with a recurve. I can't describe the sense of accomplishment that I get from shooting traditional equipment. It is about me putting that arrow where I want it vs. buying a new gadget to screw in somewhere on that compound. I haven't felt this way in years. I can't wait for September to get here.
I have been lucky in the fact that archery has always been there for me. Don't get me wrong there have been times when I felt pretty lonely when friends and hunting partners drifted. There has always been ups and downs for but I think archery has saved me. If it was not for my love of this lifestyle I would have be a crack head or something even worse. I hope that I never have to face that demon as you have and my be strong enough to keep going.
A FEW YEARS AGO I LOST A LITTLE BUCK THAT I KNOW WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED BUT RAIN WASHED AWAY THE BLOOD TRAIL. TOOK A LONG TIME FOR ME TO WANT TO HUNT AGAIN. I PASSED ON SEVERAL EASY SHOTS IN FOLLOWING YEARS JUST DUE TO LACK OF CONFIDENCE. I CAN'T IMAGINE LIVING THROUGH THE AUTUMN WITHOUT BEING IN THE WOODS WITH A BOW BUT THAT LITTLE BUCK STILL HAUNTS EVERY HUNT.
No.
Quitting something I love because other people don't want to do it doesn't make much sense to me.
It's either in your blood or it isn't. If it is,there's no quitting because of external forces.
when they pull my cold dead fingers from around my three piece Bear take down.bowdoc
i quit hunting for 8 years...just started up again two years ago...
my reasons for quitting stemmed from the fact that to me, hunting was a spiritual endeavor...my dad brought me up to respect nature and all Her glory...and that the joy wasn't in the kill, but the journey/experience...
i loved hunting...it was my only thing...then i moved to Alaska and began a path to become a guide... worked for four seasons doing mostly Moose, Brown/Grizzly Bears, Dall Sheep...for several different guide services...during that time, i witnessed/experienced/served some of the most mind-numbing individuals i could ever imagine existing...too many details to divulge here...
suffice it to say that if your hunting buddies care more about the integrity of a hunt than inches measured, cherish it...
i believe trad bowhunters are (mostly) that sort, and i will say that my soul seemed to be on walk-about for that eight years(and that i am REALLY glad to be back)...but i still get sick to my stomach when i walk into most stores (Gadget Mountain) these days.
QuoteOriginally posted by Ray Hammond:
No.
Quitting something I love because other people don't want to do it doesn't make much sense to me.
It's either in your blood or it isn't. If it is,there's no quitting because of external forces.
not so in my case...blanket statements might cover a majority of circumstances, but life has too many variables for that mentality...
I shot a compound for 20+ years and almost gave up due to boredom 3 years ago until a couple of buddies let me shoot their longbow and recurves. Now, I am refreshed and wouldn't think of quitting. Beav
Don,
I think a better response to guiding bad hunters would have been to quit guiding-
sometimes we don't analyze situations we are heavily engaged in well enough to make the proper choices.
By that line of reasoning we should all give up driving cars because some people drink before driving and cause accidents.
That's one heck of an object, maker!!
Started young with a fibreglass recurve. Then compounds as I grew up. The compound technology just kept passing me up until I decided to stop buying them. My compound could drive tacks it was so acurate, however it became dull and boring. Even lugging it around to go bowfishing was a non event. I stopped pulling a bow for a stretch and went to the gun range often. At that point archery was over because it was no longer fun. Then at a gun show I came across this Bear Grizzly. It was soo much lighter than my compound and all I could think about was putting a reel on it and being able to carry it all day and fish up and down the river or coast. I fell deep in love and the skill neccesary to shoot acurately with it became a worthy challange. I found it so nostolgic and brought back memories of my youth. I still don't know the ins & outs of everything but it is no longer blurry it is clear this is me.
Sometimes I think about giving up on archery since I don't have any private land to hunt any more. Public land hunting has been driving me crazy lately with all the poaching and illegal stuff I see going on. I should be thankful to have any place to hunt I guess.
It goes in cycles for me. I will decide to give up and then I keep looking at my bow and before you know it I pick it up again. Then I am back out hunting and get frustrated and put the bow down. I then repeat the cycle above......
Can't seem to REALLY give up on it, even if some issues relating to hunting do frustrate me.
-Charlie
Charlie-
You can't stop being a hunter because others twist the sport into something it isn't.
Think about it- that's like all olympians giving up their dreams because somebody else takes performance enhancing drugs.
What others do is out of your control- what YOU do is all you can deal with.
Think outside the box- get some private land. Start an urban hunting group- travel to other places and hunt something else- giving up on what you care about because someone else perverts it for themselves is just plain wrong.
Seriously thought about it about 2 years after I switched to trad. Target Panic bit me bad and past 5 yards I couldn't guarantee that I could hit a 36" x 36" bag target. Finally got it under control after a few months and don't plan to stop unless I have to.
QuoteOriginally posted by Ray Hammond:
[QB] Don,
I think a better response to guiding bad hunters would have been to quit guiding-
sometimes we don't analyze situations we are heavily engaged in well enough to make the proper choices.
By that line of reasoning we should all give up driving cars because some people drink before driving and cause accidents.
That's one heck of an object, maker!!
Ray,
the next time i'm in a tough situation, i'll be sure and give you a call so i can make the "proper choice"
I must be honest i left. My father spent alot of time teaching me the way when i was 10 when i hit about 13 and them darn things we call girls took my sights. Then i got married and back i came it took 15 years but im back. left the compound where i left it then and bought a gn longbow and gn gost love them both
Don,
You don't need to call me..
All you need to do is decide that you aren't going to allow the actions of others to determine how you live your life.
Pretty simple, really.
Compounds hit NZ in the early to mid 70's,I bought an shot a couple,but never stopped shooting my recurves.
I did stop shooting at clubs or competitions for about 20 years because I got tired of getting put down for shooting "old gear".
Funny thing is,as far as I know,not one of those people are still into archery,and none of them were ever real hunters anyway.
Does it really bother some of you guys that people hunt with compounds? I'm just trying to decide of I should be mad or not.....
it's not the equipment but how the equipment is used. bows no matter what are not long range weapons
Some pretty harsh calls going on here.
I know dozens of guys that hunt with compound bows.
Not a one of them has twisted or corrupted the sport for their own needs or anything else.
Most of them got into bowhunting and archery well after string bows were in common use.
It's not them that have the attitude problems guys.
Some of "you" need to take a closer look at yourselves,,,it's not a good look.
Have I ever thought of quiting archery?-(almost)
Target Panic hit me hard for a long time.Its hard to explain to someone thats never experienced it, but anyone that has knows what I'm talking about.
Started working out of it last summer to the point that I am actually shooting in a 300 winter league.My team is fighting for last place but they haven't strung me up from the rafters (YET).
Nope, never did. If anything, I've become more engrossed in it, if that is possible. My first bow (other than the 30# fiberglass stemmler recurve) was a Jennings Lightning that I got for Christmas in 1978 or 9. By 1990 I was shooting recurves with compounds. a few years ago, I went to all recurve. It brought back the excitement of the 14 year old kid who just started hunting!