Trad Gang

I was out hunting this morning and ran across a hunter from Georgia. We wound up setting up our stands not too far from each other. When I talked with him later he said, "I like how your hunting. It's old school." I didn't see any deer today, but the comment brought a smile to my face. I didn't realize I was old school, but I'll take it!

 :)

This year while in the elk woods i met a wheelie hunter and he called us Hardcore with our sticks.
Feels good when they say stuff like that.

Ha ha! that's good.

I had a similar experience a while back. I was at a 3D shoot and a young compound shooter noticed I was shooting a longbow. He said that his Dad used a old fashioned bow like that "back in the day".

While talking to him I found out that I knew his father and his father and I had hunted a few times as teens together with our trusty recurves "back in the day"!

I thought it was amusing. You're old school and I'm old fashioned, I guess, from back in the day!

Most of the compound hunters I know deeply respect and admire trad hunters. That is until they make elitist comments. Then they think of us as snobs. It is something to avoid.
I am the only trad hunter in my elk camp. The guys love shooting my bow and I am sure some of them will eventually go trad.
God bless you all, Steve

When I was in Colorado in Sept, elk hunting a young lady game warden stopped in to visit and check us out at camp.....she was fascinated by our long bows, most likely thought look at these old fools.....except Charlie is only 32...lol!!! I'm the old fool....   :biglaugh:  I never thought I would be old school, but I guess I would think now that's a compliment!

The Appalachian trail runs through my hunting area, so I often meet people on the trail. I have had comments like, "wow, that is a nice long bow. Now that's hunting for real!"

I had someone call me hardcore for hunting with a recurve.  But most of my friends who know me call me a camper!  :biglaugh:    :biglaugh:

Ron, she was lookig for a nice way to check our licenses. I think she was eying me up too lol.

Like the connect to Old school myself. Know recurves have been around a good while. Like to know which came first Rcv or LB? You recurve boys got some slick bows to pick from.

I was at the local archery range a few weeks ago and a couple compound shooters were having difficultly dialing in the sights on a new bow a third guy was shooting for the first time.  One of them looked up and saw my recurve and jokingly said "This guy is probably thinking to himself 'Only p----'s need sights!'"

I told them 'No', and that I was well aware they could probably get better groups at 40yrds than I could at 15.  They seemed to respect the challenge of shooting and hunting with traditional archery equipment.

I've had other folks call me hard core.  Haven't gotten the Old School comment yet, though.

He was a really nice guy. I just took the compliment and smiled. I wished him good luck and I hope he gets as many deer as he can use this fall! There was no pretense on either of our parts and that's how I like it. A good woodsman is a good woodsman in my book. Just two hunters talking and wishing each other well. We all came from the same history at some point. It was a good way to end a SLOW morning....

Sixby,

I agree with your statement. I have never understood why people get after someone for using the legal weapon of their choice. We are all different and, as such, have different tastes. I do get annoyed when people are breaking the law, but that is an entirely different point.

I thought that was a very unique compliment on his part!  :thumbsup:  

Shoot straight ladies and gents!

-Charlie

QuoteOriginally posted by straitera:
Like to know which came first Rcv or LB?  

It is my understanding that straight sticks came first. Whether or not these were "Long" bows or not might be another discussion all together. The extra energy stored in the curved limbs was not discovered until later. Later is a relative term though since, at least as I understand it, Scythian bows have been traced back to 8th century BC and used a recurve limb.

I've had some similar comments in the field. My reply is usually something to the effect "If I wanted to shoot game at 50+ yards I'd use a gun"
To me it's all about the challenge of getting within 20 yards of my intended quarry, that takes some skill & some luck. That's why I gave up gun hunting years ago and don't use a compound.

Mike,

He wasn't insulting me. Even if he was, I wouldn't say something derogatory about his compound bow. That's his choice and it is ok.

He said, "I like how your hunting, it's old school." It was a compliment. Just a very unique one and one I like. It's kind of like the bicycle I ride. It has fenders, one speed, coaster brakes and whitewall tires! I guess both my bow AND my bicycle are throw backs to days gone past. Maybe I need to find a way to use them both at once.

QuoteOriginally posted by buckeye_hunter:
Mike,

He wasn't insulting me. Even if he was, I wouldn't say something derogatory about his compound bow. That's his choice and it is ok.

He said, "I like how your hunting, it's old school." It was a compliment. Just a very unique one and one I like. It's kind of like the bicycle I ride. It has fenders, one speed, coaster brakes and whitewall tires! I guess both my bow AND my bicycle are throw backs to days gone past. Maybe I need to find a way to use them both at once.

I like that analogy between a trad bow and a one speed bike.  They both share "simplicity"; the real advantage of both to me.

I've been listening to these comments from c shooters since the things were first being made. I've never shot one and don't have anything against someone that chooses to use one.

I always seem to hear you've got more patience than I do, I'd never want to put in the time and practice it takes to shoot one of those. Thank God they invented c-pounds.
They make me feel special, which I think I am!
But..... when they see the cane arrow with stone point..... suddenly they decide I'm just "NUTS".

Oh well, to each their own...

I got the "Oh your one of those guys....Nice"

was practicing with my recurve this week on a local offroading trail. Old timer pulls up wheeling his jeep and we get to talking about hunting. He looks at my recurve and says "you hunting with that this season?" and I said yeah. "Don't yah got a compound?"   :bigsmyl:

Stone points on cane arrows are wicked old school not just old school!!!

People REALLY show respect for animals harvested with primitive equiptment. I never will doubt stone points again after I saw Tippits black bear kill. I wish he would post that back up again. It was stupid on my part to doubt it in the first place. Now I just want to try it!

While in CO elk hunting, we ran across other bowhunters, as well as hikers and mountain bikers. Those who commented on our longbows were very impressed. Hard Core, purists, doing it the hard way, real bowhunters were some of the comments we got. Never a negative one. I think more often than not, people are intrigued by the simplicity, and the discipline of traditional archery.

We talked with a couple on the trail, both non hunters who were really in awe that we could take up the challenge of bowhunting elk with longbows. the gentleman was really curious about our gear. He said backpacking in and hunting, especially  with a traditional bow really impressed him. Made us feel pretty good. They wished us luck in our quest as they departed to continue their hike.

Met another fella, hunting muleys who was originally from MI, resides in CO. We struck up a conversation at the trailhead, and he was showing us on my topo some areas he had bumped in to a couple elk. When he saw our bows in the back of my truck he was instantly interested. We talked about trad archery, and my son put on a little demo for him. AS it were, he was also a lefty, so we let him shoot a few shots with judo's. He was lovin it. I suspect we may have recruited another into the fold. He went on and on about how simple it was, and how much fun.

We ended up sharing a campfire and a few cold drinks withhim and his wife, and he showed us several areas to hunt that may be productive.

At my club, it's all compound shooters, but they are all respectful of trad archery. More often there's ribbing like Mathews vs Hoyt vs Bowtech,etc. They leave me alone! As to some history on longbows and recurves, I have always thought the longbow was more of an infantry weapon, and the recurve was originally for mounted troops/cavalry. Kind of like a long rifle and a carbine. Maybe someone can add to, or correct me on this....  Shoot straight!

When I took my Hunter Safety Course a few years back I was the only one shooting a Trad bow, a Browning Cobra. I agonized between it and my compound when I grabbed gear for the day. I grabbed the Browning and went all Trad that day.

I got a lot of looks and could hear the buzz of conversation behind me as I stepped-up to qualify. I was nervous as I'd never shot in front of people before.

Somehow I tranced out, couldn't even remember any of it afterwards, and put all 5 arrows in the middle of the vitals, surprised even myself! The buzz of comments was louder now, and excited. I calmly walked over to get my certificate, as if it was just routine shooting on my part, which at that time it wasn't.  

When I went to the old fellow that was giving out the certificates he had a big old smile on his face and told me he hadn't seen a bow like that for some time. He complimented me on some fine shooting. I could tell it made his day, and mine.

I like 'Old School', and refer to myself that way often.    :bigsmyl:

My son and I were in the Snowmass Wilderness for Elk a few years ago. Outfitter bringing some other hunters through to another drainage while we munching at the noon hour. Saw that we had ourcamp attached to our backpacks as well as "stickbows". Talked briefly with us and as they started to leave the Outfitter says to his client's. "Primitive Dudes _ _ Studs"     :goldtooth:

I'm called crazy by my wheelie buddies.  :)  But, they are baffled how I do it.  ;)

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Originally posted by Butts2:
My son and I were in the Snowmass Wilderness for Elk a few years ago. Outfitter bringing some other hunters through to another drainage while we munching at the noon hour. Saw that we had ourcamp attached to our backpacks as well as "stickbows". Talked briefly with us and as they started to leave the Outfitter says to his client's. "Primitive Dudes _ _ Studs"      :thumbsup: