I have a friend and coworker who's been a long time compound hunter. Over the past year he's listened to me talk about my "obsession" with traditional archery with a grain of salt (or so I thought).
A couple of weeks ago he said to me, "My dad has this old recurve in the garage..." I told him to dig it out and we would take a look at it. It turned out to be an old Shakespeare Necedah, #45, in very good condition. I told him it would be a great bow to to learn to shoot with and gave him a list of what he would need.
Well, yesterday he showed up at my house with the bow, shafts from Big Jim's, and a box from 3 Rivers. We fletched up some arrows and went to it. He was suprisingly good and by the end of our time together he was grinning from ear to ear and had set a goal to kill a deer with "Dad's bow" this year.
You'll always get those guys who are tech hungry and want the latest and greatest, but for the most part I've had a lot of people really intersted and wanting to learn more about traditional :thumbsup: Kudos on helping him get setup right!
That's cool! Alot of people get sick and tired of messing arround with all the high tech stuff and trying to keep up with it all. :thumbsup:
I think the simplicity of trad is one of the reasons it appeals to my friend. After shooting a few arrows I could see the same gleam in his eye I know I had.
Some guys just don't see how such a simple concept can be so much fun until they try it. I hope he continues to enjoy it, and good on you for showing him how to get started.
To use "dads" bow makes it even better. On another note, I can't count the times my friends would back out of a hunting trip. They would say "I can't go" and I would ask "why not" then they would go on about there sight got moved, there rest came loose, batteries went dead in there sights.... the list goes on.
Congrats to your friend! That's awesome. I don't regret moving to trad at all, but I will be a dissenter here...
When I was on wheels I just used the bow and shot. It was pretty simple and easy. It was purely a tool I bought and used.
Now I make strings, toy with tuning arrows, rest material and know so much more about archery than I ever dreamed of. My time involved in messing with gear has exploded as compared to my non-trad days. I don't regret it a minute, but don't necessarily share the view that traditional archery is simple.
Like anything else, it is what you make it. My other form of archery was simple because I made it that way. Now, I have more passion for the technical aspects of traditional archery
I hear you, Colin. My friend is definitely a tinkerer. It would not suprise me if before long he's making his own strings and quivers. I think one of the things that appeals to him is being able to make his own stuff. He did mention not having to pay $100 for a bow sight.