Trad Gang

Curious  which areas of the U.S. have a heavy involvement with recurves and longbows.

Here in my home state of Mn. It's spotty at best in fact when someone asks if you bowhunt they're already assuming compound. I explain I hunt with traditional equipment.Its like they dismiss it as a useless cause.

From my limited experience, I have my own ideas about which areas have the most trad hunters.

I would have to say that Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have the most...but not sure who wins here.

Other eastern and mid-west states fall into the second tier, while the South and far west bring up the rear.

We have fair numbers here in the Northwest, but I think we are still far behind the other states.

OK, how am I doing?

We need a what state are you from poll!!!!

I am guessing that Rob can run a query on his data base.  But that would just show what state has the most Trad gangers and not necessarily the most trad hunters.
ChuckC

QuoteOriginally posted by archer66:
We need a what state are you from poll!!!!

Yup, good idea. New York longbow hunter here.

I don't think I've run into another person carrying a traditional bow here in my area in the last 15-20 years. I know there are a few traditional hunters around, but it seems that the vast majority of hunters here shoot a wheel bow.

Bob

We seem kind of spotty here in MN.  The only ones I run into are at the shoot in Coon Rapids.

Yep, a poll here only shows what state has the most TG'ers...BUT a contact with Traditional Bowhunters and TradArcher's World magazines could reveal even more.  If you are nice and tell them it's a research project, they may be able to tell you quickly which states have the most subscribers.  

I am sure every state will have more wheelie shooters than trad, but the results would be interesting.

Less than 1 percent of the deer killed with archery equipment in Illinois, are taken with traditional bows.

However; in our group of 5 bow hunters, all of us got a deer last season with trad equipment, on the same property. I suspect the success rate for trad bows hunters in Illinois
Is at least as good as the other bowhunters.

Michigan...Hands Down Winner

I have to agree with Mike. Michigan

I was surprised to find a lot of Traditional archers in Colorado.

Pennsylvania has to be up there I would think.

Michigan has sooooo many bowyers. I think we would win.

I have only met one person here in Kentucky that shot traditional...an older gentlemen that actually sparked my traditional interest 4-5 years ago. Other than that everyone I know is from this site.

I bet there's a total of 10 in Utah and I don't know any of em.

I would say MI. as well.Thier is long history here of traditional bow hunting in MI.Fred Bear's influence has alot to do with this I am sure.Deer hunting with trad bows here was pretty popular before the advent of the compound in MI.

I think the recruitment of new trad archers since the resergance of traditional bowhunters in the mid 80s to 90s has been very strong in MI.

Gotta be PA.

QuoteOriginally posted by screamin:
I bet there's a total of 10 in Utah and I don't know any of em.

Bet we could have a horse race    :)

You say about ten trad archers in Utah; I say we have at least a dozen in AZ.

I would venture to guess that the ratio of trad to modern bowhunters would not be too variant from state to state so the state with the most bowhunters would also be the state to have the most trad bowhunters     :dunno:    :dunno:

i heard there's one other in Utah, now two

i heard there's one other in Utah, now two

Well if there's you and me and one other, thats 3      :biglaugh:

wow, what happened here? a triple post    :biglaugh:

I think mississippi has a pretty good showing.

I would guess PA, and then MI.

You would think Texas would have to be high on the charts just by the sheer number of hunters alone however I am pretty sure Michigan has the largest number of famed/popular traditional shooters in the world  :thumbsup:

Idaho is going to have one more shortly. Not many in my neck of the woods here in NY.

Mi. came to mind as well. I am surprised with Pa. did not know.

I would love to have a all Traditional archery club, heck I would love to have an archery club where i did not have to go out of town.

Here in Mn we do have 1 bigger Traditional shoot with Coon Rapids, and its a very nice event. 100 miles away,on fathers day weekend every year. Iowa has a few shoots as well.

The archery clubs around here I would guess would avg maybe 10% traditional bow members.

I have noticed more Traditional Bow Hunters in the "thicker" states.....meaning the hunting takes place in thicker, closer geography. Michigan, PA, etc.

Out west, I have NEVER encountered another traditional guy. And the guys you do meet laugh it off....."How are you going to shoot an elk at 50 yards with that thing?"

What we do is a different sport, completely.

Well it ain't VA for sure. In fact here in the southeastern part, to most boys if you ain't killing deer in front hounds with a shotgun, you ain't huntin...Compounds rule the day if you are a bowhunter, but very few trad hunters that I know of. I talked to a guy the other day who was completely astonished that I sold my compound and began shooting a recurve. It was like I was the first to walk on the moon..

Kind of a loaded question.

Michigan has 4 or 5 traditional only archery shoots a year. Anywhere from 300 to 500 archers shooting on a weekend, BUT, those archers need to be asked if they hunt with traditional equipment. My guess would be most flip over to the dark side when hunting.

It would be best to have a survey list at the sign up table and that would give you a more accurate count.  Better than how many are archers shooting traditional at a traditional equipment only  shoot.

I can say we will have maybe 15 archers camping with us at the Elm Hall shoot in Michigan. Only 3 maybe 4 hunt traditional or  primitive hunters and the rest use modern equipment. Some even use the dreaded "Bolt" for an arrow.

Take a poll with your group or just think back on what your hunting buddies are using during hunting season and that will also give you an idea.

I know in our winter league numbers have doubled from 5 to 11...all 11 hunt with trad equipment. And we have 4 guys that shoot non-league and hunt with there trad bows. Proud of our numbers.

QuoteOriginally posted by Roger Norris:
I have noticed more Traditional Bow Hunters in the "thicker" states.....meaning the hunting takes place in thicker, closer geography. Michigan, PA, etc.

Out west, I have NEVER encountered another traditional guy. And the guys you do meet laugh it off....."How are you going to shoot an elk at 50 yards with that thing?"

What we do is a different sport, completely.

I think you nailed it.

Its Indiana.

I live in PA we have a good many trad guys but as stated above we have a ton of bowhunters and likely goes hand in hand. Michigan has more organized trad events than we do here but we may have more traditional hunters.
Either way there are more and more guys coming to our side and its good to see. I myself switched 7 years ago and fell back to dark side twice before committing 100%

Here in West Kentucky we have a TRAD ONLY club with 43 members. We shoot at the range in Land Between the Lakes. Some of our members just got back from a pig hunt down south.

None of our members that I know of hunt with  funny bows anymore.

Shoots are always open to all TRAD shooters and want-a-bees and are free. With lunch provided.


West Kentucky Trad Gang ---- ON Facebook

On Long Island NY my archery club Suffolk Archers has at least 50 members that shoot traditional bows. We have 500 members.

There is also a grad-only club south of me here in central KY.  

I don't think KY would come close to MI or PA or OR, ID, or CO.  

I think KY would rank well in the south though. There are several who live within 20 miles of me.  

I know of a place where more than 11,500 bare bow shooters will congregate May 7-9th but they shoot with wheels,but without sights, releases, or stabilizers. I expect several hundred of them will also compete for the first time with recurves at a concurrent event this year.

Don't exactly know the numbers, but there are a lot of shooters come to Potter County,Pa.'s E.T.A.R and spectators that shoot trad equipment, but just come to browse the vendors. There are many states represented well.

Here in SC I see very very few (enough to count on one hand) trad shooters at any 3D events.
When I hunt public lands in SC I've never run into any of our kind.
Seen more shooters/hunters in Western NC though but still not that many.

well, if folks like the TradGang, Compton's club officers, TBM and any other larger group or organization ever does a query or sort, they could give us an idea, but again, it would reflect only membership, not totals.
ChuckC

I'm not trying to be biased, but I think PA must be high on the list.  I know a lot of guys that hunt with trad equipment and it seems like I see more and more every year.

QuoteOriginally posted by JD Page 1965:
Its Indiana.

X2

I have to say Ohio has a lot of trad. Guys its the only place I have ran into guys hunting public land with recurves and I have sold and traded a lot of bows with guys at different shows in the area.but then again I'm close to Michigan and Indiana

QuoteOriginally posted by Msbow:
 

QuoteOriginally posted by JD Page 1965:
Its Indiana.

X2 [/b]

I think we are high on the list. A few states like MI likely have us beat though

I would say during the last full week of July, PA has the most hands down.   :archer2:

"Out west, I have NEVER encountered another traditional guy. And the guys you do meet laugh it off....."How are you going to shoot an elk at 50 yards with that thing?"

Not sure you're running into locals, Roger.  Most of the wheel toters are coming from the eastern states.  The western states have a lot of bow builders as well.  I believe Montana has more commercial builders than Michigan.

I think a fairly good proportion of local westerners shoot trad gear, but because there are fewer bow hunters by comparison to eastern states, there aren't a lot of them.

Have not bumped into any the last 30 years in south jersey.

We have a fair number in Wisconsin, but I doubt we are the top state.  I can't recall ever seeing anybody else with a stick where I hunt, unless I brought someone along.  Course, that is just a few places in a big wild state.

A certain keynote speaker just told our state trad org banquet that we are the best, of course, I think he says that at every talk everywhere    :p  

No matter how you stack it, we are definitely the minority out there...and that's OK with me.
ChuckC

We're approaching 500 members in Wisconsin Traditional Archers this year. Don't know how that compares to other states.

Here's something I found from a few years ago, but bet it is still about the same.  This list shows ALL bowhunters, but most likely is an indication of trad hunters as well.

Anyone surprised?

1. Ohio - 325,000
2. Michigan 300,000
3. Pennsylvania 286,000
4. Wisconsin 258,000
5. New York 214,000
6. Missouri 177,000
7. Illinois 176,000
8. Kentucky 106,000
9. Indiana 106,000
10. North Carolina 105,000
11. Minnesota 100,000
12. Georgia 93,000
13. Tennessee 90,000
14. West Virginia 81,000
15. Virginia 74,000

No surprise here.

Per capita of all bow hunters, it could well be Indiana.

I would guess a good percentage of those from Ohio are crossbows! There are a lot of trad shooters but the majority of deer taken in archery season are crossbows.

Being I'm the first one from Nebraska to post on this thread I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we're no where near the top    :laughing:    :laughing:    :laughing:    

Steve

quote:

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Originally posted by stykbow67:
Being I'm the first one from Nebraska to post on this thread I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we're no where near the top     :clapper: