I always had a special bond with my Grandfather. I have a lot of good memories of times spent with him hunting, fishing and trapping, along with all the other things we shared. He's the one that got me into traditional archery somewhere around the age of 5.
My grandfather loved to hunt, but he never bow hunted. In fact, he always thought the whole idea was a little foolish. Why shoot at deer with sticks, when you can shoot them with a rifle?
I was infatuated with the bow and arrow from as far back as I can remember, and my Grandfather did his best to keep me in both. I didn't even realize it at the time, but looking back, he'd spend hours at a time making me bows from branches, cutting shoots, and fletching them with whatever feathers he could come up with.
I don't think he knew anything about making bows, and a lot of the time they were just a cut green branch with string grooves cut into them, and a piece of leather for a grip. They didn't last long before they took so much set that they were next to useless, but he'd make me another, then another.
I have no idea how many arrows he must have made for me, but it had to have been a LOT. I don't remember breaking any, but I do remember spending a lot of time looking for them.
My first kill, a starling, was made with one of those little bows, and my Grandfather's arrows. I shot it out of the lilac bush behind his house.
I guess after a while, he realized that archery wasn't just a passing fad with me, so he took me to a store and bought me a little fiberglass recurve, and some arrows. The starlings and red squirrels were in trouble then.
Kills were few and far between, but I hunted every chance I had, and I started to learn some things about hunting, that have served me well over the years.
A few years later, my Dad went to work for a company that made sporting equipment. They made bows too, and Dad took over the job of keeping me in archery tackle.
For Christmas the first year he worked there, I got a glass backed recurve, some fiberglass arrows with practice points, and a target. I was in the big league then.
I killed my first real game with that recurve, a cottontail rabbit, at nine or ten years old, and I couldn't have been more proud.
I've been bowhunting ever since my Grandfather made me my first bow, and those shoot arrows so many years ago. I'll always be grateful to him for spending what I've realized since, was a lot of time and no small amount of work, to fuel what became a lifelong passion with me.
Now I have two Grandsons of my own. I made them their first little bows from branches, and their first arrows from shoots. They're a little bigger now, so I've got them shooting the little fiberglass recurve that my Grandfather gave me.
They love archery, and I hope that if I keep them in bows and arrows, that love will turn into a lifelong passion like it has with me.
Bob
My dad and farmer friends with recurves by Bear and plyflex I believe that name of recurve was called of my dads,
"Is There A Person That Got You Started In Archery?"
Fred Bear videos Saturday morning programing on TV as a kid during the 60's lit the fire and my uncle bought me a 25# Jet Bow for Christmas around 1967...
I got started on my own.
Believe it or not, archery in gym class is what really pushed me over the edge. My dad and grandfather got me interested in the outdoors at a very young age. Dad dint bow hunt, be he had friends who did. I remember looking through thier magazines and seeing cool hero pics with thier recurves. I esp loved the bows with limb covers!! Then in school I got to fling some arrows in gym class. That was it? Dad gave me a fiberglass Stemler recurve when I was about 10.
It was Dad who got us boys into archery. I didn't take to it as well as a kid, but just about the time Dad passed away, I really started to embrace traditional shooting. That was in 2007.
I just shot a 3D course yesterday and several times found myself wondering what it would have been like to shoot one with Dad. I never did. I loosed a few nice shots during the day and followed several of them up with the thought, "Dad would have been proud of that one."
Jay Massey for me. Not him personally but from his books. I got "Primitive Archery" and "The Bowyers Craft" from him directly and both signed to me by him.
Not into archery but into TRADITIONAL ARCHERY :notworthy: :notworthy:
I had been in a auto accident a couple years earlier and was now stuck in a wheelchair . I had been out of wheely shooting for about 5 years: one day I decided to try to shoot a bow again so we went to the nearest archery shop around. Well the guys there got me a bow I could handle I went out to the range and found I could not draw a compound back without hitting the chair.
Well on the way out I spotted a old gentleman shooting the strangest looking bow I had ever seen I stopped and watched him for a while the started to chat with him he told me about the bow a Saluki horse bow. He offered to let me shoot
I found that this also hit the chair but he spoke right up and old me to "cant" the bow. Well I had never heard of canting the bow. I gave it a try and started my new life in archery :
Well I went home with Lukas Novatnys phone number and ordered the first of several Salukis that I would own.
I will say it has been a lot of fun learning the art of traditional archery and will never forget my new found friend and mentor Mr Frank King :notworthy: :notworthy:
My dad.
I got started on my own but had all my help from a great guy named Steve Lamb.
Thanks for the responses so far. I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Bob
Mostly on my own because I was urban hunting rabbits. That was age 12. Then when I watched the Fred Bear movies a few years later in High School I got hooked. Our library had a copy of Howard Hill book which I read twice. Even tried to make arrows with dowels and pins and feathers from dime store.
My dad helped me with my first (homemade) bow, although he never bow hunted. Then my uncle loaned me an ancient wheel bow that I shot until I'd lost all of his arrows...
Got into handguns as a teen, didn't get back into archery at all until my early 20's. Started shooting wheels with a friend. Enjoyed it, but never got addicted.
One day that same friend comes over with a couple of fiberglass recurves he'd found at a flea market and it was on. Neither of us had a clue as to what we were doing, but we were having a blast doing it. Started making strings shortly after that, thanks to the help of another friend I'd gotten re-acquainted with (we'd gone to school together, but after graduation didn't keep in touch).
Still having a blast.
Thank you Dad for taking me hunting.I shot my first deer with a gun when I was 11.
During the late 70's and early 80's the compound thing was in full swing.My dad and all my uncles (Dave,Ken,Al and Chip) all had wheel bows.But uncle Paul had a recurve. How light, how simple, beautiful curves and clean lines, how COOL !! I was hooked and he was my hero.
One of my uncles gave me a fiberglass long bow and I started shooting. Shortly after someone gave me a nice recurve.Dad bought me a dozen aluminum arrows and I got seriouse. I shot every spare moment all that year.
The following fall uncle Dave picked me up after school and put me in a pine tree 8 feet up on a limb (before treestands were legal). Just before dark a nice doe came out and all that practice paid off.I was 16 years old.
The next year I got my drivers licence. I also discovered girls and beer (distractions). Then the army, marraige, new mexico, South Carolina, Maine ,back to south Carolina,Maine, children, divorce, child support,work work work, re married,new baby boy, farm life, raising goats.As of last summer I hadn't held a bow or loosed an arrow in over thirty years.
In october my uncle Dave calls me. He's all excited because he bought a cross bow. (in Maine if your over 70 you can use a crossbow during archery season)He starts going on about the expanded archery areas in our state where you can shoot as many does as you want! Dang, I forgot we had that.I have a pretty good average of having a deer(with a gun) in the freezer almost every year, but only one. Thats the law.Imagine having two, or three,four,five.Holy crap I need a bow! Only an idiot would raise goats for meat if instead you could harvest as many deer as you wanted.(goats suck, don't ever get a goat).
I probably would have gotton a wheel bow but when I went to work the next monday I found a trad archery book.Don thomas I think his name is. He sneakes up behind grizzly bears and pokes them with an arrow( he aint right) Needless to say I was hooked again thirty years later by the beautiful curves and the clean lines, the simple raw power of the stick and the string.
That was 10 months ago. Now I'm shooting wooden arrows out of a selfwood long bow every spare moment of every day. Not to brag, but I'm absolutly deadly under 15 yards and pretty freaking scary out to 25.I can't wait untill opening day!! All thanks to my dad, all my uncles, Don thomas and all the kindred spirits I'm meeting here on trad gang.
Thanks again to all of you and I wish you all the best of luck this coming season.
Scott.
I basically got started in archery on my own. No one in my family bowhunted....or hunted period for that matter. So glad I discovered the world of archery though...I couldnt imagine life without it!
It was my dad, even though he was a rifle hunter and was never interested in archery. I remember being in the woods with my dad and finding an aluminum arrow and broadhead that a hunter had probably shot at a deer and missed with. My dad took the broadhead off and I carried that arrow all day hiking. When we got home, he helped me make a bow out of a tree limb with some twine for a string. It wouldn't fly straight with no tip, so he wrapped a bunch of electrical tape around the end so it would at least fly somewhat straight.
I got a Ben Pearson fiberglass recurve from a garage sale when I was about 10 or 12, the one that looked like a bar of Irish Spring soap and had no arrow shelf, and played with that for years. I knew nothing about archery, so I would just buy aluminum arrows from Kmart that had feather fletching.
I'm only 35, but what I wouldn't give to be that age again for a day...running the woods and river bottom flinging arrows.
My two nephews that have both passed away. They were my favorite nephews. I'll always remember those wonderful boys for getting their uncle Ben started in archery.
My brother. He never really shot trad, but he did make a self bow once. We shot compounds together for years. I got the trad bug and haven't looked back.
Sgt. Mel Morrow got me started in 1959 at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi where my dad was stationed. He ran the base archery range. His son, Mike, and my sister were friends, and he invited her to give archery a try. They let me tag along. I was 10 years old at the time.
My dad. He grew up shooting a wheel bow and switched to traditional when I was a baby. He taught me to shoot on a green fiberglass recurve when I was 5 or 6. Then I switched to a 35lbs bear. We shot several 3d tournaments when I was 8-12. Around my twelfth birthday he ordered a Damon Howatt 50lbs black mamba for me. It came from the factory with my name on the riser. We moved to KY from MA and shortly after we stopped shooting.
Over the intervening 21 years I killed a lot of deer with rifles and missed shooting. I took the black mamba out, bought some arrows and a target a shot. I was still fairly decent. Last year I upgraded to a bob lee take down recurve, 70lbs at 28" and got ready for bow season. I killed my first archery deer with it last year. Dad has started shooting again too. Hopefully we'll both fill tags this year.
Last year I picked up a little green fiberglass bow and taught my then 6 year old daughter to shoot.
My dad in 1965. I doubt he had any idea that this would become the passion in my life that it has.
He started bowhunting in around 1958-59. He and my mom bought me a 40lb Shakespeare recurve for my 13th birthday.
The Wally Taber show when they came to a Jr or high school auditorium back in the 60's. They would feature a hunt from Fred Bear or Ben Pearson
. Dad for getting me into all kinds of gun hunting. He ended up shooting his biggest buck with a stick how after retirement. Life is good!!
My dad,in 1959 bought me a York bow and some arrows for Christmas,still have the bow!
Warren Womack, Greg Gravois and Murray Landry.
Had never met them when Greg invited me to a 3-D bow shoot and lent me a Tim Mullins TreeStick.
I made three friends for life that day
John Strunk. He didn't introduce me to traditional archery, but he did get me started shooting and building longbows for which I am truly grateful. John is one of the true champions of traditional archery and I wish him many more years of contributions to this special sport we all love.
When I was twelve a man in our church asked me if I would like to go hunting, I jumped at the offer and my folks gave me permission. The next year he gave me a 45lb Bear recurve to use and told me just look at what you want to hit and let it fly. I managed to miss a doe that year while standing with my back against the root ball of a huge blow down. What a thrill!
I bought a Bear whitetail compound with arrows the next year for $60 from money I'd earned making hay for the neighboring dairy farm. I thought I was in the big time. Fast forward to around 1994 and I met George Stout, he invited me to his house to try a recurve we'd been talking about. When I left George's house that day I had with me a 60lb PSE Heritage Raven recurve and I still own it.
As to the question above, I suppose Dave Turner from church back in '78 planted the seed in archery and hunting and George watered it. Thanks to both of them.
When I was twelve a man in our church asked me if I would like to go hunting, I jumped at the offer and my folks gave me permission. The next year he gave me a 45lb Bear recurve to use and told me just look at what you want to hit and let it fly. I managed to miss a doe that year while standing with my back against the root ball of a huge blow down. What a thrill!
I bought a Bear whitetail compound with arrows the next year for $60 from money I'd earned making hay for the neighboring dairy farm. I thought I was in the big time. Fast forward to around 1994 and I met George Stout, he invited me to his house to try a recurve we'd been talking about. When I left George's house that day I had with me a 60lb PSE Heritage Raven recurve and I still own it.
As to the question above, I suppose Dave Turner from church back in '78 planted the seed in archery and hunting and George watered it. Thanks to both of them.
I made my first bow when I was 6 or 7 years old. I suppose Tonto an the Lone Ranger got me interested. Or some other "native American" on TV.
I saw my dad shoot two arrows in my life. Both of them were straight up in the air!
I did get three of my younger brothers into archery. One of them still hunts with me 40 years later.
I'm really enjoying this thread, glad I started it. Thanks again for all the replies.
Bob
My dad, my grandfather and my brother got me started hunting. I adopted bow hunting on my own and started to really focus on traditional archery about four years ago. Mike Harbinson has been a tremendous help to many people in our area and in our state. I have also gained a wealth of knowledge and insight from everyone here on Trad Gang. Thanks for the help!
My Uncle Herb........always saw him come home for Sunday dinner after bow hunting all morning. Back then he shot a recurve [mid 60's] and in 1967 I got my first recurve a Browning Nomad Stalker. Uncle Herb passed 2 years ago and the bow I took on Bear Quest this year was purchased with money he left me. He helped complete my first Trad Harvest.........God rest his soul!!
As a kid scrummaging around our local library looking for books on indian lore camping etc. I came across a book that peaked my interest, "Hunting the Hard Way" Ever since then I have loved shooting and hunting with longbows.
I have really liked this thread and would like to share my archery adventure but don't even know where to start.. Keep the stories coming.
I grew up in western Co. around my mothers family which included 5 brothers and they all hunted with bows as well as rifles so I got involved at an early age and for the most part it's stayed with me. Dan
Robin Hood, The DeerSlayer, Green Arrow, Cochise, Sitting Bull, Last of the Mohicans, Saxton Pope, Hawkeye, warriors of Ghengis Khan.
Nobody I knew or in my family bowhunted or shot a bow.
A family friend made me a dogwood bow.....stick and string really.....when I was ten years old. And at 66 I'm still shooting and having more fun than ever.
When I was a kid, one of the two area tv stations we could get, showed Hill, Pearson and Bear films on Saturday.
My friend and his father
I got started by my father for everything hunting, fishing and trapping. I picked up traditional archery on my own but became very involved through a friend and bow maker John Holzrichter.
Gabe
Well I started having thoughts of practicing archery after playing skyrim on my xbox so I guess it's the dovahkiin that got me started lmao
Back in the day, I hunted with a smoke pole. My brother won a Bear Whitetail Hunter in a raffle and gave it to me. ...... Three years ago after swearing off hunting due to stuff at work, a co-worker of my wife's encouraged me to meet him over at Cloverdale. I left with a Thmberhawk Falcon and haven't looked back.
Oh Lord, what a great topic for a thread, and so many good stories. I was nine, and at one of our cub scout meetings our den mother's husband brought out a selfbow he'd made from a pice of hickory, carved/chipped a wooden arrowhead which he threaded to a split shaft, and shoot it with impressive force against an old bathmat. That was the day I deserted the cowboys for the Indians.
When I got out of the Marines and came home, my good friend had taken up bowhunting with a compound so I did the same. It was his father who had been a traditional bowhunter in his younger days that encouraged me to make the switch, which I did and never looked back.
Howard Hill, he came to my school in the 50s and put on an exhibition. Loved it since then. Then my best friend growing up, we tore up the rabbits and small game and finally deer with our bows as kids and young adults. Been a fun ride and hope to have many more hunts in the future.
I was introduced to traditional archery in 1969 by Fred Balmer from Hampton, VA. and what a ride it has been. Fred and I speak regularly via phone and although he is no longer able to shoot a bow due to a shoulder injury, he enjoys hearing about my bowhunting successes and failures. Thanks Fred for introducing me to lifetime of fun and entertainment. :campfire:
The man that started me on this path was a friend of the family. He had a big pond at his house that my grandad would take me fishing there. This man also had a small sport shop beside his house a was a Hoyt dealer. When the fish weren't biting I would walk up to his shop and look around and talk to him. He would talk to me about his hunts and I was amazed at the animals that were hanging on the walls.
Later that summer my parents got me a Ben Pearson recurve. Next time Grandad came by to pick me up for fishing I put my bow in the trunk with my fishing pole.
After shooting my bow and hanging out at the shop more than fishing Grandad wondered why I even brought the fishing pole. By the following year the man invited me to go hunting with him. Like they say, "The rest is history".
This man that I've been writing about was named Art Hanseman. Art passed away three months ago. I'm sure glad Grandad liked to take me fishing.
I was a young lad and I saw Errol Flynn in Robin Hood and that was it for me.
I got into archery as a natural progression to being able to spend more time in the woods chasing whitetails. But I got into traditional archery as a result of a friend named Keith.
Keith was a great hunter and woodsman. He was an easy going, gentle soul whose company I thoroughly enjoyed. He taught me a lot about trad bows, turkey hunting, grouse hunting and general woodsmanship. He sold me my first trad bow, a takedown recurve made by Wilderness Archery. It is 58#@28" and was Keith's lightest poundage bow. I still have it today. Keith" favorite bow was an Asbell Bighorn Takedown pulling 64"@28" and he shot it well.
Unfortunately, life's difficulties led Keith to a lifestyle that eventually cost him his life at the young age of 45. There's not a fall that I head to the woods with stick and string that I don't think of Keith and wish he was still here and going with me. RIP my friend and thank you.
My Dad...when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I remember him taking me with him during the season when I was about 10 or so. I had a Paul Bunyan fiberglass recurve that was 35 lbs. I carried one arrow..an original Bear cedar shaft with a Bear Razorhead.
As years past Dad drifted away from the bow and hunting altogether. In recent years he did not like the cold but I did manage to get him out bird hunting a few years ago.
Two years ago, while NY was buried under a foot of snow and temps were frigid he was going crazy with cabin fever. There was some old archery equipment in the basement and one of my really old foam targets in the garage. For some reason he picked up the bow again. He was able to get 10 yards in the basement and became nearly fanatical about archery. What a joy it was to set him up with proper gear so he could pass the hours down there improving his form and shooting the center out of the target. This past winter was much the same..I got him another target and made up another half dozen arrows for him. I had him switch to 3 under which further improved his accuracy and he was wearing out a tab every couple of months. Now and then I or one of my nephews would shoot with him a little. When the weather improved enough he would go outside and shoot in the garage like he and I did 35 years ago.
His cancer came back in May and he passed last month on July 7th. He was a man of faith and I take some comfort in that but his loss is absolutely crushing for me.
I wish I could describe how gratifying it was to me that he picked up the bow again in what would be his final years. My most cherished memories of him were always to be those times he took me into the woods with him when he hunted. And now I add the memory of these past 2 years when he came back to what had been our first real common interest. This will be an emotional and special season for me but I can't wait to get out into the woods this fall.
My Dad but that was with a wheelie but later in life I got him into the real deal traditional bows.
Sure did. His name was Robin Hood and the 1953 movie set the spark that continues to this day. The other guy was Howard Hill.
You see, my dad wasn't an outdoorsman and we lived in he city so I had to pick this stuff up on my own.
My Dad, he started letting me tag along with him when I was 6 or 7 and sit in the ground blinds he built, and one tree stand that was big enough for us both, and it was only 10 foot off the ground and we saw a ton of deer from it. (must be they hadn't learned to look up yet) He eventually quit taking his bow and took his Super 8, 8mm camera. I don't think he ever shot a deer with his bows, but I sure had fun tagging along with him. He definitely stirred the embers to my archery fire! I started hunting using his old Bear Polar recurve and later used his wheelie bow when my brother wasn't. That's been 30 plus years ago and when I made the switch back to traditional it was with Dad's old bear 20 plus years ago. I still have both his bows hanging with mine, and still pull them out and shoot them from time to time. I don't think I can ever thank him enough for fueling the fire that was inside me. I just hope he felt the same pride watching me on my journey through the archery world, as I do watching my two girls on their journeys through theirs.
Here 2015 Eaglewing GOT BACK INTO TRAD after 15 years being a speed freak----
With his frontier longbow I seem a lot of nice immurements and IMPROVEMENTS with new material and riser limb design ,,Thanks Steve keep it up and the rest of the great bow makers,
Kind a like to See Steve POSTING SOON NEVER BEEN MUCH OF A politics guy myself forgive and forgive life too short.I hope I don't start bleeding out now lol lol
My dad got me started in archery originally, but traditional archery came from somebody else. I had played around with "toy" bows growing up, but around age 14-15, I could pull back my dad's old compound and he let me start hunting with it once I could shoot good enough. I never got a shot with it, but I bought a new one just before my senior year of high school and killed several with it over the next 8 or 9 years.
I also had an old 35# Bear Black Bear that belonged to an uncle who passed away when I was a kid. I found it in the back of my grandmother's closet when I was a kid and she let me have it, but I never really shot it much. A few years back, my wife agreed that if I could learn to shoot it accurately, I could buy a "better" recurve. I had no idea what I was doing and my arrows weren't even almost tuned right, so I got frustrated and gave up pretty quickly. A few months later, I mentioned it to an older gentlemen at church, Mr. Terril Hester, who used to own a little backwoods archery shop. As luck would have it, he had hunted with a recurve for years and gave me a little encouragement and a few pointers. He has been an amazing mentor to me the last few years and I have now sold my compound and rarely hunted with a rifle the last two years, even though I haven't gotten a shot yet with my recurve. Even without getting a shot, it's still the most fun I've ever had hunting.
I'm hoping to have an opportunity to go on a traditional hunt with Mr. Terril in the next few years while he is still able. So far haven't been able to afford it, but I'm still hoping.
Matt
Yep, two of them...then both went back to compounds. Got nothing against them things, but got nothing for them either.
I was always into the outdoors but, never had any hunters in my family. When I was 19 I bought an old rifle in at a pawn shop on a whim and then really started to become interested. My old man and I (he'd been a rabbit hunter as a kid) started hunting small game together. After 4 years of it I found a free book through kindle called "Hunting With The Bow and Arrow" by Saxton Pope. I was hooked from then on. I killed my first squirrel with a longbow and a xx75 a year later. Still chasing tree rats but, I am going to tag a deer for certain this year!
This guy here...
Mr. "OE" Berry of JD Berry Archery. He has taught me most of what I know of long bows and wood arrows.
(http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b530/jwhitetail/eabd500f-6eb4-4ac7-80ce-7507ff17263e_zpsjfu1fjqd.jpg) (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/jwhitetail/media/eabd500f-6eb4-4ac7-80ce-7507ff17263e_zpsjfu1fjqd.jpg.html)
Tell you what, though. It has been no easy ride learning from a Berry... losing dollars almost every Sunday and listening to that cackle when I botch a shot! :biglaugh:
Become the arrow book by B.F and also Howard Hill ,,
(http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m123/JDS3_2006/People/243BAD9D-80D2-46A2-995F-48776C95CD7B.jpg) (http://s103.photobucket.com/user/JDS3_2006/media/People/243BAD9D-80D2-46A2-995F-48776C95CD7B.jpg.html)
An old pic of my Dad (1990 I think) with one of my deer...
My Dad who worked for Earl Hoyt in St. Louis in the early 1970s. Dad brought me home a small recurve bow and that was that.. Thanks Dad!
My father whose love for bow hunting was deep rooted. It wasn't too hard for me to pick it up as a youngster because I was beside him like a magnet. Those times we had together wil l always be cherished by me. Thanks Dad for everything.
It appears that this thread may have run It's course, so I wanted to thank you all for your replies. :thumbsup: Thanks again!
Bob
I guess it would be a classmate in about the 8th grade who sold me a solid glass Bear bow complete with string for $5. The bow is long gone, but I'm still flingin arrows....
My grandfather started the fire. Met Fred Bear at an outdoor show as a youngster and the fire went wild.
Good or bad I had two older sisters and both boyfriends, eventually husbands had profound effects on my life. One was a roper and one was a bowhunter. I began roping and bowhunting at 14. Ended up being a pretty good calf roper and am still bowhunting 43 years later.