Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: VA Elite on October 08, 2015, 02:31:00 PM
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So when i got into bowhunting in the very late 80s Myles Keller was the man with the new XI Compounds. But I just watched an interview with him and found he held the Wisconsin state record for 13 years with an 8 pt that he killed with a recurve.. and he said about half of the deer he has ever killed were with a recurve... I never knew that about him. I mean I assumed that he killed deer early in life with trad gear but I neverknew he killed 50% of his deer with one and several record bucks with one. Who else knew of this?
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Didn't know that, but the compound I had was his XI Legend and I loved that bow with 1 pin and huge 2514 xx75's full length. Stuck a lot of deer but made the switch to a recurve about 25 years ago..
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He shot a Widow and Zwickeys. The widow was the black version,nothing fancy.
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He shot a Widow and Zwickeys. The widow was the black version,nothing fancy.
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well I'll be darn...
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He switched to a compound. He shot black, Black Widows before that. And remembering pic's of his deer, he shot them quite well.
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I would love to see old pics with him and a BW recurve
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Yep,I think that was in the late 80's. I remember the advertisement for something.
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This is a bad pic, but that's his Widow
(http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee393/seanb45/C597C770-7B52-4EB6-BE97-EE17704880D8_zpsekwceean.png) (http://s1225.photobucket.com/user/seanb45/media/C597C770-7B52-4EB6-BE97-EE17704880D8_zpsekwceean.png.html)
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Myles kellar was the first person I read about that got me into trad archery. He first shot old Wilson brothers black widow recurves I believe and zwickeys. I hated when he went to Indian compounds - think I had a day of mourning lol.
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I will share an old trivia items I once heard from him. For scent control, when we got serious, he wore an old shower cap with baking soda on his head. He was a hard core buck hunter and was killing monster bucks consistently before most even thought about it.
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Someone stole his enclosed trailer with all his mounts at a trade show,I think in TX . Never heard if they were ever found.
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That's the old Wisconsin state record buck in the foreground with the lighter colored rack. I believe it scored around 175" as an eight-point.
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Originally posted by DaveT1963:
I will share an old trivia items I once heard from him. For scent control, when we got serious, he wore an old shower cap with baking soda on his head. He was a hard core buck hunter and was killing monster bucks consistently before most even thought about it.
I met him in NJ at sportsmans center off the nj turnpike back in the 80's. I remember him telling people that deer had a seventh sense and could read minds and negative thoughts. So he lined his hats with tin foil, to keep the deer from reading his mind..I was just a kid I thought that was hysterical!
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Sean, I remember that well, and always liked that ad.. I wish I could find a better picture of that...
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He got me into bow hunting, after Fred Bear and I had one of his XI bows as well. Cool dude back in the day when I was like 14 or so, never knew about his trad bow hunting.
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Myles was a grader operator for the county in which he lived. Used to spend days on end scouting for the great locations while on the job in his grader by watching where the big tracks crossed the road before being erased by his grader.
Soon as he was able to retire from this job and receive a pension he did and wanted to turn to be a bowhunter who got paid for speaking and product endorsement. Being a recurve shooter, and a darn good one at that he asked Black Widow and Zwickey among others to sponsor him. They all turned him down so he had to go the compound route, which turned out to be Indian/XI Archery and the rest is history.
Yes, he killed a lot of record books animals with recurves, Black Widows, Bear and Staghorn, killed a few with the compound and as far as I know is still bowhunting as much as he can. Don't know what he is shooting these days but from what he told me shortly after the XI endorsement wouldn't be at all surprised if its a recurve. "Recurves are the perfect bowhunting tool because the shot can be taken quickly when using them, compounds take too much time and several really big bucks I never could get the shot off when I needed to." is what he told me.
Yes, he was the first one to talk about using baking soda as a scent killer(believe he worked very closely with Robinson Labs with their developement of Scent Shield) but never ever heard nor saw him using tin foil in his hat.
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One other thing back in the day lots of us used sights on our recurves as did Myles. Nobody looked down on us for using them.
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A few years ago I was the keynote speaker at the New York Bowhunters banquet. One of the vendors ask Myles to attend as a spokesman for their product. Myles would not attend unless he got the OK from the keynote speaker. Seems he did not want be a distraction or in some way upstage the honored guest. I thought that was a class jesture on his part. Of course I said it was OK for him to attend, and that any interest or people he could draw to the event would help me in the long run. I just wanted to reach as many folks as posible with my message.
I have seen Myles many times over the years. He was very conserned about human scent. He would strap 6 to 8 inch PVC pipe to the bootom of his boots and would thereby put less scent on the ground by walking on these "stilts." Mike
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Did he shoot w/ a sight on that recurve?
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I have an old Outdoor Life magazine that featured an article about him. The posted picture was the same in that mag. I still have it stashed away in a tote. It was from 1985 I think.
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Preston, THATS where I remember seeing that picture the first time!!!I got it off the internet.
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Mike, I also recall that he used these "stilts" when there was a little snow on the ground. His footprints to a stand would then look like deer hoof prints rather than the game-alarming boot prints that would otherwise be visible. Every time I witness a whitetail locking up at my boot prints in the snow, I think of Myles' tactic.
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he was certainly a pioneer when it came to hunting large mature whitetails, and now that I know he was an avid recurve hunter I respect him more. Can't say I blame him for switching over to make some money
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Yep, I had an XI Legend way back when. He was definitely doing things right.
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Matty, I was sitting about 3 feet to his right at that event at the sportsmans center. I had volunteered to sit in the UBNJ booth and we were right next to him. He became very angry at me when I kept asking him about that Widow and pointed out that the literature at his booth made it seem like he had shot 29 P&Y bucks with the XI when I knew he shot most of them with the widow. Later in the day I somehow managed to eat lunch with him, Stacy Groscup, Gene Bidlespacher and Gene Wensel. Talk about wich of these guys do not belong, I don't think I spoke the entire lunch break. I saw Stacy Groscup shoot a couple of aspirin out of the air with his recurve and do some incredible trick shots with a blowgun. He shot a dart into a bullseye, then he shot a second dart into the first and then a third into the second. He was a great shot.
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very cool dude i need to research him!
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The last I heard of Myles Keller he had hunted with an illegal guide here in ND and I'll bet he didn't even know it . The guide was finally pinched for guiding without a license .
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Was well aware that he had taken nearly half of his deer with a recurve.
Was fortunate to spend some time with him on a couple of occassions in the 80's. I noticed he was dipping some wintergreen brand tobacco. I asked if he dipped while hunting. He said 'ALWAYS!'.
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I loved reading about him back in the 80's. He was as big as any of them back then.
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Here is a somewhat better copy of the pic from the Outdoor Life article....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/stickbow98/image.jpg1_zpsnuqounzs.jpg)
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I met him at "The Bowhunters Discount Warehouse" back in 1987 with the Scent shield brand Earth scent products and I talked with him and bought a bottle from them and still today use brands that have only Earth scent on every hunt. I also was able to get his signature on a paper target and on that target in the Heart zone Fred Bear and Tom Jennings signed their names and Myles didn't want to put his name where those two had put theirs because he didn't think he was anyone important..He signed his name outside the line and so did Tom Flemming.I was hooked on reading everything about him before this from Outdoor life and was finally getting to meet the man in person.To be honest I went there to hopefully meet him only because of what I read about him and how he has been so successful taking so many deer with his Black widow recurve.I do remember he was pretty tall and reminded me of Bo Duke on the Duke of Hazzard lol..That paper target has dried out and torn in a few places but is out in my shop needing to be put in a frame so all can see..
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Myles was and still is a very good woodsman. Many people could lean from his tactics on big mature whitetails. Killing deer of that caliber on a consistent basis without the aid of technology has to demand respect. He has mine.
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I was looking back and found that article it was October 1985. 30 years ago.
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time flies
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I was fortunate to visit up close and personal with Myles at our local Archery Club (Waltonian Archers) for a seminar in the mid 80s. We also had Roger Rothhaar for a seminar in that same time frame. Small Club, but neat opportunities that I count a privilege... :campfire: I got my First Black Widow (Black HS60 takedown) in 1987, still have it today.... :goldtooth:
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He also highly favored Rocky Mt Recurves - when I asked him, Widows and Rocky MT recurves were his two favorites (and not necessarily in that order).
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Myles is a cool guy.
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Interesting how many of the guys who were whitetail hunting icons have faded into the background and became "whatever happened to..." trivia. Another well-known whitetail hunter from that era was Russell Hull from Kansas. Have heard very little of him for a long time.
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I think what happens is they mostly don't want to "sell out" so to speak. By that I mean they are not willing to fit the proverbial role of what the younger generation is doing. Guitar riffs, hip hop music in the background, plugging every company under the sun. And age has a lot to do with it as well. some just can't keep up with the demands of going from outfitter to outfitter and expo to expo endorsing products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5OtzDQAnkM
here is the interview where he talks about his days with the recurve.
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Originally posted by Keefer:
I met him at "The Bowhunters Discount Warehouse" back in 1987 with the Scent shield brand Earth scent products and I talked with him and bought a bottle from them and still today use brands that have only Earth scent on every hunt. I also was able to get his signature on a paper target and on that target in the Heart zone Fred Bear and Tom Jennings signed their names and Myles didn't want to put his name where those two had put theirs because he didn't think he was anyone important..He signed his name outside the line and so did Tom Flemming.I was hooked on reading everything about him before this from Outdoor life and was finally getting to meet the man in person.To be honest I went there to hopefully meet him only because of what I read about him and how he has been so successful taking so many deer with his Black widow recurve.I do remember he was pretty tall and reminded me of Bo Duke on the Duke of Hazzard lol..That paper target has dried out and torn in a few places but is out in my shop needing to be put in a frame so all can see..
You mentioned Tom Fleming but I doubt too many outside Maryland knew him. I think he wrote the first book on rattling. He passed away about 3 years ago in Florida.
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Originally posted by Keefer:
I met him at "The Bowhunters Discount Warehouse" back in 1987 with the Scent shield brand Earth scent products and I talked with him and bought a bottle from them and still today use brands that have only Earth scent on every hunt. I also was able to get his signature on a paper target and on that target in the Heart zone Fred Bear and Tom Jennings signed their names and Myles didn't want to put his name where those two had put theirs because he didn't think he was anyone important..He signed his name outside the line and so did Tom Flemming.I was hooked on reading everything about him before this from Outdoor life and was finally getting to meet the man in person.To be honest I went there to hopefully meet him only because of what I read about him and how he has been so successful taking so many deer with his Black widow recurve.I do remember he was pretty tall and reminded me of Bo Duke on the Duke of Hazzard lol..That paper target has dried out and torn in a few places but is out in my shop needing to be put in a frame so all can see..
You mentioned Tom Fleming but I doubt too many outside Maryland knew him. I think he wrote the first book on rattling. He passed away about 3 years ago in Florida.
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VA way cool, thanks for digging that up. I remember he did shoot some kind of a sight at one time on his recurve, not sure if he did that long. and remember him running the road grader and talking to locals and the rural mail man that always stuck with me as a awesome way to scout while on the job.
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VA thanks for the link. Great interview.
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It was and your welcome. I tried to find something about old Alan Altizer but there is nothing out there on him. He was a deer killing machine with both the recurve and compound.....
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I think if I remember right, on his black widow bows he used to tape one match stick as a sight - later he used fixed sights on compounds but I think he said he always just used one sight pin