Not me, but the guy who called today.

I only handle traditional stuff at Lost Nation Archery and I cannot help people with their compound bows.  Today I got yet another phone call from a compound owner looking for a good archery shop in town.  The nearest one is about 15 miles away.  To me it is ironic that in Sturgis, Michigan the compound owners have the same problem many of you have but in reverse.  You can't find traditional stuff at your local archery shop and they can't find compound stuff at their local shop.

Life can be funny.

To have an archery shop just fifteen miles away is pretty hard for me to imagine. Here in Outback Australia, our nearest archery shops are... fifteen seconds away on the computer!

My local archery shop is all compound they don't even know what a stickbow looks like let alone if I come into shop with one they will probably think it is a toy or walking stick <.<

You have always had what I needed Larry.

I should move.  I haven't bought anything bow related locally since about 1985.

Luckily, with a traditional bow you don't need much.

Wow, It is the opposite to the extreme here. Looking for help with trad gear here is like looking for the holy grail  :p

I find my best deals in compound only shops, they get a recurve or longbow in and let them go cheap because they don't think they are worth anything. I have one shop that lets me know if any equipment comes in. I got a Shaffer Silvertip a couple of years ago for a great price when they called me and wanted to know if I was interested.

Stumpkiller, the house next door will be for sale soon with 10 acres of woods.

Opportunity knocks  "I think"

I try to hold off for the big shoots and take my shopping list in to the vendors who attend and stock up for the year.

 I dont think there's a shop within atleast a 2 hr drive. Thanks for the internet.

Thank God for the internet,otherwise I'd be shooting a shotgun.

There are two compound shops in our area. They both send customers to us and we appreciate it. Since we don't have a high local profile, it helps traditionalist find our shop.

Just a couple of days ago the owner of one of the shops and a couple of the guys working there came over to the shop to shoot several traditional bows and talk traditional. I believe that it was a break for them from all the gadgetry of the X-bows.

A lot of new traditional shooters come from the ranks of the X-bow shooters. It benefits our sport to let them know what we have.

Hi Larry, how's everything? Are you guys going back to the IBO in Tn? That was some great shooting.

The compound shooters "rule" where I live in Texas and all the archery shops are "compound shops". This forces me to buy all of my trad "stuff" from internet archery sites.

I recently mentioned this in another thread regarding draw length.    

I agree that if you're current draw length allows for a solid, consistent anchor then don't change that. Most "bow shops" these days seem to deal primarily with compounds and don't know damn near anything about traditional archery. That's not to say there aren't good trad shops out there like Lancaster, but they are few and far between. I went to my local "pro shop" recently to see what stickbows they had. Told them I was looking for something around 40# and both the guys working there looked at me like I was nuts and said oh no, you want to go heavier than that. At least 50, maybe 55. In know my limitations on draw weight. I just yessed them since arguing with wheel guys over draw weight seems futile in my opinion. I left after a bit and asked myself, "why the hell did you go in there? You knew that was going to happen." Needless to say I won't go back there.

Sure wish we still had a trad shop in the Pittsburgh area.  First we lost Screaming Eagle and most recently Allegheny Archers.  Very hard for anyone to "make it" even with the increased interest in longbows & recurves.  Yep, thank goodness for dealers on the net!

I wish you were all within driving distance of our shop.  We don't mind shipping orders, but it is a whole lot more fun to meet people in person.

Don, doing well here.  Unfortunately our state organization, Michigan Bow Hunters, has their rendezvous the same weekend as IBO.  I can only make one.

They do tend to forget that there's no letoff on a traditional bow. Usually when a customer come in with a bow that's too heavy, he'd been talking with an X-bow shooter. Another common thing is that their draw length is about an inch shorter then they think that it is.