Thought this might be an interesting topic.
All of us here have a love for trad archery and hunting and I thought it might be interesting to read who your inspirations are or were that led you on your traditional journey,be it past or present.Mine was an older gentleman that i met on a local archery practice range,many yrs ago.
He was shooting a longbow with cedar arrows.I was so intruiged by his skill that i just couldnt help but ask,mind if i try your bow? Not knowing me from Adam,he unselfishly handed me his gear and said help yourself.Not knowing how a longbow  could kick I launched both the arrow and longbow downrange upon release.There i stood with my mouth agape,when he said ,go pick it up and try again son.This time hang on to it.Try again i did, over and over all afternoon as he tutored and smoked his pipe from a bench.
To this day i never learned his name or seen him again,but his words of inspiration from that bench while smoking his pipe, echoe everytime I pick up a bow and head for the range or woods.
Lifes funny that way.  

Way, way back when I was in elementary school (about 1955) our school custodian shot a deer with bow and arrow.  I was really impressed that a person who wasn't an Indian could do something like that!  He was my hero from that day on!  I'm sure that event had a great deal to do with my love of traditional archery.  

Years later after I had graduated from college and started my own journey into traditional archery I went back and told him what it meant to me.

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

Way to go Bernie,I wish I would have had that opportuniy.  

My Uncle Jimmy who gave me my first bow when I was 12 and told me all his stories of bowhunting and let me help him with practice on his home range. (I was the arrow fetcher) I'm not sure he knows that he helped form me into a life long hunter and archer. I'm thinking I will tell him so when I see him this weekend, how much this has meant to me.

Good thread!

I think that would mean a lot to him as well Duncan.  

Durned if I know!
I have always been attracted to the more untraveled parts. Creeks, fields, woods. And I have always been drawn to sharp things, knives, swords, spears. I have also been partial to the idea of shooting, fling it from here to there, as best you can, whether an atlatl, slingshot, bow or firearm.

I got the idea from a Boy Scout, when I was six or so, as he had a slingshot that he had whittled out. All it needed was a rubber band. He gave it to me, as I walked the creek looking for my brother.

When I got home, my mother whipped my butt with it, as she thought I was farkulating around out there. Well, SHE sent me out looking! Adults can be so childish.

So, at eight, when I was pencil-drawing the differences between English and Frankish broadswords (of which I now have no clue except that I thought the Frankish looked cooler) my spank-happy mother made sure that I got a bow for my birthday (instead of the plastic suit of armor that I wanted). And then it was a tossup between Robin Hood (I had the book) and the Indians, of whom I was rapidly learning. Mom let it slip that there were some Indians in the family tree, for which she was sorry and sorely repented once I started rebelling and wearing headbands and feathers.

Ah, I am made up of horses, weaponry, and an ageless bonding with the land. Now, if I could only be sixteen again, and independently wealthy...!!!  

Killdeer

Simple for me, I got bored of shooting my compound....just wasn't as fun as it used to be.

Who knows, I may end up going back to it- I really like killing stuff with an arrow, but for now, I can't wait to get out and shoot my recurve.

My brother-in-law turned me on to archery. He was a converted wheel shooter. He took me over to meet a friend of his. A guy named Joe Mattingly. The day I met Joe he was knee deep in Osage shavings in his garage, whittling out another self-bow. My BIL told him I was wanting to get into archery and if he had anything for a beginner. Joe brought out a 45# Martin Hunter. We spent the rest of the afternoon launching Judos at every can, plastic bottle and piece of paper within range.
  Later on my BIL opened up an archery and black powder shop and I spent many a evening in there shooting the bull and the bow with all the customers. Never have I found such an honest and like minded group of people in my life.
  I love the tradition, the sport and the folks that associate themselves with the sport.

x2 on bored of shooting my compound many many years ago.

Seeing pictures of Fred Bear and Jim Dougherty in magazines with the animals they had shot inspired me.

I did it mostly to meet women.  


Boy was I surprised.

 

I saw that picture of Fred Bear standing over that huge elk when i was 9 and i wanted to be him. I hate myself that it took me 31yrs to finally make the switch.

QuoteOriginally posted by Turkeys Fear Me:
I did it mostly to meet women.  


Boy was I surprised.

   

Nice...very clever.

Tree killer posted a pic of him and a blacktail he killed in the snow on another site i frequent
It sparked my traditional roots. I had shot a recurve in my eary days of bow hunting and then I switch to a compound and was fine with that till I saw that pick. Ron lives close to me and Ive always enjoyed reading his posts and respected his knowledge of the Deer and elk and the fact that He puts the arch back in archery. with his blacktail recurve. That first buck I saw he shot with a brackenberry drifter in the snow I'll never forget that pic because it really did change my life and he is still putting a hurt on them   http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=110865   Ron is what a bow hunter should be in my mind.        

Mine was my dad. Hd put a fiberglass bear bow in my hand when I was 6 or 7 years old. Actually one in the whole family's hand. I instantly felt a connection to traditional archery. Didn't even know there was an alternative. Though he never hunted with the bow it inspired me. He was never too busy or tired to go watch the flight of an arrow with me. Even up till the end he loved traditional archery. Some of my favorite childhood memories. Thank you Pa I miss you!    

I saw Fred Bear on " The American Sportsman " show and I have been hooked ever since......

I shot recurve as a kid then got my first compound as a 13 year old. I kinda got caught up in all the new gear. I remeber shooting in Ralphs archery shop (Archers Choice) in Berwyn Il. You know Ralph and Vicki before they where famous. Well I mentioned to Ralph I was thinking of shooting recurve and he pretty much said it was a bad thing. So I went a few more years shooting a compound. I was living in Wisconsin at the time this was the mid 90's. I was bowhunting alot and now was useing a release. It seemed like there was always something going wrong mostly equipment failure. Well this is where it started. I was at the grocery store and I was pulled to a cover on a magazine. It was a guy in a canoe with a recurve. I picked up my first copy of Traditional Bowhunter. It opened up the door to a new world. Then I happened to rent a video that featured Gene and Barry Wensel. They amazed me with there shooting and made me laugh at the same time. I thought thats how I want to hunt. I started shooting my Dads old grizzly then bought a take down later that summer. Killed a doe late season that year and never looked back. Simplifing my equipment helped me in leaps and bounds. Where with the compound I shot well but strugeled in hunting situations. I hate to say it but for me its way easier to kill big game with my recurve. I have never once felt like I was handicaped with my recurve!

My Uncle Chuck was the main driving force for me, he lived in Mio Michigan near Grayling and got to know Fred and all the guys down at the factory. He shot with some of them and even built or finshed building bows that the plant would reject because they did not meet there quality standards and then my uncle would create his own version of it.

Anyway as a young boy I would sit and listen to his stories and a fire would well up in side me to the point I couldn't think of anything else except getting old enough to hunt with a bow.  

My uncle in the mid 50's

Fred Bear on American Outdoorsman started the desire to hunt with a bow.  A neighbor let my brother and I borrow some longbows when I was about ten.  I loved shooting it.  The first target I made was a running turkey on a long thin box I stuffed with newspaper.  There weren't even any turkeys back in Massachusetts yet. A bullseye just didn't seem like the right thing to shoot at. Took until I was in college to shoot a bow again.

OLE 8 BALL   JOE EGNER       Hell of an archer !