These two hunts took place years ago, and have alot of history behind them so they will take some time to tell.  Hopefully you will think it is worth the time.  Most of you know one of the guys in this story and very few of you know me.  By the way,  friend,  when you figure out who you are -- jump in and help with the stories.  I have been hunting with Longbows since my friend made me one to go on our first bear hunt.
This hunt took placw in about 1972 when I went to Canada with a great friend of mine and his Dad.  We made our way to Canada and got set up across the lake from the main camp.  We were settled in that evening and the owner of the camp came over to talk and plan for the next day when we would take boats over to the main camp.  As he was leaving, he mentioned that we would be hunting with a special guest.  I'll introduce him to you with a picture of his personnal bow.

 

Charlie??

That would be Fred Bear, the special guest, I have seen that pic somewhere before.

Danny

Here is a picture of me leaving the next morning.

Gary you look a "LOT OLDER" now  

I recognize the scar on that guys left arm! Keep tellin... I've got a hunch!!  

Hey Vance,

All I know is that its a pretty ugly looking group so far!

Chris

I'm just waitin for a Mistake        

I agree with Danny, Fred Bear. The bow is a lefty. Keep the story going, I bet it is a good one.

At least that is Freds bow by looking at the shelf design!!!

In the 70s I walked the edge of the Au Sable River with a lanky fellow who had a bow like that tucked under his right arm. A few years later that bow (or one just like it) was hanging on a peg in a little nook off his office in Gainesville.  Am I getting warm??

sure does look like Freds bow; but.. doesn't look like his arm holding it.
I am finding interest in the string silencers..

keep the hints coming  

Hey I know that place!

Gary, I think I know who it is. He is left haned and I think he is the leader of the crew.

Well, looks like the cat...er...Bear, is out of the bag. I'll have to drag out some "never before seen on Trad Gang" photos and put them up.

Gary and I met when we were both impressionable 18 year olds in a small midwestern college. We both shared the same passion for the outdoors and all things hunting, trapping and archery.
 
Over the years we shared many adventures, but in those early days it was mostly harrassing the local ground hog population and scaring hell out of the occasional cottontail.

One of our favorite hunts after school was a walk out some railroad tracks that ran through the middle of town and soon led to farmland.
     

Looking back it amazes me how things have changed in this state. We often traversed country that now teems with whitetails, yet in those days we never so much as saw one track.

Gary was from south central Iowa where he had lots of farm community family and the run of almost an entire county.
As a nonresident I could't hunt deer there but eventually helped Gary get started.
I was always amazed at the number of deer that country contained...even then.

Of course when you come from a place where seeing A deer in a month of hunting was doing alright, then seeing 2 or 3 a day was mind boggling.

I introduced Gary to bowfishing and he took to it right away.
 

TTT

Well so far things are keepin pretty TRUTHFUL    

But it's still early..... HU Chris