For 10,000 years indains lived by them.So I STARTED BUILDING AND HUNTING WIHT SELFBOWS.

I spent to many years worrying about timing, things working loose, site pins breaking, etc... Last year I had enough of it and decided to simplify things by going back to trad.   I had spent an entire day lugging the compound around and noticed when I drew on an elk that the sight was loose.  I let down and let that bull go on his way. What really torqued my shorts was I had just checked the site was tight an hour before.

I have had the best hunting year of my life this year and am loving every minute of it. Shooting is fun again.  Not just put the pin on it and hit it.

I've been shooting compound since I started hunting.  I'd been shooting a trad bow for about 3 years, but havent made the switch fully yet.  I'm takign it slow and shooting my recurve bow as much as I can before I fully committ.  I want to experience the hunting aspect more.

Being a simple minded person as I am. I was naturally impreesed by the simplicity of trad gear over wheelie bow gear. I just can't imagine carrying a compound in the woods anymore. My bows feel natural to shoot and extra fun to carry. I think more archer would convert as long as they start to relax and enjoy the sport for what it truly is and what it truly isn't like hitting buuleyes every time with quarter sized groups.

When I started in archery all there was were recurved, longbows and some homemade bows. This was in 1969. I shot a compound a few years but went back to what I started with. I just enjoyed it better.

About 17 years ago dad bought me a 50 dollar ben pearson brush bow at a pawn shop.He bought me some ramin wood dowel rods at the lumber yard and told me to get to building if I wanted to have something to shoot. Been in love ever since. I shot a coumpound a couple of times through the years but it never felt quite the same.

I shot compound for over 25yrs. I like challenge, and kept shooting further from the target to keep my interest. When it came to hunting, I was loosing interest. When I drew my compound back on a deer, I wasnt thinking about how excited I should be, I was already planning who to call to come help me drag it out. I got a deal on a Kmag and shot that for 1yr. It was too short for my draw length, so I bought a Montana and practiced almost daily. Took a doe with it this year. Its not easy, and thats what I like about it. Im now in the process of building a selfbow and want to make some cane arrows. There is just something addicting about "looking" where I want to hit and watching that arrow hit there. Some get it, some dont. I let my wife try my longbow and she did extremely well her first 3 shots. I asked what do you think? She replied, whats the big deal, I didnt even aim? I replied excited, I know, isnt that cool? Id also like to make/use an Atlatl some day.....

If i remember right i was not happy with how much my compound bow weighed. At the time i worked with Chuck Jones who makes the Black Rhino bows and he told me i should try a recurve or longbow. He helped me with EVERYTHING imaginable. That was 25 years ago. (wish i could find another brand new Howatt Hunter recurve for $95 like i did back then!!haha)

I started out with a Jennings lightning compound about '79. I always liked the look of the recurve from reading old issues of Bowhunter, Bow and Arrow and Archery World magazines from the mid 70's. about '91,  at the general store near my house there was a really good magazine rack with every hunting magazine you could think of.  The one that caught my eye was Traditional Bowhunter Magazine. I bought it, and really got into it. I ordered a Bear TD hunter from Cabela's and started messing around with it. I was hooked ever since. I shot recurve part time for awhile. I gave up the wheel bow for good about 3 years ago.

I wanted to become a better Woodsmen to much BS with a Compound Bow rangefinders,release,sight pins,and it is so much fun now I love it.Blake

I really like the strange looks folks give you when walking to and from you truck.  I had a guy ask if I planned on hunting with "that thing" a 67#@28" Robertson as I got out of my truck for an evening hunt.  He said, "I used to shoot stuff like that when I was a kid, but now I have a real bow (as he held up a compound)."  I made sure not to load my deer in the truck until he returned from his hunt.  I never said a word, didn't have to...  

I know what you mean, i have been asked numerous times "can that thing kill a deer", or they will ask "whats wrong, cant you afford a compound".

to impress the chicks..... you've seen them - the trad bow groupies, no?  

Cause it's FUN. Kind of like the people too. Good folks.

I used to shoot a compound but I got bored with it.  I don't know if it just didn't seem challenging enough or if something was just missing.  I was caught up in all the hype of shooting faster and how far can you shoot, all of that kind of stuff, bot I realized that I just wasn't truly enjoying myself.  It just seemed like I was shooting a bow and bowhunting more because of my friends than for me, so I put the compound in it's case and haven't taken it out since.  

About two years after I put the compound away (5 years ago) my uncle who is more like my brother as he's only 7 years older than me called me and asked if I would like to go to the OSTA state bow shoot.  I didn't know what the OSTA shoot was but I said I would go. (Again more for him than me.)  Then he told me it was a trad club and that a friend of ours would lend me a Bear Montana.  I started shooting the Montana two weeks befors the shoot and bought it two days after the shoot.  Let's just say that I found what was missing and now I shoot and hunt because I truly love to do it.    

K.I.S.S.

still shoot compound ! completely different from real archery ! lol
both fun but seems i like my recurves best

QuoteOriginally posted by Steve H.:
I didn't, it choose me.

That about sums it up...

I found out about Dan Quillian's shop my senior year in college.  I only lived about 15 minutes away, so I would go by there several times a month and shoot whatever lefties he had in the store.

I had only been hunting with a compound for a couple of years, but was already getting turned off by all the gadgets that were being peddled-fancier sights, rests, stabilizers etc.

Sometime during the year after I graduated, I picked up my first copy of TBM and that settled it!  I decided to go "the other way", away from all the gadgets.

I bought a Patriot takedown from Dan later that year and never went back.  I still have my old compound, but I doubt I've shot it 20 times since getting the recurve.  

Shot the Patriot exclusively until a couple of years ago, then the bow buying bug bit!  I still have it, but it is now part of a growing collection!

In a 1984 issue of Sports Afield there wasan article called "Longbow Country" I think and it wasabout the comback of the longbow. Well i kept that issue and then finally wrote away to some bowyers mentioned in 1990 after paying off college and a car. First bow i ever shot was a new scorpion longbow. I was hooked from the begginning and then i found an archery club 45 minutes away that had a few traditional shooters. I have been doing it ever since.