What was your first recurve/longbow, the one that started it all?

[highlow]

Can't remember the make but it was solid green with a brown, plastic grip, ambidextrous. Shot frogs with it back in the 50s. Graduated to guns when I could legally hunt at 14 and didn't get back in to archery until my late 20s. Bunch of us wanted more hunting opportunities so we decided to bow hunt. Went to Butts and Bows in Montclair, NJ (Len Cardinale) and bought my first real bow, a Browning Ex 1 with which I shot my first deer ever. Still have it. But, got caught up in the wheelie craze and have just returned to trad. Many years wasted with the wheels. But, it's never too late as they say.

[STICKBENDER98]

My very first bow was one my dad made me when I was 7 or 8, not sure what kind of sapling he cut to make it, it had a piece of binder twine for a string and a couple of his old used arrows I shot off my hand no shelf. I had a blast with it shooting with him.  When I was finally old enough to hunt I got to use his Bear Polar recurve, which I still have hanging on my bow rack. He passed away last November and I still thank him every day that he gave me the passion for bow hunting.

[Jarrod Reno]

I'm a late bloomer. Shot a Caribow Featherhorn 3 years ago and sold my compound the following week  

[ed cowden]

1960 and I was 5 years old. Ben Pearson maple with white fiberglass and 32# recurve. 3 arrows and they were gone the first day. I had to sell muskrats to get more arrows.

[WVbowhunter]

A cheap 3 piece recurve, the raging rivers zombow 62 inch 47# @ 31. Bought it on Amazon when I was 16. Shot it for a couple months until I decided that the limbs would be better on an old Bear Black Panther compound riser I had.

[Mud_Slide_Slim]

Pecan board bow I built about 15 years ago while living in Montana...

Bill-

[Friend]

Little Bear in 1969...still have it.

[Phillip Fields]

My parents gave me a fiberglass Shakespeare some time in the late 50's, which I still have.

[Longtoke]

Bear Minute Man. What a sweet, simple, and economical design. Mine was a green riser with white limbs, 60" 45#@28

[ron w]

Had a fiberglass frog killer when I was a kid. Then at 15 I got a job washing dishes at the local Diner. That was 1967.....later that year I bought a Browning Nomad Hunter for 37 dollars. I wanted a Bear Grizzly but they were 47 bucks and I couldn't wait........lol. Hunted with that bow till about 1974 or 75. And just so you know....the Diner is still there run by the same family.

[Tradcat]

A 30 lb fiberglass recurve

[D.Sheppard]

A 45# Bear Black Bear, first trad deer with it and still have it.

[UMLarcher]

I started shooting around 3 when my dad had to draw my little bow for me. I had a bunch of kid bows growing up, but my first "real" recurve was a #40 Black Bear that my dad bought in the 70s. He's probably taught a dozen kids to shoot with it, and my son will use it when the time comes.

[ChuckC]

First real bow was a Howatt Coronado.  Lots of fiberglass bows and such prior to that.  Killed a lot of carp with fiberglass bows.
ChuckC

[awbowman]

Acadian Woods Recurve

[BWallace10327]

My Dad and I built a red oak/black glass backed bow.  We tillered it with an orbit sander, stained it and finished it with tru oil.  It was 66", drew 51#@28".  Not real fast with some shock due to the imperfect tiller, but it was FUN and that bow+experience of building and shooting it got me hooked

[MnFn]

It was 1965.  I had a green fiberglass 25lb bow until it got it caught in the front spokes of my bicycle.  So on my 13th birthday, my dad came home with a 40lb Shakespeare "Wonderbow".

I took a  smallish racked 4X4 with it.  I still have it and hope one of my grandkids wants to try it someday.

[wooddamon1]

$50 used Shakespeare Necedah I found locally in a bait/archery shop. Loved the physical weight after toting a bare C-bow for two seasons prior. I missed just as good with both.      

Ended up killing my first couple deer ever with it and passed it along to a beginner years ago.

[MnFn]

[hawkeye n pa]

25# Browning Mohawk and bought it at a drug store 49 yrs ago.  Grandkids are using it now.