How old were you?

[Roy from Pa]

8 years old, 64 now:)

[bro-n-arrow]

13 years old,now i'm 73 They didn't have compounds back then and I think that was a blessing in disguised !

[Pat B.]

I was 6 years old, we lived in California. We moved to Texas the following year.. I'm now 58 and still don't shoot worth a flip..

Sure are a lot of us from that time frame..

[WindOtter]

52, been at it for a year now.

[cbCrow]

I started at about 12 years old, I'm now 62 years old and still love the simple flight of the arrow.

[jerry womble]

Started when I was around 6 with a little Lemon Wood flat bow.
I'll be 74 in Dec and now shooting Predators, Morrisons and Borders.

[doug77]

I got my first trad deer when I was 13 years old went to c-pound for a short time and been trad ever since.

doug77

[Bowwild]

Made my first bow in 1963 out of bent limb and string. Shot arrows I made from sticks with no fletching. That was 3rd grade.

Got a Pearson Cougar at 14 years and killed the first live deer (5-point buck) I ever saw with it at age 16 in 1970 (Brown County, Indiana).

Stayed with recurves until 1975. I was very avid, with no regrets, with a variety of "different" bows until returning to traditional with the 2010 hunting season. I'm loving the recurve very much these days.

[NBK]

Started with a pink, (yep, pink) youth longbow when I was about 8.  Switched to a compound when I was 11.  Gave my compound away and went traditional when I was 29, and have never looked back, or ever once missed the wheelie bow.

[GRINCH]

started with a fiberglass bow at about 10,went to a compound,gave them to my nephews and haven't looked back love the simplicity of a longbow.

[joe ashton]

I shot one of those red glass bows at about age 10.
Bought a Ben Pearson in '73 (age 22) at a garage sale for $25 but never really shot it...
Then I went to a Colo Bowhunter meeting 21 years ago (age 40)and bought an Asbel Big horn.  Life has never been the same...

[SELFBOW19953]

A bunch of us neighborhood kids started making bows out of bamboo, saplings (alive or dead), or most anything else we thought would work about 1957 (I was 6).  My grandfather gave me a "real" bow-lemonwood longbow when I was 10.  My longbow became a 3 piece while I was shooting it one day, I was about 12, so I got his custom recurve from '47 or '48 for Christmas that year.  I shot a compound for about 2 years in the mid 80's.  I agree with GRS!!!

[Ron LaClair]

My dad made my first bow when I was 6 years old. The bow has been my passion for my entire life since then...70 years behind the bow

I shot a compound bow one time about 30 years ago...I didn't like it and I've never owned one or shot one since.

[1/4 away]

I started about 20 years ago after reading a copy of Traditional Bowhunter magazine. I'm 63 now.

[Ron LaClair]

A boy's dream, A man's life"

The bow and arrow spoke to me when I was five years old
It said, come play with me young lad if you should be so bold

The singing string and whispering shaft was music to my soul
I knew it was a part of me when I was twelve years old

The bow was small for a lad so tall as I grew so long and lean
A new bow I sought, and finely bought, when I turned sixteen

The years they flew and at twenty two, a bow for the bride I took
Together we hunted for whitetail deer from our camp by a babbling brook

Soon a little bow hung along side the bows of mom and dad
Then another,.. and still another,.. three little bowmen we finely had

As time went by the children grew, then Grand children came along
Once again, the longbow sang, it's captivating song

This new generation was soon to learn the wonders of stick and string
They watched as Grandpa showed them, the joys the bow could bring

No one can count the arrows this old man has sent to flight
Someday I'll shoot my very last shaft into the murky night

Now there's a great grand child to teach, the joy of these wonderful sticks
This old man, still loves his bow, at the age of seventy six.

TO BE CONTINUED

[pappy]

2nd grade,60 yesterday and still at it.That was a beautiful poem Ron.
   Pappy

[Pat B]

I was about 28 when I started gun hunting and shortly after that I got an old Shakespear recurve that I hunted with my first year. It was maybe 6 to 8 years after that(after compounds) that I started in earnest. I'm 62 now so you do the math and you'll see you still have plenty of time to get your fill. d;^)

[Gila Mike]

Began shooting solid fiberglass bows just before high school, so around 1959 - 1960. Bought my first laminated bow (Pearson Cougar) around 1961 - 1962. Bought my first real hunting bow (Pearson/Locksley Wildcat) in 1964 or 1965. Been shooting recurves and longbows all my life.

Mike

[traditionalman]

I was 15 and now I'm 62

[NEB]

I was 22 when I started.  But I was 25 when I quit using the compound.