Come on in and sit a spell. There's a seat for you around the campfire.
Forum rules
Please keep hunting posts to Traditional Bow Hunting. No canned or high fence hunts or stories allowed. Please be respectful of fellow members and helpful to those with questions. Treat others like you like to be treated. There is a Japanese word that I try and model my life after.
GAMAN: patience..dignity..restraint.
I've seen this pop up on other fora (and possibly this one a time or two) but it's always a good topic to revisit, especially for new members to read.
So...why archery? And more specifically, why trad archery, and trad hunting?
I'm sure there are a million different answers, but I'm interested in hearing them all. Honestly.
Before I go all long-winded on ya, I'd like to listen to some of your responses first.
Bring 'em on!
I am a tool maker by trade and my trade has been taken over by computers .
It has taken the the skill out of the trade and that disgusts me .
So now I am tied to computers and high tech crap .
Traditional Archer is an escape for me .
You gotta do it all yourself and your own skill .
"Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much." ~ Joni Eareckson Tada
I've hunted and trapped all my life. As a child it meant the difference of what we had to eat.. Dad was a government hunter/trapper and most of my best memories are those spent with him in the outdoors.. I remember when just seeing a deer track was big news.
I began deer hunting with a gun, eventually I arrived at a point where shooting a deer had lost something. The excitement was gone. Hunting with a bow gave me much more time in the woods, hunting deer that were going about their everyday routines.. I began learning more than ever about all things in the woods.. Soon hunting with a bow had become a huge part of my year around life.
When I started bowhunting there were no compounds.. I did some time with a compound but once they got to the point of not being able to work on them myself I went back to my recurve.. For my type of hunting it's just a superior way..
I tried to keep this short as possible, which is very difficult to do when talking about something that has been such a huge part of my life.
And.. I haven't even touched on all the wonderful people I've met thru Traditional Bowhunting..
I don't consider myself a target archer, haven't much use for it.. I've lived long enough to see the damage it's done to bowhunting and how it's brought us to where we are today.
Like Woodsman, I've hunted and fished most of my life. Eleven years of the military pretty much gave me enough of guns, but I've always liked the quiet and that is what traditional archery gives me. Like Graps said, it takes me away. I'm not a person who gets real excited about killing something, so out of respect to the animals I do hunt I believe they get a fair shake from me using traditional equipment. Trad Archery along with fishing is my Xanax.
Good thoughts guys, I also think it works better than a nerve pill, but I've never taken one to know. I enjoy the simplicity of it, the quite of it, the close encounter that is required to take game that way. The feel of a good bow in my hand, the look of it, and the draw of it. I enjoy the type of folks that hunt this way, for they just seem more respectful of nature, of the property they hunt on, and more respectful to what they hunt.
Nothing wrong with the quite! In fact there is something special about it, I not only enjoy the peace of mind from it but I may even get a high from it. Especially when in a tree.
Boy that's a good one.....it has always been about archery. I think for me it is about wits vs. nature. I have killed deer in the past with guns but got no enjoyment from it, just meat. Meat is good but when there is no enjoyment, its work. Hunting with a bow, especially Trad makes every kill a trophy for me which is icing on the cake.
Good responses, all.
I love guns, and gun hunting. I have managed to accumulate a pretty nice collection, but...
I can't shoot them unless I drag them to the range and exchange greenbacks....quite a few of them. Even reloading my own ammo costs quite a bit, and after the fact (shooting) requires time and effort cleaning (especially black powder guns!) and preserving. Owning guns and not being able to shoot them due to time/money/travel constraints is like staring at steaks in the meat department, maybe handling them, but not being allowed to eat any.
Enter archery. I can string up the bow, head out the back door and shoot at a target or 3D as long (or short) as I want to. No cleanup, no muss, no fuss. Un-string the bow when I'm done and stick it back in the closet....and never leave the back yard.
And that is only the purely practical asset.
Unlike compounds, where today's innovation is tomorrow's obsolescence, a classic traditional bow is as much in vogue as it was 50 years ago, or will be 50 years in the future. Walking in and out to my hunting spot this year I mentioned I felt something, someone walking with me as I carried my Grizzly. I still can't shake that feeling. It was real.
But last (and not least), there is the added and unexpected benefit others have mentioned; that of the relaxation effect. When I shoot trad, my mind goes somewhere else and when I return from there I'm a better person, each and every time.
I've always liked archery since i got my first bow at 11 years old. It was a compound and I shot it pretty much every day, rain or shine. One day my buddy showed up to hang out and had an old Shakespear recurve that he found in a dumpster. I like the idea of a simple bow and no gadgets and got an old 40# browning shortly after. A few years later I decided to start hunting only with a recurve and have not hunted with a compound since. Just love the simplicity. There's something amazing about watching an arrow fly to the spot your focusing on. The human brain can do some awesome things if you give it the chance.
