Hi Pat! Welcome. We have a small group with great members, so it might take a bit for everyone to see your post and say hello. I hope you have fun getting to know the members here. I am the retired webmaster of tradbow.com and one of the moderators here. I go by Webmother or Webmom, a nickname given to me a long time ago. If you have any questions about the site or the forums, let me know.

I will say that you are very lucky if you have a local shop that can outfit you with traditional gear. I would suggest checking out the Clubs and Mentors page to see if there is a local traditional club near you. (Keep in mind the contact info on that page may be old.) Good luck with your traditional journey!

Robin

Pat;

Greetings and Salutations from S.E. Arizona where we have frogs that can’t swim ’cause they’ve never seen water.

Don’t be shy about asking questions or for advice. We’ve all made a bunch of mistakes and sometimes even learn from them.

So ………….. What kind of bow are you getting ?? Hunting or target ???  I’m partial to classic recurves myself.

I envy you having a shop nearby that speaks ‘Trad’.  Our local shops are all about gears, gadgets & gizmos.

Cheap advice; If you possibly can, sign up for a series of lessons / coaching. Far easier to learn it right than to unlearn a bad habit and then learn it over correctly.  Trust me on this one.  Time & coin well spent.

Good morning from Kansas Pat and welcome to the club.  I, too, envy you having a shop that carries trad gear.  The few and far between shops around here only carry the latest un-needed compound gear and they are quickly transitioning to crossgun.  They look at me like I’m from Mars when I look through their stuff while I’m wearing my shirt that says I make my own bows.

The main thing is to shoot to have fun.

Dennis

Hi Pat

Welcome to the forum ! Looks like you are on the right track, and getting good advice from your local shop ….

It’s great you can try some different bows ( and weights) . As you realize best to start with lighter weight 35 – 40 and work on techniques and form .

Glad to have you with us and keep us posted on your trad journey…..

Scout aka Ray

I’m still jealous that you have a shop that understands single string.

Don’t know if you do Ebay or not but there’s a book, Shooting The Stickbow that is a must read for Traditional shooters by Anthony Camera that you can usually find in the $20 to $30 dollar range. Really good info !!!!

I recommend this book to anyone that is serious about shooting.

Pat

Ditto Richard’s recommendation….

I also heartily recommend TJ Conrad’s- The traditional bowhunters handbook… which can be picked up from the website merchandise. I use mine for reference continually ..

Scout aka Ray

Hello back.. Welcome.

You’re for sure doing the right thing with bow draw weight. Your are fortunate that you have a shop nearby that seems knowledgeable about traditional archery.

To much draw weight is the cause of so many problems in shooting trad equipment. Plus often burnout because things ain’t working.

Draw weight you build up to and there’s no sense in going through the “male macho” thing.

I’ve noticed here lately on various trad websites that people more and more are selling or trying to sell 55# up to 65#-70# bows more and more often. I even saw one 95#’er. Wow!

There’s good reason for that methinks.

Good luck, have fun and don’t expect instant miracles.  I’m 77 and have been shooting since I was 15 or so and I dang sure ain’t the best in the world by far. But I love it. And I’m perfectly content to shoot in the 40#-45# range.

Ralph

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Ralph.

Raymond;

Thanx for reminding me about T.J.s book. I’m  about due to re-read that one again.

Hello Pat, and greeting from SE Ohio.  I haven’t been on here for a while and am trying to read all the posts I’ve missed so you may have answered this question elsewhere, but what bow did you end up going with?

~Kees~