-
-
As a kid growing up in upstate NY in a non-hunting family, somehow I became interested in hunting with firearms and a bow and arrow. In my early teens, I became the proud owner of a very inexpensive Bear recurve and a couple of wood arrows. I had no instruction immediately available but eventually found a mentor to learn from. I was around 16 and he was 25, married and had a child, but took me under his wing to show me the way. “Van” enjoyed making recurves from Herter’s kits. I eventually made my own arrows, but they were poorly made and quite ugly. I shot a lot, but never connected with a white-tail deer. Took the oath to serve my country in ’69, and after that experience decided to live my dream and move to Alaska. I’ve made my home here for some 50 years now. When I first got here I took moose and caribou with a rifle, but soon switched to a compound bow and took other moose and caribou. Hunting with a compound bow was not fulfilling for me so I ordered up a Black Widow recurve. Loved that bow, shot it pretty good, but I was a bit over-bowed and didn’t reach my full potential. That bow, my American Leather glove, and a custom made one-of-a-kind side quiver full of Gold Tip broadhead arrows was stolen from my truck. I was mad, and since I’m mostly an upland bird hunting pointing dog fanatic I left bow hunting behind and immersed myself deeper into bird hunting. Fast forward 15 years and my eye spied a large bucket of brightly fletched arrows tucked away in my basement and the ember within me began to glow once again. I’d bought a 1970’s vintage Bear “Tigercat” recurve from a friend many years prior but never shot it. Found the bow, dusted it off, strung it up (the old way without a stringer), went out into the backyard and set up a target at 15 yards. Without thinking about anything but the spot I was looking at I put four arrows together in the bull. Don’t ask about arrow 5 and arrow 6. I got cocky. I’ve been shooting that recurve nearly every day for the last couple of months and I’m astounded how well I’m shooting the old bow and carbon arrows that could use some tweaking, but I have another bow being made for me by Black Widow right now, and I’ll be sure to tune it properly when the time comes. I’ve never in my life had so much fun shooting a traditional bow. Getting a bit long-in-the-tooth, but I’ve learned from my errors of the past and my new bow won’t draw much more than the 50 lb Alaska draw limit for moose. A properly placed arrow sporting a razor-sharp two blade broadhead at no more than 25 yards will surely do the trick for an unalarmed moose. Life is good. Glad to be back.
Jim
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.