Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › Your First Few Years Into Trad Bowhunting?
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Did you find traditional bowhunting to feel “right”, or did it seem like the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
I am not a great, or maybe even good, shot with my recurves, but I can keep a 4-6 inch group at 15-20 yards.
My first year hunting with it, I killed the first deer I shot at. I did hit her high and have a pretty horrible memory of her last few minutes, but she never took another step. Later that season, I shot a spike buck high and a little far back and ended up losing him.
This year, I finally made a great shot on a pig on opening day and ever since then, I’ve just felt confident with my bow. Two weeks later, I double lunged a buck twice at 15 yards, and then killed a small button buck on an island hunt.
To me, traditional bowhunting is easier than compound hunting because it just feels natural. The simplicity of it makes me much more confident than I ever felt with a compound that I could shoot 50 yards.
How was it for you in the “rookie years”?
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I’ m still a Rookie since starting this journey in’06 I think it was. I had good success with an old compound for years. Since then I’ ve missed a few nice bucks and made me a head case:( I get the “trip is the destination” thing but I guess I can’ t escape myself and want dead meat at least occasionally. I’ ve always had good hand-eye coordination and good nerves so it’ s ruffled me to have been so stymied since I went down this rd. It’ s been frustrating for me I guess and I waffle in my mind with the seeming ” marriage” I’ ve made with it. But I’ ll go right back to it and keep hammering until I get that confidence. Good post subject.
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paleoman wrote: I’ m still a Rookie since starting this journey in’06 I think it was. I had good success with an old compound for years. Since then I’ ve missed a few nice bucks and made me a head case:( I get the “trip is the destination” thing but I guess I can’ t escape myself and want dead meat at least occasionally. I’ ve always had good hand-eye coordination and good nerves so it’ s ruffled me to have been so stymied since I went down this rd. It’ s been frustrating for me I guess and I waffle in my mind with the seeming ” marriage” I’ ve made with it. But I’ ll go right back to it and keep hammering until I get that confidence. Good post subject.
I think it’s all about that confidence and seeing that it “actually works”, as my buddy Tommy said recently.
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I’ve had both success and failure but am all in for traditional. That said, I hunt with my recurve because of the simplicity, esthetics and intimacy. I’d don’t feel “traditional.” This community is my lifeline. I wish I could find a local mentor. I’m the only one in my family that hunts this way.
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Trad does just feel right. I tried a compound for a year in the late 1980s but never really felt comfortable with it. (I’d been shooting recurves since the Boy Scouts in the late 1960s and early 1970s.) I sold that compound and bought a longbow and have never looked back.
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Growing up I shot barebow and single-pin light target bows. When I got married ( and moved out of town) I decided t hunt. At that time (1980) no one had stickbows for sale and I bought a compound. I could hit tennis balls at 45 yards . . . but missed deer at 15 yards! After two years of goof ups, spooking deer with aluminum arrows that drew like violin bows, picking the wrong pin, shooting with the “range finder” sight instead of the pin, many, many misses I gave up on bowhunting.
Then I met a friend through sailboats (traditional wood) that turned out to be a champion archer and bowhunter. He mentored me and gave me a copy of “Traditional Bowhunter” (the one published by Harvey & Caroline Overshiner that predated the T.J. Conrads version) and bought a Dick Palmer longbow. MUCH BETTER. Nothing to go wrong. I could also go out stump shooting without crimping expensive aluminum arrows.
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The first time I sent an arrow after a deer from a recurve it disappeared through both lungs and landed in the dirt. Over the next two seasons ten more deer followed the first into my freezer in much the same way. Truth be known, I’ve killed a lot more animals since switching back to traditional archery tackle than I ever did previously.
I didn’t decide to hunt with recurves and longbows for an increased challenge in the woods, so I didn’t go into it expecting increased difficulty. I was raised in a family that took up bowhunting long before Allen ever went to the hardware store, so there was no double standard in our camp when it came to accuracy. A lack of wheels on the end of your bow limbs didn’t give you a free pass to spray arrows all over the place. Expectations were high. So were results. No one ever excelled by believing they couldn’t.
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Its the only way I hunt game anymore, totally gave up on the firearms for the most part, I do use my TC Renegade cap and ball muzzleloader once in a while! I have shot some small game with my longbow,have had a few shots at deer all clean misses! To me anymore its all about being in the woods w my Bama longbow whether its hunting, roving or stumpshooting you never know what your going to see or expierance ! This year is my 4th season of Trad hunting, have not made the mistakes of past years as to my ground blind locations, movement, wind direction, concealment etc! , first year for using a game cam which has been a real eye opener to what visits your area when you are not there and the times they come in for a visit! I have yet to loose an at a deer arrow this season, could have at one small 3pt that I have seen several times but I passed hoping he will be nicer next season,did see a couple other nicer bucks but never got any shot opportunities, with a firearm they would have been easy pickins, thats what makes Trad bow hunting so challenging especially on the ground! most of the does I saw was during firearm season but they are not legal on public land even with a bow during firearm season! We can hunt up until Jan 1st, snow has settled down, can’t think of any way I would rather than end 2012 than be in the woods with my longbow!
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I went back and forth between sticks and wheels for a number of years, the wheels I now realize were a crutch. However, traditional just seems so natural now that I can’t switch back. Everything from the simplicity to the beauty of the bow makes it more rewarding for me.
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My “rookie” years started when I ws about 6…so I have never known anything else. Aside from a very brief trial with a compound, recurves and longbows have been “it” for me (I do hunt with firearms ocasionally, especially nice doubles).
When I was a very small kid I was out back chasing rabbits and grackles with my bow. I never had that “will this thing kill something?” mindset.
I also strongly believe the ONLY advantage a compound has is distance, and that is a debatable ethical question. I think at bow hunting ranges, a longbow or ecurve I EASIER to utilize. Especially at small game. I can’t imagine getting a shot off at a running rabbit with a compound.
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Even though I started shooting trad when I was 12 when the wheel bow was still just an idea, and the department stores all had recurve bows and wooden arrows for sale, I do remember learning to shoot and thinking it was the hardest thing I ever tried to do. I think we all go through that phase but if we are determined to master it we keep on trying until one day it just clicks and we get it.
So I started with trad, had one wheel bow, and became quickly dismayed at how much stuff the shop was always trying to sell me and the sheer weight of the thing sent me right back to my light as a feather recurves. I’ve never looked back and as far as game taken, I doubt I would have taken more with anything else except my my traditional sidelock muzzleloaders which are deadeye accurate but still require hunting skill to get within gimme range if you know what I mean :D.
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Etter1 wrote: Did you find traditional bowhunting to feel “right”, or did it seem like the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Yes, and yes!!
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yes and Yes on both. However over the past year since I stopped completely shooting the wheelie. I went ahead and sold it. I do have my days where I shoot great and some days where my release is not where I want it so I have bad accuracy. However I enjoy the getting out and shooting even in the cold and wind for fun.
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My first experience with traditional equipment goes back probably 50 years. A neighbor of mine had a Bear recurve and we would shoot in his back yard at a couple of bales of hay. I am not sure if he ever hunted, but he sure could shoot a target.
Many years after that the wheelie bug hit me and I just had to have one of those fancy shooters. PSE was a fledgling company back then and I bought a brand new Phaser. I added a rest, sight and anything else my local shop said I needed. It was fun and I actually shot at a couple of deer, and in all cases it was a clean miss.
Life moved ahead and more wheelies came and went. I was still shooting PSE and they were improving by leaps and bounds, as all wheelies were at that time. I was in a local pro shop when a PSE Impala caught my eye. It went home with me that afternoon. Because I had been shooting the wheel, I figured that all the stuff that went on the compound went on a recurve. Talk about the wrong idea. Sight, rest, stabilaizer, and all the rest went on that bow. Then the realization that you can’t hold long enough to use any of it. I removed all the goodies and started to shoot that bow. I went through 3 sets of limbs before I gave it away.
The limb problem was something that I had to deal with all the time with that bow. Next came another PSE, a Coyote. Fiberglass limbs, no breakage in many years of use and it is now serving as a fishing bow. I still continued to degress (so to speak) as a long bow by Saxon was now in my arsenal. A sweet shooter from the go. A special bow to me as it brought me the full circuit.
On my retirement, my family presented me with a Samick Sage. One of the best shooting bows I have ever had the pleasure of shooting. In all the years of shooting and hunting, I have harvested carp, squirrels and rabbits, not a deer has lost its life through my shooting. Do I have any regrets about that, nope. The time I have spent in the woods is special to me.
Archery to me is not only a personal thing but something that needs to be shared. I am currently a Hunter Education Instructor with 30 years experience in Illinois. I am NBEF certified and have been involved with youth and WITO events for almost 20 years. I have designed and built two different throwers for overhead targets. One throws styrofoam balls, the other foam disks. These targets are always the hit of all the events. People who are just observers want to give it a try and has been in a couple of newspapers. Even though I use Genesis bows in my classes as well as recurves and long bows that I have acquired, all shooting is instinctive.
Now that I am retired, the adventure is just begining. My wife and I will continue to do Hunter Education classes and I have been in contact with a couple of sportsmen’s clubs to start archery programs. We are also involved with 4H.
All this because some one took the time to show me some tradional equipment and show me the ropes.
When did I have time to work!
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