People are always asking “How can we pass on the art of traditional bowhunting?” We can pass it on to our children or our grandchildren or nieces or nephews, but what if they are not interested? Or maybe you don’t have any. I personally have a son who is a SGT in the US Army he just got back last August after a one-year tour in Iraq. And I would like to say thank you to Robin for sending some back issues of Traditional Bowhunter magazine over to him and his squad. They were very much appreciated.
When he got back from his tour in Iraq in late August, he got married on Labor Day weekend. He is stationed in Fort Carson, Colorado and talking about making a career in the US Army. He and his wife are going to make me a Grandfather in May. Unfortunately, his new wife is from out west and that is where they want to stay. I am not going to be much of an influence on my grandkids if they live in Colorado and I live in Michigan.
In 2008, before he left for Iraq, we took him to the Michigan Traditional Bowhunters meet in Grayling, Michigan and we had a great time. I feel archery is something he will teach his kids, but my influence will not be quite what I would like it to be with the distance involved. He likes gadgets and gizmos and could end up shooting bows with wheel on them. We will just have to wait and see. In 2009 we took my wife Sandy’s grandkids, Ethan and Austin, up to the same meet in Grayling. In the first picture you see Austin shooting his recurve at the Turkey Shoot, and the second picture is Ethan walking up to check out how he did. They can’t wait to go again this year, but you have to understand that Austin, the younger one who turned nine in September, shoots a recurve like Grandma and I. Ethan, who is 10, shoots a compound bow like his dad, but up in Grayling he tried a recurve. I guess the point I am trying to make is kids nowadays shoot what they are exposed to. Unfortunately that is usually a bow with wheels on it. So how else can we expose our youth to the art of traditional shooting or bowhunting? By becoming involved in 4-H Shooting Sports.
My wife Sandy and I are 4-H Archery instructors here in Hillsdale County, Michigan. We both shoot recurves. I have an old Bear recurve that both of my brothers had before me, and Sandy shoots an old Darton recurve. My brother Steve had picked both of these up at garage sales for next to nothing, but on to the point, kids in 4-H Shooting Sports will shoot what they are exposed to and if all their instructors shoot compound bows more than likely this is what the kids will shoot. Get involved in 4-H Shooting Sports in your area. Show these kids that there are bows out there without wheels on them, without sights, without releases, something that takes some skill, some practice and a little challenge. Give them other choices to make. Compton Traditional Bowhunters can give you a hand getting started. I know they did for our club.
Late last summer Michigan 4-H held their state shoot at the Centerline of Calhoun County Club near Bellevue, Michigan. There were over 500 participants from 30 counties shooting archery, air rifle, BB guns, trap, 22 rifle and muzzleloaders. I would say that roughly half of the participants in archery were shooting open class; sights, compound bow and a release. Another third were shooting the sighted class; shooting with fingers but some sort of sighting system mounted on their bow and they were pretty evenly mixed between recurves and compounds. The remaining participants were in the unsighted class; no sights, shooting with fingers, both compound and traditional gear. There were not very many of them. In the individual competition for this group, none of our kids placed. In the team event however, they tied for third place. For the team event the kids could range between 9 and 19, but they had to shoot the same class. Our kids, three young men and a young lady, range from age 9 to14.
In the picture the first young man’s name is Josh and he is shooting his own bow with aluminum arrows someone donated to the club. Next is Quinton shooting his bow, which came from Lost Nation Archery, and carbon arrows. Next is Matt shooting the club bow, which came from 3 Rivers Archery, and wood arrows made for him. Last, but not least, is Erin with her pink mini Genesis bow and carbon arrows with vanes. (We have since switched her over to feathers.) All three boys started out on compound bows and then switched to recurves because they like the challenge. They say it takes more skill and they get more satisfaction. I have to ask myself, would those boys have had that chance if my wife and I had not taken the time to work with them, or if Compton would not have supplied us with traditional gear to start on? Working with 4-H we are teaching these kids something other than how to shoot a compound. All of these bows, including the ones Sandy and I shoot, were all very inexpensive. Store bought bows from 3Rivers Archery in Ashley, Indiana and Lost Nation Archery in Sturgis, Michigan were around $100.00. Some bows came from eBay and garage sales.
In our new club we have instructors who shoot crossbows, compounds and traditional. Rick and Bonnie Shaffer hunt with compounds. Bonnie has shoulder problems so she has been hunting with a crossbow permit for a few years. Last year most everyone could use a crossbow in Michigan. Our instructors who hunt with compounds are Gerald Belding and Mark Hubbard, and then Sandy and I use recurves. We as instructors are giving them multiple options that they would not have had otherwise. If all instructors shot compounds, what would the kids be shooting? Become involved in 4-H Shooting Sports. Give these kids other options. Teach them the joy of a well-placed arrow, using the skill that God gave them, without relying on some gizmo that the archery shop sold them. Teach them hunting skills. Michigan 4-H offers 3-D archery as well as target archery. You can teach them about shooting lanes, watching for things in the path of the arrow, and about how important arrow placement is. Teach them ethical hunting practices. These are all things you can teach to a younger generation of bowhunters, if you take the time to work with 4-H youth. They are eager to learn new things.
Our current project involves some of the older kids. We purchased rough-cut bow staves from 3 Rivers Archery and two adults (including me) and four kids are going to make longbows for a fair project. We are also going to make our own strings and arrows. Two of these kids are compound shooters and they are excited! You can teach kids Hunter Safety. Our new club, The Bullseye Bandits of Hillsdale County, practice at the Hillsdale County Conservation Club. Some of our kids have also taken their Hunter Safety classes there. We have kids who only have one parent, and they really appreciate someone taking an interest in their lives and showing them things that a father should do. We teach them about being outdoors, wildlife, and listening in the woods. Some have never experienced this.
There is something that happens when you work with a child and see them progress from not hitting the foam backstop to maybe hitting the foam, then hitting paper and then hitting the target on the paper and finally starting to score. In the forth picture the young lady’s name is Ari. The first time she shot she was so scared she cried. She was seven years old, but she said if her brother was going to do this she was too! The first time we scored her 10 rounds of 6 arrows (perfect score is 600) she scored 57. The last time we scored her last year she shot a 256 and at that time she was shooting a mini Genesis.
As you can see in the picture she now has a pink longbow that she got for Christmas, from 3-Rivers Archery. In the fifth picture she has her pink longbow inside her pink bow sock that her Grandma made her with pink wood arrows and they are working on making her a pink leather hip quiver. As you can see she is all smiles! I have to ask myself would this have happened if we didn’t taken the time to teach 4-H Archery?
If you want to teach traditional bowhunting, look up your local county 4-H Shooting Sports program. If you don’t have one, work on starting one. Yes, you may have to work with people who like wheels and gizmos, but at least you are giving the next generation of traditional archers an option they might not have had or even known about, traditional bowhunting.
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