Why did you start hunting Trad?

[acesand8s]

I did it because my 8 year old wanted to do archery for school and I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together. Since then, all I want to shoot is trad.

 

[ozyclint]

A tradbow perfectly compliments my attitude to hunting. It's not what I do but how I do it.

I think it was one of the Wensel brothers that said, "When I shoot a compound, the bow goes off. When I shoot a trad bow, I go off"

 

[Ahiuranch]

Aron Snyder is why I started, I killed a ton of animals with a open sight 30-30 as a kid growing up in Hawaii. We had no seasons or limits and I hunted with my dad almost weekly to help feed my grandpa and his friends. Everything then was spot and Stalk.

After leaving the military I found that gun hunting wasn’t very fun, I stopped stalking animals and basically anything within 500 yards was dead. I picked up a compound bow and within 3 years had killed a lot of animals with it. Bears,pigs,goats,sheep,deer and two bobcats everything except 3 deer were spot and stalk.


Moved out west two years ago and wanted more of a challenge. After watching Aron I knew that had to be my next step. I messaged Dave from Kalamazoo bow works(he’s a vet) he sent me his number and we talked for an hour on the phone. He set me up with a bow package and said “if you like it buy it, if you don’t send it back” the first time I touched it I knew I wanted to keep it. For me it was the wood and moose wrapped grip. Compound bows are very soul less what I mean by that is they are stamped out by a machine slapped together and sold at some random pro shop. A wood trad bow on the other hand is crafted by a special person, they put time and energy into the craft and it shows. You are literally getting a pice of their life.

That’s why I shoot a wood trad bow and why I shoot trad in general. It’s more intimate not only with the animals but also with your self and I feel like I have a connection with the person that built my bow vs some off the self China made product that is so abundant in our daily lives.

 

[Sapcut]

In 1983 when I was 15 years old I figured out I could deer hunt five weeks earlier before gun season. I first borrowed a 45# recurve to start then a few years later got a 70# cheap bear bow for Christmas and now shooting my 70# Widow I’ve had for a while now.

Never owned nor hunted with a compound arrow propelling machine.

 

[Tdawg21]

I’ve bowhunted for 40 yrs. I started trad about 4 yrs ago. With the technology available for compounds these days, it just isn’t that much fun. I mean, where’s the challenge in shooting a deer at 25-30 yrds with a bow that shoots 330fps and has sights and stabs that make it virtually impossible to miss at that range. Not very challenging imo. Plus, I just think trad is a blast. Lol.

-Dawg

 

[Arcus Venator]

long story short,

Challenge

 

[Wilderness Spirit]

I grew up shooting a longbow. My dad started my brother and I off at an early age. I was 4-5 yrs. old when I first started shooting.
My father was a self taught traditional bowhunter his entire life . He built longbows and wood arrows . He never shot a compound bow.
I hunted with traditional equipment for many years and harvested quite a few whitetails with both a longbow and recurve. I have also built a few longbows and recurves. The last couple of years I have been going back and forth between my Black Widow and my compound.

 

[nphunter]

I started to be able to participate in a traditional only hunt I’ve always wanted to do. I went in the hunt and had a blast, passed up several bucks at under 10 yards trying to kill a big one.
I’m on the fence with elk, I’d love to kill one with my trad bow but love to hunt and kill elk. I’ve killed 2 of my last 7 bulls in trad range and have had plenty of elk within trad range. I just haven’t bright myself to use the trad bow, I also have a goal to kill a really big bull on public ground with my bow and feel like if I pack my trad I may blow that chance. I had one giant bull this year at 10 yards but couldn’t get a shot. I do feel like there are several circumstances where I would have been better off with my trad bow due to the bulls being too close.
I would really like to do that deer hunt again but my oldest son is archery hunting now and I would have to be out of the area during bow season to do the trad hunt. I really try not to overlap my tags with my kids tags, I don’t have many years left with them and feel I’ll do a lot more hunting with my trad when they are out of the house.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Went to full draw on a moose at 10'...he nearly stepped on me.

 

[kjklump]

Many reasons. Challenge, less weight and bulk to pack than my compound, spent years chasing the latest and greatest trying to milk out every spec of speed on the compounds. I'm a data and trial and error geek, so I find the simplicity of traditional relaxing.
And mainly I can shoot arrows all-day at those tree punks with out destroying $12 arrows or blow everything out of the woods.

 

[nevadabugle]

To be honest....my wife. When we met I was a compound shooter and her a trad shooter. It always seemed like she had more fun than me. So I decided to try it. Fell in love with her and the challenge...

 

[Brianlocal3]

Tbh…. It was the cheaper option at the time.
I’m 41, grew up idolizing Dan Fitzgerald so I shot “instinctive” compound, fingers forever. Then eventually one day my string broke on my bow (13year old bow, never changed the string, never had a fault or malfunction) , since the bow was so old the pro shop wanted 150 to change out the string, I went to eBay and bought a 45lb Herters international match hunter for $35 shipped, learned to make my own strings and stuck with it.
I still love shooting compounds “instinctive” with fingers but almost exclusively shoot longbows now.

 

[Gun]

I started in 1965 when I legally could at age 12. Archery license cost a dollar back then. No Mechanical Advantage Bows yet. When compounds came out in the early 70's I jumped on the band wagon. I blew three of them up in two years. That was enough. Haven't looked back. As some have said, It's all about the challenge for me.

 

[GLB]

I started as a young kid before compounds were available. I shot compound a few years when they became popular but stuck with the stickbow after that.

 

[The Ri Guy]

My dad has shot recurves from his first bow 40 years ago until today, so naturally I took after him.

Being with him when he shot this bull at 30 yards 20 years ago with his Black Widow sealed the deal for me. Haven't killed a damn thing with my PSR since I started hunting archery a few years back, but I will one day...has given me a substantial appreciation for his woodsmanship.

 

[BRH Archer]

Stareted with trad back in the 80's, went compound in the 90's. Found out just by chance 3 years ago that the trad bow dosent aggrivate my damaged shoulder near as much as the compound. Killed a pile of stuff with the compound but enjoy trad more, no doubt. Bought my own land this year and main goal now is to kill one with trad bow in my own woods. Owned a bunch of stickbows, starting with an Martin in the 80's, a half dozen over the last few years and now have settled on a Gillo GT 19" riser with Uukah SX50 limbs now. This is the smoothest sweetest shooting bow I have used to date. The S curve draw is very comfortable with the consistent build and lack of stacking and dosent make my shoulder and back angry. Fact is there is something special about hunting with a trad bow that I kind of forgot, glad to be back at it full circle. Now in my 50's hopefull the lord keeps me in the woods for a long time to come.

 

[30338]

I've had a Toelke whip for a few years. Started shooting with no formal lessons. Thinking this is the year to get lessons early and really work at it. I had multiple whitetails within 15 yards last year and really would like to shoot one with it. See how it goes.

 

[william schmaltz]

I bought a used compound right out of high school so I could participate in archery deer season which lasted 4 months instead of just the 20 days of rifle season. That was my soft intro into archery. Lived in a town of 800 with no pro shop and no internet. Dad never hunted and my uncles that mentored me didn't archery hunt so with no resources I just taught myself the wrong way.

Fast forward about half dozen years and I had a job that involved trapping lions. Would stay in a cabin in the badlands off and on from October to April doing that job. The grad student I worked with was into making bows so he got me started. We would make bows and trap and flesh/tan hides and all kinds of fun stuff. I love the old mountain man way of doing things. Probably the only thing outdoorsy I got from my Dad was watching old westerns and the mountain men were always the coolest. Making fur clothes, making bows, woodwork, etc. Sold my compound and didn't shoot for a few years so I could reset the bad habits from my brain. Finally took lessons and learned the proper way to shoot with a recurve.

With kids taking over life the last 5 or so years, the rare hunting I get to do is usually meat missions that need to be quick so I take the rifle. I plan on taking my bow and only bow on a couple trips this year.

One of my best friends asks everything I shoot "did you shoot it with your bow?" He shoots a compound and almost everything he shoots is 60-80 yards; about the same distance most of my rifle shots are. I just never saw the big deal or difference in shooting an animal with a compound at rifle distance. Most guys picking up a compound for a month out of the year can shoot a modern bow that far. I'm just more impressed by guys that do it with a traditional setup and that's the crowd I would rather be in.

 

[sveltri]

I grew up rifle hunting, tried a compound in college and killed my biggest bull to date. I was hooked on bowhunting at that point. I liked shooting the compound quite a bit in the beginning, but it got to the point where I didn't want to practice. I didn't know 3d's and archery leagues even existed. Picked up a copy of Traditional Bowhunter Magazine one day while on my way to elk camp, I was dumbfounded that guys were killing animals with these things. The seed had been planted and I continued to pick up the latest copy of TBM. Fast forward to the following spring, I was turkey hunting with my compound on my birthday. I had remembered seeing an ad for RMSGear in the magazine. I decided I was headed to Denver to buy a recurve. I walked out of the shop with an r/d longbow, sold the compound a couple weeks later and never looked back. Carrying a trad bow in the woods is so much more pleasurable than a compound for so many reasons: lighter and easier to carry, obviously much prettier, and I am obsessed with stumping. I didn't shoot the compound long enough to get very good at shooting beyond 30 yds so i didn't feel like I was really giving up too much by making the switch. If I ever stop hunting with trad bows I'll go back to the rifle.

 

[Matthausarchery]

It can be very simple. No need to get all wrapped up in a million gadgets…unless you want to. I like getting close and feel like I get to experience more in the process.