Modern or traditional?

First topic message reminder :

So, what do you primarily hunt with . . . Compound, recurve or longbow?
I shoot recurve and compound, but hunt primarily with the compound (Mathews DXT).
I can do OK with the stick, but I haven't gotten comfortable enough to shoot a live animal with it yet.

quinn stalion here

Trad only. I love shooting my longbow. I shot compounds for many years, but now that I've gone to traditional, I don't see me ever going back.

I shoot traditional only now, since 05 Started bowhunting exclusively on 1990

Handmade traditional stykbows only - mostly longbows on the 65# - 70#range. I only shoot bows made for me by friends and luckily for me I am friends with the best bowyers in the country!! I do have a few bows in the 90# range for true buffalo and some other big dangerous animals and I use a fairly lightweight (64#) Black Widow for all of my bowfishing (mostly stingrays & alligators) which was a gift and retired after 2 African trips.
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I started out with my Dad w/ a fiberglass recurve...he actually had a lemonwood longbow from Herters ...that was a long time ago( around 1960)...I got my first compound more on a lark back in 77...it was OK...but I never liked the weight , I went back to my recurves after a year or so...then I tried out a new high tech bow for a few years...killed a bunch of deer. But decided that I would rather use a trad bow...

there is no way I can match the distance of shots with my recurve compared to a compound...so what...maybe not all big bucks, but I can still fill the freezer with my traditional gear. I have an '06 for extra during that season if I want.

the joy of harvesting an animal with gear I make myself is not something that even compares with using the" high tech" rigs for me.

here is my current rig...a take down I made myself...and my newest batch of arrows...





there is something very nice about the light weight too...and shooting instinctively!

I'm compound only as of now, but it is inevitable that I will evolve into Trad

This will be my first year as a Hunter. In fact I bought my first ever hunting license yesterday. The one mistake I made was not going on the first day and missing out on a Doe permit for my Public land area that I will hunt in....
That said, I am solely a traditional bow hunter, exclusively.
I am a PE Teacher by trade and also a certified NASP instructor and in our classes we use the Genesis compound bows, which are very fun, but for me it is a traditional stick and string that has my heart.
I like the tradition of a Longbow, and the ability to make a lot of my equipment and such.

PineywoodsBow wrote:I'm compound only as of now, but it is inevitable that I will evolve into Trad

I know eventually I will take that step also, but for now I'm only comfortable with my compound.

the state of health and quantity of the deer herd in general in America is pretty incredible. When I first started bowhunting in the 70's if you saw a deer you would call your buddies on the phone. Now people actually ask us to hunt their property because of depradation etc. In the old days we were only allowed one deer per year...now in many places its almost unlimited , especially for does. Managers learned that harvesting does really helped the deer herds overall.

my best advice to someone new is to practice as much as you can and be able to hit a softball sized target consistently, and the yardage you can do that is your zone .Dont practice on living creatures longer shots than you are totally proficient at. Take advantage of some oppurtunitys out there with the 3-D targets too...this is invaluable to get used to a lifesized target to shoot at. Shoot does whenever possible, that applies to trad & modern gear, but especially trad gear like a longbow where the 10-20 yard shot is your "bread and butter"...of course everyone dreams of big bucks, but until the confidence factor of taking game becomes second nature waiting for the "big boy" could lead to some uneccesary disapointment. Plus the meat and satisfaction is something hard to describe.

I have always been a compound guy because thats what i was taught from a fairly early age. The last few years i have really wanted to learn to shoot a recurve, so one day my son and i went to a local sports shop. I shot one six times and all six times i bounced the string off my arm! Ouch! Lol i guess I'm not smart enough to shoot them........

ouch! thats why they make armguards...I wish I was there to help you out...dont give up...the greatest memories I have in my life with my Dad was when we were shooting stickbows...for sure...

I used to get to search for arrows after the range was done in evening to see if I could find some arrows for me...when I think about it now its pretty silly...arrows sticking about 10-12 inches past the shelf on my old 25# fiberglass recurve...all I can say is this...50 plus years later the allure has not even come close to losing its special charm...also making arrows and similar is a great Father /Son project thing too! My Son and I did it...and when his son gets older...Im sure he will follow the tradition too.

wandering monk wrote:ouch! thats why they make armguards...I wish I was there to help you out...dont give up...the greatest memories I have in my life with my Dad was when we were shooting stickbows...for sure...

I used to get to search for arrows after the range was done in evening to see if I could find some arrows for me...when I think about it now its pretty silly...arrows sticking about 10-12 inches past the shelf on my old 25# fiberglass recurve...all I can say is this...50 plus years later the allure has not even come close to losing its special charm...also making arrows and similar is a great Father /Son project thing too! My Son and I did it...and when his son gets older...Im sure he will follow the tradition too.

I guess that is a good reason to call it Traditional.
There are so many ways it gets in your blood.
When I was younger my cousins and I all used to make bows out of maple saplings, and made arrows out of goldenrod. The stalks with the balls on the end were prized by us. Maybe because of the FOC....  
These are great stories, I love Tradition.
Maybe that is why I feel connected to traditional bowhunting.

I shootem all. I shoot a Diamond compound as well as a Damon Howatt Recurve and a Long bow. I lovem all. I usually hunt with the compound because I do not have as much time to practice with traditional to be comfortable with my accuracy. I know I can pic up the compound and kill any time.

I mainly shoot longbows. But this year I bought myself a DAS Dalaa recurve. It is shooting awesome. Now if I can get the time to hunt. Something about sitting in the woods with a stick and a string.