What got you started in archery? Long read

What got you started in archery? This doesn’t have to be beginning with your road to traditional archery but inevitably ending up there. Were you a compound shooter first? Who influenced you and got you started and at what age was that. What or who led you to traditional archery? Were you always a bowhunter or did you evolve into one or do you not hunt at all?
For me, I recon I was about 7 or 8 years old when my dad bought my brother and me our first fiberglass bows and arrows. Now in suburban Long Island, New York there wasn’t a lot of places for a kid to go to shoot a bow. There was enough room behind our house though for a kid to have some fun. I shot that little bow often…until the day that squirrel ran out in front of me. He ran about 30 yards from me, so I put the “stalk” on it. I got within about 10 yards of it perched on the fence…picked a spot (NOT), drew and let fly! The arrow leapt off the string and hit the mark. I got a clean pass-through and the arrow went right into the neighbor’s central air conditioning unit. Now in 1962, or 1963, that was a big deal to have. So at the tender age of 7, or 8 years, I had my first traditional kill. I also got a severe butt whipping and my precious bow taken away for quite awhile. That was the first lesson of be sure of your target and beyond. (Hunter Ed 101)
Later, I graduated to my brother’s bigger 25# bow. By then I was able to venture further away from home. Down the road and across the canal, through the fence to large field at the public school. Everyday there would be a great flock of sea gulls of maybe around 200 birds in that field. I could stand up by the school and fling arrows into the flock from 150 to 200 yards away. Then, after they flew off, I would stump shoot for the rest of the time at cattails and junk.
When I was old enough to get a newspaper route you could win prizes for getting subscription. I had spied a Ben Pearson bow that could be won. I worked hard and it became mine. I used that bow for quite a few years on and off for fun but no real adventures had begun yet.
As I got older, I began to bowfish in that same canal. At low tide there were tunnels that went under the highway and the water would be knee to thigh deep. Now my version of bowfishing, at that time, was to hold the bow almost level to the water and shoot. The goldfish were so thick that you could reach down and pick up your arrow with up to four or five fish on it.
During all this time, our family was treated to outdoor TV shows that Dad used to like to watch such as The American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy and The Flying Fisherman with Gadabout Gaddis. I still remember seeing Fred Bear, on The American Sportsman, crouched behind that boulder waiting for that huge grizzly bear to pass by for the famous shot on that world record bear. It was on another episode that Fred killed that world record polar bear. My dad although loved to watch hunting and fishing shows never started to hunt until he was in his mid to late thirties. To the best of my knowledge some of his friends from church got him to start hunting. Dad died when I was 14 years old, he was 45 and never did get his first deer. I think fly fishing was his true first passion though.
During the summers, the newly-built high school would have recreation nights. Kids could go to the school and play basketball, use gym apparatus, ping pong, table hockey. Out in the track field there would be around five archery targets and about ten “REAL”, wood, recurve bows, I think they were Bear bows. The gym teacher’s wife was the instructor and she shot a competition bow. I think it was something like a Bear Tamerlane or a Wing Presentation. I would be there every night to shoot with her.
There were the years of hanging out with the boy, then girls became the most important thing in the whole world and archery took a back seat for quite awhile.
One day my older brother came home with a recurve bow, some of the new aluminum arrows and some razor things called broadheads. He was going to go bowhuntin

 

My mother got me started in archery when I was 5 years old.

I wanted a gun but my mum has always hated guns so she got me the next best thing for my 5th b/day an old bow and a few arrows.

I have been hooked on all aspects of archery ever since.

 

Cool Intro Robert!!

I was pretty fortunate. Both my dad and mom bow hunted before I was born so the chances were pretty good I'd be doing the same. By the time I was 2 years old I was shooting arrows with homemade bows dad made from sticks. Not long after that dad and mom got me a small tiny longbow and off to the races I was. Here's a picture of my brother and I. I was 6 years old and he was 3 years old In this picture. The rule was we couldn't shoot our bows until dad got home from work, were sure looked forward till the end of the day every day. Dad was proud of his boys!


In this picture here my brother and I were watching and learning as dad was doing some work to his Allen compound.


I've shot both recurves and longbows from 3 years old up till now, I'm 34 years old. At 12 years old you're of legal age to hunt In Minnesota. I wanted to hunt with a recurve but dad said nope, were starting you off with a compound to get your feet wet and get some success with that and then after that If I want to try It with a recurve or longbow It's up to me. In 1986 at 12 years old I started off with a Martin Lynx compound hunting whitetails. In 1996 I had enough of compounds, I wanted something that was much simpler that was without all the stuff they have on them. My compounds were good to me for hunting, I wounded one bear while hunting with one (Actually It's my only wound ever bowhunting). Switching up to a traditional bowhunter has made me a much better bowhunter I believe, the patience I've learned Is outstanding!!

 

VA... good, very good.. Glad you took the time to write that for us. I always enjoy hearing how people got started in archery/bowhunting.



woodsman

 

Cool thread VA!

My dad, he had an old recurve that my brother and I started shooting before we were of age to hunt. Then he bought one of the first Allen compound bows around, I still have that bow. I hunted or should I say "tried" to hunt with the recurve when I was 12 and 13, then dad bought me an old compound at a pawn shop when I was in H.S. mid 80s...but sports (football became my life during h.s. and college) it took over during archery season and I pretty much just gun hunted once I was 15 through college, then I got back into archery while finishing up college. That was in the early 90s. Once I got out of college I went back to archery and gun hunting both to get the most out of my seasons. I really got into hunting whitetails in the 90s with my bow and still love that more than any other species, but I do love hunting everything with a bow, from lopers, bears, elk, deer, turkeys..etc.. Then just of late the past couple years I have wanted to go back to simple with the bow, so I got back into a trad bow and I am loving every minute of it. Back to what I first shot as a kid.

 

Great read, great thread.

I got my start around 10 yrs old with a little green longbow. I was a REALLY small kid & had to work my butt off to gain the strength to finally hunt with a recurve at 13-14 yrs of age. My Dad was always a bigger fan of bowhunting but still really enjoyed gun hunting as well and we had some great times with family & friends doing so. Every evening in archery season was filled with huge anticipation if he was even 5 minutes late getting home & a quick glance at his quiver would tell the tale, even if he tried to momentarily hide his success. My first year out I missed 3 shots @ 2 different bucks. I saved my grass cutting money and bought a compound for the following year...but was not presented with a single shot opportunity. Finally the next season after that was met with bittersweet results. I killed my first buck with a bow, but a gut shot & the improper handling of the tracking situation led to the deer only being found after it had started to smell. I had walked within FEET of it during the intitial search. Over the next few years I came to learn that having the compound was not even close to ensuring consistant accuracy, and I went on to miss a lot of deer in between my successes, but fortunately all my shots were either clean misses or quickly found dead deer.

Fast forward to a couple years back and I got the urge to do some trad hunting & finally take an animal with the equipment. I've still yet to do so, missing a doe and a turkey since picking things back up.

 

I got started pretty much on my own. I have had help from many people here, and on HuntingNet. I have read a ton. I have shot 2 tons more. I have hunted something since I was probably around 6 yrs old. (Pellet rifle, .22, 410, 20 ga, 12 ga, 30.06, compound, now trad and compound. I do not foresee giving up the compound altogether yet. I have yet to take a buck in 3 seasons with it. Maybe later.

I just love to hunt deer. (I will likely hunt hogs from here on out as well, being they are over-populated on our property) Being out there hunting just makes me feel better. The stresses of life are all but gone when I am there.

Bobby

 

My Dad was a bowhunter and growing up I couldn't wait to join him. My first real bow was a hoyt compound I got when I was 13 or 14. I've been bowhunting ever since. In 2005 I bought my first longbow. I soon sold my compound and hunted exclusively with longbows and recurves for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 season. In the fall of 2008 I bought a compound and hunted the rest of the year with that.

Not really sure where I am right now, I will likely shoot both this season but the excitement on this board is luring me back in to trad archery.

 

No one in my family shot bows, so I stumbled into it by myself. I saved up some cash, when I was 7, and bought a bear glass bow from Best, and started shooting. Had no clue what was going on, but kind of figured it out as I went along. I did not get my first real bow until i was in my teens. I bough a 1978 Herters Recurve (the same old bow I shot two hogs and a deer with last season).

 

That's pretty neat there Kent!!

 

I have been hunting since I can remember. My dad used to love to hunt. He was never a bowhunter though. I can remember he would take me hunting with him when I was a tiny little guy and I would take my little toy guns and shoot the crap out of stuff. I grew up a little and was able to have a fairly successful eary hunting career. I killed a nice 5X mulie for my first deer. The next year I killed a nice forker mulie and a whitetail doe. Then the floodgates opened when I started to hunt on my own. I have always lived on a ranch so I had plenty of access. I will never forget my first deer on my own. I was 12 and dad had dropped me off and told me he though a buck would come by at daylight. I can remember seeing the buck and trying to hide behind a sagebrush plant. I missed the first time and he ran a little bit and then I got him with a nice shot that dropped him in his tracks. I ran as fast as I could run a 75 yard dash and was totally amazed when I got up to him. He ended up being a 130" nine point and is my highest scoring whitetail to date. From that day on I learned as much as I possibly could about the sport of hunting. Dad was a good hunter but I dont think he had the drive that I did and still do. I did alot of reading and listening.
I used to think that bowhunting was dumb, I really did but eventually the addiction found me.
I picked up my first bow when I was about 14, bought a York Pro Classic wheel bow for fiddy bucks and would shoot the crap out of that thing. I didnt know anything about bows at the time but I evolved mainly through research and HNI was a great help for me. I got pretty serious about the bow deal by the time I was about 16 and have not looked back since. I honestly never plan to hunt anything but birds and predators with a gun again. I have owned 3 compounds and have enjoyed every one of them. My current compound is my favorite toy I have ever had, I really and truly love that thing.

So here I am now, bitten by the trad bug and about a month into the epidemic. I am absolutely loving this game, it is a blast to shoot these recurves and am looking forward to the day when I take my first trad game animal.

 

Great stories guys. I like to hear of other's roads to archery/bowhunting.

Thanks for letting me share.

 

I was exposed to hunting from a very early age but my Father never bowhunted and really wasn't so sure about shooting deer with an arrow.

I hunted with a gun and had quite a bit of luck but eventually it seemed like hunting deer with a gun had lost something. It's hard to explain, I loved to go but at the touch of a trigger nearly anything I could see was down.

The three month archery season was pretty attractive. I looked at it as high recreation value, lots more time in the woods and I really began to improve as a woodsman.

I started shooting recurves left handed, somewhere around 1976 I gave in to the compound craze and putting a sight on it improved my shooting considerably.. Around 1985 I decided an instinctive/barebow style of shooting would be an advantage when calling Turkey's or predators. I decided to go back to shooting a recurve and since I was making a change why not just go ahead and change to shooting right handed.. Right handed recurves could be had pretty cheap at yard sales but you'd seldom see a left handed one.

I've shot recurves and longbows every since.. Make selfbows/longbows, arrows from tree sprouts and got into flintknapping but haven't mastered it yet.. Guess I've dabbled into most every aspect of it from making strings, knives, leather armguards and quivers.

I think most of you know by now but this archery addiction runs a life time..


woodsman

 

I got my first recurve bow when I was in my early teens, started hunting deer with that and wooden arrows in 1976
when I turned 16. My Grandfather was a deputy game warden, my father and uncles were big hunters, but none of them hunted with a bow.
When a few freinds, my brother and I got into shooting compound bows and aluminum arrows a few years later, I swore I'd never go back. There wasn't much information avaliable back then. Those first years were frustrating, but the past several years I've had the itch to hunt trad. again.
I know I won't commit all the way right now, but I am at least going to start shooting a recurve again this year.