I got into bowhunting on my own. I thought I would like to try it and bought an old bow and fell in love with it. I like my rifles but prefer bow. I even bought my 9 yr old daughter and 7 yr old boy bows although they don't seem to have much interest. But by exposing them early I figure they may get into it later. The last thing my wife could care to do is shoot a bow but she knows I love it and supports that. What was the early bows and arrows? Tree limbs with animal cartiledge and sticks with pointed stones? So isn't it correct that archery products have evolved and improved constantly over the ages? I'm sure making your own bow and arrows out of natural materials without the use of any machinery or modern processes would be quite satisfying and to harvest an animal with that equipment would be incredible. If someone did that, would they have the right or be justified in slamming someone who shot anything else because their equipment was made by machines or contained material other than natural or used improved designs different than the first bows because it wasn't as pure? Utterly ridiculous. An archer should be glad he has a big family of fellow archers who enjoy the sport in some fashion. I would not want everybody shooting high tech compounds. There should be a healthy variety of shooters and equipment. I thing the sport would get awful stale if there was one kind of shooter and one kind of bow and nobody trying to advance it. What gets alot of people angry on this board is when someone can't just state their opinion and the facts of how they got to that opinion, but have to start using words like "ignorant", "stupid", "trash", "junk", and so on, and most of the time they haven't even stated that they ever owned or tried the equipment they are slamming. BTW, I'm not specifically talking about Arthur or any one in paticular but about multiple posts I've seen. I don't know Arthur but from what I've read he's been shooting longer than I've been alive and will never know as much or be half the archer he is. But I don't have to be in order to get absolute enjoyment from what I do. Hats off to all the trads. I'm sure it must be absolutely great. I wish I had more time and maybe someday I will. Unfortunately, I don't. So I will put my time into shooting my compound and loving every minute of it. BTW, my first setup cost me $100 for bow, sight, rest, case, a few arrows, stabilizer, peep, whiskers, and quiver. New bow cost about $500 with acc's. The pro shop has never pressured me to buy the most expensive gadgets. Quite the opposite. They usually tell me if I can get something else just as good but cheaper. Besides, the pro shop needs more business if you ask me. I understand the compound hasn't been around that long and the early ones weren't that good so even though they have gotten pretty good in the last, what, 10 years (?) or so, they are still viewed by some as new fangled. Eveyone should be able to enjoy archery on their own terms and other archers should be able to accept the others as parts of the whole. You do or don't like something? That's your right. Maybe some could state their opinions without the extra digs and put downs.