I like shooting but would never do it competitively. I dont have the time. I just try to make myself better when I get the time to shoot. I enjoy going to the range to shoot. I must say I enjoy it more when doing it with buddies. I can not shoot by myself and be serious!

Your a competitor, thats easy to see in allot of your post's. Its sounds like it took the fun out of it for you being the competitor like you are. Its a allot of fun doing what you did but when its not fun whats the sense of doing it then. I'm a competitor as well, I love wining but I found just doing what I love is more fun then competing with someone. The 3-D shoots I go to I could care less anymore on how good I do compared to everyone else. Its just fun doing it now. We have our little competition with the group, its all in good fun.

It sounds like alot of us are competitive be it Golf, Archery, or whatever your hobby is.

I also think I could compete with many in a few different sports if I had the time to put in the needed practice.

The trick amongst us family guys is to be good... maybe pretty darn good, but not sacrifice the family life. Maybe the guys who are "that good" top notch (let's use 3D) got that way when single and time allowed them to be that good. It was thier life. Now as they age they can stay at or very near that toplevel with merely "maintenance" practice.

I love to win as much or more than the next guy. I could shoot with very good guys and not emabarrass myself, I could golf with top guys and not embarrass myself, would I win? Not likely, I'd have to be hitting on all cylinders to give them a run. But at the end of the day they'd shake my hand and say "well-played". They'd go back to thier range (Golf or Archery) and I'd walk in my Home smiling ear to ear and tell the days tales, to my family!

Jeff one thing some of my buddies do on the 3D course that is not an all out competition is just put an "X" down for if we made a kill shot or not. Thats it, no scoring other than that. Especially when a bunch of us are shooting with our recurves or longbows. That is honestly one reason I went to shooting a recurve, it is a more relaxed atmosphere. Trad shooters almost seem to not take it as seriously and learn to laugh at themselves and each other when shooting. I got bored with my compound and didn't want to venture down the road of shooting back tension releases and putting a scope on my bow, I took a few steps back and went traditional and I couldn't be happier. It has rekindled my love for archery. I know exactly what your going through, I am competitive as the next guy. Having been an athlete all my life competing in many many sports it is very hard to turn off the competitive nature inside you, even when I was coaching baseball and basketball it was still inside me and sometimes it was not pretty when it came out in me. Find a good group of Trad guys to shoot with and I bet you will see the type of fun and relaxed nature Im talking about.

Good stuff PA! Some of the shoots I've been at we don't go by the vitals they have on there targets, some of them are so far off from where they should be at different angles and such. It drives me nuts when someone's celebrating a 12 and at the angle the animal was it was a terible shot and never ever would of hit the vitals.

You better practice up

Here's the thing. I think I'm going to eventually go full trad with my hunting. I just see me heading down that road. THE challenge, there, for me......is becoming proficient enough.....and proficient enough at longer yardages.....to be an ethical hunter. I've got a long ways to go when you stretch it past 15yds.....and I wouldnt tae a shot of that distance, today.

I also got to thinking about the 3D thing and WHY I was doing it. It wasn't about hunting. It's PURE target archery. Hunting and 3D have VERY little in common....when youre talking about the best in 3D. Here I went and ordered a bow I wouldn't "likely" (though I LOVE the bow) hunt with.......put on a sight I would NEVER hunt with...a stabilizer I would NEVER hunt with......etc...

It got me thinking. I am wanting to challenge myself......but at the same time....I'd like to keep it somewhat "real". I was already thinking about going to a scope for next year. That seems so foreign to me, today.....it's not even funny.

Just a mid-stream gut check.

And let me say this......

I've shot with a bunch of people, now....and there's one person that I KNOW can be REALLY good at this if he wants to dedicate the time to it.

Matt/TN can shoot his bow. That young man is a great shot.

Schultzy, amen to that. Sometime when we have a group of Trad shooters we don't pay attention to the stakes either, we pick a different shot where we have to shoot around trees or find a hole through some brush, but at the same time making them realistic hunting shots at the same time. And we always manage to laugh at each other and loose a few arrows. It really lightens the mood but at the same time helps train you for hunting situations.

Ditto

I've never shot a "real" 3D course but made a few myself and shot a few some buddies have made.I had fun and it helps to keep in practice for huntingand that's what it was all about for me........I can take it or leave it.

Just be careful Jeff, b/c once you shoot with a really good,regionalchampioncalibertraditional shooter, you'll want what he has too! I have to really, really, really try hard to not let it become work.. I can go to a shoot just to have fun, but leave wanting to be the next world champion... That's just my personality... I love to compete.

I waffle a lot back and forth.. This summer I'm not competing at all, but the 2 previous summers I did and would spend hours just working on form, minor tuning, etc... I'll likely get back into that again next summer....Heck,I may even still have time to do it this year

I'm pretty good friends with one of the top traditional shooters in the surrounding few states. He shoots his longbow 2 hours everyday... Every freaking day..Year round. I just don't have the desire to do that. And like you said, that is what it takes to shoot at the top.

Where really become frustrating is that there is usually only a small seperation between the a very good shooter and an elite shooter, but the amount of work to get there can be staggering!

I agree with some of the others, find a non competitive traditional group and just go have some fun!