Who was there???
 

Who was there bowhunting in the 1970's?? what was it like?? did you feel like a loner?? did you only bow hunt?? did anyone poke fun at you?? let's hear it...and see some pics if you can get them..

RE: Who was there???
 

Well, I can say I started in the 70's as I was born in '66 and started hunting in 78 at age 12, bowhunting came shortly after that but in all honesty, I actually started seriously bowhunting at 15 in 1981.

RE: Who was there???
 

1974.. Boy thats a long time ago. The 35 lb Ben Pearson bow worked just fine with mismatched arrows and I think they were Fred Bear BH's. Would have been better off without wet sneakers and blue jeans but that army camo jacket was great.

No pics of my first deer but it was in my second season andit was years before my first shotgun deer. I think my first deer was the only deer in the town I lived in...I will tell you 2x4's DON'T make a very good stand but every hunt was like an adventure from outdoor life.

RE: Who was there???
 

Born in '62 and had my 1st bow( a shakespeare recurve 45#) as a Xmas present when I was 13 or 14. Killed my 1st deer, a doe, at 15. Taken a doe or a small buck almost every year ever since I began. Got totally consumed with bowhunting 5years ago. Sold the duck boat, decoys, gave up field goose hunting, bird dogs are gone, no more pheasant hunting, no muzzleloading, no high power hunting(an occasional predator)....no hunting except with a bow. It is my passion and the other hunting got in the way.

RE: Who was there???
 

in 1970 is was -18[8D]

RE: Who was there???
 

I shot a "mature" doe when I was in high school with a bear whitetail hunter while sitting on the ground ,and a 2117 Easton arrow with a satellite broad head.
Thats when PA was truly one and you were done,you used your back tag in archery season to tag either a buck or doe.

RE: Who was there???
 

WOW bawana, that soundseerily similar to my beginnings in archery back in the mid 70's! I started with a 40# Bear Kodiak recurve shooting the exact same arrows with Bear broadheads. Then went high tech with a Bear Polar LTD.:DI killed my first two deer (yearling doe's) from the ground with it. Tree stands were few and far between. I think Baker came out with the first one that I was aware of.
And yes, it was a one deer (buck or doe) a year season back then. Those were indeed the good old days. I started hunting in Bradford Co. Pa on State Game Lands #36. Awesome country up there! We used to see many deer up there, unlike these days from what I hear. Still lots of bear and turkey. Here's a pic of our hunting camp we used to rent for the whole first week of archery season. It was called Cobblestone Camp.I miss those days! But the memories will last forever.;)

RE: Who was there???
 

Some will never know how enjoyable bow hunting can be,some are able to kill with a simple stick bow and flint arrows and yet some can't get it done with the latest of technologies.[:-]

To some the forest will always blind them from the trees.:eek:

PA is a great place to hunt ,always has been always will be.:)

RE: Who was there???
 

I was not around in the 70's either but my grandmother told me something interesting about my grandfather the other day. She said he NEVER pumped his own gas, not even when they were just going out. He was too afraid that the gas smell would get on him and he would not be able to get it out before he went in the woods. I dont remember much with the "hunting" aspect of things about my grandfather, but can recall him always hunting and seemingly always cleaning up deer in the basement.

I just thought it was neat that he was that much into scent control way back in the day!!

RE: Who was there???
 

I was there. It was tough, I had no teacher/mentor the #'s were not there, and if you seen one it was like seeing a booner :DI was not old enough to drive yet so my dad would drop me off in the Dark and pick me up at set times [X(]I hunted off the ground most of the time as he would not let me hunt out of a tree. No one poked fun at me and i had some school friends that did the same and we shared stories. I also hunted with a belgum browning sweet 16 that was handed down to me that Gramps had bought new in 1963. And yes i did feel like a loner but i like being that way. The solitude being out there even if i didnt see anything was second to none ;)

RE: Who was there???
 

Started shooting a recurve I bought at a garage sale in 1976 and it broke in '77. Bought a new PSE Proficientcy compound for $120 in '77, practiced hard and bowhunted for the first time. October of '77 I got lucky and killed my first deer.....young 8 pt. buck. Never saw a lot of deer back in the late '70's and hardly ever saw another bowhunter for that matter. Permission to hunt was easy to get for bowhunting:). It was quite a novelty to many people. One permit allowed. I wasn't concerned with getting a big buck, just happy to get a shot at almost any deer. Wore facepaint every hunt, anybody who saw me wear using it to hunt with really thought it was cool! Seriously, anybody who saw a bowhunter sort of admired them for trying to bowhunt.

Most compounds were 40-50% letoff. My second compound bow was a Browning and I kid you not the letoff was 25%....sweet shooter. Everyone shot with fingers that I knew of. I made homemade treestands and never got very high[8D]. Man, time has flown by.

RE: Who was there???
 

Our stories are different but similar. My dad was a rifle man. I thought he was the best hunter in the world. I got my first deer rifle at 18 and used it. The got a muzzleloader...... then a bow. I was extending my hunting season. Nope. Now I'm a die hard bow hunter. Haven't touched a rifle/muzzleloader this yr. I don't think I ever will again. Bow hunting is just so much more ofa challenge. If my family gets together for a rifle hunt........ I'll be there with my bow.
Oh and I later found out my dad has only killed 2 deer in his life. I found this out when I tiold him that I had hit 43 with all weapons. 9 with a bow. I think he was choked.......... in a good way. :)My son the hunter!

I was born in 78. Can't imagine how few bowhunters there were. Barn stormers! I thank you all!

RE: Who was there???
 

All of you guys that say you only had one tag years ago, It's still that way In some spots now. My spot In central Minnesota Is one of them. Only 3 times In 24 years of me hunting have we had more then 1 tag available to us bow hunters In my area.

RE: Who was there???
 

I had a bow in the 70's,an old ben Pearson recurve(buddy has it now) but I never hunted untill the 80's.

RE: Who was there???
 

I feel for you Schultzy. I remember taking a deer and then the thought sinking in that I was done for the season[:-].

RE: Who was there???
 

I remember the early 90's the most...I was 15 in 1990when I first climbed into my first homemade stand...my buddy and I made 3 stands in locations that just looked good, no sign of deer, but just looked like deer would walk through there:D...boy were we disappointed that first day...I never looked back though, I loved it then and love it now...I remember back in 88 when I got my first compound before ever hunting, I thought I was Rambo...Golden Eagle Talon Predator....man I thought that thing was fast....never killed a deer with it...but I remember back in the late 80's thinking that a bowhunter was a strange bird around here....come to think of it, we still are;)

RE: Who was there???
 

Yes things were a bit different back then. I got my first bow, a Jennings Twin Star back in '78 for Christmas. Didn't hunt that season as I was just learning to shoot. I've had four of my right hand fingers cut off and re-attached but still missing most of my index finger. I was told that I couldn't expect to ever be very accurate. Well after lots of practice I started winning all the shoots in the club so the following year I bought a Bear Alaskan. 76#with 33 % letoff. Man that thing seemed fast! Shooting full lenght Easton 2219 "logs" out of a Baker Climber I killed my first doe. What a feeling. Gun hunting was never the same. I feel for you guys that can only get one tag. Hunting in South Louisiana is hard after the hurricanes and what they did to the woods but we do get 6 tags. 3 antlered and 3 non-antlered.

RE: Who was there???
 

When I see some of the equiment from yesteryear.....I have to wonder how some of you old-schoolers think about where we are, today.

First bow I shot was a pine bough....lol. I graduated to a recurve in HS....but never shot it at an animal (I'd only seen ONE deer at that point in my life). Hunting them seemed futile (and very well would have been!).

I rmember paper shotgun shells.....and remember thinking my double-barrel was a helluva multiple shot weapon....lol.

I think it's cool that many of you have been through most all of the advancements in archery. I find myself wanting to get back "more" to its' roots (trad shooting).

Great thread....and I've enjoyed everyone's stories.

RE: Who was there???
 

When I got into bowhunting Treebark was huge.. easton alum arrows were the thing, Thunderheads 125 grwere the tip to use and "loc on" tree stands were popular...earth masking scent by some off brand company, Davey Brackets doe urine, screw in steps that folded up, cow skinfinger tabs, straight brass pins with finger nail polish for brightness for sights!!! A grunt call, nothing fancy there....and a Golden eagle compound then i stepped it up to Hoyt Raider!!! And to get me pumped....I would watch Roger Raglin's"Plenty of Big Bucks to Spare East of the Mississippi" and the "Bowhunter" by Kurt Gowdy.....man, I knew absolutely nothing about what i was doing, but God it was fun...still is....however we are losing some that with all the QDM, mature buck talk, gadgets, gimicks, outfitters.. etc...

RE: Who was there???
 

I started bowhunting in 1979 when I was 14. There were most definetely a few hard core bowhunters back then. We'd frequently visit them as they were camping. It was a lot different attitude wise though in general.

RE: Who was there???
 

I missed the 70's by a little bit, but not much, I got in in the early 80's. First bow was a Martin Bobcat, with 2018's and satelite broadheads. Dad had a Browning that looked like a cross between a recurve and a compound. Brass sight pins with paint on them, shooting a glove with no peep. Didn't know anyone else that used a bow besides us. We hunted turkey with them for a couple of years but never got one. There really weren't any deer to speak of then.

Got out of the bowhunting for quite a while, was briefly back into it late 90's, and started the current serious foray into it around 2005. Had that same bow, just upgraded sights, rest and release untill '05 when I sprang for the Bowtech I have now.

RE: Who was there???
 

My hats off to you guys blazing the trail for others to follow. Great stories guys.

RE: Who was there???
 

I wasnt even a twinkle in my fathers eye yet in 1970. But my hat is off to those of you that hunted with archery back then. thank you for paving the way for today.

RE: Who was there???
 

I didn't start until 1982, but one thing I remember is you definately had the woods to yourself. Bowhunting wasn't that strong. Especially in my area. I had a bear whitetail. People didn't go after deer near as hard as they do today. It was one of those things you did it if you had time. Then around 1988, I graduated to a browning excellerator II. great bow. Things started picking up. I knew many friends who took up bowhunting. People started hunting the rut exclusively.Everybody was goingcrazy for these crazy trigger releases.But still in my area, hunting was mainly the orange army. Around 1990-94, it seemed things started to explode. PSE was heavy on the scene, performance was good. We all had overdraws and some even had these fancy carbons. Some people were blowing up thier bows on these fancy carbons. Everybody I knew was doing it. Everybody was hitting the woods pretty hard.

Now, lets move forward to today. Bowhunting is hot. Multibillion dollar market. About as many people do it as gun hunt. Resources are endless. And I am not sure how I feel about all these changes.

RE: Who was there???
 

This was my 1st year of bow hunting back in 1973. Bow was a 2 wheel Jennings shooting alumium arrows. At the time mostly what was used was 4 wheel and some where useing 6 wheel bows. I was looked upon as somewhat strange shooting a 2 wheel bow.The bow shot on the 120fps range but killed many a deer over the years.Deer were far and few between but what deer you did see were big. This was a 170 lb dressed 6 pt. My how bows and timeshave changed.

RE: Who was there???
 

I started bowhunting in 1971 when I returned from my second tour in Vietnam. Hunted with a recurve for several years and then went through 3 compounds in 2 years. I finally settled on a PSE Lazer Magnum in the late 70s and hunted with that bow into the 90s. Shot a deer my first year. When I started bowhunting in NY there were literally no bowhunters around. I hunted my first 5 or 6 years and never saw another bowhunter. Deer herds were a lot smaller in most places. I think just about everything was one tag up until the later 80s. My first bow kill. And WOW... Rickmur with a mullet. LOL

RE: Who was there???
 

Early 80s is when I got serious about bow hunting. Most I did was bow fish, shooting frogs (while everyone else was gigging them) and shoot rabbits in the 70s, and that would have been in 78 on. And at that time, people thought I was crazy.

RE: Who was there???
 

This was taken by the great grandmother's, yes grandmother,deer taken in the early 70's. Largest deer in the state for that year.(1972?) That is my dad standing next to it. This picture was taken for a newspaper in the 90's.

Taken in Tensas Parish, LA. The story goes that she didn't realise it was there until she went to climb from her stand made of 2X4's and saw it bedded under the tree she was in. True? I don't know, but it makes for a good story!

RE: Who was there???
 

My cousin gave me my first longbow around 1960, had to hold it sideways to shoot it. Gotmy firstnew Bear recurve in 1963 and started putting a hurting on some of the local small game. Killed my first buck in 1967 with a 50# Kodiak. Started shooting competitively in the late 60's. Mid 70's Uncle Sam got, but still managed to hunt AL,VA and SC a little, spent 2 seasons in Okinawa and never touched a bow!. Things changed alot in them 4 years, went to get me a new bow in 1978 and no one even carried a recurve, I picked up my first compound. At the same time I figured out that if I kept filling my tags with little bucks, I could never kill a big one. Took me a few seasons to score on a big one, but it was worth the wait. Went back in the service in the mid 80's and stayed till 95 and missed 2 more seasons while in Korea, but hunted KY, GA, and Kansas. Dont know what I was thinking when we moved here, one of the worse countys in the state of MI for big bucks, butI will movesoon!

RE: Who was there???
 

You mean these aren't popular anymore? ;) But really, this is what I still use, and probably will for at least a few more years until I get into the cedar arrows and flint points.

RE: Who was there???
 

I was born in '55...Started with a Bear recurve and Bear heads in the late 60s...I killed a dozen deer or so with that setup, many while sitting on a 5 gallon bucket...I remember when I pulled back my first compound, a Bear Whitetail in '75...I went with 2114 arrows and a 3 blade Satellite head...When I got my first Baker, I was set...:DI actually used that bow into the 90s and then bought a used Mountaineer...I probably killed 25-30 deer with the Whitetail and still have it setup, hanging in the garage...

My first bought camo was the Vietnam era tiger stripes, before that I just wore green pantsand shirts and later actually tie dyed some clothing for camo...I'm still a few decades behind as I still use the Mountaineer and have never gone to a release, peep, carbon arrows or a stabilizer...I'm still shooting aluminum arrows and either 125 Thunderheads or Muzzys...

RE: Who was there???
 

Only to those die hards NC!!:D

RE: Who was there???
 

I started in 1972 at 15 years old. I had a Ben Pearson recurve set at 50 lbs and some old easton arrows. I killed my first deer with that bow, A big doe from a makeshift ground blind. The next year I got a Baker climbing tree stand ( man was that thing dangerous ) It wouldn't grip a tree at all. I remember getting set up 15 to 20 feet on 3 or 4 different occasions the stand would loose it's grip and I would slide down to the bottom. Once I was hurt pretty bad, I thought I broke my tail bone. There wasn't to many bow hunters back then. I had most of my area to my self. That was great. My first compound bow was the Bear Alaskan, Man that was a nice bow I believe that was 1980. Where has all the time gone ????

RE: Who was there???
 

Started in the late 70's with a bear recurve. I then got all fancified and bought a Indian Stalker compound. When my friends came over to shoot they remarked "Of course your gonna hit the center ring all the time with that wheel driven contraption" I laugh now at the thought of it!:DAlmost everybody who had anything to say about archery was "You aint gonna hit a deer with one of those things." Oh how wrong were they? Looking back now at all the deer and good times I cant believe that everybody doesnt hunt with stick n string exclusively! But that is my one sided opinion. :):D:):D

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Started in 84' with a American Archery something.

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Am I the only one that shot theOLDBear Razorheads with the little insert bleeder blades? Man, those things went where ever they felt like it seemed at times. LOL Sharpened and sharpened until you wore them half through. Of course I can't sharpen a pencil for some reason.[&:] I remember hanging on a limb sitting on another hoping to get a shot. I'd probably have fallen out if a shot presented itself sometimes. And then I got a Baker, I was in Heaven. I only fell out of it once. LOL

RE: Who was there???
 

Ha Ha Ha me too loved the bear heads, all I ever knew or needed for years, But boy o boy did they seem to have their own mind at times :D

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They sold razorheads all the way up in the 80's or longer.

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I used them for years myself. Don't they still make them?

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Yea, but they are not the same thing. They are about like a muzzy.

I think the muzzy phantoms are close however to the original.