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..

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.

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.

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.

in 1970 is was -18[8D]

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.

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.I 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.

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.

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

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!!

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 I 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