MISwampDog

When I was young my Dad would tell me stories about things that happened 20 years ago. One day I asked him why all his stories made reference to 20 years ago. He told me that when you have been doing something for 20 years you can talk about it like you know something. I was sittin here this afternoon, tinkering with my bow, when I realized that I have been shooting a bow for 20 years. Guess maybe I can talk a little about it just for fun.

I started shooting when I was 7. I started with a fiber glass recurve bow and cedar arrows. Now they make Mathews bows for kids. My first hunting bow was a Jennings Firestar. It was over 42" long and had round energy wheels that shot maybe 210 fps. The entire bow was a solid piece of metal and the grip would give you frost bite in the winter. Today I can't find a bow that long and a slow bow is under 300 fps.

I shot instinctive and used fingers. There was no such thing as a release aid. I remember getting my first sight and having to ask the shop pro how to use it. Remember the old rubber tab arrow rests? Yup I used them. Stick em on and hope they didn't fall off when you shot your bow. The TM Hunter rest was the best one a going and when you put the teflon taps on you were styling. Drap away arrow rests....if your rest dropped away it was broken.

The elite arrow was the Easton xx78 Superslam...endorsed by guess who...Chuck Adams. The most common was the Easton xx75 2117. Do they still makes those? Carbon arrows came on the scene a few years later and had outserts...not inserts. They were about as big around as a pencil. If you shot a deer with them, and they broke, you have to throw part of the deer away because they would splinter.

Mechanical broadheads were not invented yet. Screw on the old Bear Razerheads and hit the woods. I remember my frist upgrade...Satellites that must have been 140 grains. Holy crap.

Bill Jordon, Toxey Haays they were pioneers in the camo department. Realtree Hardwoods and Mossy Oak breakup. Those were the best camo clothes you could buy. Didn't sell them at Wal-Mart yet. I used old army camo for years. No such thing as scent lok. Hunt down wind or pray the deer didn't smell ya. Layering systems...ha. Put on every piece of clothing you had and try not to shiver.

If you wanted to hunt from a tree you built a platform stand. Buying a tree stand was unheard of. Hope you picked a good spot cuz climbig stands were not thought of...except for the Baker stand...and those would break on ya.

Like I said, my no means am I old but I thought it would be fun to talk about the changes that have been made over the last 20 years. In the picture are three bows that span the compounds life cycle. Far left is a Bear Archery Whitetail Hunter (Pops first compound, circa 1978), middle bow is a Bear Archery Bear Hunter (Bear's version of my old Jennings Firestar circa 1994), far right is my current bow a Darton AS300 2008. Holy cow what a difference.

blakefrautschi

good read, it's crazy how much change there has been

shawneeslinger

Man, that's great! I thought of a million different things as I read this. Lots of great memories made with all that old "junk." I've still got a Baker that i keep around just for conversation at deer camp. Every now and then somebody will take the dare and try it out. Back when I used it, I barely weighed 120. That was the trick to those...you had to be a scrawny wuss.

Thanks for a nice walk down memory lane.

Down&OutHunting

I read this and im by no means old at 23 but alot of the stuff we have now wasnt around when i was first getting into hunting. Climbers weighed 40 pounds and we used to build all of our deer stands. If i could go back 10 years i could be a rich man.

razor6570

Great read, it took me back as I was reading. I remember the old baker stand. It was what I started on. I can't even start to imagine me using one of those now. I had a Hoyt superslam years ago that had a draw weight of 85lbs. I thought that I was awesome for drawing that much! Thanks for the memories!

ebieszk

HAHA that was great... The baker stand was may first tree-stand and because of technology I was blessed to have limited seasons with that stand. No more pulling out that loud flimsy piece of metal that sounded like a piece of sheet metal vibrating in gale force winds. Also no more bear hugging up a tree so that you are beading sweat by the time you made it up 10ft (even if you wanted to go that high). But by far the worst was coming down the tree because you never knew when your 20 minute climb would turn into a 5 second climb as you slid down your tree. Scary times but maybe the best times... Great read