do you think the the "takedowns" that you can put sights and slings and stuff or are true trad. bows or some other thing in its own catagory kinda like the cross bow I think so but none the less i know its still a trad. bow my personal choise is its own catagory

within "Traditional" archery some people break it down even farther to Laminated and all wood bows.

In other words Recurves and longbows with fiberglass and all wood bows such as selfbows etc.


I think some of the classifying of equipment is a bit of a time waster. Trad to me is any bow pre-compound style. I own longbows and recurves and hunt with a selfbow.

My thoughts are that if a bow doesn't have a cables, wheels, cams, etc...its trad. This includes metal riser bows. I prefer wood riser bows but currently my only take downhas a metal riser. It shoots realy good so I'm not complaining. I have a quiver on it but thats about it. It will take sites but I like shooting without.

What everyone here shoots (for the most part) is a composite bow. I’ve heard most of the true traditionalist say they are not close to being traditional. I’m not one for names, but if I had to label a bow traditional, I’d say a stick bow (self bow) shooting wood shafts with flint, sinew, and feather. I shoot them all, self bows, long bows, recurves, and compounds. I don’t like to label what I do and get caught up in all the elitist dogma of superiority. I like to do what I do, have fun, and not worry about titles.

Sorry about the preachy response, im just making a preemptive response to what you’re going to get from the likes of our elitist crowd.

To me, "traditional" is no wheels, cables or cantilevers (camless compound like at monsterbows.com).The string has to connect directly to each limb, no force multiplying systems or let-off. My definition allows for fiberglass, carbon, hi-tech adhesivesand metal.

"Primitive" is when the traditional bow is made from all-natural materials.

I feel I'm Traditional being I shoot a take down recurve. My recurve is a custom made one, i had to do all the sanding to make the riser, handle, limbs the shape I wanted them to be. Any longbow, recurve to me is traditional as long as it doesn't have all the junk on them the compounds do. It don't get more real though then someone making there own bow (self bow)! Thats down right awesome.

What makes one bow a "true trad. bow" and another bow not? The fact it's a takedown? That you can put a sight or a sling on it?

yea did you see any indans with take downs for sights or slings

Of course not. The Native American way of life didn't require a takedown bow for transportation in their pickup or sub-compact car. If it had, I'm sure they would have invented them. Sights? The idea probably hadn't even been conceived yet, but I'd bet that if an industrious Native American had come up with the idea, it wouldn't have been too much trouble for them to add a rudimentary sight. Maybe even a good one. I wonder.... if one of them had actually made a sight and put it on his bow and doubled his accurate hunting range, would the other warriors in the tribe have developed an "elitist" attitude? I can see it now.... "Yeah, he killed that buffalo at 80 paces, but it doesn't really count because he was using a sight".

My take down doesn't have sights or any junk like that on it. I'm sure I could rig something up to do it but never would I think of doing just that, might as well get a compound then! The only advantage I see for a take down is you can replace the limbs if there twisted or damaged. It doesn't shoot any better then any other Traditional bow though.

Now we're getting into what youmean by"truely traditional". The bows that the native americans used, I would call primitive equipment. IMO, those bows are "truely traditional" in the very essence of the definition. Though the modern recurve can be classifiedas a traditional bow in overall design, it is in a different class in comparison to primitive equipment.

They're great for traveling. Makes for a much smaller overall package when packing the vehicle or flying. When I fly, I break mine down and pack it in my suitcase, safe and discreet.