bowhunt05

I was wondering how trad everyone in here is
i am talking camo and everything not just a old recurve

Nanook85

Personally, I'm not very. I have the bow, a leather shooting glove and a back quiver, but that's it everything else is modernish. I would love to get some more traditional stuff, but that takes $$$[8D]

Longbow Bowhunter

The bow is about it for me, I am going to use a cat quiver, modern camo clothing, a boonie hat, and finger tab.

LBR

Since I am the only adult in my immediate family that shoots a trad bow, I reckon the tradtion starts with me.[8D]

I shoot a longbow with wood arrows. I shoot a longbow because that's my favorite style of bow (including compounds), and started shooting wood arrows to be able to compete in the longbow class at some tournaments. Now I just shoot them because I like them.

Sometimes I wear camo, sometimes I wear jeans. The only reason I have camo clothes now (used to be a big believer in it) is because it's the kind of clothes I like to wear hunting--lots of pockets, lightweight, quiet. My longbow is laminated, and I have a high-tech (Dynaflight '97) string on it. Plastic nocks on my arrows, sometimes fletched with store-bought feathers, sometimes with wild turkey feathers, and sometimes both. Never shot a homemade broadhead, and probably won't.

I love and respect the romance and history of "traditional" archery, but that's not why I chose my equipment--I just like it better, and it works for me.

Chad

Rich Baker

Well said Chad Me Im New Waiting on my first new Chec-mate falcon. I plan on shooting aluminum arrows until I get good then switching to wood. I switched from a compound as it was to easy and not much fun to shoot any more.

arrowsmit

Sorry if I sound blunt, but what the heck does "traditional archery" mean anyway? [:-]

It's a very subjective 'catch-phrase' that I personally have no concern with whatsoever. I'm simply a hunting archer who happens to prefer recurves & longbows. If you wanna call that traditional or not, suits me either way.

Arthur P

Since there was no such thing as 'traditional archery' before Hollis Allen invented his mechanical contraption, I reckon 'traditional' means using the kind of gear we had that pre-dates the compound. And that's an awful lot of modernistic stuff.

Most guys seem to want to define 'traditional' according to tournament rules. Nothing wrong with that, but it's an awful narrow picture of what was actually going on with archery before the compound. For one thing, shooting off elevated rests was all the rage in the mid-to-late 60's and now it's like you've got cooties or something if you don't use a rug rest on the shelf. Look at the vintage bows from the 60's... A whole bunch of them have holes drilled for mounting sight brackets. Not just everyone was shooting 'instinctive' in the good old days.

We had camo, but a treestand - if you used one - was a platform you built out of boards in the crotch of a tree. Scent control was keeping downwind from where you thought the deer would be. We put a lot more emphasis on woodsmanship and hunting skill than we did on technology, that's for sure.

I don't get to hunt much, if at all, any more because of my disabilities. But when I do go, there is only one piece of equipment I carry that I didn't have available back then. A cell phone. And that sucker is "OFF" unless I'm in an emergency situation.

So, I reckon I'm about 99.9% traditional.

JimPic

I still shoot wooden arrows and when you find the right spined shafts,I believe they'll fly just as well as any other arrow material on the market.I prefer cedar and my hunting shafts are footed with purple heart.As for camo--most of the time I wear it.Anything from Realtree jeans and jacket to 3-D leafy wear.Sometimes though I'll wear some drab colored wool pants and a plaid jacket.As for the "traditional" label I agree with arrowsmit-I'm just a bowhunter/archer that prefers recurves & longbows.

COB

While most of us do not whittle out our bows and arrows, knap our broadhaeds, make stings out of sinew (sp), or ware buck skins, the traits that would mark us as "traditionalist". Most shoot modern recurves and longbow with carbon, aluminum, of factory cedar, and steel broadheads. I have often said it is not what we hold in our hand that makes us "traditional' but what we espouse from our hearts! To that end I have been, am, and will be for all times a traditionalist!

Sir John Hawkwood

This is my first post on this forum, and I mention this because I used to post (infrequently) at the Primitive Archer forum. One reason I switched is because I am just not any good at making my own supplies.

I suppose if you asked me for my definition of a traditional archer, I would say that a traditional archer uses classic equipment, but he probably uses some modern materials in his gear. I would define a person who made their own bows out of unlaminated wood backed with sinew, and shot arrows with self or horn nocks and obsidian or flint heads as a primitive.

I respect those who can make their own supplies in the exacting details of our ancestors, but I enjoy shooting bows more than making them, and I have discovered that finding the right material to make these supplies can be difficult. I shoot a longbow (with AFB laminations?), but I use a fast-flight string; I shoot wooden arrows, but they have modern broadheads or piles and utilize plastic nocks. I'm thinking of switching to aluminum arrows because wood arrows are expensive. Not to mention that I've broken well over a hundred of them while stump shooting. I look at it this way, it's not what you shoot, or even how good you are with the equipment, it's a matter of enjoyment. A person should what he likes.