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Bowhunting started about 1964 for me. I have a few bows now. I gave a 60# Cheeta to my son and elk hunted with him in Colorado this past year. Probably the best hunting year I have ever had. I retired a couple of years ago, and spent more time in the field this year than in the past 5-10 years combined.

Currently my go to bows are a Shrew longbow Classic Hunter 56" 51#, and a 55# Kota recurve. I prefer the Shrew, but usually take the Kota along "just in case". I tried a compound for a couple of years in a archery league, but it was just not as much fun for me. One night we agreed to bring trad equipment. I brought an old Bear Supermag. Arrows not tuned to it, nock point off a little, but the first two arrows would have cleanly taken a deer at 20 yards. I thought to myself, why am I not using this? Never looked back after that.

Not as good looking as the old guy above but here I am in 1972.

Gary

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Canebrake 62 #
Totaly for the last 3 years

Been a traditional bow hunter/shooter now for 10 years. I have a Tomahawk LB 50# and a Horne's LB 53#. My neighbor gave me an older Howatt recurve which is a nice bow. Just got on the list for a Shrew bow. I really enjoy the traditional shooting and hunting. I got the family into it too. We go to several trad shoots a year and have a lot of good fun and get to meet alot of other traditional archers.

Trad hunter for over 20 years. Shoot a yew long bow and a Border, Martin, Hoyt recurve

Shot & hunted with a longbow for the last 4 seasons, had tons of fun! This year I will be shooting & hunting with a compound because of time restraints. I will however pick the longbow up again in the future as I really enjoy shooting & hunting with it!

ElkNut1

My first whitetail hunt with a recurve was in about 1966, with a Shakespeare Wonderbow, 40#.
I still have that bow and a few more. My favorite now is a 51# Shrew longbow, followed closely by a Kota 55# recurve.Still love it.
Gary

I started with a bear as a kid. I shoot bows of all types from coupound to longbow. My favorite traditional bow is a Hawk Recurve made by Mike Beckwith. It has a custom high grip. It has tonkin cane bamboo limbs with carbon fiber cores and phenolic tips. It is 45# @ 28". I pull 32" so it is a comfortable 58# for me. It will shoot a 500 grain finished arrow at 200 f.p.s. I have never owned, or seen first hand a more efficient traditional bow.

I started out with hickory self bows as a kid. Hunted with training wheels for a few years, but never had the same satisfaction as I did hunting with a longbow. I now use a 68" OL Adcock non-acs longbow. It's 64#@31". I shoot Arrow Dynamic Hammerheads with 100gr insert and a 125gr judo or Hammer for small game and stumping. For deer, hogs, and black bear, I use a Gold Tip 7595 with an aluminum footing, a 100gr insert and a 200gr VPA Terminator or a 50gr insert and a 260gr Abowyer Brownbear screw-in. All of my arrows with this bow weigh right at 700 grains. I don't know the fps, but it sure zings an arrow. I'd guess it's probably in the mid 180s.

I've also got a Howard Hill Halfbreed and a bamboo-backed osage that I made. They're fun to shoot, but I mostly use the Adcock.

I started bowhuntingn in 1985, switched to traditional in 1994. So I am a relative newbie compared to some of the guys on here.

I have four favorite bows:
60# @ 28, 62" Robertson recurve that I shoot Beman MFX 340 spine arrows weighted to 620gr.

60# @ 28, 62" longbow made by a friend of mine shooting doug fir 70-75# spined arrows with a total weight of 630gr.

50# @ 28, 62" 1972 Super Kodiak that I shoot Beman MFX 400 spine arrows that weigh right at 500gr and some misc wood arrows that fly soso. I think they are a touch underspined. That's the next arrow building project, get a matched set RTG for this fall.

49# @ 28, 62" longbow made by the same friend as above that I shoot 60-65# doug fir arrows that weigh 530gr.

The nice thing is the fact that I can switch between them all and hit what I aiming at most of the time.

I have some selfbows and other bows to play with, but those four are my go to bows.

For broadheads, I prefer scary sharp two blade heads. Lots of good ones, but the last 6 to 8 years I have a preference for the Eclipse, Bear super razorhead, and Magnus journey(discontinued).

I have a several Great Northern longbows by Jerry Brumm, mostly with his Jack Knife TD system which is quite a nifty idea. I shoot mid 50s at my 30" draw length, 55/75s tipped with 200-225 gr heads depending on the bow, avg out to be about 10-11 gpp. I've been using an Arrowmaster quiver by Rod Jenkins for the past month but am not sold on if I'll be getting away from a bow quiver. I shoot ~ 200-300 times/week depending on daylight available when I get home from work. I've been shooting trad about 10 years and just feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Like most, I started out with a recurve as a kid in the 70's. Went to compounds, had fun. Went back to recurves in 2001, have more fun and won't go back. Current bows:

58" Hummingbird Kingfisher TD 72#
58" Silvertip TD 76#
56" Morrison Wolverine 69#

All bows are shooting carbons (CE Heritage 350s, Bemam Bowhunter 300, & Grizzly Stick Alaskans) with arrows weighing between 625-700+ grains.

Just a repeat of most posters. I started shooting and hunting with a green Bear Kodiak magnum recurve bow 45# during the early 70's. I too fell into the compound craze in the mid 70's and shot NFAA and 3-D shoots for many years, until the fun of shooting left me. Everybody was into the latest & greatest and fastest speed bow. After taking many fine animals I decided to switch to trad bows in 2004. Shooting is now fun, I still take a deer now and then and is easier on my shoulder. I even resuricted my old Kodiak Magnun bow,cedar arrows with old green Bear Razorheads and shot a nice spikehorn. I couldn't be more proud if I shot a P&Y class animal. Since someone stole my Kodiak bow, I have replaced it with Bob Lee recurve bows (3) and now have fun shooting and hunting again. I hunt deer,turkey,and elk with my recurves.

Bob Lee Signature, 54# @ 28" 60"
Bob Lee Hunter, 43# @ 28" 62"
Bob Lee Pro hunter 45# @ 28" 54"

I feel like an amateur when I say that I've only been serious about hunting with a recurve for the last 10 years.

I killed a lot of critters with a 55 Lbs Martin Hunter and 2114s with various 3 blade heads.

About 4 years ago, a guy at work sold me his Schaefer Silvertip, 60" 62 Lbs. Love that bow... I'll likely hunt it until I die, or it breaks beyond repair.

Glenn St Charles and I when Glenn was still shooting.

What an awesome pic! Looks like you both are shooting off the fist too.

Been shooting traditional on and off since I was 12 years old. My first bow (still have it) was a 30# Golden Bear. From that humble beginning I moved from there to Bear Black Panther to Bear Kodiaks to Bisharat Stalker Recurves to osage self bows. Interspersed was a variety of compounds. Of these, when its time to go hunting I pick up my 66" 52# (30") Stalker Shooting Star Recurve.

As for arrows, I use Port Orfords for the osage and 2016's for the rest. I'm pretty partial to Magnus 2 blade 125gr vented broaheads.

I started with a Herters Sitka back in 1970 or so. Went to rifles for a decade and back into recurves - Bighorns and a Chastain Wapiti. Back into rifles for 20 years and now recently bqck into recurves.
Currently I am working with a 58" Chastain TD 57# @ 28" with 2117's.
I have a neat 48" Rocky Mountain TD Recurve, 55# @ 28" that is a great little bow. Although I am concentrating on the Chastain and may sell the Rocky Mountain TD.
Having a lot of fun out in the orchard.

I've never posted on this forum. I'm glad I stopped by because I've enjoyed reading this thread.

I hunted with a compound bow for close to 20 years, but about 10 years ago I got fed up with the modern archery technology race. I went looking for a recurve bow and ended up buying my first longbow instead. The first thing I noticed after buying it was how often I found myself smiling while shooting it.

Marriage and young children as well as more demanding job titles have stopped me from bowhunting for the last few years so my memory is a bit fuzzy on some of the details of my set up. The bow brand is a Showshoe, Hunters spirit model by a guy named Terry Oban I believe. About 54# at my draw length. Arrows were made by a former co-worker of mine who used to make and sell many dozens a year. Unknown (to me) species of wood. I think the broadheads are the Zwickey Delta fixed 2 blade design. Geez..I can't even recall the name of my quiver. I really need to get her out of the closet and string it up and let a few arrows fly.

Man! That sounds like a good idea...

Ron, great picture and I'm sure some great memories too. Why is Glenn wearing his field quiver on the left side? Is he switch hitting for the pic?

I started as a kid goofing around with a no name recurve. I then got "serious" and got into the compound game in 1984 ish. had a Darton, Onieda Strike Eagle, Hoyt then finally a Matthews. Around 2003 the Matthews started collecting dust as I started shooting a Martin Impala. Got the recurve bug real bad and now I shoot a custom hand built recurve built by Steve Turaw from Ishpeming MI. It's a beauty with a birds eye maple riser with a cherry accent and hard maple laminated limbs. Shoots so nice it's hard to put it down. If I ever get the picture thing figured out I'll post some pics.

I shoot a recurve and I shoot compounds