Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Considering trying Traditional

Byron Ferguson book on traditional archery will help you, also watch Byron Ferguson film on how to correctly shoot a traditional bow the correct way.

Yeah, I'm with dvdegeorge. I went the stick bow route, for a while. Even killed a couple of deer with it; but missed a whole bunch more.

Good luck, my friend!

Hey, RickyBobby, we have a member here who is co-owner of a traditional archery company - John Havard (that's his user name too) of Dryad bows.

I've had some dealing with John, and he's a good guy. May be worthwhile to reach out to him. Here's his website link - https://dryadbows.com/

I might have a problem........

Well, you got step #1 out of the way and admitted you have a problem...

Tim's Archery used to make a compound w a wood riser and radiused shelf.
Looked like a Golden Eagle Falcon cam setup back in the day.

Nobody makes a 50% let off bow now, cept maybe Oneida Phoenix.

I struggled w trad when I started around '86.
Good days, mediocre days, and some truly horrible.
My anchor was too low and gaps so large my brain couldn't keep em remembered.
Non conscious gap shooting.

I went higher anchor and changed how I practiced (2 brain farts and done for the day).
Didn't ingrain bad habits that way.

Lots of good advice here. I'm no expert, but here's mine.

Buy a $150 ILF bow, draw weight about 30# @ 28", length 60" to 66" (longer is better), and that has mounting holes on the riser to accept a screw/bolt on $20 sight. You just need 1 siight pin. Learn how to shoot with this at 10-yards. Develop your form. When you can put 3 into a 3" circle at 10-yards then you've got your form down pretty good and you can move out 3 to 5 more yards.

$150 makes it not expensive to get started.

ILF allows you to change limbs for more draw weight in the future for less than an added $100.

30# allows you to work on form. And at 30# you can shoot lots of shots before you get tired.

Sight pin removes all the "gap", instintictive, and other stuff that can be frutrating to learn and interfered with learn form and love of trad. Go sightless later if you want to.

10-yards (or even 5-yards) brings quicker success, and more fun!

A sight won't let you cant the bow and a sight promotes a lower anchor, which is different form.

Close distance removes the fear of missing so should help avoid target panic.

But also makes you shoot downward unless your target hung higher, and when hung higher, need something under in case of an oops.

Put a little bright sticker on your target, 1" square.

Dont shoot at a blob. Aim small miss small.

Buy a cheap recurve on ebay, don't go too heavy on the draw weight. 45# is plenty to kill a deer. You can get a sample pack of arrows in different splines to see what spline matches you and your bow from 3 Rivers Archery. The Samick $150 dollar bows shoot very well and you can see if you like it before going to a custom.

Is it a 12 step program?

I do not know anything about about a program, but it has been one heck of a 35 year journey.

Got my first Blackwidow built in 87.
Been a fun run for 3 decades plus.
Might be over with though

Problem? I don't see a problem...

The problem is which bow to shoot.

Instinctive is the same as wingshooting. Hitting at hunting distance just takes some practice.

Satori is real good. Nice thing about it is it will work ok with lightweight limbs and arrows meant for heavier hunting weight limbs. Not perfect but they will fly well enough you don't have to buy two sets of arrows.

Buy somewhere they will help you tune it. Start with 25 or 30# limbs. There are things you need to figure out that are hard to notice with a heavier draw weight.

Get a 50# set of limbs a month or two before hunting season.