[owen]

crap.

crap

Crap crap crap.

I stoped in a gun/archery store tonight. The owner's father handed me a bow, and gave me a 40 minute lesson.

Owen does not need a new hobby. Please pray for me.

(I shot a hoyt and a matthews, I liked the Hoyt a lot more. anything else i should look at?)

Crap

[bensdad]

I'll pray for ya alright... pray you get a nice deer with your bow this fall.

I can't afford the good stuff. I have two PSE bows. They're the same in just about every way. One is set for a 28" draw at about 50lbs. I use it for carp. The other is set for 27" draw (so I can use a release, but draw to the same place on my face) and 60+lbs. That's my hunting bow.

I think they're "FireFlight" or something catchy like that. Nice, solid back on the draw... not mushy. Pretty quiet for cheap bows. More accurate than I am.

[JTW Jr.]

Look at em all !! Check out archerytalk.com as well

Currently I have a Hoyt Avenger , my oldest son has a Hoyt GameMaster2 recurve and my middle son has a Bear ( soon to be replaced with a Genesis as he is 8 ).

[owen]

the Hoyt I shot was a katera. i gathered they were about $600 for a bare bow.

looking around, I think I like the modern recurves.

I think i'll stop in next week and see what they have

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

(I shot a hoyt and a matthews, I liked the Hoyt a lot more. anything else i should look at?)

Yes, the Liberty I:

http://libertyarchery.com/

Does everything the Hoyt, Matthews, and others do, only with a lot less weight and size. C'mon, *everybody* needs a new hobby. :)

[TimboKhan]

I've no particular interest in hunting with a bow, but I have had to actively shut off the part of me thats interested in archery because it tends to be very addictive.

In high school, I shot my bow a bunch, mostly because my mom did not approve of me walking around on my own with a rifle. So, in order to hunt, and to keep myself occupied in between reading books and other stuff, I shot a bow. I was an OK shot then. I went a year or so ago with a buddy and shot some new bows, and I found out that I now suck. The other impediment to me is that I ruined my shoulder in high school, and I find it very hard to draw back a bow. Even for fun, it's hard to find something awesome that only draws at 40 pounds or so. Anyway, I know that if I let myself get back into it, I will be lost and even poorer than I am now, lol.

That doesn't stop me from looking around at cool stuff online though. My favorite is Primitive Archer.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php

I don't think I personally would ever want to go as primitive as some of the guys on there go, and I think modern compounds are the coolest, but I really enjoy looking at what these guys make, and it's a very friendly and close knit forum. I also enjoy reading about the various adventures and experiments the guys get into. Check it out, it's pretty cool.

[JTW Jr.]

If someone had told me I would get addicted to archery a year ago I would have told them they were nutz , then my oldest got involved in a JOAD program and was taking him to the local archery / shop 3 times a week. well it got old watching after a few months , and I shot a rental bow a few times ( PSE Deer Hunter ) , and that was all it took. Here we are 6 months later , he has the GM2 and I bought the Avenger...and then my middle son needed a bow ! :D

Dunno why I hadnt tried this sooner , been shooting rifles/handguns since I was a kid , and have been into knives for the past 7 years... it all goes hand in hand.

Plus its a great family hobby having 2 of my 3 sons involved ( son # 3 is just 5 and is working up to his own bow soon ).

http://members.cox.net/jt.vegas/JW%20Hoyt%20Avenger.jpg

http://members.cox.net/jt.vegas/JT%20GM%20II.jpg

http://members.cox.net/jt.vegas/D1.jpg

with the price of fuel , we decided to cut back on drive to the range and stacked the straw bales out back , can only get 30 yards max safely but 25 is fine with me. There is an outdoor range close by ( public range ) that goes out to 80 yards I believe. Furthest I have shot with good hits is 60.

http://members.cox.net/jt.vegas/Img_7403.jpg

[Funderb]

a guy dropped off a bow on my porch that his brother had hunted deer with for years. it's a pretty high end bow, though i can't remember of what manufacture. at 100+lbs pull I can shoot it through most anything.
It is like a rifle I can shoot in my yard. A carbon fiber shaft with no metal will go through a sheet of corrugated roofing steel and 3/4" of pine.
How about dem apples?

[Kingcreek]

I've shot arrows since junior archery league at the YMCA (over 40 years ago).
I have bought, sold, traded, lost, and gave away enough gear to outfit the huns.
After you go through the cables-cams-carbon-fiberoptic phase, you'll find the greatest satisfaction comes from shooting a traditional wooden bow and cedar shafts with feather fletching. and especially if you made it yourself.

[gunmn74]

Go with the Hoyt. I bought mine new in 98 and have killed 7 deer with it.
This year I will finally have to get it re-strung.

http://i27.tinypic.com/sxgmr6.jpg

[shamus]

I make own.

call me Old School. :)

I make selfbows and composite bows.

I also have a few vintage Herter's and Ben Pearson recurves.

[mole]

I make own.

call me Old School.

Then I'm your classmate. I just finished a 20# @ 20" pecan selfbow for my neice.

In my opinion using selfbows is true archery. Come on fellas, it's time to take off the training wheels and fly.

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Kingcreek, I tried traditional archery for the first time this last year, and gave it up, sold my 2 recurves, and went back to compounds - didn't like it. Why, you ask? Well, I loved the silence, the ability to draw and release quickly, the simplicity, and I learned to be very accurate with instinctive shooting. I loved everything about it except for one thing which was the dealbreaker - my 3 fingers of shooting hand got numb, number, numbest the more I practiced, and would stay numb 24/7/365 as long as I was practicing 2-4 times per week. And that's with BOTH a glove with thick fingers AND a tab. It was even worse when I was using tab only before I went to tab+glove. I thought the numbness would never go away - it finally did, thankfully, but not until at least month or month and a half after I sold the recurves and quit shooting traditionals. Too bad, because I really enjoyed the challenge of being accurate without sights. I kept one aluminum PSE takedown recurve for bowfishing however. I presume that shooting a longbow would be equally as hard on the fingers. I was only using a 45 lb recurve, too! I built up enough strength that I was ready to move up to a 50 or 52 lb recurve, but that would only have made the numbness worse. I WAS going to just start shooting them with a release but everyone told me that that was dumb, and so I thought I'd look like a real tool at the tourneys I shoot if shooting a recurve with a release. So just sold the bows/arrows/traditional quivers at a big loss. Love my Hoyt and my Liberty compounds, however. Can't wait to blood my Liberty - I came really close to, but couldn't get the deer within range. This weekend I'm trying for a turkey with the liberty and a gobbler guillotine.

JTW, really glad you found that as a hobby for you and the boys - good on ya. Just don't miss those haybales! :eek: But that is a major beauty of archery. I can step outside ANY time and practice in the haybales in the backyard for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hr, or 2 hours - however much I want. As opposed to a range trip which involves setting aside a full half day, loading the pickup, driving to the range (40 minutes drive), etc., etc. Archery rox! All's I have to do in the backyard is put the dogs IN the house for a little while - they enjoy the change too! P.S. When I shoot at an angle from corner to corner in the backyard, I'm about 21-22 yards, so it's just far enough back that I don't robin hood (at 15-17 yards, I've robin-hooded 3 times in 4 years, before I went to the catty-corner setup). I'm sure if I was good, I'd still robin hood at 21 yards. I hate it though when it happens now - those carbon arrows are expensive!

[JTW Jr.]

at 100+lbs pull I can shoot it through most anything.
It is like a rifle I can shoot in my yard. A carbon fiber shaft with no metal will go through a sheet of corrugated roofing steel and 3/4" of pine.
How about dem apples?

man ..100# , certainly not a target bow ..my arm would fall off after 30 practice shots.

[3pairs12]

There are a lot of great bows out there. I shoot Hoyt, my kid has a Diamond. To name a few other great brands there is Ross, Reflex, Bear, Browning, Bowtech, Alpine Archery, PSE is getting really fast, stick with it man its fun. I knew somebody would pull out the ole training wheel remark.

[Funderb]

hehehe JTW, my arm falls off after about 15-20 shots. probably with fewer, now that I have freshly separated my shoulder. Sad.

the man that used it before me was apparently a brute, and enjoyed taking deer from very long distances with the bow.

It took me almost a month to work up the strength to be able to use it.

[Marbles]

Archery is a cool thing.

Dunno if Dad still has his compound or not. He's had it for awhile. We got a 15# and a 40# once, both recurve.

My problem with archery is I never really was that good at it.

Still think it's really cool to do though. Silence and raw skill (plus some muscle) is where it's all at. I moved to guns since I couldn't shoot good enough. Talk about a SKILL — recurve with no sights, no release, no gloves, bare minimum (or none at all) rest for the arrow...

[bps3040]

I love my Hoyt.I have the Razortec. I have not rifle hunted in 15 or 16 years.And that was a doe eradication hunt. Bowhunting is addictive....and fun! I love it!

[shamus]

PremiumSauces,

sorry to hear you had that problem. Using a glove and a tab, and still having numb fingers is an unusual problem.

If a compounds works for you, then shoot it. No shame in that. There's more than one way to fling an arrow and they are all fun.

[shamus]

Mole,


I heard pecan makes a nice bow. I'm sure your niece will love it. :)

[wheelgunslinger]

I've been practicing archery since I was 12. I'm 35 now.
Clearly, it's fun and addictive.
I went from starting with my dad's recurve in the yard to buying a compound, then went back to handmade recurves. So, I've had some experience in most facets of Archery including a lot of bowhunting.

My 2 cents: Start on something simpler and get a coach/teacher.

Learning archery on a decked out compound is like learning riflery on a decked out AR15.

[Kingcreek]

Mr Sauces, the length of the bow and the draw determines the angle of string "finger pinch" so a long bow and a shorter draw length will have less pinch. unusual problem you describe and you might have trouble with finger-shooting any bow. I shoot with a tab I made with 2 layers of leather over the fingertips.
Sorry I wasn't around when you were selling all your trad stuff.
I still shoot a Mathews compound some. I can shoot well to a much farther distance with it, but I get more satisfaction from shooting the longbow and the arrows I made. 54" selfbow 50# @ 28" from a piece of Osage I cut off my own land.

[Funderb]

I would definitely grow a yew tree if
a. every part weren't poisonous
b. they grewhere.

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Kingcreek and Shamus - I appreciate it - I know, it's a weird problem, but the numbness just got irritating after awhile - wasn't really threatening my health - just distracting in my everyday life. I could try to borrow a longbow and shoot it to see if it's easier on the fingers, but I doubt it. I was shooting a 62 APO (which I think was 59"), and a 60 APO IIRC - recurves. I really wanted to get a Black Widow, as my traditional arch friends raved about them, but I didn't see the point with the numbness -frustrating. But to take this one more step - just HOW foolish would it be to pursue a recurve or longbow with use of a release - that's what I want to do, but don't want to be the laughingstock of the traditional guys at the tourneys either. I'd like to walk the 3-ds with two bows - just pay two fees and shoot from the closer stake with the recurve/release, and the farther stake with the compound/release.

54" selfbow 50# @ 28" from a piece of Osage I cut off my own land.

Nice! Man, that would be satisfying to make your own bow from wood on your own land and then harvest game with it on your own land - the cycle of life, Indian style. :) You got a pic of that bow?

Funderb, you can grow (or find growing wild in OK):
osage orange (aka bois d'arc)
red elm (aka slippery elm)

These will make good bows, esp. bois-d'arc - my understanding is that the french (or french-american settlers) named this tree bois-d'arc (arc'ed bow) because it made such good bows - that could be rumor though. Some Indians used slippery elm, and in the southeast part of the US, there is a type of bamboo IIRC that was used by Indians (or at least in the bamboo family) - am I smoking somethin in the peace pipe, or remembering correctly?

I heard pecan makes a nice bow.

I think that's right - I think you can use any number of different hickory types, and pecan is in the hickory family. Maybe not quite as strong/resilient as something like bois d'arc (so your limbs may have to be a tad thicker or wider or both), but a good bow it will make nonetheless.

[Soap]

Buy a bow, you won't regret it! I shot for about 3 years from age 5-8 and just recently got back into it at age 25...I'm addicted again.

[JTW Jr.]

Learning archery on a decked out compound is like learning riflery on a decked out AR15.
and what would be wrong with that ? Why spend time learning to shoot a stick bow if you are going to shoot a compound in the end ?

I enjoy stick , recurve and compound , but would never knock someone because they had chosen one over the other.

[shamus]

just HOW foolish would it be to pursue a recurve or longbow with use of a release - that's what I want to do, but don't want to be the laughingstock of the traditional guys at the tourneys either

Not foolish at all! That sounds like a great solution.

Like I said, there's more than one way to fling an arrow, and they're all fun.

[owen]

Learning archery on a decked out compound is like learning riflery on a decked out AR15.

You mean pleasant and rewarding?

[axeman_g]

Get a light 40# recurve or longbow... go traditional. I got hooked about 2 years ago. Now it is me, my 7yo and his 3.5 yo brother out there shooting field targets.

My little one sets his stuffed animals up all around the house, gets his little bow with suction cup tipped arrows and has his own little 3d shoot during the day.

The challenge, tradition, romance, art or science or traditional archery is so much like shooting it is funny.

Concerning money... yep it needs to be a trade off. I am right now thinking about a new Bear Montana Longbow or a CZ 452 Lux.

[mole]

and in the southeast part of the US, there is a type of bamboo IIRC that was used by Indians (or at least in the bamboo family) - am I smoking somethin in the peace pipe, or remembering correctly?


It's called river cane or switch cane and it makes great arrows.

[Timthinker]

It appears that I am the first person to mention the crossbow as a potential choice. I realize that it raises controversy in archery circles, but a quality crossbow is a pleasure to shoot at close range. Something worth considering in my opinion.


Timthinker

[wheelgunslinger]

Learning archery on a decked out compound is like learning riflery on a decked out AR15.
You mean pleasant and rewarding?

No. I mean overcompensating for personal insecurities and lack of skill/discipline with gadgets.

[JTW Jr.]

No. I mean overcompensating for personal insecurities and lack of skill/discipline with gadgets.
sounds more like sour grapes from someone who doesn't understand either aspect.

[Funderb]

The same concept can be applied to getting a teenager a car.

If you want them to drive poorly, get them the new mercedes with the manufacturer's warranty. And pay for their insurance.

Teach them a lesson in care and discipline by getting them the $400 POS that runs well, and have them take care of it, and pay a portion of the insurance, and any increase due to ticket/accident is paid by them in full.


that will make them careful, and in the end, more attracted to the skill. be it driving or archery.

[wheelgunslinger]

sounds more like sour grapes from someone who doesn't understand either aspect.

:rolleyes:

You have to decide what kind of archer you want to be before you go out and start spending money blindly.

If you want to actually become proficient at archery, then find a coach first. After you shoot a few bows, get yourself fitted and find out what you should be shooting as opposed to what you might find hanging on a shelf somewhere that looks cool.
You'll develop a better skillset, progress farther, and maybe even develop a lifelong passion that will be insulted at the term hobby.

If you just want to hang out and look cool, then by all means break out the cubic dollars.
There are guys who go to gyms all over the country and never get fit or strong, but have lots of cool underarmour clothes, new nikes, and fancy heartrate watches.
There are guys who show up to rifle shoots with megabuck rifles but can never seem to get good groupings despite having spent a lot of money on the weapon and all the crap hanging off of it, meanwhile a 12 year old with a single shot 22 has a single ragged hole in her target.
There are guys who buy brand new sportbikes so they can hang out with their friends, despite never having been on one. They don't seek out training and before long are skidding down the asphalt or are face planted into a tree somewhere.
And, there are those same people in archery with expensive new equipment who have a nice enough bow to make them accurate, but will never be as precise as someone who took the time to learn.

Holding two swords won't make you musashi. Firing two cap and ball revolvers before you go to town won't make you bill hickock. Owning a 30-06 and crawling through the scrub won't make you Carlos Hathcock. Why would buying a fancy bow make you an archer?

[JTW Jr.]

or I could just enjoy it for the hobby that it is and have fun learning with the kids , which is what I am doing.

One thing I learned early on " Never let your equipment hold you back ". With that said a FANCY bow will not make you a better archer , but if you know what you want then why not buy it ?

Some may be fine shooting at 3D targets , some may enjoy hunting , me ? I enjoy shooting ( and hitting ) those 2" orange dots on my straw bales on my home range.

If shooting a compound bow makes me less of an archer in your eyes , so be it , at the end of the day , I just gotta worry that I am happy with myself , not what anyone else thinks.

Just cause you don't like it , doesn't mean the rest of us can't like it.

[coelacanth]

release practiced by many archers in the far east? Sometimes referred to as the Mongolian thumbring? Sounds like it might be the answer to your problem with numb fingers. I've tried it and with a bit of practice it actually seems a more natural release than the the three finger method preferred by western archers.