Trad gear
01-04-2005, 11:24 AM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Troutdale Oregon
Posts: 569
Trad gear
Have you guys noticed a lot of people going to recurves and long bows? I just switched from a mathews to a recurve because the thrill of bowhunting was lost due to the mathews being more like a rifle than a bow. just wondering if you all notice the same?? This post is along the same lines as this but I believe I am not alone in feeling this way http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/tm.asp?m=891046
01-04-2005, 01:42 PM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 9,175
RE: Trad gear
I've noticed quite a few people on the forum have been exploring traditional lately - even a few suprizes
- but it's not a new phenomenon. I've been watching it happen over the past 15 years and it seems like it's beginning to pick up some momentum, with more and more people swapping out their wheels for sticks. Most of the new traditionals I've talked to are not getting rid of their compounds, but they HAVE gotten tired of having a steady diet of gadgetry. Like you, they're enjoying the simplicity and change of pace.
- but it's not a new phenomenon. I've been watching it happen over the past 15 years and it seems like it's beginning to pick up some momentum, with more and more people swapping out their wheels for sticks. Most of the new traditionals I've talked to are not getting rid of their compounds, but they HAVE gotten tired of having a steady diet of gadgetry. Like you, they're enjoying the simplicity and change of pace.
01-04-2005, 02:14 PM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Inverness, MS
Posts: 3,982
RE: Trad gear
Arthur,
In all honesty how long does it take a beginner to get profficient out to 25-30yds and how often must one shoot to maintain that?
I tried the trad thing, but got frustrated and hung it up. I hanging on to it though
In all honesty how long does it take a beginner to get profficient out to 25-30yds and how often must one shoot to maintain that?
I tried the trad thing, but got frustrated and hung it up. I hanging on to it though
01-04-2005, 03:02 PM
#4
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Troutdale Oregon
Posts: 569
RE: Trad gear
Ive been shooting for about a month with a cheep yards sale bow and I am pretty good out to twenty five yards. i seam pretty easy to me but it is a low lbs bow 45@28 i HAVE A NEW CHEK-MATE ON ORDER that is 60 at 28 for hunting elk. to me I think it just adds the element of the hunt that is lost with modern bows. Its what archery is suppose to be in my opinion. Compounds just seam to be like a rifle to me. I guess I am out of the how many can i get stage. I am not knocking Compounds I think its just time to get back to basics for me. also here in oregon they have traditional only areas. IE recurve or long bows only and rifle season is only side lock muzzle loader. no inline scoped stuff that you see on all the hunting shows. but that another thread.
01-04-2005, 05:13 PM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Penhook Virginia
Posts: 446
RE: Trad gear
I shoot recurves also. Going from 45 lbs. @ 28" to 60 lbs. @ 28" is a huge step. For me it would be like going from a 40lb. compound to a 100lb. I can shoot a 74 lb. mathews Outback but anything over 53 lbs. in a recurve is WAY to much for me. You seem to be shooting well. I have shot for 5 years and am still not comfortable at 20 yards. I touch with the first 4 arrows and then put one 4 inches up-down-left-right. I don't feel like I can make that shot in the woods yet[&o]. Don
01-04-2005, 05:40 PM
#8
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Troutdale Oregon
Posts: 569
RE: Trad gear
I have shot high poundage bows for a long time. 60 is nothing to sneeze at its tuff to shoot more that a half hour but here in oregon they have a 50 # law for elk and heck it only takes one shot at that point just the practice is tuff but I shoot in my back yard and when I get tired I just go work on something for a while and then go back to shooting. its fun.
01-05-2005, 06:16 AM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 9,175
RE: Trad gear
DC, in all honesty, everyone is different. I've seen some guys who pick up on shooting a stick and do very well out to 20-30 yards in a very short time. Then I've seen guys who've been at it for years and can't hit a Peterbuilt beyond 15 yards.
Where I think so many people go wrong is believing they're supposed to shoot 'instinctive' because it's said that's the way the cavemen/indians/whoever shot. Well, I was taught to shoot indian fashion when I was a tyke, pinching the nock between my thumb and forefinger, drawing back almost to my face and eyeballing down the arrow at what I wanted to shoot. Nothing instinctive about it. I shot that way for a long time - and killed mucho game - before learning about anchor points and stuff.
The idea that the original archers - who survived by getting their meat and fighting off their enemies with the bow - shot instinctive doesn't make sense. When your life is on the line, I doubt you'd want to rely on The Force to make your arrow hit where you want it to. You're going to take careful aim before releasing. Besides that, good arrows were every expensive in terms of time and energy spent. They wouldn't have just jerked the string back and released that arrow willynilly into the ether and hoped for the best. They'd have aimed.
The arrow is right there in your field of vision. You might as well use it as an aiming reference. I'm positive our ancestors were smart enough to figure that out.
The aiming method I use is the split vision gap shooting style used by Howard Hill. Byron Ferguson explains it in his book "Become the Arrow" far better than Hill did. When you learn the gap system and use it enough to become confident, you eventually quit thinking about the gap. Your brain figures the distance and gap automatically. In other words, with time and experience the gap becomes more or less 'instinctive.'
For beginners, they can pick a gap at a given distance, see where the arrow strikes in relation to their aim point, then adjust their gap to put them on target. With instinctive, there is no way for them to make adjustment because they don't know where they were aiming to begin with. It takes a lot of trial and error - mostly error - to learn to shoot instinctive. A beginner using an aiming method will become a better shooter, faster, than another who's blundering about with instinctive shooting, stubbornly clinging to a false premise.
By the way, this method works even better with compounds than it does with stickbows. The letoff lets you really take your time and focus your concentration on your target. No sights to worry about. No peeps to dim your low light vision. No megabucks optical alignment devices. I like the feeling of freedom I get without the additonal hardware. Almost as good as shooting a stickbow.
Where I think so many people go wrong is believing they're supposed to shoot 'instinctive' because it's said that's the way the cavemen/indians/whoever shot. Well, I was taught to shoot indian fashion when I was a tyke, pinching the nock between my thumb and forefinger, drawing back almost to my face and eyeballing down the arrow at what I wanted to shoot. Nothing instinctive about it. I shot that way for a long time - and killed mucho game - before learning about anchor points and stuff.
The idea that the original archers - who survived by getting their meat and fighting off their enemies with the bow - shot instinctive doesn't make sense. When your life is on the line, I doubt you'd want to rely on The Force to make your arrow hit where you want it to. You're going to take careful aim before releasing. Besides that, good arrows were every expensive in terms of time and energy spent. They wouldn't have just jerked the string back and released that arrow willynilly into the ether and hoped for the best. They'd have aimed.
The arrow is right there in your field of vision. You might as well use it as an aiming reference. I'm positive our ancestors were smart enough to figure that out.
The aiming method I use is the split vision gap shooting style used by Howard Hill. Byron Ferguson explains it in his book "Become the Arrow" far better than Hill did. When you learn the gap system and use it enough to become confident, you eventually quit thinking about the gap. Your brain figures the distance and gap automatically. In other words, with time and experience the gap becomes more or less 'instinctive.'
For beginners, they can pick a gap at a given distance, see where the arrow strikes in relation to their aim point, then adjust their gap to put them on target. With instinctive, there is no way for them to make adjustment because they don't know where they were aiming to begin with. It takes a lot of trial and error - mostly error - to learn to shoot instinctive. A beginner using an aiming method will become a better shooter, faster, than another who's blundering about with instinctive shooting, stubbornly clinging to a false premise.
By the way, this method works even better with compounds than it does with stickbows. The letoff lets you really take your time and focus your concentration on your target. No sights to worry about. No peeps to dim your low light vision. No megabucks optical alignment devices. I like the feeling of freedom I get without the additonal hardware. Almost as good as shooting a stickbow.
