Has traditional archery become hypocritical?

[Fuzzy Dog]

I am not a traditional archer. I simply choose to shoot a single string bow. There are far too many definitions of what "traditional" means to spend time thinking about any of them when I could be shooting my bow instead.

[Phillip Fields]

I am a "traditional" archer and proud of it. As someone said above the term "Traditional" was given to us by the wheelbow shooters. It is simply a way to differentiate between those of us that shoot bows with no wheels or cams and those that shoot bows with them. Since the stick and string can be traced back 10,000 years by direct evidence (up to 64,000 years by indirect evidence in South Africa) and the compound dates back roughly 51 years to when Allen developed it in 1961 it makes sense that the stick and string would be called traditional. So, stand up and be proud to be called a "traditional" archer. Just remember you are no better and no worse than any other archer just because you're a traditional archer.

[RickBarbee]

I am a "traditional" archer and proud of it. As someone said above the term "Traditional" was given to us by the wheelbow shooters. It is simply a way to differentiate between those of us that shoot bows with no wheels or cams and those that shoot bows with them. Since the stick and string can be traced back 10,000 years by direct evidence (up to 64,000 years by indirect evidence in South Africa) and the compound dates back roughly 51 years to when Allen developed it in 1961 it makes sense that the stick and string would be called traditional. So, stand up and be proud to be called a "traditional" archer. Just remember you are no better and no worse than any other archer just because you're a traditional archer.

Rick

[Buff]

Hypocritical......

Some folks spend way too much time worried about what other folks are thinking or doing.

I have been in hundreds of camps most of them I am the only fellow with a recurve.
I have never felt handicapped by my choice of weapon.

I used to cringe when someone would call me a Trad guy.
There were a few fellows making the 3-D shoots who would run down anyone using a compound, then go out and miss half the targets with their longbow but still somehow felt superior to everyone else because they didn’t use a compound.
I hated to be around them.

Inside 20 yards I am as deadly as any other weapon

I always figured we were just a bunch of big kids playing in the woods, use what ever toy makes you happy

[Phillip Fields]

Hypocritical......

Some folks spend way too much time worried about what other folks are thinking or doing.

I have been in hundreds of camps most of them I am the only fellow with a recurve.
I have never felt handicapped by my choice of weapon.

I used to cringe when someone would call me a Trad guy.
There were a few fellows making the 3-D shoots who would run down anyone using a compound, then go out and miss half the targets with their longbow but still somehow felt superior to everyone else because they didn’t use a compound.
I hated to be around them.


I always figured we were just a bunch of big kids playing in the woods, use what ever toy makes you happy
Inside 20 yards I am as deadly as any other weapon

Buff,
I mostly agree with what you say. I've been in many camps where I was the only one using a longbow. But, never once did I cringe when someone called me a Trad guy, I always knew what I could do with my longbow.

[RickBarbee]

I fully understand some folks (let's say reluctance) to be labeled with the moniker. Trust me, I've seen those embarrassing moments such as described by Buff.

My point was, is, and will remain - I am not going to let how some folks act, with their ignorance, and arrogance cause me to feel embarrassed of wearing the Traditional Archer/Bowhunter label, because I know it originally started in a complimentary way.

I'm proud of it, and proud of those who wear it appropriately by conducting themselves as a positive force for the sport as a whole.

Rick

EDIT:
P.S.
For the vast majority of my bowhunting adventure, it has been sharing camp with bowhunters where I was the only Trad guy there. I never had even one single bad experience. Those guys were my friends. My Bowhunting Brothers, and it has remained that way throughout the many years.

[Live2Hunt]

To me: Traditional = Simple

I just use a wooden longbow, wood arrows, turkey feathers and metal points. Don't care about brands, labels, or the size of the deer I kill.

I hunt from the ground by sitting at the base of a tree or hanging off one in a sit and drag or maybe in a 20ft tree stand. Whatever works.

Carry on...

[muddydog]

I am an archer. I shoot all styles of bows, self bows, longbows,recurves and compounds. I like them all. Each bow has its own advantage and short comings. I have to be honest and say that I personally prefer to use a compound for most of my hunting because I am more accurate and confident with it. I also realize that stick bows work well too, it's just a personal thing. I'm even considering adding a crossbow to my arsonel, if it slings arrows.....I like it!

[RickBarbee]

To each their own.

I have no problem with folks not wanting to associate themselves with the "Traditional" handle.

What I do have a problem with is when folks try to belittle it, or make it out to be something bad, which it is not.

Rick

[Retsbew]

My perspective is that I wish that the general concept of traditional archery was identified only with hunting, and only with the type of hunting methods and materials most often used and seen in the early days of Hill and Bear and post WWII...when it was in it's 'popular infancy' at least in North America. A nostalgic and romantic view perhaps, but nevertheless a much more common-sense (I think) reflection of what makes sense for the term traditional than what we have morphed into today through overuse of technology.

Traditional used to be the 'before compounds' era in America. A time when archery was more about enjoying the outdoors and the challenges brought by what was frequently (and fondly) referred to as hunting with a simple stick and string ...which made sense because that's pretty much what it was. Field archery using simple bows was also practiced and enjoyed, and to be honest I suppose it made just as much sense to regard a lemonwood target bow or bamboo-backed ASL as 'just as traditional' as a traditional hunting bow. But somehow, and at some point, the line where one type differed from the other turned into not only a palpable line but a loud screaming technological revolution, one that despite it's clear negative impacts to the idea of 'simple' archery we ignored in favor of, how should I say it, self-centered commercial opportunities.

Some will say that where we are now (a.k.a the loss of simplicity in archery) is imaginary because traditional never really existed anyway, that it's all 'just 'archery' no matter how we do it. I sure hope not. I'd hate to think the reason I hunt with a traditional bow is to pretend to honor the idea of challenging my skills when actually I'm likely to kill every animal I hunt...with a 'perfect score'...every time. How boring and self-defeating (in a 'not challenging at all' sort of way) would that be?

For a time hunting archery and target archery were overlapping subsets of each other. Objectives differed but they faced the same basic limits established by the technology of their time. But as technology, public media exposure and money entered the picture one 'subset' began to slowly swallow the other and so gained, at least in a social sense, the upper hand in defining how archery came to be portrayed. Target archery became the popular poster boy for all archery previously considered traditional. New converts to the sport, drawn by colorful media and market advertising (and not just a little by the olympics and compound bow craze), began identifying traditional with techno archery and embraced the conveniences it offered for both targets AND hunting. Hunting the hard way now had more to do with using high-end gear and learning/applying the intricacies of modern gadgets than learning to limit one's advantages through self-imposed restrictions in bows, arrows, aiming approaches and shooting distances. The new face of traditional archery became competition driven, a race to use whatever means available (without wheels of course) to mimic the very objectives that early traditional had specifically tried to avoid...success without limits. If that isn't hypocrisy at it's finest then I must be missing something.

I'm not against the current style of olympic target archery, it has it's own place. But to me it isn't traditional archery. It just doesn't pass the straight face test to be referred to by that term.

[DRT]

Honestly Retsbew it's hard to determine what exactly you are trying to say. I read your post three times. I'm not real smart though.
The vague references to technology and things associated with modern bows leaves a lot of room for speculation.

That said, if I'm reading and comprehending it right, it seems we agree on a couple things such as the target archery trend not equating to the hunting trend.

Myself I don't see myself as a string walker as I see that as just another way to "sight" a bow vs using your body and brain to make it work.

However I won't stand here and tell someone that's not true traditional and reject them.

I've seen that attitude from some traditional folks and it's quite off putting. It also seemed they were the ones who were generally poor shots and wounded more game than they took home.

I never met Fred Bear. However there are great leaders in archery today. I suspect those men and women are not the elitist types.

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[Bisch]

You’ve obviously got your own view that you think should be gospel and that everyone else should follow. Don’t sound like you are going to budge at all on that view, and all the rest of us are going to disagree with it, so why bother to keep pushing it here???? Just does not make sense to me???

JMHO,

Bisch


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[Buff]

I have got to be missing the point here somehow.

I was hunting with a recurve 50 years ago.
It was at the time the best bow I good afford and I was shooting what I considered the best arrows and best Broadhead.

I didn’t have a black widow bow or carbon arrows but if they had existed, I would have used them.

I’m setting in a pop up blind with a my buddy heater this morning, nice and warm.
I did not have either 50 years ago, I would have been setting on a 2x4 wedged in the fork of a tree freezing my but off.

I like being warm better but that’s just me

[CEpperson]

Im with the others, I have no idea what you are trying to debate or prove? I sense that you feel “traditional archery” is a selfbow and wood arrows....if that’s what works for you and you like it and want to call it that, good for ya. But I feel like you are trying to say the new materials used in building bows somehow makes you have the ability to pick up a recurve or longbow and just go to the woods and “kill every animal you hunt”, that just isn’t the case. I didn’t pick up a recurve to impress you or anyone, or follow your rules or stay in between your guidelines of what traditional archery is. I started using a recurve to test my skill in the woods and get back to a simpler way to enjoy the outdoors, and I’m doing just that. I’ve been very successful in killing critters with trad bows and I’m gonna keep on doing it, you call it what you want, I’m gonna call it good and move on!

Clay

[TP3]

I keep seeing this bumped to the top, so I went back and read the original post again.

It made less sense the 2nd time.