The archery in schools thread got me thinking. My first real introduction to "real" archery, with decent bows and arrows and bullseye targets and an instructor came when I was about 10 or so. I was allowed to attend a 4H summer camp for a few days. They had an archery course as part of it. Lordy that was fun.

Camp Pellessippi in the Boy Scouts circa 1957, back when boys were boys and girls were girls and they had their own organization.

Yup. Scout camp for me. I was maybe 10? And I was so excited about it that my dad stopped on the way home from picking me up at scout camp at probably at Dave Cook sporting goods (maybe it was Gart’s?) and we picked up a little red Bear recurve kit.

Good stuff!

Dad gave me an all fiberglass recurve with a rubber handle 25#'s loved that thing

and killed birds rabbits N squirels with it

when it finaly shattered I was one sad little kid

saved up and bought a real bow (BW) recurve shot that for years

than at a friends shooting, met Tom Parsons at the end of the day he locked my BW in his trunk and handed me a Schulz longbow-shoot this for a week and I'll give you back your recurve

shot a ASL every since with his coaching

Had shot kid bows since I was 6. Grew up in a duck hunting community, my family guided. Never thought about hunting with a bow. Went into the feed store to get shells one day, I was 14, and the guys were watching an old film of Ben Pearson. This was SE Arkansas and Ben's a local hero, grew up with my grandpa actually in the same area. I started watching the film with the guys and at some point Ben started knocking ducks out of the air with his recurve. I couldn't believe it. Never saw anything like it. I put the shells back and there was a twisted Bear Kodiak Hunter hanging with some other bows, mostly compounds. They wanted $35, all the money I had. I bought it and they gave me two arrows and I haven't hunted with a gun but one time since. That was around 1979. I still have that Kodiak Hunter.

The year was 1969 for me. My Dad bought me a 45# 1969 Bear Green Fox Bowhunting Set. I still own the bow but all the accessories that came with the set are long gone.

I started out with a Glen Wilson recurve (regular wood bow) around 8 or 9 years old. Can't remember as that was a long time ago. But I had an advantage most don't, dad owned an archery shop. We had 8 lanes and I shot almost everyday.

It was late in life for me... i didn't get into archery hunting until 1989 and went 14 years using a compound before getting introduced to my first "Real" bow.....

I was at a 3D shoot in spring of 2004 with a batch of young men that were way too serious about becoming IBO contenders with their compound bows..... every target took 10-15 minutes waiting my turn to shoot one arrow or possibly two....

Then i heard the laughing off in the distance getting closer, and closer.... The next thing we know a couple guys come trotting up the trail carrying long bows with huge quivers full of arrows and a big old grin on their faces....

They asked if they could play through, which my group had no problem with, then i asked them if i could shoot with them. I mean these guys were having a blast!

From that first target we shot together i was handed a long bow and asked if i wanted to shoot a "Real" bow....After that i never shot that compound again.... i mean i NEVER shot that compound bow again. I came back to the shoot the next day and these guys brought an extra long bow for me to shoot.... I never looked back after that.... Within two months after that i had built my own long bow... and then a recurve, and then i started researching bow design and never stopped building these things....

I still have my first Real bow,,, the long bow i built from a Binghams project kit..... Kirk

My brother and I always had a bear recurve around when we were kids, but our dad didn't bow hunt, nor did we know of anyone that did, so never really had any guidance in that aspect.Fast forward to '88, I walked into Shane Fitzgeralds archery shop in Taneytown, MD with $900 in my pocket for the lastest rage in compounds. Low and behold hanging on the rack was a Hoyt recurve, with a twisted limb no less for $150. I left a happy camper with a new bow and $750 in my pocket. Shot it all summer, and bought a used Appalachian one piece that fall. Killed a doe with it that year. Been in the traditional archery poorhouse ever since! Wouldn't have it any other way.

A real bow and real arrows you ask? I guess 1965 the same year I started bowhunting. Never had anyone in the family that shot a bow, and never had much money to even think about buying a bow until I graduated HS and got a job. That said, I consider my old lilac limb a real bow. :)) Since 1965 I haven't stopped shooting them.

1968...age 11 birthday gift...Ben Pearson glass bow from Western Auto in Irwin, PA. Still have it.

1968...age 11 birthday gift...Ben Pearson glass bow from Western Auto in Irwin, PA. Still have it.

Got little toy bow set when I was about 4. My brother (10) figured I had a better chance of killing something if he removed the suction cups and sharpened the end of the wood arrows. So far, so good. Problem was it came with a magnetic target you could stick to the fridge or washer/dryer. I was told not to shoot at anything else so I didn't. Mom was not pleased when she found the front of her dryer full of hail damage.

That was the end of bows for while until my Dad came home with a garage sale fiberglass Pearson and some fiberglass arrows. Roamed the fields with that bow for years. Somehow killed a pronghorn with it when I was 16 after dozens of stalks. Shot a Martin Cougar compound for a season barebow with fingers. Wasn't much different than traditional so I just switched back with a Bear Hunter Takedown and stuck with trad.

I would have to guess but I think i got my first bow about 1956 or 7. It was a hickory bow from Oklahoma that was made for my Dad when he was a kid. I still have that little bow.

I was a wheelie bow hunter until an elderly gentleman, a deacon in my Church, discovered that I hunted. He said to me one day that he had an old bow he would like to give me if I would stop by his house. It ended up being an old Browning Safari that I still have. After shooting that old bow a while I was addicted, by the next season I was converted. Now I’m a stickbow addict and use nothing else. Don’t use it much anymore but I sure cherish it and his memory.

1966 was 12 yrs old and bought a Shakespeare Parabow 25# with paper route money. Don't remember the exact motivation to get it as no one in the family or neighborhood was into archery at the time. Still have it and use regularly for form work.

In 1960 when I was 12 I worked all summer for a 45# Paul bunyon custom recurve($15) and 5 Bodkin tipped cedar arrows($1.25 ea). $3.50 for a deer license and I was set to go. The only thing that would hold me back was my mother would have string the bow as I couldn't!

In 1960 when I was 12 I worked all summer for a 45# Paul bunyon custom recurve($15) and 5 Bodkin tipped cedar arrows($1.25 ea). $3.50 for a deer license and I was set to go. The only thing that would hold me back was my mother would have string the bow as I couldn't!

I will call my Indian Archery 35# Lemmon wood bow my first. That was 1957, I was 12. The bow, arrows, arm guard, tab cost me $12 at the local sporting goods store. Even after I found an interest in firearms my bow never left me. In my senior year of high school I bought a 55# Pearson Pinto. I was planning a hunt to southern IL for deer.

I got introduced to archery in 1967 at Boy Scout camp, I bought a Wing Hawk in 1977 and still have that bow.

You guys have some great little stories....taking away a recurve to be held hostage till you come to your senses with a LB...mom stringing the bow or no shooting..great stuff.

Me, my neighbor stood at the end of his driveway shooting his Kodiak into the open garage backwall target. His son and I went to school together. I walked down and they invited me into the fold.

They say "its like learning to ride a bike" when you learn something in your youth and there is a foundation. I didn't shoot another trad bow for 35 years. Picked one up 5 years ago and it felt right immediately. I even shot accurately to 20yds. Now, I have a herd of traditional stuff and rue the Lost Years.

Actually, a trip to the public library led me to the bowyers bible. Went and picked up some 1x6’s and got to work with a 1” mini planner. Mentioned my recent undertaking to a coworker(he’s left handed) and the next day he shows up with the right handed Darton Super Flite Hunter and said got it at a garage sale years back for $5.00. He attempted to shoot carp with it but being a lefty he gave up on it very quickly. Been sitting in the basement for years. He said take it and let him know when I get one (deer) with it...

No camps ccx and no archery in school. I was 35 yrs old and maintenance at pat. Complex owned by a doctor from perue at the time. Some construction guys had a compound and sights ...release and let me shoot it. That was it I was biten.Withen 3 yrs I was shooting 300 scores with a hoyt pro tech flame riser scope back tension release and 40 in. Stabelizer. Got bored with that. Love my stick bows.

We had an archery unit in Phys-Ed class, like, 7-8 grade. We had to wait all year for it to start because they would only let us shoot the last week of school. We actually got to go outside.

34 before I got started. A co-worker introduced me to it. That was 1992

I’m not sure my first bow was “decent” but I sure enough did real archery with it. The neighborhood big kid ‘hero’ gave me his old bow in 1959-1960. I don’t know the brand but it was wood with slightly curved tips and came to me with a piano wire string. My best friend’s granddad owned an archery shop so I pretty quickly got a real string and a bunch of white painted wood arrows. We shot a lot at an outdoor range in a city park, did our version of flight shooting in empty fields and as I was a born hunter I started chasing pheasants, rabbits & occasional ducks with flu-flus and rubber blunts over my field tips, with my little mongrel Duchess my constant companion. I come from a non-hunting family so that first bow was an absolute Godsend. I wish I still had it.

A neighbor invited me to go bowhunting when I turned twelve, another Godsend for sure. My parents gave me my first Bear bow for Christmas in 1962. It was a 25# Bear Cub so I promptly returned it for a more manly 35# Cub and then struggled to string that bow my first few outings. I now hunt and shoot with a variety of other devices, but all these years later I still think a strung recurve bow is a wonderful thing to lay ones eyes upon and pure pleasure to shoot.

I had to caddy at a gold course all summer when I was 12, 1960, to save the money to buy an all fiberglass bow that had a plastic grip and a hat pin in cork for a sight. We had been making our own bows and arrows from tree limbs and sticks before I got the new "fancy" bow. Bought arrows knowing knowing nothing about spine, they were probably for 50-60 pound bow, my bow was 30#. Interesting point, I am now 72 and have fallen back to shooting the same poundage, 30, because of bad shoulders!

My much older cousin and his wife were archers who shot alongside the Wilson brothers of Black Widow Bows, Earl Jr. & Ann Hoyt and other leading archers of the day. My cousins had a pair of Black Widow recurves. When I was a young boy, I would watch them target shoot in their back yard and that got me started. More than 40 years later, my cousin's wife gave me her BW bow, which she purchased brand new in 1959. It's a keeper!

My grandfather gave me a 42lb grizzly when I was 13 had that bow up until I was 55

I was 7 when I got my first and got my first kill when I was 8 a week or so later when I turned 8. Then when I broke and lost and ran out of arrows i decided to make my own. Didn't fly very well and didn't know what i was doing but the attempt was there. Was years later in my teens when I started with mentors.

Then when I was 16 I went to Edelmens a locale outfitters store and got me a Bear Super Kodiak and arrows and bear accys. I was poster boy for Bear then.

I was 9 yrs old and helped a neighbor kid clean out his dad's garage. We found an old all wood long bow and he said I could have it if I wanted it. How could I lose, it was free. I shot right handed with the arrow on the wrong side. Shot pretty good if I remember right.

My first real bow was a Wing Falcon when I was 11 or so. My introduction to other archers was when me and a buddy got caught on the Yahi archery range in Riverbank Ca. Early 70s or late 60s . I thought we were in trouble, turned out we were caught by the president of the club Larry Franco . Instead of running us off he welcomed us , he would pick me up to take me to shoots , both indoor and outdoor. It is something that I still think of to this day , I have great respect for that man.

I was in first grade when my father made my brother and I lemon wood self bows. The first time my brother went out to shoot his, he broke it. I didn't break mine and still have it. At Boy Scout camp my first merit badge was in archery (circa 1953). I was shooting an aluminum limbed recurve. In 1959 I bought my first "real" (to me) recurve - Tri State Jaguar. That bow is long gone and I only miss it for the memories and certainly not for its performance.

Bought a new K mag when started high school then my dad introduced me to an instructor and his national field archery champion wife. The couple took my hunting and to field archery events, so was a good start. Bought a target bow soon after. Remember that instructor and his wife shot late fiftes black widows too just like the one Uncle Lijiah shows above. Seems like a lot of the better shooters had them then. Met the Wilson Brothers once through them at the SW Open. Started out shooting Bear rosewoods and will end my shooting with old Bear rosewoods. Guess I've been lucky.

I really don't remember how old I was, but it was my Grampa who started me at shooting. It was a wooden longbow, and I had to stand on a mop bucket turned upside down to keep the lower tip from hitting the ground when I shot.

MEMORIES!!!!!!

I think it was 1952 my mother bought me a kids bow with rubber suction arrows, I used to stick them on the bathroom door until my dad noticed that the arrow was penetrating the rubber and leaving dents in the heavy wood door.

Later around 1958 I was in boy scout camp and they had bows that they never un-strung them, needless to say they were very weak. you had to aim over the target in hopes of the arrow to reach it. That was camp Lanoche in Florida.

Happy New Year to all!!!!

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