How many out there hunt with traditional archery gear? Just curious, as it is bow season here in Kansas, and I'm going after deer next week. I don't use a homemade bow, but use traditional recurve bow, and feather fletched, cedar arrows.  The rut is getting ready to start here, and I hope that I planned my leave/vacation time right!  Oh, I do sometimes hunt rabbit with bow, but seems there's never enough time to do everything these days!

I shoot traditional archery, although never for hunting.  I find it so much more rewarding then with these super high tech composite bows.

Chris

Not personally much of a hunter, but archery is my personal favorite object throwing activity.

Check out my thread on the Board Bow.  I recently finished my second and third bows.  #2 was for me and #3 for my 8 year old daughter.

I also shoot a Martin Mamba.  About 52 or 53 lb at my draw length.  My own Port Orford arrows spined 60-65 lb, feather fletched and burned to a friends parobolic design.  They weigh in at about 530 grains and shoot like darts from my Mamba.

They also shoot very nicely from my board bow.  It is in the longbow shape and pulls 40-42 lbs at my draw length.  I am beginning to really love the longbow.  My Mamba shoots fast and very accurate, but the longbow seems a bit more gratifying for some reason.

I got a rabbit or two some years ago, along with some birds and other small targets.  My favorite activity is shooting at small targets with judo heads.  My daughter and I have beet shooting 4 to 6" dia. balloons lately.  This is a blast.  Just throw them on the ground at random and walk back a piece and shoot.  This type of shooting is how I learned to be accurate when I was learning to shoot.

jeff <>< who truly loves to throw stuff

   That sounds like a good idea using the balloons for targets, especially if different color baloons are pinned to the same backstop, you could have multiple shooters fire a their assigned baloon to see who hits theirs first.  I had a Martin ML-10 for a number of years, but got the recurve bug, and sold it to buy others.  I have made a few bows, and have a 58'' Osage self bow that shoots OK, but stacks heavily beyond about 20" draw.    I did get a deer already! Did'nt do it the way I wanted to though!  I hit it with my car driving to work yesterday morning...  Could'nt avoid it, and it did mess up the car some. I did get to tag it, and it is not going to be wasted.  It was a very large 13pt. buck, took some pictures, for insurance purposes.   Still going out next week after another with a recurve.

The balloon idea is not for shooting at the same distance.  By throwing the balloons out at random over a large area, you can practice and let your brain start figuring out distance.  If you have good depth perception, this technique works quite nicely.

jeff <><

 Ok, I'm with you on that Jeff. Kind of like stump shooting, but with reactive targets!  I guess that I was looking at my situation that at most ranges require some type of larger backstop, or I'm always loosing arrows that burrow under the grass. Lot's of options with target shooting, and it's always good to keep the young ones interested as well,(I've got three to entertain of my own).  Take Care!

Get a bunch of judo heads.  They keep the arrows from snaking under grass or getting lost.  I use them when shooting balloons on the ground for this very reason.  

Judo heads are our friends.

jeff <><

I absolutely love traditional archery. I hunt elk, deer, and small game with my bow. I have a 70# custom recurve made by Wes Wallace. It's a real beauty.