Ok, who has been shooting "Traditional Archery" sense on or before 1965?
Not a big deal, just thinking it could be neat to see how many of you have snow on the roof but still have a fire in the furnace.
I got started in the summer of 1962. I wanted to shoot a bow and arrow so bad I couldn't stand it.

I don't remember a time when I didn't have some kind of bow in my hand. First real bow was a lemonwood longbow. Killed my first deer in 1962.

My first bow was a lemon wood bow from Indian Archery, $12.95 for bow arrows, tab, armgauard. That was Spring of 1957. I was in 7th grade. We hunted rabbits that fall. Each time I raked leaves I got a quarter, two quarters and I had an arrow from local sporting goods store.

I have a picture of me shooting a stick bow when I was about 5 or 6, I'm 71 now .... 

I started in 1958 when I was 14.

Hap

As I recall 64/65 was the beginning with a one piece discarded fiberglass longbow....

Things have changed a good bit since then.  First bought good bow was a Super Kodiak (1968, One of the Black Beauties ) with "Bear Glass" arrows ...  I was "flying high" with that outfit. Killed my first deer in 69 with that bow.  Traded that bow...  Bad decision.  I do still have a Super Mag 48 hanging on the wall behind me as I write this.

First bow was in '59-a little red solid fiberglass recurve. Terrorized local rabbits and  bullfrogs with that bow, killed my first deer with a solid glass bow-45#-in '65. Other than a short stint with wheels in the early 80's I have always had a stick bow at the ready.

1956 when I was 9. My older sister had an archery class in H.S. and I used her bow, a 20lb Ben Pearson lemon wood. I still have that bow hanging on my rack. My older brother and I would take turns chasing rabbits around the hills in La Mesa, Calif. right behind Helix High School. We didn't kill many rabbits but we worried the heck out of them.

Probably started 1956 at nine, I made my own bow out of green cedar limb, it shot an arrow about 40 yards and lasted about 10 shots before taking a permanent bend at which point I made another one.

I got the archery merit badge at Boy Scout camp shooting a longbow. My folks bought me a Paul Bunyan fiberglass bow that I still have. We shot a lot back then, and met up on a vacant lot often to sling arrows.

I did the teenager stuff in highschool and didn't shoot a bow again until after I got out of the Army in 1970 and got a job. It was probably around 1973 that I returned to archery with a Kodiak Hunter recurve.

When compounds came out I went to the dark side in 1978, I had two compounds break on me while I was drawing on deer and abandoned them in 1989 for another Kodiak hunter recurve, followed by a Howatt Hunter recurve and finally with a Bighorn Grand Slam around 1991.

I started making selfbows in 1995, these have been my go to bows ever since. I see my archery journey coming to an end in the near future with a neck that won't let me shoot more than a dozen shots at a time without a good bit of pain. It was a mighty good run, over 60 years.

First bow was a Shakespeare solid fiberglass I got in 1959, I was 13.

first real bow was a 42# lemonwood longbow, 1961

First bow was a 30# Pearson lemonwood longbow in 1955 at age 11. I've never been without at least one bow since. My great regret was never having my parents take my picture of me with that bow. Here is a bow a friend gave me that is very similar to the one I owned.

Started around age 14 so that would be 1961.

We have home movies of me shooting a bow in about 1957 I was 5 at the time and it was a wooden longbow I found in the closet it must have come from a school archery program my sisters or brother had . My dad later bought me a Shakespeare comet in 45# I still have it and shoot it !

Started hunting in 67 or 68 but was shooting frogs and cow pies long before that with a solid glass bow.

I started shooting a fiberglas SEARS bow in @1963/4.  Moved on to Ben Pearson 45# in 1970.  Then DH Hunter 65# in 1981.  Regrettably don't have any of those bows now.  Still shooting 65#+ bows and hope to for some time.

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Started by chasing rabbits thru the orange groves at the age of 14 with my bear cub.That was 66 years ago makes me 80 today.  Still the best theropy I know!

I've been at it a while. My first real bow was a lemonwood longbow at about age 7.  I believe the first store bought wood arrows I bought sold for 25 cents a piece, or was it three for 25 cents. Started bowhunting when I was 14 with a short recurve ( I think a Bear) that had a badly twisted limb that would sometimes come unstrung at the shot.  Didn't kill my first deer until several years after that.  I'll be 74 in a couple of months so I've been at it about 67 years.  Still just as passionate about it as ever.  Hunting with a bow has always been more a way of life for me rather than a hobby. Value it even more now that I can see the end to my season isn't that far off.     

I feel much better...I think some of you guys were head waiters at the Last Supper!

I still have a little fire left in my furnace, but all the snow melted off my roof a long time ago....