| This Old Bow By: Bryan Matthews As day to day life seems to put us in a rut, we as hunters need to step outside our own comfort zone. I know that my work load is always full. It’s seems between my family, first job, second job and Wildcat Archery Outdoors I have no time left. I’ll be the first to tell you I do get burned out from time to time. I find when this starts to happen the best thing I can do is shake things up a little bit. I’m mainly a bow hunter but I hunt with guns and muzzle loaders as well. I like variety in my hunting. I like going to different places hunting different animals. I can’t imagine hunting just whitetail and turkeys year after year and nothing else. I know hunters that due just that and are as happy as can be but not me. At the West Virginia Bow hunters Association Banquet during a silent auction I saw something that caught my eye. There on display laid several old Fred Bear recurve bows, I’ll admit I have always wanted to own an original Fred Bear bow. One really sparked my interest just an old plain looking recurve. As I held the bow in my hand it just felt right. This old recurve was calling my name. After several trips back to the table to check and up my bid if needed, the auction ended. I was relieved that they called my name as the winner. I took my bow home, strung it up and let some arrows fly. I managed to hit the 3D target in the kill zone several times at 20 and 30 yards. This was the first time in 25 years I have shot a recurve that fit me, a recurve that felt good, really good. After a few more shots I could see myself in a tree with this bow in my hand on some cold fall day. What this old piece of wood has done for me is immeasurable, making me step outside my comfort zone. It’s been nice not to worry about feet per second, setting sights or tuning rests. This bow is all about me and the arrow, nothing else. Getting back to basics is what this bow is about. This bow has no place for sights and the rest is the shelve cut in the riser. Simple I know, but I can’t wait to hunt like Fred Bear and Howard Hill did many years ago. My learning curve will be huge at best with this bow, I’ll have to practice a lot this summer. Some might ask why at this point in my life I would make things harder on myself. I can say that I don’t have a definite answer to that question. It could be that I want to touch a part of our hunting heritage. It could be a sub conscious need to simplify life in general I can’t say for sure but that’s part of the fun. I’ll still hunt with my compound bow but now I’ll hunt some with my old Fred Bear recurve too. A different type of hunting I can’t wait to try, I’m stepping outside of my confront zone all because of this old bow. |
