Learning Recurve

Everyone remembers their first bow. It’s a special thing, weather you come from a family who can afford a space-aged piece of equipment, or your disinterested parents only get you an antique for your 12^th Christmas. Such was the case I found myself in one blustery Christmas. I had watched my uncles and cousins practice all the time when we visited my grandparents, but I was never allowed to come out and play. So you can imagine my jubilation when I finally was presented with my Bear Whitetail Hunter, which was already over 20 years old at that point.

It wasn’t as flashy or powerful as what my buddies had, but it was mine and I was grateful. I shot that poor old bow for all I was worth. I jumped at every opportunity to take my favorite toy afield. The more I shot the more determined I was to master the craft and make my first kill. Time went on and I had a number of misadventures. It always seemed like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I abandoned my old, faithful bow for newer models I hoped would increase my chances. Naturally, the better my skill and equipment got, the further away the critters stayed.

Despite my frustrations, mishaps, screw-ups, illusions, impatience, and general silliness I stuck with it. I managed to harvest hogs, rams, and even an alligator. Still, I was hell-bent, obsessed, and determined to kill a whitetail deer. Twenty years of practice, expense, and heartache only seemed to sharpen my resolve. If there’s a trick in the book you can rest assured I tried it. If I were to add up all the money I had spent trying to make this one bow-kill the deer’s meat would be so expensive it would make a pound of the best Kobe beef in the world seem like a box of Steak-ums.

Nevertheless, I kept trying. My last season of hunting in my native Pennsylvania found me in a grove of trees on the border of my family’s farm. I had been seeing a lot of sign and set my climbing stand up in several spots before I found a trail that was well used. There I found a small herd of 6 doe who travelled through the patch rather frequently. The only trouble was there was one doe who was a lot bigger, and a hell of a lot smarter than the rest. Sun to my back, wind to my face, she managed to bust me every time.

On one occasion, my heart hammered away in my chest as I watched the heard come down the trail towards my location. As they approached they all split up to munch on the abundant acorns that had fallen around my stand. I focused on one of the middle size members of the herd and waited for my moment. I waited, doing all I could to contain my breathing, until my intended kill turned her head and began eating again. I was in full predator mode, and totally locked on my target. The moment was right, the position was perfect, and I drew my bow.

That’s when it all happened. In the matter of a few short seconds I heard the loud, sharp snort of a whitetail deer followed by the thumping of hoof on forest floor. Still at full draw, I turned my head to the right to look past my hand. There, in a regal and extremely rigid stance, stood the big doe. While I was so focused on my target she had managed to sneak around behind me and patiently watch for me to move. When I had drawn my bow she snorted, stomped, and scared off the rest of the herd. The moment ended with me standing in my treestand, my bow at full draw, my heart in hyperdrive, and my patience stretched.

Two days later I found myself in very much the same position. Settled in my treestand I had sworn to avenge my damaged pride. After an hour or two I caught a flicker of movement coming down the trail towards me. It was my illusive herd of deer coming from a thicket downhill from where I situated my treestand. The big doe cautiously led the herd up the trail towards me. She had managed to snort and stomp my hopes to death three times that week and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. Though the herd was a distance of 70 plus yards I drew my bow and got in position to make my shot.

I stood diligently and waited. It may have been 30 seconds, or it may have been 30 minutes. I can’t really say for certain. All I knew was the let-off on my bow wasn’t feeling too good after a time. I began to shake more and more as the deer leisurely and cautiously approached me. Finally, the bane of my bowhunting existence stepped within 30 yards of me. It was all my tired arms could do to hold the string back on my Hoyt Turbohawk. I put my pin on the big doe’s boiler room and let the arrow fly.

A fraction of a second later there was a sharp crack of arrow punching through bone, accompanied by the guttural noise of a final, surprised breath rushing out of my victim. But the big doe was still on her feet and running. I watched her dart away, completely perplexed. It wasn’t until several seconds later I looked back to the spot I had shot at. It was then I realized I misjudged the distance the big doe had stood. She had been standing broadside, slightly further than 30 yards from me. My arrow had passed completely underneath her and struck the smallest of the herd, who was coming up the hill in a direct line towards my position.

So, my first whitetail bow kill turned out to be a complete miss. My precious, and lamentably overprices ACC arrow would’ve skipped a hundred yards down through the hollow had it not by a stroke of luck hit squarely above the brisket of the little doe, killing her instantly. Mother nature had begun to open the skies and I soon found myself drenched, but on cloud-nine. It had been 22 long, hard years and I finally had an arrow drenched in the blood of a whitetail. hit squarely above the brisket of the little doe, killing her instantly. Mother Nature had begun to open the skies and I soon found myself drenched, but on cloud-nine. It had been 22 long, hard years and I finally had an arrow drenched in the blood of a whitetail.

Writing this now, years later, I come to the grim realization that after all that work, money, practice, and determination my bow hunting skills really aren’t that good. In point of fact, humanity probably would’ve staved out pretty quick if they had my skill. My first bow kill was a literal, complete miss. But I, like so many others, remained devoted to this day. In point of fact, I’ve gotten worse about my obsession. Through various projects I’ve taken on I began to get curious about the origins of archery. This led me to explore how the whole thing got started.

Fred Bear once said “The history of the bow and arrow is the history of mankind.” In my study I learned there are very few scholars who can really say where the bow and arrow made its appearance on the stage of human development. Most scientists believe it got its beginning sometime about 64,000 years ago. There are several schools of thought about the exact location and manner where the bow and arrow was developed. Most scholars agree the bow and arrow was developed around the end of the Paleolithic period.

What makes the time frame so difficult to nail down is climate. For example, locations in Africa that are primarily desert tend to preserve ancient tools better than other areas with a wetter climate. Therefore, archaeological evidence of what, where, when, why, and how certain tools were used is often lost. What is clear is the invention of the bow and arrow made human-kind a far more lethal predator. This one simple tool enabled us to make our way up the food chain a few more links.

There are a number of theories regarding the actual development of the first bow and arrow. Many believe it was first developed in Africa. There are few scientists who claim to know how ancient peoples developed the bow and arrow. Many of the first arrowheads ever made have been found in African archaeological sites. In a nutshell, someone on the African plains needed a better way to feed the tribe and found a way to utilize two levers as a power source to launch a projectile. This allowed humanity to advance a few links up the food chain.

As these ancient peoples traveled and shared ideas across India and other lands the idea of the bow and arrow spread. Different materials and conditions allowed the original idea to change as it was passed along the miles and years leading to our modern rendition of a bow and arrow. Different tribes and societies suddenly found they could harvest a beast from a distance without spending as many calories. While ancient humans didn’t necessarily think in terms of calories the basic principal of gaining as much return for as little investment as possible undoubtedly drove early humans to perfect this new and improved weapon.

Sadly, Father War also got his hands on the bow and arrow. Further modifications were made for this purpose, allowing the bow and arrow to be as effective in killing humans as it was in killing animals. These modifications came about long before the formation of any organized military in human history. There is archaeological evidence in North America, Africa, and Europe that suggests native peoples had long ago figured out if you situated a two-bladed point on an arrow in a vertical position it would strike the target on the horizontal. This was perfect to allow an arrow to pass between the ribs of a man. Likewise, if you fixed the point on the arrow horizontally it would strike in the vertical position, allowing it to pass through the ribs of an animal. Seems ancient humans weren’t the silly cave people we mistook them for.

How ancient humans made arrows is a topic that can’t be easily discussed. The methods varied from using saplings to scraping wooden shafts to make them straight as possible. Humanity had already been well acquainted with spears by the time the bow and arrow came along, so making a wooden stick fly straight wasn’t an unfamiliar concept. It’s hard to say where the idea to attach feathers to an end of the arrow came from, but it was an incredible achievement as the accuracy of the projectile was dramatically improved.

Even ancient humans knew there was an art to tuning an arrow to get the most effectiveness. Arrow points began as a sharpened piece of stone and eventually became a 2, then 3, then 4 bladed fixture as the centuries progressed. The feathers didn’t change much over the course of the millennia. Pitch from sappy trees was often used to glue the arrows together and sinew from animals was commonly used a thread. As humans learned to build better a bow they learned to wrap the end of the shaft where the string fits into the arrow so the shaft won’t split when the string is released. Later, European versions, used inserts made of bull horn to reinforce the shaft of the arrow so the more powerful bows wouldn’t destroy the arrow.

For many thousands of years the bow itself was a simple stick and string. The shelf, where the arrow is launched from, was actually the archers hand and the bow itself would bend in the middle. This made the bows more challenging to shoot, but no less effective. The actual draw weight of the bow depended on the types of wood available and materials to make a stronger string. Later Europeans built some of the best bows, achieving draw weights up to 120 pounds. It has been speculated Robin Hood’s bow was in the 110 to 120 pound range.

Different advances took place at different times, and in different places in the archery world. At some point, about 3,000 years ago, someone figured out if you added some curvature to the limbs of the bow you could increase the power. Thus, the recurve bow was born. Somebody also figured out you could glue different materials together to make stronger limbs, hence a more powerful bow. From there it was just a matter of time before the two ideas met and created a new and improved instrument. After a time, the shelf was added to standard bow designs, and the modern looking recurve bow was up and running.

There were thousands of years of hit and miss changes made to bows. Many such changes have been lost in obscurity, claimed by different cultures, and generally bastardized to fit the needs of the times. Bows have always been useful tools, but their popularity as a recreational item didn’t become prominent until about sometime in the 1800’s. From there we can see a few times of interest and disinterest among people. In the 1920’s several engineering companies took an interest in producing archery equipment.

This interest is what ultimately led to the development of the machines riser recurve bows and compound bows. However, it was a slow start as marketing these new toys proved to be a slow arduous process. It was sometime after World War II, in Detroit, Michigan, when a little known bow maker discovered he could reinforce the bows limbs with fiberglass to increase the power of the bow. He made and sold his bows out his garage in the time after he lost his job at the Ford Motor Company. This was the God-father of archery, Fred Bear.

At that time there were plenty of bow makers like Fred Bear. But Bear had a unique appraisal of his surroundings. He knew he had a good product and needed to find a way to get the word out. At a point Fred Bear took a cameraman on a hunt. He did the filming for most of the journey until the hunting party came upon the animal. Then Fred Bear would pass the camera back to the cameraman, who in turn would film the kill shot. This became Bear’s practice and the videos he produced helped him show the world how well his bows worked. It was an overnight success and soon people were jumping into the world of bowhunting.

This leads us back to my beloved Bear Whitetail Hunter I got for Christmas so many years ago. This was among the first compound bows that was produced and marketed in mass. The engineers who began making bows powered by compound pulleys and the guys making recurve bows got together and pushed the bow and arrow ahead once again. They laid the foundation for what would develop into a major American industry over the next 80 short years.

64 millennia, countless creative minds, unknown numbers of trials and errors, and infinitive combinations of materials have left the modern novice or prospective archer with an incredible amount of options for their shooting pleasure. Long bows, recurve bows, and vintage compound bows are for sale all over the place. New bow dealers are never far away either. You can spend anywhere from $50 to over $2,000 on your gear. Whatever way you decide to go the time on the range will be soul-cleansing that almost anything else you can do, except for maybe fishing but that’s a topic for another day.

“Nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow.” – Fred Bear