This is my first post here on primitive archer. Some of you may know me, from my family and I's travels this summer in Michigan. While I am new to traditional & primitive archery, I learned to hunt with a bow from my father 25 years ago. During college and my early adult life I set aside hunting, but 5 years ago decided it was time to pick up a bow and hunt once again, so that I could pass it on to my 5 sons.
This last winter, I was introduced to traditional archery by a dear friend of mine when he invited me to go to the Kalamazoo Traditional Archery Expo. We joined the Michigan Longbow Association while at Kalamazoo, and planned to attend their spring member shoot in May of 2013.
We had never camped, gone to a 3D shoot, my wife had never shot a bow, and I would receive my first longbow just a week before that event. We bought a tent, rented a uhal trailer to bring enough gear for a family of 7. This experience propelled my wife and I in a direction neither of us expected.
After the MLA Spring Shoot, we bought a camper (as my 40 year old body did not agree with sleeping on the ground in a tent) to pull behind our Ford E350 van, spent some time at 3Rivers, and went to Marshal for their primitive rendezvous. There I was introduced to self-bow making and finished my first self-bow, with which I plan to hunt this fall.
When all is said in done this year we will have gone to over a dozen traditional archery events in Michigan, Indiana and a knap-in in Flint Ridge Ohio.
I look forward to getting to know more of the primitive archery family. Hopefully I will be able to pay forward the amazing generosity of time, talent, and material that we have been shown this year in the coming years.
If there is anyone from Indiana, near Indianapolis, would like to find a way to link up and talk primitive archery over a beverage.
Thanks,
Chris
