What does "Traditional" mean to you ?

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

What does "traditional" really mean?

Synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus include:

Old, legendary, unwritten, handed down, customary, conventional, understood, admitted, recognized, acknowledged, received, time-honored, immemorial, long-standing, established, fixed, inveterate, rooted, historical, legendary, chronological, biographical, conventional, customary, popular, formal, stipulated, established, fixed, accepted, recognized, acknowledged, approved, correct, right, proper, according to use or custom.

This breadth of meaning allows this word to mean all kinds of things to different people.

As a "Traditional" bowhunter, I feel that because I use a bow that uses the limbs and string for energy, without the use of cables, or pullies, cams, I am using "traditional" equipment.
When Archery seasons were established, there was no "traditional" distinction, there was just Archery...
there were aluminum arrows, stabalizers, release aids, etc...
Yes, most hunters made their own equipment, but that was mostly due to availability and cost.
Whenever the discussion turns to "traditional'' someone always brings up using "primitive" equipment (make your own bow from a tree branch, whittle your own shafts, and use a stone arrow head), in my opinion, that would only be "traditional" if you were a native, as those responsible for me being able to hunt with a bow made recurves out of laminated wood and fiberglass, aluminum and fiberglass arrows (along with wood) and steel broadheads.
Those that taught me about archery, and bowhunting began hunting with archery equipment during the 1900's, not the 1800's, so Tradition to me is continuing with their example.
Just like my own "family traditions" we call it tradition because we continue to do it like we have been, whether it is celebrating a holiday, opening day of fishing season, annual camping trips, etc...
I suppose, if your father hunted with a compound, and that is all you have ever used, you could call it "Traditional", but to me, it is using a simple bow that bends, and one string.
What does Traditional mean to you ?

[TeacherMan]

Not using my 6.5-20x50 Leupold on my 7mm Abolt with Boss and bipod but using my 243 with only a 4-12x40 and no bipod 

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

 
I guess along those lines, my daughter hunting with my fathers old Mod '94 would be "Traditional Rifle" , at least until she was big enough to carry his Zouave .54...

[lokidog]

To me, the word "traditional" conjures images of longbows and recurves and big razor blade tips that you had to sharpen yourself, oh and a leather "glove".  I know my dad didn't use one of these for archery in the seventies but I can't picture what he did use.  I started with a four pulley Bear Whitetail Hunter, a mixed batch of aluminum arrow hand-me-downs, bear broadheads (still have the scar from installing a freshly sharpened one with heat glue), and a three finger glove, at about age fourteen (1978), so compounds are my "traditional" archery equipment.

[quadrafire]

Sunday dinner at Granny's, black and white TV with no remote, cut off blue jean shorts, eating meals as a family "at the table", meat and potatoes included in all meals with loaf of white bread on the table, prayer before eating, single speed bikes (and no helmet), mercuricrom for the wounds inflicted  by bike accidents, riding the bus to school, no organized sports other than school activities, no play-dates (just play all day), Friday movie night, popcorn with real butter, fish fries with the neighborhood, the smell of Dad's old spice, a big garden and canned vegetables, cruising the strip in highshool, (gas was cheap then) cars with handles to roll down the windows and no airconditioning.

As far as archery I think of longbows/recurves
as traditional even though my first bow was a bear compound with the wheels haning on brackets

[PlateauNDN]

Sunday dinner at Granny's, black and white TV with no remote, cut off blue jean shorts, eating meals as a family "at the table", meat and potatoes included in all meals with loaf of white bread on the table, prayer before eating, single speed bikes (and no helmet), mercuricrom for the wounds inflicted  by bike accidents, riding the bus to school, no organized sports other than school activities, no play-dates (just play all day), Friday movie night, popcorn with real butter, fish fries with the neighborhood, the smell of Dad's old spice, a big garden and canned vegetables, cruising the strip in highshool, (gas was cheap then) cars with handles to roll down the windows and no airconditioning.    Man, I sure miss sunday dinners and cruising the blvd. in high school without the worry of being shot at, just a good ole' fist fight, 1on1.  Play outside until your hungry and then go back outside until your tired.  Medicine?  what's that?  Band-aid?  Never heard of it.  If you were sick a laid in bed and sweated it out, now pay hundreds of dollars for some drugs and a dr. visit that took longer than the sickness itself.  you get sick at school, you went to the nurses off and missed recess, you get the slightest of warm forehead you have to go home.  

As far as archery I think of longbows/recurves
as traditional even though my first bow was a bear compound with the wheels haning on brackets

[Machias]

Sunday dinner at Granny's, black and white TV with no remote, cut off blue jean shorts, eating meals as a family "at the table", meat and potatoes included in all meals with loaf of white bread on the table, prayer before eating, single speed bikes (and no helmet), mercuricrom for the wounds inflicted  by bike accidents, riding the bus to school, no organized sports other than school activities, no play-dates (just play all day), Friday movie night, popcorn with real butter, fish fries with the neighborhood, the smell of Dad's old spice, a big garden and canned vegetables, cruising the strip in highshool, (gas was cheap then) cars with handles to roll down the windows and no airconditioning.

As far as archery I think of longbows/recurves
as traditional even though my first bow was a bear compound with the wheels haning on brackets

 

[blackveltbowhunter]

  To me its any bow without wheels. And released by the hand of the shooter. Doesnt matter what its made of.

[jaymark6655]

recurve or striaght bows without any type of sights, wood arrows, Magnus 2 blade broadheads and real feathers for the fletchings or muzzleloaders with precussion or flint side lock style no inline crap

  now I want to go buy some new gear  love the new bow, but I miss the first one now

[pianoman9701]

Longbows and recurves for traditional archery, although technology certainly has made these instruments far from primitive.

[jaymark6655]

Longbows and recurves for traditional archery, although technology certainly has made these instruments far from primitive.

I know even my 70s recurve used a fiberglass laminate for the limbs.  I figure maybe it doesnt mattersince back in the day some people were laminating their bows with hides or rattlesnake to get more power.

[popeshawnpaul]

What was traditional back when we got our archery seasons?  It wasn't a new laminated recurve, fast flight string, replaceable razor heads, and carbon shafts.  To me, if you truly want traditional then make your bow, make your string, find your feathers, make your glue and attach it to your wood shaft you made.  Oh, and chip your head from rock or forge your own steel head.  That's how it was done for thousands of years and anyone that feels good about themselves because their bow doesn't have a wheel is fooling themselves.  If you look at archery equipment from the time it was invented to now, the equipment considered "traditional" by many are all recent advancements in equipment in the last 50 or so years.  This is a small amount of time in technology compared to the thousands of years of how it was traditionally done. 

[pianoman9701]

What was traditional back when we got our archery seasons?  It wasn't a new laminated recurve, fast flight string, replaceable razor heads, and carbon shafts.  To me, if you truly want traditional then make your bow, make your string, find your feathers, make your glue and attach it to your wood shaft you made.  Oh, and chip your head from rock or forge your own steel head.  That's how it was done for thousands of years and anyone that feels good about themselves because their bow doesn't have a wheel is fooling themselves.  If you look at archery equipment from the time it was invented to now, the equipment considered "traditional" by many are all recent advancements in equipment in the last 50 or so years.  This is a small amount of time in technology compared to the thousands of years of how it was traditionally done.

Are you possibly confusing "traditional" with "primitive"?

[mfswallace]

hunting muleys in the sage with a 30/30 open sight rifle that my pa left me 

[popeshawnpaul]

What was traditional back when we got our archery seasons?  It wasn't a new laminated recurve, fast flight string, replaceable razor heads, and carbon shafts.  To me, if you truly want traditional then make your bow, make your string, find your feathers, make your glue and attach it to your wood shaft you made.  Oh, and chip your head from rock or forge your own steel head.  That's how it was done for thousands of years and anyone that feels good about themselves because their bow doesn't have a wheel is fooling themselves.  If you look at archery equipment from the time it was invented to now, the equipment considered "traditional" by many are all recent advancements in equipment in the last 50 or so years.  This is a small amount of time in technology compared to the thousands of years of how it was traditionally done.

Are you possibly confusing "traditional" with "primitive"?

No.  All archery hunting is primitive according to WDFW and most archery groups.