Going All Trad

The text message was short, simple and to the point “I’m going full traditional this hunting season

- Aron Snyder

”This text went out to my closest friends (some traditional guys and some compound), and I wasn’t sure what response I’d get back from them. The trad guys, of course, were supportive and encouraging, while the compound guys were…baffled I guess? They weren’t negative about the switch, but definitely curious why in the heck anyone would go from shooting a compound to a trad bow for no actual reason that made much sense. I could understand their point and figured I’d have said the same if the roles had been reversed.

My initial reason for putting the compound down and picking up a recurve were as simple as could be: I did a podcast talking about ethical shooting distance and got a lot of blowback from the traditional archery community. The majority of comments, mostly through email, were the same, “learn how to hunt” or “getting close is what it’s all about” and my personal favorite, “if you picked up a recurve you wouldn’t kill anything!” So I figured, what the heck, I’ll give it a try and see if it’s as difficult as they say or if they are just using a trad bow as an excuse to come home empty handed.

Fast-forward five months from when that text was sent out and I find myself in British Columbia with Primitive Outfitters on a spot-and-stalk black bear hunt. This hunt was a last minute type of thing, and we only had a couple days to get it done before flying home. That type of schedule doesn’t normally worry me, but I now was packing a weapon that I wasn’t very familiar with, and even if I had been, it wasn’t exactly the most proficient thing when compared to what I’d been using.