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Who was your inspiration?

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Zuma:
Thanks for the great contributions. I have enjoyed reading them and
checking out the clothing vintages. I need to find my pics.
Please post more if your memory is jogged.
I somehow remember having a bow with suction cup points. A present for a birthday I think.
Later on it was an inexpensive fiberglass bow shot in the back yard.
Our neighbor Frank Montgomery introduced me to the 1956 NJ state archery champ. Ed Chevernak..
They worked together. Ed had hunted with Howard Hill. I bought a Bear Grizzly and a dozen 4 fletch arrows made by Ed. We shot targets with the Musconetcong Bowman and I hunted with Frank until I joined the USAF at seventeen.
Great memories.
Zuma

bowtarist:
In fifth grade I got my first pellet gun. I went crazy on chipmunks in the woods north of my house. This is how I learned to skin. Once again taught to me by Eric Luse. I still have many of the skins. Several years later when I started trapping, Ed, the guy I sold hides to started buying whole animals and told me he skinned them himself cuz most folks cut holes in them. I started skinning for him for trade items, arrows, traps etc. and this went on through my high school years. I was using training wheels at this time though.  :-[ 

Dalton Knapper:
My real teachers and mentors were my parents who took me, my sister and my two brothers to scores of historic and prehistoric sites in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma (and beyond) during my childhood. We probably stopped the station wagon at every historical marker we ever saw. That sparked my interest in all things dealing with American Indians and the Old West.

Fast forward to college where I took an archeological methods & techniques class and learned about flint knapping for the first time. I suppose beyond that my first real introduction to knapping was Waldorf's book on the subject. The first good knapper I ever met was Bob Thomas of Arkansas. His knapping was (and still is) inspiring, but I wouldn't really call him a teacher. He did teach me a few things however, mostly to try and get good! After that I knapped with a particular buddy for years, honing my skills. I haven't met many knappers in person and I haven't been but to two knap ins, but there are way too many inspiring knappers who are willing to tell everything they know to count. Good folks.

The first time I ever knapped was in 1980 and I used a flake I found and a nail padded with masking tape. I'm still knapping today and I probably have a hundred points laying around, sold only a few and gave away lots.

Buckeye Guy:
The stories of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett most likely started my journeys
I took to the woods and streams soon as I could walk ,spent more time outdoors than in ever since I could walk only came in to eat or watch those type shows in black and white back then!
A man named Bob Post would take me hunting trapping and fishing when he would go which seemed to be most days and nights ! 
A neighbor man named Murry Woods taught me to shoot muzzle loading guns , he was a cousin of Anny Oakley
Ray Stahl really got me launched forward into archery
He owned Stahls archery and roseoak bows we built many bows and put together a lot of arrows
That is just a few of the folks that inspired me  , and that all happened before I was even old enough to drive
It has been a good ride with many folks to numerous to mention along the way !
By the mid 80s I had kinda slumped out of archery do to all the gagetry and gimmics that were dominating the scene but one day I picked up a mag that had a add for a new Mag called Primitive Archery and was off and running again , the third issue of that Mag had a add about a new shoot called the Marshall Primitive Archery Rendezvous  !
That shoot brought me full circle restored me to what I had longed for and was missing I owe much gratitude to it and the folks there , it would be hard to separate me from it and I will work to keep it going for as long as I have breath Passing it on is what it is all about
Thank you to all who have helped pass on the traditions
You are considered my family
Guy

paoliguy:
My mentor in most things was my Dad. He was a Chaplain in the National Guard and he spent a lot of time training in Grayling, MI. Being a Chaplain he worked with a lot of the locals through churches and events. He got to know a lot of the Bear Archery employees through this. When I was about 10 he took me to the Fred Bear Museum in Grayling. Oh wow, was I impressed! I signed up in the Fred Bear Sportsman's Club while there and few a weeks later on my birthday I had a brand new recurve in my hand.
He and I spent so much time together hunting and just shooting those recurves. I had no idea what all I was learning, I was just having fun. Now I have come full circle teaching my kids about all sorts of things. They both learned to shoot with that same recuve BTW. The last conversation I had with my Dad was about my son's (his only grandson) first ever deer season. My Dad passed away on the last day of deer season that year. I wish I could have spent more time in that conversation .....
My Dad was much more of a woodworker than an outdoorsman and through that the bow building bug set in on me. Many thanks go out to a number of folks on this site who helped and continue to help me in that journey!

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