Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: yazoo on January 06, 2009, 04:18:20 pm
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name top 10 people who has made biggest contribution to primitive archery?
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...to primitive archery or to today's archery?
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my list
jay massey
jim hamn
tim baker
gary davis
bernnie swank
glenn st. charles
fred bear
Ishi
al herrin
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mostly primitive archery but they over lap ,you will notice fred bear on my list,mostly shot lam , bows but he put the bow bug in a lot of us,
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I don't think thats really as easy a question as it might appear. To me it is more of a generational thing. We have guys today, partly because of the internet who have made huge contributions just by sharing their work and knowledge. I think you would have to include this sights moderators in that group. Jawge, has helped endless new commers get started. Tim Baker, Tom Mills over at paleo planet, Jim Hamm, Dean Torges, The owner of PA magaizine and this sight ( don't know his name LOL) I have several personnal heroes that have contributed a lot to me. I suspect Dave Mimms could also be included in this group. Pat and Mark St Louis have been showing and helping for years now. Probably lots of local guys who have kept it alive and well in their own areas who we never heard of. Steve
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I know its a tough question. but I think it is interesting conversation,look forward to every ones point of view.
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In addtion to Jawge, I think Badger's name must be included.
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Very interesting question....I'll try to answer. ;D
The top ten people who have made the biggest contribution to primitive archery (in recent years):
1 Experimental archaeologists
2 Reconstruction archaeologists
3 Primitive technologists
4 Atlatl enthusiasts
5 Wilderness survivalists
6 People who host archery forums (on the net)
7 People who host archery events (outdoors)
8 Bored people
9 Generous people
10 Kids
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Jack, mostly bored people!! LOL. Steve
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Trick question. Too many faces and names to narrow it down to 10.
Tracy
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how about naming the people who inspired you the most that should make it a little easier , the one person who inspired me the most It was june 16 1987 when I recieved a copy of the bowyers craft by jay massey I have not been right since,when I cut my finger I bleede orange,I have split around 15000 bow staves mostly osage,yes that is a conservative estmate,I have made 15 osage blanks today, thats what primitive archery means to me, and I owe it all to jay, I hope he is listening I am grateful.
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other than the folks on thissite i really dont know any other primitive archers.
there are several on this site that have inspired me since i have been doing this.
there are several that motivate me.
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Badger..... :D...very true O:)
I guess the one person that has inspired me the most is the person who outbid me on ebay when I tried to buy a real Sioux archery set (bow and two arrows). I don't know the person's name but I know he was an "antiques" vendor who later broke up the set and sold the pieces separately for a quick buck. Thanks, crap head......Now I can make my own Sioux-style archery set. ;D
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I have to admit...Jay Massey and the Bowyers Craft got me started and probably in '87 too. Then Paul Comstock with the bent stick. The authors of The Bowyers Bible(1st edition) then Primitive Archer Magazine then everybody on this wonderful site.
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I gotta say that my list is....
Me
Me
Me
ME
Me
Yours Truly
My excellence
The one who looks back at me in the mirror every morning
Myself
I
and....there's one more....
Oh yeah, Mr. Me!!
LOL
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i would have to say robin hood first and far most and then all the cowboys and indian movies of about 25-28 yrs ago... not to mention all the mid evil movies and charachters when i was growing up and then of coarse there were the ninja's that also shot the arrow in there arsanal that gave me an influance when i was growing up.... lol... but seroiusly... those were the first inspirations taht got me involed in archery and back almost 28-29 yrs ago when i was about 6-7 yrs old that up through my tenage yrs is when my archery was at its most primitive becuase all i had was bows and arrows i made for an example of what i saw in those old movies...lol...
that and what i could harvest from the woods and build from a pocket knife and some sring...
sooo i would have to say number one is :
any old school movie that showed that indian shooting that bow or the mid evil knights, archers or those ninja's man...
thats what did it for me...
and jsut now recantly that i have been working with these kids in our outdoors team am i learning how to do things right and learn and recongize the big hero's and mentors... wish i had this sight when i was growing up..lol... but im just fortunant enough to have it now...
anyways i wish i knew of the fred bear's and the famous arthers of books and famous bow builders along time ago... hell i wish i knew them now...
im just tickled to death that im able to come on here today and convers with some of the best bow makers of this time... not to mention that i think there are some today's legends that log on here from time to time and give advice... thats why i'm probably on here everyday ready to learn and picking at this type board... ;)
but anyways i wish i knew enough to have a list of top ten...
but for now... i'm just happy i have the comments and knowledge of more than 10 people at my finger tips...
;) ;D
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I don't know if you would call what I do Primitive archery,I build wood bows.After saying that I really don't have a full list but I would say Gary Davis,Mike Conkle and many of the guys on this site have inspired me to do what I do.All of the above mentioned books and people that wrote them have also played a big part in keeping me going.I also now have a lot of good friends GregB ,BigA,Jimmy,Jesse that are into it and keep me inspired. :)
Pappy
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My Old man. As a little kid I would look at the old Black and white pictures a him and his friends shootin a old Ben Pearson longbow. Then I would look at the bow and the arrows with the skelleton broadheads hangin on the wall. I was mistified by em. When I was 12 he gave em to me. It was 60# @ 28". It took me a little growin, before I could pull it back, so he gave me a 25# recurve (un-named) to practice with. Then a 35# Bear recurve. I grew into the bow and hunted with it till it developed a failure in the handel finger joints. I repaired it by re-gluein it and puttin a wood pin in it, but retired it. Now it hangs on my wall and I build my own. I still look up at it with fond memories.
TheWildCat
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My first inspiration came from BigA over 20 years ago when he talked me into cutting an osage and trying to make a bow. He had read Jay Massey's book, and lent it to me to read. There wasn't anyone else around for us to ask questions, and I nevered finished that bow. A local guy name Mike Concle really got me into it when I was attending a Twin Oaks shoot with my son and Mike was there with osage staves for sell. I got to be friends with Mike and his friend Scott Weber and made my first several bows with their involvement. Then I got to be friends with Pappy, and he introduced me to the PA website and its wealth of knowledgable people willing to help. Guess I should also mention another friend Jan Davis that 25 years ago was shooting a bear recurve when everyone else around including me was shooting compounds. He tried to explain it to me at that time, but I just didn't get it. I haven't been able to get in touch with Jan who last I knew lived in Conway, Arkansas....I'd love to make him a bow! ;)
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i would have to say robin hood first and far most and then all the cowboys and indian movies of about 25-28 yrs ago...
wow i must have really been partying hard in my teen years cause i never realized they made many indian movies in the early-mid 80's. lol
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lol sailordad...
hell i dont remember what movies they were but i remember they were black and white... and might have been just tv shows on sat and sundays... hell i remember watching trarzan and the lone ranger... and i also remember alot of old westerns... anyways i remember taht stuff and seeing those old shows and me and my friends playing cowboys and indians... my first bow was made out of a wooden coat hanger with thick rubberbands as a string that i shot the cardboard bottom's of a wire coat hanger.... and that was the firt bow i made and was my true first bow.. i didnt know any better i just imitated what i saw on tv... but it shot...lol... i played with that thing for weeks and made reapairs to it... god i must have been about 6-7yrs old... played with that until one of my uncels saw waht i was doing and took me out side to my back yard and showed me what a thin straight brach and some nylon mason string could do... and then found another thin straight stick and made it into an arrow for me... it shot wierd and crocked but then he told me i'll have to find you some feathers for your arrow... rubed my head and walked home... and that left me with the advance knowledge of how to make a bow and arrow from trees and bushes... it wasnt long befor i was making better ones and trying all kinds of stuff and then all us nieghbor hood kids ended up with stick bows...lol... we didnt play with them everyday... but sure enough on occasion i was making a new one becuase the one i had either got throughn away or broken... \
but yea thats how i started and i would have to say for me... my top ten would be those old flicks and the legend of robin hood...
i mean had it not been for that i would have probably never got the opertunity to know what archery was.... i had to self learn but it has always been a part of my life... you would think that with me pulling a bow since about 6-7 i would actually be good with it...hahaha not soo... i never had real good bow or one that i could actually hunt with till probably about 7 yrs ago when i finaly went out and bought a bear recurve...
sorry people im getting off topic...my bad..
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Very interesting thread - good idea. Jay Massey would certainly be close to #1.
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ive been thinking this over and i posted earlier that i didnt realy know any primitive archers other than here,but the one person
that introduced me to archery would be an uncle of mine.
he taught me when i was a youngster 6-8 yrs old or so.
back then never knew what a compund was,dont think they were around yet.he shot trad very well,won many tournaments lots of trophies.
i gave it up as a teen,got back into archery with a wheel bow.
now i have gone primitive and my uncle wont even shoot his recurves or long bows any more, kinda ironic i think
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My dad broken hand is the reason I first braced a bow, his passion for the hunt, rubbed off on me at a very early age.. and archery was the cornerstone of my youthful life. Fred bear, Howard Hill ,Ishi were names I heard at the dinner table... There are so many who have contributed to our sport, most are humble men who didn't contribute for the glory but rather because of a passion or obsession toward archery... I can relate as can most all of us on this site...you never know some day the future generations may say guys like Pappy, Marc st louis, Cowboy, Wolf watcher, Pat B..etc... those guys were the real deal.....it could happen ;) HAWK a/ho
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traditional bowyers bibles, and the people on this site, and You tube And................
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name top 10 people who has made biggest contribution to primitive archery?
I'm quite sure I don't know their names. But they were on this continent long before the English language was. Every time you see someone type _________ replica or __________ style bow it was a Native who made the original. 8)
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Well said bro... Hawk a/ho
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I don't have any hero's but I do appreciate each and every person that has contributed to archery, from Neolithic man to modern man :)
But mostly the fine folks on this site as the information is free and no one is trying to profit from their knowledge.
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I'm like Pappy. I don't really consider my work "primitive" I just like making wooden bows. I probally wouldnt be making bows today though if it werent for the bowyers bible books. They were what got me started in the right direction.
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I hope you are feeling better you did not look good at lbl?
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i'll say the people who wrote the bowyers bibles, torges books, and everyone who was on the old pa site had a ton of influence in my archer adventure.
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I have to admit my dad is at the top. He got my brothers and I into archery and it was up to him that I even started building bows
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marc if you learned from your dad,he must have been one hell of a bowyer/mentor,cause your work is outstanding and inspiring in itself.
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Oh geeze! I'd have to say that NECESSITY ranks as number one :D! But As Ryano and Pappy said, my bows aren't primitive. They're wooden. And I like them that way :).
Any contributor who's tried to help others along, to build their own bows, and wrote about it all for the world to see.
Howard Hill cretainly showed the world what a wooden (or bamboo in his case) bow can do.
Will and Maurice Thompson seemed to have brought bow hunting as it is to the whites of America.
The Native Americans, as well as any indiginouse people out there, have showed what lethal and efficient weapons the are (they wouldn't be here if they weren't).
Saxton Pope, and definately Art Young brought about the thrills of Robin Hood to the U.S.
And all the contributors of the Bowyer's Bibles have brought the information necessary for beginners to work a stick into a bow to the twentieth century for everyone to enjoy.
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WE are what makes "primitive" archery what it is today. Twenty years ago there were a handful of folks making wood bows. It's almost like the way archery was originally developed all over the world at about the same time. The flood gates opened, human nature took over and Man has again developed "primitive" archery. It's likely that there is more knowledge of "primitive" archery at any given time on this website than there was in general when Primitive Archer Magazine was first published.
We are the ones doing the experimenting...using different woods that nobody would have used 10 years ago...pushing the envelope with techniques and design. I think the Thompson Brothers are responsible for modern American archery and its popularity.