Archery deer-hunting season is fast approaching and one can tell by reading this page's calendar of outdoors events that myriad 3-D archery shoots are helping archers get on target.
A recent event at the Lancaster Archery Club on Eckman Avenue in West Willow, just south of Lancaster city, appeared to be a bit different. The club hosted a 3-D shoot, but all archers used traditional longbows, recurve bows and self-made bows. In other words, no cables, pulleys or wheels were in sight; it was a good look, too.
There were some very good shooters with excellent scores, and everyone appeared to have fun.
Ron Kuhn, 68, a retired Lancaster city police officer, shot the course and found it to his liking. Kuhn lives in Willow Street and has several full-size 3-D deer targets spread about his property so he can practice regularly. For Kuhn, traditional archery is not just a sport, it is a mindset.
Married with two adult sons and daughters, Kuhn's traditional-archery hobby shares time with another blast from the past, black-powder shooting. He is a member of the Lancaster County Muzzleloader Rifle Club and enjoys participating in black-powder shoots and attending Rendezvous, a modern-day reliving of the time when trappers from the Rocky Mountains and surrounding regions showed up for a week or so of festivities while selling their furs and purchasing supplies for the upcoming year.
Mountainmen from the day were a boisterous, competitive, aggressive lot and loved to compete among themselves to see who was best at rifle shooting, tomahawk throwing, wrestling, arm wrestling, racing (horses and on foot), drinking and whatever else came to their mind.
A county native, Kuhn started shooting a bow when he was 8. Much of his early experience started when Rob Kaufhold's grandfather, Robert, ran a summer archery program for the Lancaster city recreation program. Rob Kaufhold owns and operates Lancaster Archery Supply.
When he was young, Kuhn hunted rabbits and pheasants ("when we had plenty of both," he said) with his dad and uncles.
He fished the Conestoga River with a great-uncle near Terre Hill. "My great-uncle had the best secret recipe for carp there was," Kuhn said.
Traditional archery is the thing that Kuhn has stayed with the longest.
"I have a compound bow to shoot indoors," Kuhn said, "but all my other shooting, including hunting, is done with a longbow."
For about five years, Kuhn's son Craig had a small business making traditional bows and equipment.
"I helped him some, with lamination," Kuhn said. "He made entire bows."
Kuhn said Craig was mentored by a bowyer from Fox Archery in Oregon.
"The gentleman taught Craig well," Kuhn said. "He was certainly a craftsman."
Kuhn said they would buy wooden shafts — made of cedar, ash or maple — by the hundreds from Allegheny Woods, near Coudersport in Potter County.
"We dressed them up, put fletching and other accessories on them and sold them," he said.
He said they did a few from scratch, but it was a very long process and tough to make money on.
I took note of some of Kuhn's leather work, and liked it, even though it is not fancy. It is sound and attractive, though.
"I buy good leather from an Amishman near Strasburg and make back quivers, finger tabs and protective arm guards so the bow's string doesn't hurt your forearm," Kuhn said.
Kuhn surprised me by saying that some compound-bow diehards still use finger tabs to protect their fingers because they do not shoot with a release device.
"I shoot as much as I can to remain accurate and in shape to draw my 55-pound bow," Kuhn said.
He pointed out that most modern archers usually have to go to lower draw weights when switching to a traditional bow because compound bows are so much easier to draw and hold while aligning a shot or awaiting a deer moving into the perfect range.
Not being an archery buff, I did not know that many of the old-time archers in our country used bows with very heavy draw weights.
"Howard Hill [considered by many to be the world's greatest archer] shot a bow of about 100-pound draw-weight," Kuhn said. "I once saw a photo of him after he worked out and he was extremely muscular in his back, shoulders and upper arms. He was said to have done 1,000 push-ups daily during his shooting days."
Kuhn expressed pleasure that he is seeing more manufacturers returning to traditional equipment, as well as more opportunity to shoot traditional bows in competitions.
"There are at least five clubs in Pennsylvania that hold traditional shoots," Kuhn said. "I'm sure most have Web sites providing information."
Kuhn laughed when I asked about shooting distances with archery equipment.
"I've seen shooting stakes [lines to shoot from] 60 yards from targets for modern, compound bows," Kuhn said. "When hunting, I won't shoot more than 18-20 yards."
"A nice thing about shooting traditional equipment is we don't have to carry and use range finders, binoculars, visual cards showing vital areas, etc.," Kuhn said with a laugh. "We can just go shoot.
"Traditional archery allows shooters and hunters to enjoy themselves and their hobby without getting overwhelmed with equipment, either carried or attached to the bow. After all these years, I still enjoy it."
• For more information, see
www.palongbow.com.
John McGonigle is outdoors editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at jmcgonigle@lnpnews.com.
