How did you find out about PA??

[Hillbilly]

It's been so long ago I don't remember.

[JW_Halverson]

About 12 years ago I was building my first bow and the guy guiding me thru it had copies tattered and dogeared laying in piles everywhere.  I bought copies off the stand for years before getting a subscription.  I sometimes include a copy from the newsstand when I sell/give away a bow. Yeah, I get a little evangelical about spreading the affliction!

[Buckeye Guy]

The add in Traditional Bowhunter  !
The price seemed kinda high at first cause it was just a Quarterly but I would have sold gun to get it if I had to ! So giddy waiting for it to finally happen ! Since there was no one that really around to talk about self bows with !
Loved it to death when it came then about the third issue I spotted an add for a shoot in Marshall Michigan  , could it be true ! Yes there are others out there just as crazy as I !   I had heard of Norm Blaker but had not met him till then ! Thought he was some kind of myth !
We have been friends ever since !
Then a few years back The Marshall Primitive Archery Rendezvous hit a snag and attendance fell off , we discussed our future and wished we knew someone on the computer that could help us get the numbers back up ! So I began a new adventure trying to learn how to do it myself ! Barely able to read and no skill at talking let alone writing , but here I am today still the pusher man for one of the best events ever and so in love with everything about this forum ! Just proves you can be anything you want to be on the Internet !
The good Lord ,this forum, and that shoot will be just about all there is for the rest of my life here on this earth so you best not get in the way of any of them or I will be after you like a mad mama bear !
The worthless old nut !! (Guy)

[bowsandroses]

I had a friend tell me about it around 98' one day I happened on one at the local grocery store and bought it. Was intrigued but not enough I guess, later I subscribed to T.A. for a couple of years and just bought an occasional P.A. off the stand. Late 99' I decided to try my hand at building a bow came up with a couple not so cool exploding toys. 2000 I seen an add for a John Stunk class March of 2001 and joined up. Built a few good bows and some real crap bows, felt kind of like I must be about the only fool around that would rather carve on a piece of wood than go to the bow shop and buy a bow. About 2011 I finally subscribed to P.A. and with it came this site, wow! boy there is a lot of us fools out there This is pretty much the only thing I do on a computer browse around this site lots of good advice, good folk, good stories and oddly in helping me be primitive rather than modern it has also forced me to learn to use this computer

[soy]

Found a copy on a rack at a tiny truck stop (hwy 30 hayfield mn) could not put it down ...got a smart phone and check her out on the inner tube Time well spent!

[Adam]

I took a class where the main objective was to build a hickory self bow.  I did that, but what they didn't tell me was that you don't make just one and quit.  The instructor spent a little time in the first session talking about books that had helped him and highly recommended PA.  I started checking out posts here and then subscribed.

[mullet]

"Hatchet Jack" Keener turned me on to it. Jack lives here in Lakeland and wrote some of the very first articles in PA.

[Rick Wallace]

I saw something on TV about homemade bows,got curious about how I would go about making my own. Started searching the net and found Paleo planet,didnt care for that place but saw a mention about PA. Here I am!

[silverfox]

Was in Kroger last November and was looking for a magazine. I had picked up Traditional Bowhunter a few times, but noticed a different magazine. It was PA ( volume 20 issue 5)and I picked it up and bought it. I noticed on the cover it said it was in its 20th year, but I had never heard of it.  The first page was "from the editor" and it said starting with that issue they expanded into several new stores and Kroger was one of them.  I knew nothing of or about primitive archery, but really really enjoyed the magazine. I thought about ordering a few back issues to read when I seen you could get them all for a very reasonable price. I went ahead and ordered the complete set, and I loved them. We had a long Ohio winter last year and I was very glad I had those magazines to read.

[Marc St Louis]

I got lucky and found PA surfing the internet when I first got a computer, this is back in the mid to late 90's.  Things were quite a bit different back then.  I remember there were not many members but Glenn and Pat M were 2 that are still with us.  I sure would like to be able to peruse that old board.

[cowboy]

Was handed a dog eared second hand magazine from a co worker. Had been knapping for several years already. Have had a subscription ever since. Can't remember the year.

[Joec123able]

I was searching something about bows on google I believe and found this forum and decided to sign up. Im sure glad I did.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Christian Soldier posted a link from another website(slinging.org) to his 'sassin(sassafrass) bow.
I found this and was like YESSSS!!!!! A FORUM FOR BOWS!!!!!!

[Gus]

For most of my life the only Good Bodark was a Dead and Burned Bodark.
As a youngster I cut the stuff outa fences and pasture edges of our place and several ranches I worked on. I hated the stuff. Get a thorn in my finger and it would make my whole arm sore.

Then in 2010 my Uncle handed me a Tiny piece of Heartwood an said "see what you can do with this".
As a Woodcarver I looked this Ugly Baby Poo Yellow piece of Bodark and said "Burn It?".
My uncle convinced me to give it a chance.

I'm sure y'all can guess how shocked I was once I got that Ugly little piece of Bodark under a proper finish.

From there I discovered it was also called Osage Orange, then a Prime choice of Bow wood for the Ancestors.

So I bought a Yeller stave online and the Cherokee Bow book and a Drawknife and tried to get going.
but I needed to now more.
I kept digging deeper online until one day in 2011 I ran across this Forum.
Then from here I discovered the Magizine...

So I guess I discovered PA Back Arsewards. 
And I been here ever since.

-gus

[Wolf Watcher]

When I retired I moved back home to Wyoming I don't remember how I met Mike "Hawk" Huston but we became friends and make several hunts together.  I found him to be the best primitive hunter I have ever known.  He told me he had written some articles for the PA magazine and brought a couple of issues for me to read.  I was amazed to find so many like minded people there.  While teaching and coaching in Reedsport Oregon my wrestlers and students made 50 some glass backed recurves using materials from Bingham Archery.  For several years I lived and worked on a cattle ranch just out of Yellowstone.  I had an old brown glass bow made by Herter's and with stone points I made from spalls, managed to harvest a lot of game animals.  No real source for help so for several years I went to knappins all over the country.  I met some very skilled knappers that way, but as a group found them to be very standoffish.  No idea that you could really make a self bow out of a stave.  The first time I went to the Classic I was amazed at the welcome I found there.  Greg B. met me when I first stepped out of the truck.  Never treated better with more respect even if they did not know me.  I had made some kind of trade with Cowboy for a couple of staves.  With the best of the two I managed to scrape enough material off one limb to cause a hinge.  That was one of the most disappointing experiences ever when trying to make something.  That was a real setback.  When I left there the fellows at Twin Oaks gave me a trophy wooden bow.  That Classic experience was the best thing that could happen of an old Indian.  I think I have made a few good friends since getting on the PA site.  Joe