I was fascinated with archery ever since I was able to pull back the string on the small fiberglass bows my dad had bought for us kids to play with.
When I got a little older I started building my own bows out of the serviceberry bushes that were plentifull around our house in NW Montana. None of them would last more then a few days of course because I was building them green and as soon as they would dry out they would stiffen up. Even so I got some kind of satisfaction out of it. When I was around 11yrs old my grandpa gave me an old Bear Grizzly, a bow he had bought for my dad and uncle to use when they were teenagers. I shot that for awhile then bought an older Martin compound to use for my first year bowhunting. I hunted that season but never got a shot with a bow.
The recurve bug had started to bite when a good friend gave me a copy of Traditional Bowhunter Magazine. I read it cover to cover multiple times. One day I was showing my dad a picture of someone building a bow. He looked at it and said "that looks like something you would do". After talking about it some more and a bit of planning, the materials were ordered. Even though I was only 12yrs old my dad had let me work in his wood working shop on a number of projects ranging from nightstands to turkey calls. My first bow however was definitely a notch harder than what I was used to. Even so I was able to finish it and believe it or not it still shoots even though it's the ugliest bow I have ever seen.
When I started building bows I had no intention of hunting with them I just wanted to build and shoot recurves for fun but hunt with a compound. It didn't take long to change my mind. The idea of killing a deer or elk with a bow I had built was just too good to pass up. So that year I decided to hunt with my recurve. It took a few years but I finally started having success, and as time went on the more success I was having.
Getting into bow building full time was something I had wanted to do ever since I was 12 but I guess I never quite had the guts to make the jump till now. Having a job I enjoyed didn't help either. I was working in the mountains all summer and building/carving furniture and doors in the winter. But now my family and I are moving back to NW Montana where I grew up and I Figured it's now or never.
M. Trent Wengerd
Myron Trent Wengerd
Wengerd Archery
trent@wengerdarchery.com
(406) 529-0888
168 ELK CREEK RD
HERON, MT 59844