About a week ago I checked the mail and was pleasantly surprised to find the Spring 2009 issue of TradArcher's World magazine waiting for me. I get bowhunting magazines on a pretty regular basis (I like having new stuff to read!), but the difference here is that this magazine was the official Premier Issue of TradArchers' World. Formerly The Bowyer's Journal, the magazine has been under new ownership since late 2008 by Tom Colstad of Irma, WI. In part, his previous experience as an outdoor editor for a WI newspaper, and as editor of the Wisconsin Traditional Archers newsletter prompted him to purchase the magazine and pursue this next challenging step in his career.

The last issue of The Boywer's Journal was somewhat of a transitional/introductory issue put out in late winter of 2008 while Tom got TradArchers' World going. It was rather brief, but at 34 pages was already longer than the Fall 2008 issue which had drifted down to 27 pages. For anyone still in doubt, the Spring 2009 issue came out on time, checked in at 55 pages (longer than any previous Bowyer's Journal in my small collection) and covered topics including Bending Static Recurves, Overcoming Target Panic, Self-Nocks, Shooting Process, Converting a 1-Piece Bow into a 2-Piece Bow, Venison Recipes, KS Whitetail Hunts, and more. As promised in the transitional issue, the focus of the magazine still strongly centers on topics related to bowbuilding, but includes a wider range of traditional archery related subjects as well.

For anyone that has never checked them out before (or anyone that was a subscriber in the past), I would encourage you to sign up. Head over to their website at www.tradarchersworld.com and click "Subscribe Now" - you can select either a print version or a digital-only version to suit anyone's fancy.