For longtime hunter Garrick Roberts, a bow and arrow posed a much greater challenge than hunting with any firearm.

With a gun if you can see an animal, you can kill it. With a bow and arrow, you have to get really close and personal, he said.

"It teaches you to really hunt," he said.

Roberts, who owns Garrick's Primitive Archery in Mancos, estimates he has made over 500 custom bows since he started 10 years ago.

He was attracted to archery initially because of the 28-day season that starts at the end of August and because you can buy a tag over the counter.

But once he started making bows and arrows, he was intrigued by arrows that flew straight even though they shouldn't have, and the unique feel of a handmade bow.

"If I saw I bow I sold, I could tell if I made it. They are like my kids," he said.

Roberts travels the country as a mechanic for Union Pacific Railroad. Along the way he harvests all kinds of logs for his hobby business.

He has experimented with all kinds of wood including eucalyptus for bows and river cane for arrows. Osage orange and hickory work best because a hardwood bow can handle "stretching its back and crushing its belly," he said.

Many modern bows are laminated with fiberglass, which has almost eliminated the art of making wood bows. But Roberts prefers traditional wood bows, in part because of their instrumental part in human history.

As a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Roberts has helped re-enact medieval life, carving bows on a bowyer's bench at renaissance fairs. His bow strings are hand-braided and coated with wax.

He can also back a bow with sinew, as Native Americans did.

His arrows are also handmade. Although each wooden dowel rod is the same length and diameter, they must be sorted for stiffness to match a bow and archer. Some archers prefer real feathers, and if this is the case, all the feathers on a single arrow must come from either the right side or the left side of a birds wing for it to fly correctly.

"Arrows are made for the bow and the shooter that shoots it," he said.

John Chagnovich, a faithful customer and friend of Roberts, has been shooting for about 50 years and shoots about 100 arrows a day.

A compound bow takes less time to master, and can be more efficient, but Chagnovich owns only traditional bows.

"Once traditional shooting is in your blood, you don't lose it," he said.

Roberts replaced Wildcat Canyon Traditional Achery supplies as the only bowyer in the area a few years ago, and Chagnovich appreciates his work.

"He's a master at making the bows," he said.