Byron became infatuated with the bow and arrow at the age of 12 and began working as a bricklayer’s helper to earn money to purchase his first recurve. Now famous for his coin trick, Byron once shot eight dimes in a row out of the air. He uses no sights or other gadgets when he shoots. He developed his style of shooting by sitting in a totally dark room and shooting out the flames of candles.
Splitting a playing card in half – from the side – is one of Byron’s favorite tricks.
The most difficult shot of Byron’s career came while performing on the television show Super People in Tokyo when he shot an arrow through a diamond ring. Without knowing about the trick and without any practice, Byron made a perfect shot. Byron strongly believes in Howard Hill’s philosophy: If you want to become a good archer then you should learn the bow and let your body become an extension of the bow. If you want to become a great archer, you should let your body become the arrow.
When he began shooting, he did not have to worry about hitting the paper target on a bale of hay – he could not even hit the hay.
Byron is a show favorite, attracting not only avid bow hunters and archers, but whole families.
One of the major reasons he shoots a longbow is because it has so much romance tied to it. Longbows are traceable to the cavemen and have been praised in songs, poems and stories since the dawn of mankind.
When Byron Ferguson put down his hunting rifle in favor of a bow and arrow, he had more than 200 whitetails to his credit.
Byron was the first American invited to Europe to demonstrate his longbow skills since the legendary Howard Hill toured the continent more than 40 years ago. When Byron performed at the National Game Fair on the grounds of Chambord Castle in France, he was the most popular attraction and earned the title “King of the Show”. Byron appeared on American Shooter on TNN, ESPN, ESPN2 and OLN for ten years where his “SHOT OF THE WEEK” was the most watched portion of the show. Byron is again working with Jim Scoutten, host of American Shooter, on Jim’s new program “Shooting USA” on The Outdoor Channel and “IMPOSSIBLE SHOTS”. Byron served as host and producer on TNN’s “Everything Outdoors” the world’s first “how-to” outdoor TV program. While filming a segment for this show the Apache Indians named Byron “TDO-EECEE-E” which means The One That Doesn’t Miss.
In 2003 Byron formed BYRON FERGUSON PRODUCTIONS, a full-service video production company. This company produces Byron’s video work as well as work for anyone needing high quality video production or DVD duplication. Byron is the author of “Become the Arrow” a paperback instructional book on bare bow shooting as well as the video of the same title and other archery related videos.