A little off the theme of this blog, but many people have emailed me and asked how our archery has been going.  So here is an update:

Early last year, Ben and I decided that Bow Hunting was not for us.

Besides the fact that the entire premise of Bow Hunting is to kill animals for sport (not all bow hunters think like this though), which I didn’t have too much of an issue with as long as the animals were feral, the main reason was that I did not get along with some of the more mature folk.  You know the type.  Set-in-their-ways, anti-environmentalist folk, who made it their mission to be rude to us by slagging off treehuggers and anyone wanting to preserve the planet such as myself.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I told these mature blokes that I was a greenie, and that I took offence to what they were saying about “my kind” (their words).  A few other members piped up with the same concerns.  However, with a shrug of their shoulders, they ignored me and kept on using the same words.

So, that was that. We left, never to go bow hunting again, as I didn’t want Ben exposed to that sort of attitude.

But the fact remained that we really did enjoy archery.  The feel of the bow in your hand, with the anticipation of nocking the arrow just below the nocking point on the string.  The anticipation of whether you will hit the target or not, or loosing an arrow.  We had a yearning for the thrill of the fletching upon our fingers, and the bruises on our forearms!

Ben using a Limited Compound Bow during practice.

We looked around and found that not so far away there was an alternative.  It was the type of archery that you see at the Olympics, with a round target with concentric circles.  It can be either indoor, or outdoor, or field.  We found an indoor range and paid for an hour to see if we could get back into the swing of things.

Gavin using a Limited Compound bow during practice.

Well after an hours practice with limited compound bows, we both agreed that we would give it another try.  To our surprise, we could still hit the target.

Ben under instruction from Irene

So we signed up for an OzBow Archery Instruction Program, which consists of six 2 hour lessons.  Our first lesson was last Saturday.

We had a ball.  Ben chose to use a limited compound bow, and I preferred the Recurve bow (call me old school).  I like the feel of the wooden bow in my hands, and it looks like a real bow.  I did try the limited compound bow, but it just wasn’t for me.  Just call me Genghis.

Anyway, the people were nice and friendly, as was our instructor, Irene.  The youngest in the class was a lad of 8 years old, and I believe that I am the oldest, and there were men and women, boys and girls, all in the same class.

We learnt so much in the first hour that we got to shoot and score in the second hour of instruction.  Ben and I proudly qualified for our 10 metre certificate during the first lesson.  Ben scored 176, and I managed to post 188.  We only needed a score of 150 to qualify at that distance!  Chuffed to bits with our achievement, we are now looking forward to next weekends lesson.

Ben and Jake at practice.

Suffice to say that archery is one of the few sports that the entire family can participate in all at the same time.  That is why I like it.  I get to spend time with my son, and a bit of father-son competitive spirit.

Who knows? We may find a bow hunting club is more welcoming later on down the track.  Until such time, we will continue with this form of archery.