Saturday, July 21, 2012

Expanding into Archery

While I think it will be a long time until I'm bored shooting firearms, I have been feeling the need to expand my range of skills.  To that end, I dug back into my past and remembered how much fun shooting a primative bow and arrow was.  I just had to try it again.

So, I've recently picked up a simple recurve bow--Fuse Focus 62 inch 24lb.   It isn't an expensive, serious hunting bow, but it isn't just a plastic child's toy either.  So far I've been happy with quality.  It is wood with nice brass accessory taps.  It easily breaks into three pieces plus the string for storage or transport.

The temptation was to get a bow with a higher draw weight.  That would have provided more power and a flatter, faster flight for the arrows.  However, the major downside to bows stronger than about 25lb is you have to start spending more money on targets.  A high poundage hunting bow will send an arrow right on through a basic practice target.   Besides, half the fun is trying to account for the arc of the arrow.  With a lower power bow the distance required for gravity to become significant is far less.

This was my third trip out.  Once to the fine range at Punderson State Park and twice to some private land.  On this day, I was just at private 20 yard range.   I still need to get better before I can take advantage of the challenging course available at Punderson and it is nice to not have to worry about a crowd.

As you can see from the picture below I am starting to get the hang of it.   Most of the time, I'm now able keep all of the arrows at least somewhere on the target, and this particular 6 shot set yielded 2 bullseyes.

Double Bullseye

I also took the opportunity to do some more shots with my mini-cam.  This is my second, an 808 #16, that replaced the #11 which suffered an unfortunate laundry accident.  Tiny electronics are very easy to lose track of.   You can see a couple point of view shots below if you don't suffer from motion sickness.