I can tell that I am going to be hooked on archery, and as with all things I get interested in, whether for a season or a lifetime, I tend to get obsessive about them until I master them. By labelling the posts chronologically anyone interested can find them by simply searching for “Archery Post n. X”. And those of you who are bored stiff by them instead can skip them easier.
I think it would be interesting for other novices to see the progression from “knows absolutely nothing” to wherever I get up to. I also have headings in these posts so you can quickly skim over things and skip some parts if they are not interesting to you. 1
The first three post were not labelled but here they are in order:
Archery Post n. 1 – Brand new idea
Archery Post n. 2 – Learning Super-Basic stuff
Archery Post n. 3 – Kids and my new glove and better shots
In this post, I will tell you about my latest 5 shots, just taken, at the end of a long day and with low light, so not ideal, but basically I placed a cardboard box at 50 metres away from me and tried to hit it. The first shot went wildly wide and I couldn’t find the arrow. Second and third shots were close but missed and on the fourth I also lost another arrow. However, the fifth and last shot I not only hit the target, but I also understood why I seem to have lost the other two arrows.
It zipped through the box as if it was a bullet and went so deep into the ground behind it at a shallow angle that only the fletching was barely visible under the grass.
I fear I may find the other two arrows only when the tractor tries to trim the grass…
But… the important thing is that I learnt that the bow is a lot more powerful than I thought.
For a start, I kept shooting high because I expected the arrow to drop a lot more than it does. At 50 metres it’s really about as flat shooting as a handgun I would say.
Here is the box I used and where I hit it.
And here is the surprisingly very neat and small exit hole. Considering the back flap was not closed flat but was more or less open as in the picture, to hold the box up, I expected the fletching to tear through it more as it’s pretty hard little rubber fins.
Anyway, I am now down to 6 arrows as 3 are somewhere in the field. the first one I lost was entirely my fault for assuming weakness and arrow-drop that the bow does not have. I shot about two feet above the target, missed the backstop entirely and the arrow sped off into the forest, underbrush and downhill, so it could be anywhere from 50 to a couple hundred meters into forest, tall grass, or anything in between.
The area was safe for me to fire and miss in obviously, but that arrow might be found by archeologists one day. the last two I lost today… maybe if I trim the grass myself with a trimmer…
Another arrow I broke the tip off pulling it out of a dead tree I shot it into. That one, and another two I took out the point from, I gave to the three kids who want to try archery too (Monkey 10, Young Viking 6, and the Pink Astronaut 5 [she went out to practice by herself earlier today when I was working apparently]).
It got dark and I obviously need to rethink my target practice area, trim the grass in a good area that is uphill and clean, and stuff the box with old plastic bags, maybe some foam or something else to “catch” the arrows into it too.
In any case, I really like this bow thing.
And to paraphrase and butcher Obi-Wan Kenobi, the way I see using a bow is thusly:
It is a more elegant weapon; for a less civilised age.
It absolutely is more elegant. And the idea of getting stuck with a barbed, poisoned, or even just razor-edged hunting arrow, is less appealing than getting shot. Even if objectively, survivability of an arrow is almost guaranteed to be higher.
And that instinctive shooting thing is getting better all the time. the new arrows are on order, and now I am preoccupied with how to get a target area that will not make my arrows disappear in the low grassy undergrowth.
If I had more time I think I’d probably spend a couple of hours out there just perfecting a few things.
In any case, I am very pleasantly surprised and am now convinced this thing is definitely not a toy.
Because you have the attention span and philosophy of all things martial of a fruitfully drunk on cocaine, and/or are only partially literate being a millennial/GenZ. Or actually know about archery and don’t care to read my ignorant ramblings.
This post was originally published on my Substack. Link here
