Renaissance Festival

Daughter #1 was the festival a couple of weeks ago. She enjoys the events and seems to go depending on her school schedule at NAU. The archery game was looking for some action and challenged her to play for five dollars. If you could put up five straight bulls eyes with five arrows then you would win fifty dollars. She had informed them that they didn’t want her to play. I believe they assumed that meant the she didn’t want to play. The normal hawking harassment ensued but she was keeping her ground. They finally wanted her to shoot one arrow for free. She said, “OK, how do you hold the bow?”

Keep in mind that this young lady surprised the heck out of me the first time she shot. She wanted to go with daughter #2 and me to the archery range. We must have been talking about what fun we had and she decided she wanted to join in. We went down to the caveman warehouse to have a look at bows. She did not want any of those things with wheels and pulleys so we selected a stick bow for her to try. We stepped the range in the back and went through a few basics of stance, grip, etc. She shot a bull’s eye on the second shot and proceeded to keep doing it while announcing that this was easy. It turns out that she seems to be a pretty natural shooter. She shoots well!

I asked, “So you really asked them how to hold the bow?” I guess that she must have been paying attention when some of us were talking about hustling up games in past years. She shot her free arrow about a foot low and to the right on purpose. She definitely was paying attention when we were talking about hustling. She said, “Dad, the target was only about 5 meters away!” Now the guys running the range went into full sale mode to convince her to pay the five dollars. She “reluctantly” agreed and proceeded to place the next five straight into the black. The fellows seemed surprised and then asked why she didn’t want to play. She let them know that she did not say that. She had told them that, “You don’t want me to play.” She merrily collected her loot and went off to spend at the fair for other items.

I wonder if her picture is under the counter at the archery setup with a note to not challenge? That’s my girl!

I Like Archery - Sometimes.

My oldest daughter and I went to the archery range in the Tucson Mountain Park on the morning of Christmas Eve. You would have thought that I had never shot that bow before. It had been a while (last January) since I had shot it. I discovered that my right hand plant was not correct and finally got that solved so I could continue with the few arrows remaining. There is no leeway on arrows using a 70# bow when hitting the wood frame on the target or missing and launching off into the rocks. I eventually trashed/lost all eight arrows that I had brought much to the amusement of my daughter. I also managed to mess up pretty good a couple of times and snapped myself. Did I mention that I had forgotten my arm guard? Looks like this:

I thought the first time really stung but it admittedly really lit up the second time.


I was going to go hunting on the 26th but decided that further shooting was required prior to trying to stick a deer. Back to the range later today.

Archery Hunting

It is only reasonable that I take the bow for a walk since I did not get a deer during the rifle season. I saw a very nice buck the day after Christmas. It was raining, cold and in general a miserable day. My better half asked the usual rhetorical question as I was getting dressed at o-dark thirty, "Are you going out in this weather?".

It was at about 7,000 feet in elevation in the Santa Rita Mountains. No, I won't say exactly where. I saw a doe walking away but she had not seen me and here comes another deer down the hill. Dang! No wondering if it was a buck. You could tell what this bad boy was at 30 yards in the rain and cover. His motion downhill kept him at about the same range. I had to move to place my feet for a shot as he moved behind a tree that obscured his view. Naturally, he heard me but still could not place me. I had that mantra going in my head, "I am just a funny looking bush, keep walking into the next spot". I thought I had him as I got away with drawing on him. Don't you know that there was one twig between us that I missed in my tunnel vision watching the buck. I was saddening when the arrow clipped the twig and sent the arrow awry. Clean miss! He bounded away as I stood there with a little tremble. Buck fever always seems to come to me after the shot. I waited a while and started to follow after him. I gave it up as the weather front continued in and the rain went to snow. The wind kicked up and it was snow blowing sideways. I would say that visibility was about 20 feet and time to head down off the mountain. What a great day!

I know what you are thinking about now. Why is there a picture of a mountain lion? I will get there. I have been going out taking that bow for a walk every time I get a chance to see if I can pattern this buck. So far no luck. He is in the area but not when I am. I imagine that is how he got to mature status. Saturday was another trip to field. I was getting a little bored and went for still walk. There was one area about a half mile away that had a small flat spot about 20 feet across that is near water. Not much grows in that flat spot as it is mostly clay right there. Perfect for checking tracks after a rain. There were a lot deer tracks, some coyote, and a lot of lion. I started to cast around looking to see if the lion was a one time visitor. I found other tracks that were only a day or so old. That lion is there regularly. I always carry a lion tag just in case I get lucky but really hadn't thought about taking one with a bow. Would you find yourself looking over your shoulder and getting creepy feelings? Me too and I like the thrill. I was thinking that I would need to carry a more substantial sidearm if I were to try a lion with a bow. The 9mm just doesn't seem adequate for an angry lion. I would expect that you will get one shot with the bow. The lion will either run or charge. I haven't made up my mind if I should try with a bow or just wait until the end of archery deer and take the rifle for a walk. You never know, I could have my mind made up for me as I will continue to hunt that area but take the 44mag.

What would you do with a lion? I have always told my wife that I would like to take a lion once. She says, "Could we get a full body mount on one of those limbs and put it over the fireplace in the living room? There's room". Bless her heart. I like her!

After a Hard Day at Archery

Sometimes after a hard day at the range we like to clean up and go down to the watering hole for a little rest and relaxation.

We enlarged the Wanted Poster and put it below as these are fairly dangerous outlaws.

Note the mean look on the one on the left and the close set eyes of the other. Telltale signs of bad medicine. Believe it or not, the one on the left is a female that is known as Heartless Heidi. Her trademark is to shoot all her victims square in the heart leaving them heartless. The taller one on the right is pure mean and goes by the name of Crusty Colt. He is as mean as he is in need of a bath. Both should be avoided at all times as they are never in a pleasant mood.

More Archery

In the black at 40 yards! We both get better as we keep practicing. Let's see if this Saturday brings us some more bulleyes!

Archery is Fun

My younger daughter has been bugging me to get a bow since her trip to one of the school outings where they had an opportunity to shoot. I have been shooting for many years, I even remember when we had to chip out our own arrowheads from the flint quarry before we could go dinosaur hunting....But I am getting off topic. Some of the new youth bows are quite nice as they have a draw length of 18-30". This will allow them to shoot the same bow for a few years. We went ahead a got one for her as an early birthday present. She is shooting some of my old arrows that are too heavy but bombproof out of a 20# bow. She loves it! This is really fine as I always like someone to shoot with. We shot Saturday & Sunday mornings at the Tucson Mountain Park Archery Range. This is nice facility as we consider anything that has running water and restrooms to be quite civilized. We shot at the field range as she had some concern about not doing well and having a bunch of people watching. She is doing well and constantly improving. We shot 4 dozen arrows on Saturday and she wasn't sore and was ready to go Sunday morning again. I was ready to go but sore. Sunday brought us the first bullseye! Congrats! Woohoo!