vlbrown-mzydt

Learn more

I Shot the Balloon!

I was on the Archery team in college. After college, I didn't shoot much, although my bow and arrows came with me every time I moved.
 
Seven years ago, I tried a range in Pacifica, CA (I had a Groupon coupon) but I didn't like it for some reason, so I never went back.
 
This evening, after our walk, we we drove south on 305 to Sportsman Club Rd and found the Bainbridge Island Sportsmen's Club archery range, which was open (yeay). It was a "JOAD Youth Archery" class, but there was only one boy there and so I talked to Roy Clark (the man who runs the place) and then (with Rich nudging me) borrowed a bow and got set up and shot for 20 or 30 minutes. By the end of that time, I had "killed" three balloons and was feeling energized and pleased.

I liked the way Roy did it. He started with an exercise band to see how I held it and moved my arms, then set my feet and marked how I should stand (a wider stance than I was used to). He actually did some coaching (which I've never had).

   I used a 14# bow at 9 meters and shot a few arrows to get a feel for the distance and how to aim. Then Roy put a balloon on the target and I worked on tryng to shoot that. I got the left/right aim pretty easily, but up and down was more difficult (until I figured out what to sight off of; it's difficult to sigfht off a spot on the ground.)

   Then I popped the balloon! Yeay!

   Roy put up two more and I missed, missed, missed, hit, hit.

I felt really good and enjoyed myself immensely. I hope to go back go back.

Roy teaches pistol classes too as well as a pistol and self-defense class. We talked about that and he showed us the practice pistol which has no bullets, only lasers. We might get one of those.

(With many thanks to Rich, who nudged me to say "Yes" when I was asked if I wanted to borrow a bow and shoot a bit right then and I was doing the whole Introverted "oh, no, no, we just came by to see…" shuffle.)

 

Leave a comment