My history with archery

If you’re not all gun-showed out, two more shows are happening in short order. The first starts Saturday at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. This is the Alaska Gun Collectors Association annual spring show. It runs for the weekend.

The second show is the annual Houston High School Gun and Outdoor Show at the Big Lake Lions Recreation Center in Big Lake. This show runs April 21-22. I really like this show because it’s not much more than a mile from my house. Driving 25 miles to Palmer, or 55 miles to Anchorage, or even 15 miles to Wasilla can get old, especially if the weather is bad. I could walk to the Big Lake show!

Over the last several years, I’ve occasionally written about my history with archery. I started in my early teens with an old fiberglass recurve bow my uncle had given my dad while he was trying to talk my dad into going deer hunting with him. My father wasn’t interested, but he kept the bow anyway.

My first harvest as a small game hunter was a cottontail rabbit I shot with that old bow. I was as surprised as the rabbit when I actually hit it in a vital area with the field tipped arrow. I was hooked from then on!

The biggest advantage to using the bow was that I could hunt in the open fields and woodlots located in and around the Illinois subdivision where we lived. There was no worry about somebody complaining about a kid with a firearm chasing squirrels or rabbits. I even tried for some pheasants on the ground, but my shooting abilities were not as great as I thought they were!

Over time, my brother and I hunted rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, and deer with our bows. We also did a lot of bowfishing for carp too. I even harvested a snapping turtle on one of those trips. Since we showed a strong interest in shooting the bows, my father made sure we were safe, encouraged us, and even gave me a brand-new recurve bow as my high school graduation gift. Fifty-one years later, I still have that bow and still shoot it on occasion.

For our bowfishing activities, we each bought a long-bow because we didn’t want to beat-up or damage our good recurves in the mud and rocks we encountered while bowfishing. I still have that old long-bow too. In fact, I refinished it last summer by removing the flat black paint I had covered it with decades ago to dull the finish. I need to do the same with my recurve. I can then better check the laminations to be sure of the bow’s integrity.

I set the bows aside when I discovered muzzleloading firearms and black powder remains my “first love.” However, I took up bowhunting again after I retired because of all the special hunts in the area. Over time, I had suffered permanent damage to my hands, making shooting a hunting-weight traditional bow with fingers enough to stay in practice difficult. I decided to try using a compound bow with a string release. That worked well. I’ve harvested grouse and hunted sheep, caribou, and moose but with no success on the big game.

My right shoulder eventually needed replacing and that effectively ended my vertical bow days I thought. I bought a crossbow, got the methods and means exemption and took the hunter education course now mandated to use a crossbow. But I haven’t given up on vertical bows yet.

Last year, I bought an entry level takedown 45# recurve bow with a bow fishing kit. This spring, while perusing Amazon, I found out that the model takedown bow I had was considered a good bow and the limbs could be exchanged for any of several different draw weights. I ordered a set of 35# limbs to begin my shoulder rehabilitation. That weight is plenty heavy enough for bowfishing too.

I have two good friends who are traditional archers and they have suggested various suppliers where I can get the gear and gadgets necessary to shoot a traditional bow. I’m waiting on an order as I write this. One guy builds arrows and I’m already talking with him about getting a dozen practice arrows built.

I’m excited about getting back into the traditional archery game and being able to use the activity to rebuild my shoulder. I’ll do exercise, but only if it’s productive and fun!