Growing up in Meridian Idaho was pretty fun back when I was in Junior High and High School. The neighborhood my parents lived in was surrounded by corn fields with nothing remotely close for at least a mile. We spent a great deal of time playing outside, running around the neighborhood and fields. It was during this time that I got into Archery. I had a friend down the street named Andy that had purchased a bow and convinced me I should give it a shot with him.
I purchased my first bow using money I saved mowing lawns that summer. It was a Bear something or other model but I thought it was awesome. I'm old now. I can't remember the little details about such things any longer. Anyways...
My dad and I built a target in our back yard for me to shoot at out of hay bales and wood. I would stick all kinds of stuff into the hay to shoot at like Tennis balls, racket balls, water balloons, jawbreakers and anything else that I could find. I was shooting these really heavy old aluminum arrows that would bend if they hit anything more solid than a soggy loaf of bread. I cant even tell you who made them. All I know is that back then I shot using finger pulling, a glove, forearm guard, and no site. I got pretty good at it too, bent arrows and all.
After high school I stopped shooting and didn't pick a bow up again...
Until this year.
Last summer Jayna and I were bumming around Cabela's looking for something for Drew for camp. We went back to look at the bows because I wanted to see what they looked like now. I talked Jayna into shooting one of the new ones (she had never so much as held a bow let alone shoot one.) It was about 4 shots into it and she was hooked.
So this year we decided to jump in and get some bows and start shooting. After reading a ton of reviews we decided to pick up a couple PSE Supra ME bows. I picked mine out in flat mat black finish and Jayna got hers in red. Our first sport together!
This is me shooting shortly after our bows came in. Since this picture I have added a front stabilizer bar and a wrist support/bracelet.
Here is Jayna shooting:
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we moved to Elko fucking Nevada in August of 2011. Jayna got a job as a senior recruiter for Newmont Mining. One of the nice parts of moving here is the Archery Club. These pictures were taken up at the club range outside of town. It is a great range that has marked bags from 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 100 yards to adjust your site off of. The also have a 15 target "unmarked" yard hike on one side, and then another 15 "marked" yard hike on the other. Add to that they numerous competition shoots they do every year makes it a lot of fun.
Check out the club site for information on the organization and upcoming shoots at:
Elko Archery Club
There are also a bunch of other organizations around Nevada that host shoots that club people go to each year as well. So far due to scheduled stuff we have only made it to 2 shoots. I placed 7th in my first shoot and had a shoot out for 3rd place in my second. I ended up in 4th place for that one by roughly a finger width difference in arrows. Not too bad I must say.
Jayna on the other hand is doing great. She placed 3rd in her first shoot and got a pin for that, and then got 1st place in her second shoot. She really is doing awesome and is already planning our tournament participation for next year.
Anyways - we have having a blast with this new sport and even have 2 target bags set up in our back yard now. Ill post pictures of that later. I must say, this sport has sure changed since the days when I was shooting back in high school. +-.03 arrows, different shaft diameters, head types, fletching, build material, bow construction, lensed sites, 3, 5, 7 and more pin, wrist strap triggers, hand held triggers - its enough to make your head spin, or your wallet empty.
