Survival skills are really important. I know this because I don't have any. It is to my great personal fortune that I didn't encounter anything dangerous, deadly or otherwise concerning while out camping earlier this year. Having no concept of my own safety might've lead to my befriending a poisonous snake or wiping my butt with poison oak or eating a poison mushroom. I guess what I'm getting at is that the entire wilderness is poisonous and it is only by sheer luck that I managed to escape with my life.
Things would be so much easier if you could, I don't know, shoot arrows at things to make them go away. Or better yet, shoot things and then eat them. Then you'd be safe and not hungry anymore. Such was the thought process that lead me to wanting to know how to shoot a bow and arrow.
Our family friend Wes knows things about bows and arrows. As you may have gathered by now, I do not. He was kind enough to talk to me about his experiences going hunting and has offered to let me tag along when hunting season comes around for one of my things of the day. In the meantime, I wanted to learn how to actually use the requisite tools before agreeing to join him on that excursion. So, in a double-super-whammy of kindness, Wes spoke to his friend Howard at Hog Wild Archery who was kind enough to allow me to come in and have a bit of an introductory lesson for free.
I hit that close one a bunch 'o times.
Here's what I found out about archery. Shooting a bow is super crazy easy. Shooting a bow properly is, well, not. If you lock your elbow, you'll scrape your arm. If you grasp too high on the string (which I'm sure has a technical term I'm not remembering), the arrow will fall out of place. If you hold the bow too straight the arrow will fly to the left; if you tilt it over too far, the arrow will fly to the right. If you line up the shot with your chin, the arrow will fly high. If you line it up with your nose, your brain will scream at you not to snap a string across your nose (though the shot will fly straight, which is nice).
It helped that Harold was a great teacher. He was super patient as I tried my best to accept that placing a bowstring on my nose would not rip my nose completely off my face. It took a little convincing, to say the least. I rather like my nose. After a while though, I started to learn to self-correct my shots. I still need tons of correction to be consistent, but Harold was clear enough with his explanations that I really felt like I understood the mechanics of shooting, even if I couldn't master it in a single day.
I started to really feel like an awesome sporting badass after a couple hours of shooting. I mean, I was getting decently consistent with the close target; I understood when and how my shots were messing up; I stopped fearing for the loss of my nose. I even started puffing up my chest a little and walking between the target and the shooting spot like I really knew what I was doing.
These are my arrows, this is my bow.
These are for shooting, this seriously owns.
But then. Just as I started genuinely getting myself on a first-class trip to Egoville, I saw what kind of bow the big boys use.
I wonder if deer just see this thing and fall over dead out of respect.
See, the bow I was using, I could follow the arrow all the way to the target. Harold busted out his bow and I couldn't even see the arrow once it was released. The big boy bow will send an arrow straight through a deer at 80 yards. I know that sounds brutal, but from what I understand, they die quicker that way - making it a more humane form of hunting. Being fairly sheltered myself, it was nice to spend the morning talking to someone who understands what it means to hunt for food and for game. Harold was able to speak eloquently about what it means to be a hunter and be both one with and master of the wilderness.
It reminded me that I need to keep my eyes open on this journey because the people I'm meeting all over new and refreshing takes on the things they're passionate about. I almost missed the chance to stop and listen to the things Harold had to say in my haste to learn how to shoot, but that little voice in my head yelled at me to shut up early in the lesson and just be respectful and listen. I'm incredibly glad I did. Not only would I highly recommend that anyone in the area visit Hog Wild and shoot a few - I'd recommend asking Harold about his life, his best catches and his life. He's an incredibly interesting and dynamic guy. And he bagged a kudu. How many people can say that?
Epic.
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