Monday - January 15, 2007
i missed deer season completely....(random thoughts on archery)...
Oh, that's right...I have 3 full-time jobs! I
wish I could have gone hunting, but there was just no
way.
Now, though, it's getting to be time for archery season. TAB archery Club, the club to which I belong, is only hosting 4 events this year for some reason, but we always do one in February called the "Cabin Fever Reliever". I love the guys in that club. It's always so much fun hanging out with them (even if they are wheelie-guys instead of a trad guy like me).
I haven't shot my bow in over 6 months now, either...so I am in horrible shape! I guess I'll start practicing again soon....I actually got a plaque for second place last year (out of three participants)!
I took up archery, I guess, on a trip to Washington, D.C. (our nation's shithole....really....). Don't ask me why I decided to take it up. I honestly couldn't tell you. Maybe it was a lark. Maybe it was something deep inside me yearning to break free....probably just had $300 that I didn't know how to spend....Whatever the case, I walked into an archery shop just outside D.C. (it is basically in Virginia (scroll down to THE REDNECK GAME WARDEN), after all). The good old boys there had "just the bow" for me....It actually was a very nice Bob Lee recurve. Having absolutely no idea what i was doing, the guys tried to get me fixed up with arrows. They measured my draw length at 26" for the arrows. Of course, when they told me to pull the bow back so they could measure my draw, I pulled the string back so that my anchor was roughly 2 inches in front of my face. This is about 3 inches away from where my anchor is now (which is somewhere close to where it is supposed to be). Over the course of time, I learned how to draw the bow back to the proper anchor point. I also learned how to shoot reasonably well. Eventually I tired of the recurve and began to yearn for a longbow.....so I tried out a sort of cheap longbow. I didn't like the bow itself very much, but I loved the feel of a longbow in general. It felt (and still does feel) smoother and easier to control compared to a recurve. Granted, recurves are more powerful probably...but the feel of this longbow really got to me. So I got a NICE Navajo Apache longbow made by Roy Hall in Hendersonville, TX. He didn't make it special for me, mind you. I bought it from an outfit in Whitman, Massachusetts. Incidentally, if you are interested in buying a bow & need some expert advice on what to get, Traditional Archery Supply of Whitman, MA is the place to go. It's a guitar shop and archery shop all in one. Very cool.
Well over the course of time, I learned more about eye dominance as it relates to archery. You'd not think about that right off the bat, would you? Well, neither did I. So I've got these three bows....a nice Bob Lee recurve (that I mercifully got for a very good price), a fantastically wonderful Apache longbow, and a cheap-ass longbow that I spent $190 too much for (it was $199 list). Well, it turns out that even though I am right-handed (and right-footed for that matter...but I'm no Byron Ferguson! (it's about 2:30 into the clip), I am left eye dominant. There is a ton of information on the web about this....but the gist of it is that we, as humans, have eye dominance in the same way that we have "handed-ness". This eye dominance basically means that one eye give our brains more information than the other. If this eye is NOT the eye that is looking down the shaft of your arrow, or the barrel of your gun, then your aim will be off. There are different ways to try to handle this problem, of course. Closing my dominant eye didn't seem to work....it made my depth perception screwy. I decided finally to start shooting left handed. I got a Wapiti recurve made my J.K. Chastain that I love. I shot all last year with it & enjoyed it. The problem, unfortunately again, is that it doesn't feel as smooth as a longbow. Now don't get me wrong, this is a GREAT bow. I just prefer a longbow. I especially prefer the Roy Hall longbow that I have....except that it's right-handed. So I'm looking to a left-handed Navajo bow. I think I've found one....I would love another Apache, but I just don't have the money.
I'm hoping that the one I have my eye on will pan out. If it does, I'll post pictures!
Now, though, it's getting to be time for archery season. TAB archery Club, the club to which I belong, is only hosting 4 events this year for some reason, but we always do one in February called the "Cabin Fever Reliever". I love the guys in that club. It's always so much fun hanging out with them (even if they are wheelie-guys instead of a trad guy like me).
I haven't shot my bow in over 6 months now, either...so I am in horrible shape! I guess I'll start practicing again soon....I actually got a plaque for second place last year (out of three participants)!
I took up archery, I guess, on a trip to Washington, D.C. (our nation's shithole....really....). Don't ask me why I decided to take it up. I honestly couldn't tell you. Maybe it was a lark. Maybe it was something deep inside me yearning to break free....probably just had $300 that I didn't know how to spend....Whatever the case, I walked into an archery shop just outside D.C. (it is basically in Virginia (scroll down to THE REDNECK GAME WARDEN), after all). The good old boys there had "just the bow" for me....It actually was a very nice Bob Lee recurve. Having absolutely no idea what i was doing, the guys tried to get me fixed up with arrows. They measured my draw length at 26" for the arrows. Of course, when they told me to pull the bow back so they could measure my draw, I pulled the string back so that my anchor was roughly 2 inches in front of my face. This is about 3 inches away from where my anchor is now (which is somewhere close to where it is supposed to be). Over the course of time, I learned how to draw the bow back to the proper anchor point. I also learned how to shoot reasonably well. Eventually I tired of the recurve and began to yearn for a longbow.....so I tried out a sort of cheap longbow. I didn't like the bow itself very much, but I loved the feel of a longbow in general. It felt (and still does feel) smoother and easier to control compared to a recurve. Granted, recurves are more powerful probably...but the feel of this longbow really got to me. So I got a NICE Navajo Apache longbow made by Roy Hall in Hendersonville, TX. He didn't make it special for me, mind you. I bought it from an outfit in Whitman, Massachusetts. Incidentally, if you are interested in buying a bow & need some expert advice on what to get, Traditional Archery Supply of Whitman, MA is the place to go. It's a guitar shop and archery shop all in one. Very cool.
Well over the course of time, I learned more about eye dominance as it relates to archery. You'd not think about that right off the bat, would you? Well, neither did I. So I've got these three bows....a nice Bob Lee recurve (that I mercifully got for a very good price), a fantastically wonderful Apache longbow, and a cheap-ass longbow that I spent $190 too much for (it was $199 list). Well, it turns out that even though I am right-handed (and right-footed for that matter...but I'm no Byron Ferguson! (it's about 2:30 into the clip), I am left eye dominant. There is a ton of information on the web about this....but the gist of it is that we, as humans, have eye dominance in the same way that we have "handed-ness". This eye dominance basically means that one eye give our brains more information than the other. If this eye is NOT the eye that is looking down the shaft of your arrow, or the barrel of your gun, then your aim will be off. There are different ways to try to handle this problem, of course. Closing my dominant eye didn't seem to work....it made my depth perception screwy. I decided finally to start shooting left handed. I got a Wapiti recurve made my J.K. Chastain that I love. I shot all last year with it & enjoyed it. The problem, unfortunately again, is that it doesn't feel as smooth as a longbow. Now don't get me wrong, this is a GREAT bow. I just prefer a longbow. I especially prefer the Roy Hall longbow that I have....except that it's right-handed. So I'm looking to a left-handed Navajo bow. I think I've found one....I would love another Apache, but I just don't have the money.
I'm hoping that the one I have my eye on will pan out. If it does, I'll post pictures!