Greetings, fellow sentient beings!
I recently had a conversation about me not finding the time for this even though I spent days at a proper place. I was just too busy working on some of the many projects (such a big word for digging a hole for a tree, etc.)
And this report is somehow similar because my practice was the shortest I ever had. Not counting paying a couple of bananas for a couple of shots at some tourist attraction range. Which are also quite short...
So, yesterday I was out with my brother and our families. Little kids, included. No problem, we who were once taught by real archers, we still have some solid rules:
No shooting a bow while somebody is in front of the imaginary line you are positioned at. Aye, even 90 degrees to your side is considered a reason to pause. Not that there's any real danger while I am in control. Those are safety rules that are still the code I respect.
No releasing the string if there's no arrow notched on it. There's not enough resistance against it to take the hit and the bow might snap. Aye, even something as light as a little arrow matters. I know people even more amateurish than me, L.A.R.P.-ers who confirmed they lost a bow or two in such a manner. And you might even hurt yourself. Who knows how a snapped bow and/or a loose bowstring would react to the opportunity to pay you back your due...
No shooting where you can easily lose your arrows? Is that a rule? I don't know for sports archery is usually conveyed in environment where you have the proper wall against you and behind the target.
Not in my case yesterday.
I did lose one arrow.
Yes, during my shortest practice ever. So?
This is a 22 pound bow I bought for my wife since she enjoys shooting as well.
The bow has no sight attached. Bow sights are attached to their bodies so that you can watch through them but they represent a single point in space. The other point that makes a line with those is your eye only.
So, you must work on a technique that would guarantee your eye, in relation to the sight of your bow, always form the same line.
Shooting without this plastic sighting attachment becomes more difficult and it's a matter of practice to get it right. Not claiming I have done so yet.
My technique is as if I had one, though, so the notch of the arrow is below my eye. That means that the tip points up and if I chose to place it visually so that it hides the target, the arrow would go above if we shoot at a close range where there's no curved parabolic trajectory yet.
At the 20 yards I chose to practice at, I had to aim below the target and then adjust my shots according to the results.
Only 12 to 20 arrows i had the time to let loose yesterday so...no hit.
What I used for my target was a small stack of paper coffee cups. The size of a small bird at the range where you would normally want to hunt. I've watched tutorials saying hunting between 20 and 40 yards is optimal and beyond that it's cruelty because you can't expect to make a clean kill and you would often only hurt the game bad enough so that it suffers and dies somewhere else after it runs away with your arrow.
I am not planning to actually hunt. I do this for the art of it. Paper cups getting hurt is what I am fine with. Pizza boxes, too.
At this range I would normally be able to hit my pizza boxes most of the time.
For such a short practice, I am kind of happy to have reached this close to sniping the paper cups.
With bamboo arrows, mind you.
Another angle of the same shot.
Bamboo arrows are also not the best for accuracy but they are cheaper, easier to find, easier to trace...
Besides, I like making things hard for me. I want to learn being good with bamboo arrows because they are the worst, if that makes any sense to you. I like challenging conditions even before I had mastered the less challenging ones.
I had three carbon body arrows with me but I did not use them. When I make my own archery range with the proper kind of wall, then their time shall come.
Soon enough, I hope.
Meanwhile, here's a couple of visual details from the place I was at:
Some snow residue.
A bunch of birch trees growing nearby.
Peace!
Yours,
Manol
