Up Down and Through Archery

My first, arrow-munching experiment today in 3-d Archery was a resounding entertainment success, if not an especial threat to the targets in question.

For $10 at Kenmore Gun Ranges, you get a field archery range, and a nice rough up and down trail through the woods with bag targets above, beyond and below you at a large variety of ranges. It took me an hour and half to walk through shooting- the wildish, dell dodging trail was stacked with creeks, trees, foilage, even a few birds nervous from random fire from the gun range; the trail by itself was a decent little hike, designed to get you to shoot up, down, through trees, behind them, and off-balance. Unused to adjusting to rapidly shifting ranges and angles, my black and yellow arrows landed in stumps, mud, and on rare occassions in actual muddy bag targets with pictures of bears and elk on them, at ranges from around 30 to 70 yards. The idea is to vary the target as much as possible- it was loads of fun to walk around and shoot things, watching the arrow arc through the trees and occassionally stick in them, where the longbow's advantage comes into play - I discovered you can reach the arrow almost 12 feet off the ground and wobble it out.

I like my traditional longbow choice more and more - it's all about instinctive shooting and well suited for this sort of thing, particularly because it's so light while you're bushwhacking looking for your last arrow.

The slight nervousness you feel is from the fact that it's a little hard to tell if someone is behind you shooting accidently at the huge fern you're searching through, and of course the constant gunfire. But the latter wasn't as a bad as you might think.

My only suggested improvement - 15th century French calvary targets.