Every summer I try to get my boys involved in different activities. Last summer it was tennis lessons, the year before it was swimming lessons, and some other things we've done in the past. I always tell them they don't have to stick with it when the lessons are over if they don't enjoy it, but I'll get them outfitted with the necessary equipment if they do. I think it's good for them to try new things.

So this summer I got them signed up for free archery lessons, taught by an instructor from Cabela's. Today was their second lesson and I brought the camera along to get a few pictures. The instructor brings different bows for them to try each time. They're enjoying it, and now they're looking at bows at Cabela's (a bit more $$$ than I was expecting, but we can work something out).

So here a few shots from today. The first picture is the instructor demonstrating his target bow. It has a magnifying scope, which I thought was pretty cool. I didn't even know there were such devices for bows. He made some impressive shots with it (including a couple of long shots).



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Archery is damn fun.

Pretty cool. Archery is fun as hell, but it does get expensive. Bow hunting is probably the hobby I dump the most money in every year.

Cool.

Are they the only 2 who took the class?

This

yes, yes it is

I've thought about picking up archery or crossbow, how expensive are we talking?

No, but I didn't take pictures of the other kids.

One they shot today that they like is $350 for a package deal.

Me and my son shot our bow's this evening. He as a kid's boy(8) I have a hunting bow.
Here in Arkansas we can bow hunt from Sept thur Feb.

Could you all stand a little closer to the targets?

Somebody needs to lay off the beers

JK, I'm a fine one to talk.  Good on you OP, I loved bowhunting earlier in my life

Are those Bows legal? Lol. Looks like fun.

Awesome! Looks like a great time.

Good times.  Some of my best memories as a kid are of shooting bow with my dad.

Have you ever taken someone shooting for their first time?...No,

well you want to build some confidence in new shooters, which is why you stay close to the targets and let them become familiar with the equipment and targets, etc...

Let them have fun HITTING what they shoot at.  



BTW, great job on getting your kids to step outside.

Good Dad

Lighten up, Francis.

So, cheaper than a .22 or new handgun.

 

Uh, no. A new .22 I've been thinking about getting them costs about $135.

Awesome! Archery is fun. Made my first bow (and arrows) when I was really young, and had a lot of fun... until I was corrupted by the white man's ways and discovered firearms


Archery is a great hobby, though... and if you can learn to hunt that way, even better

GETTING KIDS INVOLVED !!!!!

Digging the old-school recurve.  That's the archery equivalent of shooting a single-shot with iron sights, but it teaches fundamentals like nobody's business.

If I were going to get into archery I'd go old school, just to have something different. The prices at this place aren't really too bad, either.
http://www.recurvebowshop.com/grozer+kassai+toth+recurve+bows+horsebows+recurvebows.htm

I like the simple bows, the other style seems a little too much like a contraption that can pinch.

Good Job OP!!

I have gotten my family into archery also.  I bought one in Feb. Almost immediately had to buy my son a kids bow. Then my daughter joins the archery team at her middle school. we bought her a bow at Bass Pro last week.

Now we have to start on the wife!

Good for you. This country needs more like you!

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little bad-ass compound bow beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor tire will take 6 rounds before it goes down?
Tough sumbich..

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard fan that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all over the place.

One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (Ether). The light bulb went off in my head...

I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner. Let’s face it, to a 10 yr old mouth-breather like myself, (Ether), really doesn't "sound" flammable.

So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).

At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the (Ether) can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie, a 1 lb. pyrodex and 16 oz (Ether) should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you know?

You know what? Screw that I'm going back in the house for the other can.

Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we're cookin'.

I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I drew the nock to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck... OH S--T! He just got home from work. So help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a WTF look in his eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into the can. Oh S--t.

When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don't know if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 fricking decibels of sound. I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a worm or two.

The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this... THE FRICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE.

There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture.
Notice I said "was". That son-of-a-b--ch got up and ran off..

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my
Thundercats T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the carport
having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback: ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE YOU'RE BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE. DAMN IT CEASE FIRE!!!!!

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the driveway. All windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow rolling mushroom cloud about 2000 ft. over our backyard. There is a Honda 185 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't know - I know I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside my own head. I don't think he heard me either... not that it would really matter. I don't remember much from this point on. I said something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke later....repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR. and Dad screaming "Bring him back to life so I can kill him again". Thanks Mom.

One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again, Mom had been bitching about that thing for years and dad never did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.

Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. I still have some sort of bone growth abnormality, either from the blast or the beating, or both.


I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery. It's good
discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.

How would you pinch yourself?

The cams only move when you draw, which requires both hands.

There are few injuries you can sustain while using a bow.  Most notably is string burn, where the string hits the supporting arm, but that is because of bad form, and they make arm guards, and its no worse than a rope burn.  Dry fire(no arrow), which can trash a bow.  Or if the arrow slips off the rest, sometimes people freakout and let go, then the arrow goes through their arm.

Abominable......^^^^^ Awesome story up there.  

I bought my 11yo daughter a Diamond Infinite Edge in pink of course last week, she loves it and has been shooting it every day.

Cool, looks like fun.

I was self-taught on archery, though I can see the advantage in using bows/arrows/targets/etc. that you get with a paid lesson.  Hopefully the instructor didn't charge a ridiculous rate.

Oh boy, I could say things about technique there since I used to shoot Olympic style recurve... but I shouldn't.  

Good safe fun is good safe fun!

The lessons and equipment were provided free.

Great story.




That's the one they're mainly interested in. It's the camo one they're shooting in the pictures. There was also a black one but they didn't shoot it because it was a lefty.




Go ahead, add your two cents. I'll pass the advice along when they're practicing.

Nice, i had a new string put on my bow today and am looking forward to being on stand in a few months!

 
































 

Cool stuff. Do you make any of those recurves yourself?

Good for you!

Look for a JOAD program near you sponsored by USA Archery (usaarchery.org).  That's how I got started.  Generally the coaches are all certified by USA Archery.  I'm a level 1 coach, but my club has a coaches through level 4 (5 is the top level of Olympic coaches).

Find an Archery Club

The third Archery World Cup event is going on in Columbia this week.  You can follow news and live scores online at World Archery.

Yes I was too lazy to rotate the pictures.

Here is my target setup:


Here is a target I shot at 20 yards the last time I shot indoors earlier this year with the bow in the pic above.  The center x is about the size of a dime, the bold line is a little bigger than a quarter.  I hit the quarter 30 times out of 30.  I hit the dime 26 times out of 30.


Here is a group I shot at 50 meters the other day while tuning the bow in the above pic at longer distance indoors to be able to tune without wind.  The bold 10 ring is just under 2" across I believe.


The cool thing about archery is you can do anything you want to with it.  You can shoot a ton of different classes which represent every style of archery you can imagine.  Archery has taken me around the world on various world teams.  It's an amazing sport.  It requires massive amounts of coordination and repetition to get really good.

I hope they stick it out!!  Feel free to message me any questions.  I'll do my best to lead you where you want to go.

The equipment I'm shooting:









That's pretty much been my setup the last year or so.  I really prefer indoor shooting.  My favorite tournament of the year is every February in Las Vegas!  I love that shoot.  This year I won $600 bucks for 2nd place in my group!  A great family sport.  I haven't hunted anything yet, but I'm on the lookout for a used hunting setup now and may give it a go for the first time this season.  I'm animal vital accurate out to beyond 100 yards, so if I can get one within reasonable range I will have me some venison in the freezer!  A buddy of mine I just met has agreed to show me the ropes and help me clean my first one, which is the reason I've shied away from hunting so far.  I don't know how to clean the damn things once I kill one!

I need to get a bow

Awesome possum !!!




 
 

 

You better hope they don't get obsessed.  $350 will feel like a steal!

This man speaks the truth.  Add a zero to that and you'll basically get into what of my target rigs costs retail.  And I have 2 complete set ups!  Thank the lord for (used to have) sponsorship and now people who have to have the latest and greatest and sell me the 1 year old stuff on the cheap!

So yesterday was their last lesson. The instructor sort of liked us because we live an hour and twenty minutes away but we drove up there for this, and we were the only ones to show up for all the classes. Most of the others who live there didn't show up because it was too hot. Pansies.

So it turns out the instructor is also the marketing manager for the Cabela's in Springfield (also a former editor of one of the big bowhunting magazines, I forget which one). He gave me his card and told me when I'm ready to go in and buy those package deals for my boys, he'll give me a 25% discount for taking the class.

Smashy, could you answer a gear question for kiddos?

My daughter has a Bear Brave 3 Youth compound bow, but outgrew it years ago. One of my nephews has expressed an interest in learning archery, but I don't know if my daughter's bow would be appropriate for him.

My question is this: How do you size a bow to a child? Is it just a matter of making sure they can safely draw it? Something else?

Thank you in advance for your help

Sorry, but you're asking the wrong person. I don't know squat about archery.  I teach my kids to shoot guns, but I can't do bows. That's why I got the kids into these lessons, I wanted them to learn from someone who knows what they're doing. I'll get my kids fitted for bows at Cabela's.

I'd like to get into archery myself eventually. By then my kids will be able to teach me.

But there are plenty of people here who should be able to answer your question.

Thanks brother

As it turns out, we have a bow hunting and archery section here

I had no idea prior to three minutes ago.

I started shooting bows with my dad when I was a little kid.  
Started with a long bow, went to a Ben Pearson recurve and eventually back to a long bow.

Many good times.  If your kids like it, get yourself one also.

About as much as an AR-15.