Spliting an arrow is impossible... Right?

First Day at the archery range 


So I have decided it's time that I go into Rocky Mountain Archery and shoot at the range for the first time. I have been wanting to go there for weeks now. I loaded up all my stuff and kiss the girlfriend good by and headed to the range.

Rocky Mountain Archery is a nice place. It feels nice and neat inside. I met Nic the guy running the place for the evening and paid my $7 + $1 for a target. He asked if I wanted to buy his bow for $1000... Haha yeah right $1000 for a bow. He was only kidding. He really wanted $1800. Come to find out that the bow he's selling is a Hoyt Pro Comp elite! Wow this thing is nice. I would love to have it but I don't think I'm ready to spend that much on a bow just yet. However that's the bow that I have had my eye on.

So I got a quick run down of the rules of the range. And it's show time.

My bow was shooting pretty good. I started talking to the guy next to me. He thought I was doing pretty good considering I have only shot my bow 10 times.

Here's some of my good shots

Nice little grouping.

I was having a pretty good time. It was fun shooting here with other people around to talk to. People with a common interest.

I'm pretty excited I am getting close to shooting my 1000th arrow! While I was about 4 or 6 away, I had shot my third arrow and I heard it hit one of the other arrows. The guy next to me said "that didn't sound good." I said "that would be funny if I had split my arrow." Which is impossible. I thought I remember an episode of myth busters saying it's impossible. He said that if he ever split an arrow he would quit archery cause it's never going to get any better than that haha. I said. Well I think it only counts as being really awesome if it's a bulls eye too. He said that if I had split my arrow in the bulls eye he would give me a wooden buffalo nickel. (Whatever that is). So the last archer shot and called out that the line was clear. We walked down to retrieve our arrows...

I couldn't freaking believe it. I seriously thought splitting an arrow was impossible. I guess it's called robin hooding haha. It just split the nock wide open. And went down the shaft and stuck. Ridiculous. It's not a bulls eye so it's "almost awesome" but I'm keeping that one. So I just lost two more arrows.

It was getting close to closing time. There was only 4 of us shooting. Nic asked if we want to shoot the zombie from the balcony? Heck yes. So he pushed it out and we unloaded on it. So cool.

I think the hardest part about a Zombie Apocalypses is...  Trying not to act excited!!!

After I was done shooting for the night Nic was talking to me more about his bow. Turns out it's like a $3000 dollar set up! After you include the sight, arrow rest, string, cams, stabilizers, peep, two releases, and arrows. Wow...

Here's a photo I found online.

It sure is pretty...

The seed was planted for sure. I want it.

First time shooting a real bow

Day Zero


I am pretty excited to shoot this bow for the first time. I wasn't even sure I could pull the string back without looking super awkward. I'm actually kind of nervous. I strapped the release to my wrist grabbed the bow and the first arrow I'm going to shoot. Told my girlfriend to take a video. I nocked the arrow and hooked on the release trigger and pulled back the string. I was able to pull it back without to much trouble. I noticed that on the string there was a little hole (called a peep sight) that I could see thru and use the sight to aim. I never knew this was how you aim till that moment. Of course my first shot completely missed the target haha. I was hoping I could have gotten lucky first shot.

I shot about 50 arrows and holy shit am I tired my left arm is beat. My shoulder, elbow and bicep hurts.  So I have to give it a rest. The draw weight is definitely way too much for me at this point. I want to keep it high for now so I have to get stronger and develop the muscles to pull this thing back like a pro. Plus I have no idea how to adjust the draw weight... I'm guessing it's 60 or 70lbs right now.

I was getting better, I was surprising myself how quickly I was getting the hang of it. It turns out I do poses the magic to shoot a bow and arrow. I'm getting this aiming thing figured out. I don't have any idea if my form is good or not. I just want to shoot and get my body strong enough to shoot this thing. So my plan is work on the strength first, form second and then accuracy. I shot 178 arrows on day zero. I took another video of my 100th arrow. I shot it just a little low of the bulls eye. (it's hard to see in the video.)

Practice, practice, practice. That's what I'm going to do...

I don't have any idea how many arrows a typical pro archer shoots in a day of practice. So I decided I'm going to shoot at least a 100 or as many as I can. In 90 days I want to have shot 10,000 arrows.

Day 1

I have set up a spread sheet on my phone so I can track my arrow count and accuracy. It's pretty cool when I get a few more days logged I will  have to share how I made it.

Here's how I'm doing on my second day ever shooting a bow at about 25 yards. I'm feeling pretty good about this.

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