Had a wonderful evening yesterday. A friend of mine, Richard, has been living with me for a couple of weeks. We’ve been friends for over 20 years … a fact we often laugh about. Richard is a wonderful person and possibly one of the few people who truly knows me – he’s family. He’s been going through a tough spell in his personal life and needed somewhere to get away to and sort things out so I told him to get his stuff and come stay with me for as long as he needed to.

I live in a house all by myself, so it’s been great having someone around that I know won’t get on my nerves, as well as put up with my idiosyncrasies 😉 The truth is that Rich and I are very similar in our temperament and personalities yet outwardly most people would probably think we had very little in common.

Anyway Richard is an avid Archer and extremely skilful – he’s been doing it for four years or so. He offered to teach me how to shoot so he arranged for a training session last night, his father and his older brother also came along, both of whom have been shooting for around 18 months. Richard handed me a small 28lb recurve bow that looks a bit like the one in the picture opposite. Richard also got me to put on an arm guard and some finger protectors and took me through some of the basics and how to ensure I didn’t hurt myself or anyone else – safety first!

I didn’t find drawing the bow too difficult although I could feel the tension in my shoulders and chest but after some directions from Rich, I found myself hitting the boss fairly comfortably. I kept making the mistake of squinting and trying to aim down the entire length of the arrow which Richard and the others told me not to do, and instead keep both eyes open and get a feel for where the arrow will go and then adjust my stance. At first it felt counter intuitive but I soon got the hang of it.

Richard himself shoots with a 60lb recurve as well as his preferred 60lb traditional longbow, when asked me to try with them, they all chuckled when it was apparent that I couldn’t draw the string on either bow more than a couple of inches! Watching  Richard shoot with either of those bows was a bit scary since the sound the arrow makes is eerie and seeing how deep each arrow penetrates the target is both impressive and a little frightening.

Anyway the guys decided they wanted to practice shooting at a single arrow. Richard told me if I wanted to I could join in with them or continue to carry on shooting at the big target. I decided to join in with them, just for the fun of it.

Each of us had six arrows, and we took turns shooting at the target that had this single arrow running down the middle. Anyway on my second shot I split the target arrow right down the middle! w00t! To which the three of them all exclaimed “jammy little git!” or “beginners luck” … mixed in with various other expletives.

Yeah it was blind luck … but it didn’t stop me laughing my head off. Richard’s father split the arrow next and then I did it again … and again … and again! I found that I could actually feel when I released the arrow whether it would hit the target or not .. when I said that to Richard I thought he might laugh but he said it’s about instinct and generally as you release you can get a sense of whether your going to hit or not. Anyway Richard, decided that he’d given us enough of a lead and with his 60lb bow split the target arrow six times in quick succession … like I said he’s really good!

At that point Richard’s father suggested we shoot at a different target, so he whipped out a $1 bill and stuck it on the boss. Again Richard didn’t seem to have much difficulty hitting it, nor did his father. I struggled at first but then managed to hit it a couple of times but Richard was impressed that my clusters were actually quite consistent.

I haven’t had so much fun in ages. Richard is taking me to a medieval fair this weekend, and possibly to a woodland shoot in December which I’m really looking forward to. Like anything else though, any activity is made all the more enjoyable by the people your with … and these guys are amongst the best … so thanks Rich! 😉