Sixty-six archers came out to the Big Horn Archery Club shoot in 100 Mile House on June 3 and 4.
Allen Pickering, president of the Big Horn Archery Club, says they would like to see more youth but that the event was “overall good [and] attendance was pretty fair.”
The event welcomed different types of shooters including archers using traditional bows, that is using longbows, and compound bows, which have little wheels on the end giving them greater reach. For each of the categories, featuring replica deer, bears, pigs, sheep and more, there were stakes at separate distances, one for the traditional bow and one for the compound bows.
“We also had a long shot where we placed a target way out there and then you start close to the target and keep moving back at the designated yardage and [the] last person standing won the prize and there’s one for compound as well as traditional. Then for traditional shooters, we had a machine called a bow birds machine. I think we’re the only club in British Columbia that has one and it shoots or throws foam disks very much like clay pigeons. The traditional shooters shoot at that with arrows called flu flus and they have six feathers on them normally and they’re full-length feathers, so it’s like hitting a whiffle ball; they don’t go very far. [The] birds are thrown in the air and you shoot at it and the person” with the most arrows in a set of birds wins that prize, says Pickering.
The event was also accompanied by a Saturday night dinner, which was attended by just over 40 people, as well as a Sunday breakfast with many of the shooters camping nearby.
“We provide free camping which is one of the few shoots that provides free camping, so we get quite a few shooters,” says Pickering.
Denise swift, the club secretary, said by email that they “all had a great time and ate very well with the concession serving up the best burgers, hot dogs, chili dogs etc. as well as the great Saturday dinner. The club is very lucky to have such great cooks.”
The weather this year was incredible according to Pickering.
“Last year we had a really wet start but it turned out okay. This year it’s been, fingers crossed, very nice all weekend. It’s not sweltering out there — a little problem with the mosquitoes, but you live in the Cariboo you’ve got to live with that.”
Pickering wants to extend a big ‘thank you’ to all the businesses in town who supported with event with prize donations.
The next Big Horn Archery Club shoot is coming up in mid-July and is traditional only. According to Pickering, last year they had 120 plus shooters arrive for that with some coming from as far as the Vancouver Island. “It’s getting to be known as one of the big traditional shoots in the province.”
This weekend’s event saw shooters from 100 Mile House, Quesnel, Williams Lake, Prince George, Kamloops and Chilliwack among others according to Pickering.
“What we try to do as a club, myself and a lot of other members, we try to make it to all of the other shoots that are going on in the province. [We] reciprocate with attending each other’s shoots because it’s the support of the archers that make these things possible.”
