A good number of new archers took aim and let fly during a 100 Mile Bighorn Archery Club indoor shooting session recently.
One of them was Madison Lee, 12, who has owned a bow for a couple years, but until now, hasn’t received any organized instruction.
Her father, Craig Lee, accompanied her.
“It’s a good family thing,” he says.
“I’ve got a bow ordered now, so we can come out and shoot together. It’s nice and quiet, relaxing and good father-daughter time.”
Of the close to 20 people on hand were mother Arlene Dalpre and daughter, Arial Dalpre.
“I had my first bow for about 30 years,” Arlene says.
“It’s fun. There’s a great group of people [involved with the club].”
Arial, 19, says she has been a club member since she was about six years old and enjoys shooting indoor and outdoor.
“It’s good company, good exercise, a lot of fun and usually the scenery is pretty nice to look at it, too.”
Arial uses a recurve, which is considered a traditional bow. It’s larger than the more modern compound bows many people are using on this night at the Stan Halcro Arena (Agriplex) in 100 Mile House.
“It’s a more powerful bow,” Arial says of compounds. “It’s more precise and you can take down bigger game with it. It’s the new technology.
“They can put sights on their bow and it’s not considered cheating. Whereas if you put sights on a recurve, or even made a mark anywhere, it’s cheating because you can use that to calculate yards.
“Way back in the day when archery was first created, nobody had sights.”
Both Arial and Darlene are interested in trying bow hunting.
Allen Pickering, a club member for six years and an instructor with Scouts Canada before that, says he would need to get really good before he tried hunting.
“It’s a thing where you can compete with yourself, and if you go to a competition, you’re competing against fellow archers,” he says.
“It’s a great thing to get youth involved in because there’s a lot of discipline they have to become familiar with. Not only with shooting style, but also rules within the group.
It gives them an opportunity if they’re not really good with athletics, like hockey, soccer, and so on, to excel to their own abilities.”
Furthermore, it’s a rather inexpensive sport, he adds.
“We encourage most parents to look for some used equipment to begin with. Youth can change their minds pretty quick, but if they start to get really interested then you step up [in quality]. Because there is a difference. The better the equipment, the better you shoot.”
The 100 Mile Bighorn Archery Club has indoor shooting at the Stan Halcro Arena (Agriplex) on Airport Road on Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Shooting is cancelled when the temperature dips below -10 C.
New members are welcome.
