another day, another 'shot'

once again my hunting partner and long time friend came thru providing me with the awe (and the mirth) of a long shot with his black widow recurve that fringed on the "no...you can't...can you? will you?" brink.

we'd been bowhunt in the Cleveland national forest about 80 miles east of San Diego that day and were hunting/stumps shooting out ways back to the truck.

of course, those of you out there that are bowhunters know the drill of stump shooting your way back to your truck so i needn't explain that.

the accompanying banter that normally goes along with a day's bowhunt is an integral part of that activity... "hey john, if you miss this shot, you buy lunch"..."geeeeeeee...tom, my gramma kin shoot better 'n' that."..."good grief charlie, if you'd take the suction cups offa yer aeros, they'd probably stick..."

anyway...we were nearly back to out truck when i spotted a soccer ball sized rock very near the truck and having had a pretty good day with our bows, i challenged my pal to hit the rock. now mind you, he had a new black widow recurve and was shooting new aluminum arrows that at the time were "state of the art".

i really didn't think he'd do it, but, he withdrew and arrow from his quiver, clicked it onto the bowstring drew to anchor, released the arrow; we watched it streak towards the 'target'...sure enough..."BLANG" it hit the rock! wow...i couldn't believe it...of course it totally destroyed the arrow and didn't even chip the rock.

we measured the distance...65 yards! not bad for a recurve bow with no sights. that's a good shot even for a compound bow WITH sights.

to this day, my friend continues to amaze me with his accuracy with the recurve bow without sights. I've shot many years without sights on my bows, too...but with no where near the accuracy he has.

well someday, i may be able to hit what i wish to without sights but until then i know why it's said that one "practices" archery.