A Return to the Straight and Arrow—Traditional Archery, Day 2

Ouch.

Turns out my right ring finger is still quite, well…”annoyed.” I talked with my soon-to-be instructor about it and he recommended the “tab” (archers use “tabs” or “gloves” to pull back the bow string, it’s much easier on the flesh, since we’re all not superheros nor nineteenth century woodspeople…) I use should be at least two, preferably three layers in thickness. I believe mine is considered “two,” with one felt and one plastic layer. But my concern with the numb finger is to get the most “twang for my buck (heh-heh, like that!), come instruction time. I don’t want to be focusing on pain and improper physical ability if I’m paying money to learn how to do this right, and I can’t do “the right” if my body ain’t cooperatin’. I can muscle through it, sure, did so for an hour yesterday and through half of my first session, Monday (and you can see how well those went…), but I don’t want to waste my time and money, nor my instructor’s time, if my body isn’t “working right” to properly follow instruction. So, no more range until I see him late next week, and I’ll be looking at a thicker tab.

So…went out to the range yesterday to see if I could do any better with the replaced arrow rest (see comments from Day 1), and I kinda did, though it may not look all that different from my first target, but around 4 or 5 “ends” in (Lune, a commenter, was kind enough to point out [pardon the pun] that a “sessions with arrows,” when you run out and put down the bow to retrieve them, is called an “end”–thanks, again, Lune!), among a couple other groupings, I actually had a grouping of THREE arrows in the center yellow (the inverted “L” at the bottom center of the yellow). I must have been doing something right. And, BTW, I never once hit the backstop, this go-around.

Overall, I felt much more confident and feel I did a heckuva a lot better shooting this time—and I was actually grouping arrows, though am still somewhat pulling to the left.

I really have to say, I love the feeling of the bow.

It has been so long, but I love the feel of it all—nocking arrows, drawing the string, targeting. Watching the arrows as they fly through the air and head for the target. That thump! as they strike the target.

Nothing like it.

A Return to the Straight and Arrow–Day 1.

A Return to the Straight and Arrow–Day 3.