Missing by a Mile
I got to thinking hard about my tendency to go overboard with things when I was writing that post. That same energy can be channeled constructively, I think. I have learned a few things about human behavior because of my interests. I know that it is very difficult to give yourself commands like, "I will not smoke."
The catch is that people do successful stop behaviors. Some of them happen through willpower. The cold turkey, white knuckling method is a thing. I stopped drinking soda that way in 2014. One day I was guzzling a 44-ounce, ice cold Coke. The next day I was carrying around bottles of water and have fever dreams oddly similar to the concession commercial you see before a movie only without the rollercoaster. I never did like rides that I was not controlling.
If I am going to end up more healthy I cannot rely completely on cardio. Even a daily calorie burn is not enough to get me up to speed. I believe I am approaching this in an interesting way. Adding Archery to build upper body muscle while burning a few calories sounded exciting. I had set myself up in that excitement to go off the deep end and be drowning in bows, arrows, and accessories.
That is not a great move around Christmas. I doubt any of my family picked me out a new bow, arm guard, or target as a present. That is a good thing. In my head at least, weapons, even those that will only be used to hit a target, are a very personalized choice.
For example, knowing that I enjoy shooting a 9mm Taurus semi automatic pistol might make a person believe that a Taurus G3 would be a great handgun choice for me.
I am not going to try and explain the technical difference or argue the reliability or precision of striker versus hammer fired guns. I have an elementary understanding at best. My preference isn't even a logical or scientific thing. I just prefer a pistol with a hammer. I use this contrast because one of my very favorite pistols is the Taurus TH9.
There is my baby! In quite a few of your heads gifs of "It's the same picture." just went off like fireworks. They are damned similar. Look to the back of the slide though. See that lip just below the slide of the TH9 (2nd picture)? For my hands, that just feels great. Right above it (currently in the uncocked position) is the hammer. Take the safety off and pull that back and (if a round is chambered) the pistol is ready to fire.
All of that to say details matter to me. I have gone through a fair number of pistols in different brands, shapes, functions, and calibers before I knew what I wanted. Oddly enough the thing that pushed me away from Walther who manufactured my favorite .22 and .380 along with my least favorite striker fired 9mm was shooting a Taurus G2. I thought to myself," Wow, if that was a little leaner and had a hammer it would be darn near perfect." A few months later I bought my Taurus TH9.
Moving from the Archery idea to actually being able to draw and fire arrows felt a bit intimidating. It has been a number of years since I owned a bow purchased for me. In fact, I haven't had my own bow since I was about 8 years old. Even if I had not worn out that fiberglass beauty years ago, it would be a bit worn out and weak for grown up me. I do have my own crossbow and cocking that 150 pound beast is certainly a workout. I briefly considered dusting off the crossbow, buying a few bolts, and calling that a good start.
Though I do not own my own bow, I have been the caretakers of my parent's Bear Recurves for a number of years. I don't believe I ever saw my Mom shoot her Black Bear. Dad has put many an arrow down range with his bow while target shooting with me. It is funny that with Mom gone I still think of the Black Bear as her bow. It always will be.
I have always liked their bows. Dad is left handed as is his bow. I am at least partially ambidextrous. As a scrawny boy I could just barely draw Mom's pound bow with its twenty five pound draw weight. Dad's draws at forty five pounds. In my teen years I could draw and fire it easily. As a kid, not so much.
I pulled their bows out and laughed with delight as I also found a dozen arrows from the last time Dad dusted off archery as a hobby. I think he shot twice with us. When he did we fired into a foam target he picked up around Christmas time at Gander Mountain Sports. It was holding up a vacuum pump in one of our utility sheds. I was still smiling as I strung both bows. I was going to be shooting without a dollar invested. I could go overboard with just the exercise of archery without putting a dent in my credit card.
I set everything up. I even pulled out my shotgun scabbard to use as a scabbard. It needs a little needlework but works much better as an arrow quiver than it did for carrying the shotgun and shells. I paced off a short range for the target. As a boy I was able to put all my arrows into a target the size of a paper plate across the length of our backyard. I felt like a decent archer back then.
Paper plates are big. Our backyard was small. After years of not firing a bow regularly I am a terrible shot. At ten feet I could put all dozen arrows into the foam target. At ten yards my best attempt on that first day was 5 out of 12. Hawkeye I am not. There were a few bullseyes. They were a complete accident. I couldn't even sight the bow in during the three flights I shot. Give me a pistol or a rifle and I will know where I am aiming in 3 to 5 shots.
Another fun thing happened that first day. During my last series I fire off an arrow. It is dead center on target but too high. The arrow literally bounces off the top of the target and spins off into the woods. At least I got a few steps in looking for it. You would think bright red and white fletchings would make it easy to find. You also would be wrong.
Day two is not significantly better. I shot for a solid 45 minutes. My groupings are mostly not. I went out with 11 arrows. I came in with 10. This time I am much less certain of where that one went. I do know that my worst set was when I lost it. I hit the torso sized target three out of twelve times. Terrible.
The funny thing is I have had a blast shooting. It gets me outside. My arms and shoulders aren't exactly in agony from using the twenty five pound pull, but I do feel it. After fifteen minutes of draw, release, walk to gather arrows, and repeat I was a little sweaty. I was also thinking through how I am going to get better at shooting.
My first move was to order some more cheap arrows. Yes, it is spending money, but you don't improve marksmanship of any kind without a good supply of ammunition. I have experimenting with using a trigger release. I do not like it for a few reasons not the least of which was punching myself solidly in the teeth on one release.
I have also been intentionally shooting wearing a pair of Mechanix gloves and a heavy hoodie. I spent quite a few summers between age 8 and 12 with heavily bruised fingers and left forearm. The gloves probably are impacting my aim a bit. My head and right hand keep screaming at me to take them off. I also know I type a LOT and even with the gloves my fingers are bruised. I also took off the hoodie for a bit and promptly put a nice friction burn on my left wrist. Granted the string had twisted due to a bad release, but I did not mind adding a cheap arm guard to my order for arrows.
Finally, I put a strange item on my shopping list for the week: Bright Orange spray paint. These winter days are short and I work most of the daylight hours. Arrows are not the least bit cheap. Shooting a quick coat of high visibility paint should help this arrow-a-day loss. Until I see that I am going to continue to invest time in Archery I am not allowing myself to build a backstop and fancier targets. I might or might not be mentally constructing them which is totally acceptable.
I might or might not also have figured out where I am going to put them when they are built out. I might or might not have figured out a system to be able to trade out hanging foam targets for metal plates for firearms. I absolutely did find a large fallen tree that I can turn into a series of axe throwing targets. A bit of chainsaw work and I can...
Go completely overboard.
I did not say diverting my enthusiasm was going to be an easy thing.
In the next couple of days I am going to try and take the GoPro with me. Hopefully I will gain skill through practice. If not I may have to start shopping for targets described as "broad side of the barn." It will be neat to have some evidence of where I started from when I am more comfortable with the bow.
Eventually, if I stick with this I want it to be quite a while before I upgrade my equipment. I will eventually want to get a longbow because I have always wanted one. I will eventually want a heavier pull recurve. I will eventually want a compound bow because they are just neat and a different shooting experience. I owned one very briefly...sort of. More like I held one for a friend against a loan.
Before I do all that though I want to see that sticking with Archery is fun and produces the benefits of better muscles in my chest, back, and arms. The winter will be brief as all the seasons are. I don't want to be hundreds of dollars into bow and arrows when I could save that, use what I have, and get myself overly enthusiastic about other exercises in my future like a heavy duty road bicycle, a truck to carry my kayak back and forth to the lake, and a new pair of hiking boots to get my big butt back up that mountain.
For now, I am going to restart my Final Fantasy V replay and not botch my job and ability selections so badly. Stupid Exdeath. Stupid necessary Ribbons and Aegis Shields. Stupid me liking Summoner, Black & White Mage too much.
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