Thursday night.
I'm at the pro-shop last night getting my bow it's mid-season tune/check-up. I figure that with all of the bumps, jars & temp changes it might be a good idea.
Back & forth between the pro-shop desk and the range is a very well dressed gentleman wearing a suit (minus tie & coat). I assume that the Mercedes 600 SL outside was his.
He was working with the tech in getting his sight aligned. He'd take a few shots - most well OUTSIDE the 7" circle - and ask for some more tweaking. After what seemed like a dozen trips to the tech, the tech finally came out and shot the guys bow himself. Each and every one was well INSIDE the target circle.
The tech hands the bow back & says, "It's perfect - you just need more practice & you need to work on your form." The gentleman responds - "Oh, OK - I guess I'll be ready for hunting Saturday." WTF ! <img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle> <img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle>
He must have seen the shocked look on my face. He says to me - my glasses don't work well with this sight - I really can't see the target very well. I say - "Oh - of course you'll be wearing your contacts then." The response - "I don't wear contacts - shouldn't matter anyway - a deer is much bigger than that target." WTF again!! I mention that a deer’s "kill" zone is not much if any bigger than the target he was shooting at. He gives me that "Do I look like I really care" look.
The guy packs up all of his BRAND NEW - JUST PURCHASED equipment & loads it into the Mercedes and off he goes. I ask the tech if what I think just happened just happened. I was told that yes, this man did just purchase everything to go hunting this weekend & no - he's NEVER shot a bow before.
The tech tried to talk him out of going hunting THIS weekend & offered to provide several hours of instruction FREE of CHARGE if he'd wait till next weekend. Nice guy - that tech. The tech really had to sell the equipment to the guy - it was about $1,700 worth of stuff - these small pro-shops don't make a ton of money.
Evidently he's some real-estate developer guy and he had a bunch of surveyors on his property that all saw this monster buck & some of the surveyors wanted to hunt him. The guy said "NO" to the surveyors - then goes out & buys all of the bow equipment so he can go and get the buck. Evidentially he's a gun hunter - but the property in question is in a "Bow Only" county.
Now I've got NO PROBLEM with a landowner going and hunting HIS OWN property, but I guess that it's the careless manner in which he's picking up our sport. It seems like there's no respect for the whole process.
The experience was just unreal.
"It's not the kill, it's the adventure and challenge! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>"