Sorry for the long post but I think it' a good story.

I got to practice real Maryland shooting conditions. 96 degrees with about 90% humidity. The Mossy Oak Archer's gloves are pretty sweet in this weather.

I also bought the Alpine cable slide today. Watching me and my buddy put it on my bow without a bow press was probably like watching 2 monkeys trying to hump a football.

First, he help the bow parallel to the ground and I tried to pull both cables back. Then we realized if he held the bow perpendicular to the ground I could draw the cables back and put the slide on. What a pain in the butt. However, the new slide seems pretty sweet.

Heres' a not so funny story about shooting today. The place I shot at is also the qualification station to hunt Patuxent Wildlife Refuge. There was a gentleman probably in his mid to late 70's. Maybe older than that trying to qualify with a crossbow.

He actually used 2 kitchen sponges to grab the cable on his crossbow to draw it. You had to line up 2 yellow rings on the string on the outside of the cocking mechanism or it would shoot left or right. The crossbow was probably 15-20 yrs old. A old PSE that used a V rest on the front and thebolt sat up in the lock pin. Most crossbows today the bolt sits down on the rail.

Anyway, he shoot poorly on the first 2 shots. missed far left on bothand missed the 3D deer with his 3rd shot low. At that point he said he couldn't draw his crossbow back anymore due to back pain and to be honest probably tired too.

So, I climbed the elevated platform and cocked his crossbow for him so he could shoot and made sure it was aligned properly for him.

He told me that it was his last year hunting and that he hadalready sold his fishing equipment and rifles and shotguns and was giving archery one last shot. I admired the gentleman but also felt sad that probably after 60+ years of being in the woods it was coming to an end for him. It almost made me want to tell him that I'd go out and cock the crossbow for him.

Watching him and his story made me think of my father. While he is only 59 he's had a myriad of health issues ranging from a bad back to lung cancerto the latest issue prostate cancer (thankfully his in full remission). How many more years does he have? That's the biggest reason I am returning to PA to hunt archery withhim.The past 2 years I didn't get a license for PA for the first time in 22 yrs of hunting with him and decided that I don't know how many more years ofhunting together we have.

Last weekend I sighted in his crossbow and it was enjoyable to talk to him about shooting andrazz each other about a poor shoot. I missed that and plan on spending the remaining years we have together enjoyingthe kind of camaraderie that you only get from hunting andfishing together. Sure, we talk about hunting and such on other occasions but there's nothing like actually shooting and hunting together.

This man taught me everything I know about shooting a shotgun and rifle and about hunting deer and field dressing game. Bought me my first guns. I still remember the first day of my hunting life hunting squirrels in the hills of PA. Sitting there in the dark waiting for the sun to come up and that first squirrel sitting on a branch like it was put there just for me to shoot. Taking aim while listening to my father go thorugh the steps on breathing and aiming and taking that first shot and getting that first squirrel. The pride that I saw on his face I'll never forget.

He didn't hunt archery and knew nothing about bows but still realized that it was a passion of mine at a young age and bought me my first recurve and compound bows. He even took up archery in his late 40's I believe to hunt archery with me after all the stories I'd come home with about what I saw.

I think I owe it to him to repay all the time her spent teaching me to hunt and shoot by returning to PA.

Back to the end of the range day story: After setting each string up for him he qualified in4 arrows on 3 deer. I know that's not great shooting by our standards. However that was pretty cool and made me feel good that I helped him qualify and spend 1last year in the woods.