A little unsure what to expect, my wife and I when to the local 3D shoot put on by the Austin Archery Club.

I joined the club, paying membership dues, registered for the days shoot and talked with the club president for a bit.

I talked to several members warming up on the bag range, and told them this was my first time. They all spoke up and said come with us. So I shot my practice rounds and off we went into the woods for the first target of the 30 target tournament. Little did I know they gave me an orange card which meant I' m shooting from the farthest stake.

An 8 on my first shot! I didn' t miss the whole target as I thought I would.

Then I hit 3, 10' s in a row!

The 5th was a big mountain goat set out every bit of 50 yards. Because I thought I' d be shooting no farther then 35 yards, my bottom pin is set at 30 yards. Well I let her fly aiming my bottom pin just above the backbone. Skimmed the belly and into the rocks. Bummer! a zero on that target. I soon learned, by my front leg shots that I wasn' t good at judging longer distances. I always came up low and short. My judging was fairly right on at first, but by the middle of the tournament trail I was getting worse.

All in all, someone reel me in and take the hook out!!!!

It was fun and I laughed more then the law should allow. Those guys and gals are nuts!!! All along the coarse, you could here laughing and heckling shooters. Then you could here an arrow go through the woods like a pin-ball machine, and someone say something funny. Broken wood arrows lined some of the most difficult shots.

I' m hooked! My first outting and I got a 207, miss 3 targets totally, scoring zeros on them. I can' t wait for next month. I have to get my buddies that got me back into archery, to go this time! They weasled out on me yesterday and sent me as the scout. They missed out, as it was a beautiful day to be out in the woods. They could have video taped the NASCAR race, like I did.

I would like to thank the Austin Archery Club for putting on these things. It is a commitment to our sport I won' t take for granted.