10 Years After
09-27-2002 | 07:42 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 9,175
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10 Years After
With apologies to Alvin Lee (if you remember who he was <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>) for using that title...
Couldn't figure out where to put this topic. Doesn't have anything to do with bowhunting, in particular. Doesn't have anything at all to do with the technical aspect of shooting bows. After you read it, I'll bet you can figure out why I chose to put it here, in the Traditional board.
I had a real treat last night at our club's weekly 3D fun shoot. Not one, but TWO old friends that I shot with, and against, in our local field archery and 3D leagues and tourmanents showed up to shoot. Hadn't shot with either of those guys in 10-12 years or so. I'd heard they had both given up on archery and never really expected to see either of them on the range, ever again. It would've been great if just one of them showed up. Seeing both of them getting excited to get back into shooting at the same exact time on the same exact night was incredible.
Of course, nowadays we're older and grayer, don't shoot quite as good or get around as well as we used to, shoot wheels instead of sticks now, but we picked up right where we left off over a decade ago.
We spent the evening shooting, reminiscing and catching up on our mutual friends. The kids I chaperoned on the cub range during tournaments are grown with careers and children of their own. Lots of our old buddies have quit shooting for various reasons. Too many great people are no longer with us, but left us with many fond (and hilarious) memories that will last until it's our turn to follow them.
Ya know, folks... Putting meat on the table or putting numbers on a scorecard or just being out of the house is probably what we think about most while we're shooting. But after the years have passed, you realize that what archery is REALLY all about is the friends you've made and the experiences you've had along the way. Thank goodness I've lived long enough to learn that.
Couldn't figure out where to put this topic. Doesn't have anything to do with bowhunting, in particular. Doesn't have anything at all to do with the technical aspect of shooting bows. After you read it, I'll bet you can figure out why I chose to put it here, in the Traditional board.
I had a real treat last night at our club's weekly 3D fun shoot. Not one, but TWO old friends that I shot with, and against, in our local field archery and 3D leagues and tourmanents showed up to shoot. Hadn't shot with either of those guys in 10-12 years or so. I'd heard they had both given up on archery and never really expected to see either of them on the range, ever again. It would've been great if just one of them showed up. Seeing both of them getting excited to get back into shooting at the same exact time on the same exact night was incredible.
Of course, nowadays we're older and grayer, don't shoot quite as good or get around as well as we used to, shoot wheels instead of sticks now, but we picked up right where we left off over a decade ago.
We spent the evening shooting, reminiscing and catching up on our mutual friends. The kids I chaperoned on the cub range during tournaments are grown with careers and children of their own. Lots of our old buddies have quit shooting for various reasons. Too many great people are no longer with us, but left us with many fond (and hilarious) memories that will last until it's our turn to follow them.
Ya know, folks... Putting meat on the table or putting numbers on a scorecard or just being out of the house is probably what we think about most while we're shooting. But after the years have passed, you realize that what archery is REALLY all about is the friends you've made and the experiences you've had along the way. Thank goodness I've lived long enough to learn that.
09-27-2002 | 08:29 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,097
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From: Goose Creek SC
RE: 10 Years After
Arthur,
This is good a place as any, as long as LBR agrees! I have experienced somewhat of a similar situation over the past 3 or 4 years. Only my expereince covers 20 years.
Twenty years ago I started hunting with my best friend in his home state of West Virginia. We would go up the week of Thanksgiving and hunt the first week of gun season for the elusive whitetail deer.
We continued that for 3 years until I had some bullets whistle over my heard the last time we went during gun season as I was sitting 2/3 of the way up a mountain ridge. All was peaceful and quiet until I heard the bullet whistle overhead and the sound of the rifle firing. 3 or 4 bullets whistled over my head as a shooter below me was shooting, hopefully, at a deer.
I crawled up behind a tree and and prayed to the Lord and promised Him that if He got me out of there alive, I would sell my guns and find a different means of hunting, or quit. Thankfully, archery was an alternative.
When we first started going, our kids were in the 7 to 10 years of age group. Now they are 27 to 30, my two each have a daughter and a son, his oldest son has two boys and a girl and his youngest son has two daughters. The three boys, my son and his two, have been hunting with us for about 5 years now.
The old body is having trouble negotiating the "hills" of the lowcountry of South Carolina, let alone the mountains of Randolph County West Virginia. But for one week a year, I have 51 weeks to recover! And as you say, the memories are priceless.
We have a log that we keep in which we write the events of the hunt for every person on every day we hunt. It is fun to read back and reminensce. The sad part, is the patriarch of the hunt, Jim's dad, went home to be with the Lord in January. This years hunt will be more than just a little bit sad.
Bill
Bill
Praise the Lord, He is worthy
This is good a place as any, as long as LBR agrees! I have experienced somewhat of a similar situation over the past 3 or 4 years. Only my expereince covers 20 years.
Twenty years ago I started hunting with my best friend in his home state of West Virginia. We would go up the week of Thanksgiving and hunt the first week of gun season for the elusive whitetail deer.
We continued that for 3 years until I had some bullets whistle over my heard the last time we went during gun season as I was sitting 2/3 of the way up a mountain ridge. All was peaceful and quiet until I heard the bullet whistle overhead and the sound of the rifle firing. 3 or 4 bullets whistled over my head as a shooter below me was shooting, hopefully, at a deer.
I crawled up behind a tree and and prayed to the Lord and promised Him that if He got me out of there alive, I would sell my guns and find a different means of hunting, or quit. Thankfully, archery was an alternative.
When we first started going, our kids were in the 7 to 10 years of age group. Now they are 27 to 30, my two each have a daughter and a son, his oldest son has two boys and a girl and his youngest son has two daughters. The three boys, my son and his two, have been hunting with us for about 5 years now.
The old body is having trouble negotiating the "hills" of the lowcountry of South Carolina, let alone the mountains of Randolph County West Virginia. But for one week a year, I have 51 weeks to recover! And as you say, the memories are priceless.
We have a log that we keep in which we write the events of the hunt for every person on every day we hunt. It is fun to read back and reminensce. The sad part, is the patriarch of the hunt, Jim's dad, went home to be with the Lord in January. This years hunt will be more than just a little bit sad.
Bill
Bill
Praise the Lord, He is worthy
