Her name is Artemis.

I'd like you all to meet my newest friend. Her name is Artemis, and she is a beautiful, beautiful thing. She's actually a Leopard, despite the fact she looks like a compound bow. I just got her yesterday, (at my now beloved Sherwood Park Archery Lanes, land of the best customer service ever!), and she has already helped me to hit a bullseye! It was a very exciting moment, and I believe the older, redneck men at the lanes were somewhat entertained by my victory dance.

Buying a bow is a neat-o kind of experience. I decided to not go with a package, since it came with several features that I was really not very interested in (like an attached quiver - useful for hunting, but kind of awkward for target shooting). This meant that first I had to choose my basic bow. This involved me shooting them - but since they have no sights, my aim was WAY off. That was a little embarrassing - I actually shot one about 8 feet above the target. Whoops! Once you choose the bow (I went with the lightest one with the lowest amount of draw weight [it takes me about 35-40 lbs. to draw, more about that later] - I must not be as strong as I thought. More push-ups! More planking! More archery!), you choose your rest, your sight (improves my aim enormously!), and your release.

In order to facilitate a smooth release of the bowstring, most compound bows are not drawn with the archer's fingers. Instead, the archer wears a cuff with a clip on it around her wrist. She clips the 'release' (the cuff) to the bow string and draws back. Once she's found her target, she gently pulls a trigger that is attached the clip. The clip opens, the arrow is loosed, and the target is hit (we hope!). Here's a picture of one to help you imagine what it looks like.

It's a very cool system, despite feeling REALLY weird the first couple of times.

So as I mentioned before, this bow only takes me about 35-40 lbs. to draw the bowstring back. I say 'only' because this is pretty low in the world of archery. Jason's bow requires about 55 lbs., and the young man who was helping me yesterday draws about 65 lbs. Despite being low, it feels like a lot. :) The cool thing about compound bows is that there is a 'let-off.' If you pull the bowstring back far enough, the pulley system kicks in (in a magical, physics kind of way that I don't understand at all), and about 75% of the weight is let-off. That means I stand there holding about 10 lbs. - a manageable amount that lets me hold for quite a while while I line up my sight. Very neat.

Clearly, I'm really liking archery. Know what else I love about it? The verbiage: quiver (holds your arrows), fletcher (makes arrows), bowyer (makes bows), loose (releasing an arrow), nock (loading an arrow)... the words are so lovely. There's just one sad thing - there's not a really good verb for archery. Basically, it's "I'm going to do some archery." You don't say "I'm going arching" because that just sounds goofy. You could say "I'm going target shooting," but then your listener doesn't know if you mean guns or bows, and most people will assume it's guns. I was so saddened by this that I went a-googlin' to try and find a better phrase. I came up with an older phrase, almost archaic sounding, but very cool - 'loose.' (And if you're not very good, or you're me shooting sightless, that might be 'lose!')

I'm going to loose some arrows. Be back later.

Elizabeth