I went out to the Burnaby Range with Taylore (a friend and archery instructor) to see if I could get any better at putting holes in poor defenseless targets. I also brought along a camera to record my bumbling foolishness for posterity, and posted the evidence on Youtube. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WbCH7v4zjY
As you can see, I am not photogenic in any way, and it seems that being in front of a camera causes me to have a goofy grin all the time. (In fairness, it was really sunny, and that is half-grin, half-grimace behind my sunglasses.)
The Burnaby range is members only, and it only costs $80 a year for membership. Members can come and shoot at any time – all you do is open up the gate on whatever archery butt you’re using, pin up your target, and go nuts. Like I said in the video, though, there are lots of rules about safety. Archery is great, but it still involves shooting pointy things at high speed towards squishy targets. For reference, here’s the field tip on my practice arrows:
field arrow tip
At this range, there’s a long list of rules for safety. One person out of whoever is shooting that day acts as the rangemaster, who calls out whether the range is clear or whether it’s ‘hot’. You can’t step across the firing line when the range is hot. If you misfire or drop an arrow, you can’t pick it up. You can’t retrieve your arrows until the rangemaster calls out that it’s clear. If anyone wanders onto the range while it’s hot, you have to shout to stop shooting. There’s more, and you do have to take it all seriously, because even a weedy little bow like mine could put an arrow into someone’s head!
Every member has to undergo an orientation and show they can land three arrows into the target, then we get a membership badge that has to be on display at all times. You can see mine hanging off my jeans pocket.
All in all, I didn’t do too badly, in spite of the fact that my groupings were never all that tight. It was lots of fun, even though it was blisteringly hot. I managed not to get burned either due to a significant amount of sunscreen which thankfully doesn’t show up on the video!