This past weekend was the 12th annual running of Camp wilderness, a 3 day summer camp I teach at here in MI. We run the kids through the MI Hunter Safety program, which included the IBEP bowhunter education as well.
Along with the classes, we have an archery range among our various free time activities, and the archery is always the biggeset draw.
We have the opportunity to work with kids who are of various experience levels, many with their own bows, and many shoot our camp bows.
They have the opportunity to shoot any type of bow they want- longbows, recurves and compounds.
But year after year, I see several kids who take to shooting the trad bows, and the smiles on their faces is priceless.
This year, one kid in particular stood out to me. Noce young fella, well mannered, quiet and attentive in class. He had is own compound bow at camp, yet I only saw him shoot it once. Then he picked up one of our recurves, grabbed a few arrows, and started shooting. This was one of those kids with a lot of natural talent, and with very little instruction, was hitting the target regularly. I never saw that kid without a smile on his face.
When time allowed, the instructors often shoot with the kids, and thy are always fascinated at the accuracy of a traditional bow. We have several trad shooters on our staff, so the opportunity for the kids to get some proper instruction is high.
I know one young man who got bit hard by the trad bug. Im just glad to have had the opportunity to help it happen. I wish i had some pics but I was so busy all weekend I didnt get any pics at the range.
As always, I came home from Camp exhausted, but inpsired after spending a weekend with 50 great kids, and a dozen or so of the best staff you could muster up.