You must have to work on your core strength to be able to hold the bow steady in that awkward position!
Do you use a metal detector or any nano homing devices to find arrows?
I'm guessing you must like Nevada like I do, because you are driving past a lot of desert and some playas in Oregon to get there
I do have to maintain a workout routine to maintain overall strength and flexibility. It is especially important to focus on my core abdominal muscles as I get older. Technique is important also. I have a friend in the UK who suffered a pretty severe hernia a couple years ago while shooting his footbow.
I do all my practice shooting at the Alvord dry lake bed in southeast Oregon. There are a few smaller dry lake beds in the state, but Alvord is by far the largest and most beautiful playa in Oregon. It is about an 8 hour drive from the Portland area, so I usually plan to stay a week or more at a time. Austin, Nevada is almost a 12 hour drive for me, so the only way I get a chance to practice there is to arrive a couple days early.
A metal detector will sense these arrows that burrow underground. We had one with us one year, but it didn’t help for a number of reasons. One reason is that the area the arrow lands can be very large. The second reason is that there are endless other items buried under the surface which set off the detector. We would find WW2 era bullets and casings in just about every square foot of area searched! It was just impossible.
A homing device of some kind would be great if it could be smaller than a grain of rice, and detected from a hundred yards away. The arrows are quite small and extremely sensitive to anything that would affect the shape, stiffness, and center of gravity. So far, I find the best method for finding the arrows is making sure the space where the arrows land is well mapped out ahead of time, and to achieve consistent and accurate shooting. The GPS apps for my phone are a big help too. I use the apps that track where we have and have not searched, and I mark where each arrow is found so that I can see patterns in where missing arrows might be found.
Topic: Smithsonian article (Read 2051 times)
