Hello Bob, I have often wondered how you came out with the horse bow. If you enjoyed it as much as I have the Beeler bow then we made a good trade.
The size of the group at Denton Hill was about 6,000 traditional archers. There are several events before Denton Hill to qualify for the "Eagle Eye" and also you can qualify at Denton Hill. I saw the finish the year before and told Karen (my wife) that I was going to enter the next year. It's for a good cause (St. Jude Children Hospital) which I support wholeheartedly.
The qualification is simple, you pay $2.00 per shot until you hit a two inch bullseye at about 18-20 yards. (I did hear one guy say he spent all o of his spare money, which was about $100.00 and
didn't qualify. Qualification was pretty easy. You could qualify with no one watching except Mike there to verify, so there was no real pressure at that point.
Saturday evening is when they call up those who qualify for the eliminator round, and the crowd starts lining up. They line up behind and along the sides as close as possible. I thought that there were about 1,000 people there to watch and heard other estimates of from 800 to 1500. Definitly more then you have at the local shoot.
I felt a little bit humbled by the crowd and the guys participating. The first participant that I approached had won the event in a prior year, and it seemed that most of the crowd were more qualified then I was. In the moments before startup I stopped for a moment and prayed that
I not embarrass myself by missing badly. Nerves can do strange things to a normally good shooter.
As your name is called you walk up to the line and take your shot at a 3" orange dot on the side of a deer. The distance is about 16-20 yards. The crowd goes remarkably quiet at that time and I believe that even the kids stop playing. There were 27 archers who qualified and after the first round 2 or 3 missed the whole target. You could tell it was nerves and not inability that caused it. Only three of us got passed the first round, myself and two brothers by the name of "Fisher". (The guy who had won the event in a prior year didn't survive the first round despite a shot that was so close to the dot. Before he left he told me convincingly that I would win, and that it would take several rounds, so not to be impatient.) On the next round one of the Fisher brothers missed, so now there were just two of us. Now it occurs to me that I might win this thing, and that may have been what caused the next shot to miss almost 5". I promised myself that if I survived that round then I wouldn't be distracted again. Mr. Fisher did miss and after I hit the next one he missed again. I sympathized with him for getting so close but it didn't take away from the thrill of winning. The crowd cheered and my wife Karen had the biggest smile I've ever seen on that face. One guy even yelled out "it really doesn't change how the bow shoots" referring to the fact that I was shooting the Beeler bow with our latest EFA Cherokee Totem bow quiver on it. All and all it turned out to be a memorable weekend.
Now Bob you have heard the story. Thanks to you and Dave for the bow, to Raven for those wonderful shafts, to EFA for the cordovan tab, armguard and bow quiver, and to Jerry Deweese for the last minute bow string....and to the Good Lord who didn't let me embarrass myself.
Topic: Dave Beeler Did it Again (Read 883 times)
