When I was an early teenager, around 13, my best mate and I used to thunder our horses along the beach bareback shooting orcs with bow and arrow and looping their heads off with swords.

I always fancied myself an archer. And sure, my elbow is a bit high in the photo above but I reckon I have got this. At least I'm hitting the target. Go me.

In response to the rabbit plague here, and a little bit because we've watched far too much Alone, we bought a bow and arrow set. I have serious doubts we will ever hit a living creature with it, and hope we don't, but we had always wanted to give it a go.

Archery is one of those old school skills that's fun to learn. It takes strategy and skill like climbing or chess, which is what we like about it too.

We set up the target, which is a foam spa cover we had covering a wood pile. Worked a treat. It didn't take long before we were getting pretty close to the bulls eye, or rabbits eye 🐰🎯

I was surprised at how quickly I remembered how to do it. After all it had been thirty odd years since I shot an orc. We had been watching a few YouTube videos too. Visualisation is everything with skills like this. Before long I'll be shooting arrows through keyholes like Lance Anderson. Actually, he's almost as good as me shooting from a horse. This is a great clip recreating how they imagined it was possible for the Comanche to shoot three arrows in 1.5 seconds from horseback, necessitating the invention of the revolver.

The bow is a Samick Sage, which is meant to be an awesome bow for starting out. We got the kit which came with a case, arrows and everything else you need. My Dad is going to order the same as he has always wanted to try it too.

There's so much to learn and a lot of practice to do, but we are both enjoying it. The funny thing is, as we are doing it, rabbits are merrily digging under the trees just beyond the target, oblivious.

Watch out orcs, we're coming atcha like Lars.

Do you do archery? Have you always wanted to try?

With Love,

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