Calgary Archery Center

LEARNING TO USE A BOW & ARROW

Warthog

So we went to the Calgary Archery Center on Saturday and it was pretty cool. It is setup inside a warehouse in southeast Calgary off of Peigan Trail. We made it during the last hour of the day so they let the two of us shoot arrows until they closed for the discounted rate of $14 per person. That covered our rental of a bow and an hour on the range. It was pretty sweet.

Puma/Cougar

   As we passed through the archery Pro-Shop on the way to the target range we were being watched by so many taxidermied animals that were mounted on the walls. I have a couple of pictures but seriously there are so many antelope, deer and caribou. One wall must have had 20 heads of wild animals mounted on the wall above displays of hunting supplies and archery gear. 

The archery range itself is nothing too fantastic. There are targets on walls that are set up at several varying distances away from the shooting line. The people with the really nice professional compound bows are shooting at the far targets. We were in the amateur section with a bunch of others using regular traditional bows on a mid-range target wall. The guy from the archery range gave us a 3 minute instruction session and then disappeared.

In addition to the walls with targets there were 3-D targets on the range. A big pink hand-written sign that says that you have to pay another $6 if you want to shoot at the 3-D targets. The 3-D targets are styrofoam animals that you can shoot arrows at. There was a wide variety. There was even a giant cobra. I couldn't photograph the cobra because I didn't have enough time when we went to retrieve our arrows. 

One thing that surprised me was that they had these two styrofoam targets sitting on the side. There was a 3-D target shaped like a Darth Vader head that was sitting next to the head of what I can only imagine is Mark Twain. The Darth Vader head was unscathed but the Mark Twain head was perforated with dozens of holes from being used for target practice. What's up with that?

Is that Mark Twain?

As I mentioned before I was under a time constraint to take photographs. The way that it worked was that everybody had the chance to shoot three arrows. There were about a dozen of us using the archery range so once everyone had shot their arrows we all put down our bows and went to retrieve our three arrows. I would stop to take pictures and I did not want to seem as though I was holding everybody up. Also one of my problems is that I would aim too high and my arrow would go over the target wall and end up in a auxiliary storage area for 3-D targets so I would have to climb over every time to get them. Honestly I was 'that guy' who was holding up the whole group. I really wanted to get a picture of the cobra but it just wasn't in the cards. I did manage to get this snapshot of bigfoot. What a yeti! You know, in case you wanted to practice shooting arrows at the sasquatch. I don't get it? Why would anyone want to shoot an arrow at bigfoot. Okay, maybe in self-defense. I just wonder if the sasquatch has enough dexterity to use a bow and arrow. I would hate to get caught off guard by a sasquatch that was armed with a bow and arrow. If you look closely at the photograph you can see that they have a dinosaur target. Great. Now I can simulate the experience that creationists' ancestors went through! 

Styrofoam Sasquatch target is scowling. You can also shoot at a dinosaur.