Family archery day - bows, crossbows, atlatls

Hi everyone. Since some crossbows were involved, I thought I'd share an event from yesterday at my club, FCSC. I had designed and we finished construting a small, basic archery range this past May. We had a free event the other day, and provided a lot of various kinds of bows at various weights, arrows, arm guards, etc. I had zombie deer target overlays, baloons, etc, to shoot at, and also set up an atlatl target and provided about 35 darts and about 12 different styles of atlatls I have made over the last few years.

I also provided a medieval crossbow, the little Chinese repeater, and a modern Horton crossbow. Folks loved all three crossbows, and I think I converted a few folks to the joys of crossbows. One guy, and experienced hunter, really dug the idea that you need to practice and develop skills using the old style weapons, and kids loved the repeater. The atlatls were incredibly popular, too.

Here are some photos. The theme was Hunger Games, and girls outnumbered boys in participation. We even had an Olympic caliber archer from Italy who is probably going to join the club. We had people from all over the region attend, including a family from Albany, NY.

These events are exhasting to put on, but worth it. We decided to donate food to the event, so we had burgers, dogs and Italian sausage for free, plus ice cream for the kids. I have out a bunch of Hunger Games buttons and zombie hunting permits as well.

In case you are wondering, I am the guy in the porkpie hat.

Dane

Looks like a great time was had by all! Nice work - both you and the club - in promoting older ways of doing things.

gone

Thanks guys. And thanks about the porkpie. I love that style, and being a former musician, it appeals to me that way.

Gui, thanks about the range. Aside from augering to sink in the fence posts (New England soil is very rocky) and grading and graveling, it was all club talent who contributed to this range. I just designed it, but the real work was lots of folks working together. We purchased the fencing materials from a local sawmill, and other purchases were all local businesses. Nice to help the local economy.

Dane