30 3D Target Shoot & Flea Market
April 19th & 20th 2008

April 19th was a beautiful day, regardless of the questionable weather forecast that we saw on the Weather Channel that morning. They were calling for rain and I was not happy. As it turned out, Mother Nature must be a 3D archery fan. Although there were some scattered clouds and at one point it looked like it could have started to rain at any moment, it never did. Both Saturday and Sunday had beautiful weather for shooting 30 3D targets.

I'm told that just under 100 shooters took aim at our 30 targets on Saturday and another 80 shot the course on Sunday. The course started out with a shot at a life sized elk (what a beautiful target that is too). It ended with a standing black bear and had just about everything in between. Some of the grounds were a little soggy but some very creative course setup kept us from getting our feet too muddy. I wore tennis shoes and they stayed relatively clean. The shots were laid out nicely and some of them were very challenging for orange and green stake shooters. All in all, it was a great course!

The Flea Market had a couple of vendors with a lot of goodies for sale. There was everything from little archery knick knacks and do-dads up to fully equipped bows and ladder stands. And let me just point out that you need to be there pretty early to get the best deals. One person actually scooped an awesome deal on a couple of nice ladder stands for $30 each. I saw a little bit of everything from DVDs to big jugs of mineral lick mix. It made me wish I had reserved a table and brought some of my own stuff in to sell and trade. Maybe next time.

The numbers were down in the night coon shoot. This may be because we normally do the coon shoot during the Annual Fall Shoot. But otherwise this shoot was a very big success! A big thanks goes out to all of the members who gave their personal time and effort to make this happen.

Below are just a couple of photos of the vendors and the goodies they had for sale. Some of these deals were steals but you have to get here early. Just click on a small thumbnail image to see a larger version of it - then use the BACK button in your browser to come back to this page.

A Quick Little Story (ok, maybe not so quick)

Since this was the first time I've been to the club in a very long time, I saw a lot of changes. The paved drive, the drainage ditch and resulting humongous dirt hills, bridges, pole barn and the list goes on. The club looks awesome!  There have been so many changes. It was like a different club. As we walked through the club and the courses, I kept telling my daughters "that's changed" and "this is changed" and "this is different from what I remember". Trust me, they got a little tired of hearing it - I'm sure. But I was really surprised by all of the changes here at the club.

But let me tell you what hasn't changed. The people. I don't mean individual people because believe me, there has been a change there too. I saw a few familiar faces and was able to visit with some old friends but for the most part, it's like a whole new crowd. What I mean is that the type of people involved with archery is the same. It's hard to put into words really.

Generally speaking, archers just seem to be good, friendly people. That has always been one of the things that has attracted me to the sport and to this club. If you do any amount of RV camping you may understand what I'm trying to explain. RV campers are very similar in this respect. Any time you go to a club event or to a shoot, the people are just flat-out friendly. I can't remember ever running into any "issues" or "attitudes" at a club event or at a shoot. I'm sure they must happen from time to time - but I've never seen it. It's just so easy to meet good people at an archery event.

For example, my daughters and I hadn't even left the practice range when we met a man who'd brought a young lady for her very first attempt at archery. We got to talking and we ended up shooting the course with them.  These people were complete strangers to us but we had a great time shooting the course and talking about - guess what - archery and bowhunting. It turns out that the man we were shooting with is a soldier and the young lady is already signed up to join the Army in just a couple months and will be serving our country very soon as well.  I was quick to thank them both for their service to our country. We had a great time shooting the course and I hope we see them at the club again some time.

This is just a very small example of what I meant about the type of people you meet at an archery club or event. So for all of the changes that may have taken place around this club, one thing has remained unchanged. The people. When I first became a member of Flint Bowmen Archery Club it was mainly the friendliness and the camaraderie of the people at the club that convinced me to join. I could have just kept on practicing in my back yard to get ready for bowhunting. But it was the people here at the club that made me want to join. It's really good to know that this part of the Flint Bowmen Club hasn't changed even after all this time. It's good to be back.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but she is "texting" someone on her cell phone as she waits for her turn to shoot.

Adding up the scores - there is always an advantage to being the score-keeper. If you look close, you'll notice someone else has been "texting".

I've heard several hunters talking about how they use their cell phones to "text message" others or their fellow hunters while on stand for virtually silent communication. I guess it would be better than the old walkie-talkies we used to use and much better than that loud Nextel "ba-loop" sound or most ring tones. It looks like the cell phone can be included in the long list of high tech toy for archers. Does it ever end?

Hmmmm - I wonder if I could set my ring tone up as a buck grunt.....