Have you ever shot a bow and arrow?

Only the replica ones for school. I was average. I prefer the ones that dont have the wheels on it.

Yes. In Junior High School I was top of my class.

I sold bows and arrows, and crossbows once. I’ve “fired” them all. They’re actually quite fickle, and dangerous. There is a lot of maintenance required, and lots of things that can go wrong. With crossbows, for example, the bolt must weigh a certain weight, or it could simply shatter from the energy in the string, sending shrapnel everywhere.

Arrows can shatter too (carbon fiber ones.) I’ve seen some amazing injuries from that.

I’m not a fan of the bow. With the draw weights so high, you pretty much need a compound bow to hunt decent sized game.

The crossbows are awesome, when used properly.

Both have pretty short range, and are outperformed in almost every area by firearms.

IMO. They’re hobby toys.

Back when I want to YMCA camp, 50 years ago. I wasn’t awful, for a 13 year old. But not since.

I tried it at a summer camp. I could not even half-way do it. It was pitiful.

I did during a hunting safety assembly at my school. I loved it! I loved the feel of it, the sound, the silky sound of the arrow as it hit the straw target. Bullseye first try. I was elated when we had it during gym class. I have never hunted with a bow.
I never got to try a crossbow, and I always wanted to. Now I’m afraid to.

Yes. I really, really sucked at it.

In college I met my P.E. requirements twice by taking a class called Bowling and Archery, which was about the lowest-impact athletic program I could find. It was bowling in the cold months and archery when it warmed up. I was terrible at it at first, couldn’t get anywhere near the target—until my teacher caught on that I was cross-dominant: right-handed, but left-eyed. My left eye is the one I aim with.

So I switched sides to shoot left-handed (i.e., with the bow in my right hand and the arrow in my left), and suddenly I wasn’t too bad. Never got a bull’s eye, but I shot decently enough to enjoy it.

I actually already knew this because my father had figured it out when trying to teach me to shoot a rifle when I was about 11 (at tin cans, way out in the country), but I was too shy to tell the teacher.

The main thing was that it got me through P.E. relatively painlessly for two semesters.

Was I good?

Here’s a photo of me ‘winning’ two archery Gold Medals in the 1996 Olypics! ;-0

Yes, just lessons. I was hit and miss. I think I might be able to get good at it with enough practice.

@Brian1946 What?!? You’re a two-gold-medal-winning Olympic archer?!? Wow!!! Oh wait, you’re winking, and you wrote “Olypics”... now I’m lost…

Just for fun. I was a natural.

@Zaku

“Olypics” is a typo; I meant to type Olympics.

Notice that I enclosed winning with single quote marks.

My son and I took lessons from Art Hall in the 1970’s.

Yeah,had a really nice compound bow for a while Mrs Squeeky wanted to try it I got it mostly for her she lost interest and we sold it after awhile.
I much prefer Firearms for targets and anything I need to kill.

Yes, I have shot both compound and recurve bows as well as crossbows. I’m not a bad shot with a bow, though it does take practice like anything else.

Yes. I love it.

As a Boy Scout in ancient times I managed to earn 3 merit badges, one of which was for archery.

Yes, just for fun, and I wasnt great. The crossbow is much more fun.

Back in the 50’s my Grandmother and Grandfather were Wisconsin State archery champions. They also were good at hunting deer, proghorn antelope and even bear. My Grandfater was a mechanical engineer and made his own bows. I have one of his bows but I’ve never used it.

It is the most challenging and fun target sport there is, IMO.
Bow hunting animals is cruel, IMO.

We had archery at summer camp when I was 12. I guess those would be kind of adult bows, but not the serious compound type used in hunting and competition.

I had lost my glasses while kayaking, and couldn’t see the targets well, but was shooting lots of bullseyes on the archery and rifle ranges. It was about 30 years later that I realized they just told me I was hitting the center. They even gave me a blue ribbon.

^^^ Funny!