Hey Bow, let's shoot some archery

There are few sports that can seamlessly combine the act of playing the harp with killing a baby deer, but archery pulls it off. And with Olympic fever in full swing, what better time to try out the time-tested sport that makes everyone say, "Wait, they give out medals for that?"

Surprisingly, yes. In fact, shooting arrows at targets 70 meters away (or 229.5 degrees) has been an integral part of the Olympic Games since 1900. As for the sport itself, well, it got its humble beginnings back when a wily little coyote put himself into a giant rubber band in the hopes of catching a bird for dinner only to comically fire himself into a nearby rock.

Today, rather than giant rubber bands, archers use what are known as "compound bows." A compound bow is a lot like a regular bow except that you can actually hit something with it. That's because, rather than using one string like those old plastic bows your high school gym teacher got for $4.99 a piece at Wal-Mart, compound bows use an intricate system of about 42,000 strings to make pulling back an arrow so easy even a 6-year-old girl (literally "I") can do it.

On Tuesday I spent some time with Stephen Hames at Barton & Burwell in Mount Pleasant to learn the basics of archery at the store's indoor shooting range. The first thing Hames did was measure my draw length, which as we all know is the distance from the left hand to the right hand when in the ready-to-fire position. Mine was an impressive 29 1/2 inches. To help you better understand what this actually means, imagine taking a tape measure and stretching it out to 29 1/2 inches. That's how long it was.

Next, we went looking for a bow that was best suited to my strength level. Unfortunately there weren't any made out of cooked fettuccine, so we settled for a kiddie bow that Hames ended up helping me draw back. After about 15 unsuccessful tries, I was finally able to hold the string back on my own. Once everyone cleared out of the store, Hames put an arrow in the slot and I fired the archery equivalent of an air ball. After some good-natured ribbing, Hames helped me try again and this time I improved greatly, hitting a giant foam bear right between the eyes. Unfortunately I was aiming for a paper target on the other side of the shooting range, but let's try to focus on the positives here (I hit something other than a customer).

However, after about 30 minutes of instruction and shooting, I was finally able to hit the actual targets I was aiming for. There was no question that my archery skills grew exponentially the more shots I took, but after about an hour my arm started to get tired, and my accuracy returned to the point it was at the beginning of the session. I realized this was my cue to leave so I politely thanked Hames for his help and walked out the door.

As I drove back to the office, I couldn't help but think about all the things I had learned during my archery lesson. I learned what an adrenaline rush it is to fire a deadly projectile at more than 200 miles per hour. I learned just how good those Olympic archers are to hit targets nearly a football field away. And most importantly, I learned that if a giant foam bear ever gets into my garbage, he is in big trouble.

Bryce Donovan thinks archery would be even more fun if the targets were replaced with Pontiac Azteks. Reach him at 937-5938 or bdonovan@postandcourier.com.