Archery at the State Shoot

This past weekend I participated in the 4-H State Shoot! Other years, my whole family has been involved in events from shotgun to the wildlife knowledge bowl, but this year, it was just me. I competed in the senior class for bare-bow, no sights or releases. I've always competed in this class, but this was the first time that I went with a recurve bow (I always used compound Genesis bows before), so I was both excited and nervous. Back to the way Robin Hood might have done it!

There were a LOT of kids there, from little fourth graders all the way up to graduates from high school (13th grade). I was put right next to kids with fancy compound bows equipped with sights and weights and all sorts of doo-dads so that they hardly look like bows anymore. At least I wasn't really competing against them, but they made my scores seem pitiful. I got 187-- not bad, and a lot better than I've been getting while practicing at home, but it didn't seem like much. 300 is a perfect score.

Anyway, we came back on Sunday to see where I placed and maybe attend the awards ceremony. I went up to the boards and scanned it carefully. I found my name and blinked rapidly a few times...

I got first place.

What?!?

I just about fell over. Luckily, my parents were behind me. I checked again. Sure enough, my score was the highest in my category, and the next highest score was 145, not even close!

The only disappointment in the whole event was that I'm just a few months too old to go to nationals. And they're in Texas this year, too. *sigh* Oh, well. I had plenty of fun at State.

Now I just need to get my own bow, and I'd like to start working on my medieval dress, and if I could get my hands on some leather, maybe I could make a new quiver, belt, and arm-guards...