It's funny, in a sort of morbid way, how many of us who used to enjoy firearms lost the passion by actually having to use them. When I came back from Viet-Nam I put all my guns away for over ten years. Then later I was only interested in very solo afternoons with a rifle perfecting my accuracy. Just to see how good I could really get. It was sort of a meditation thing. Cutting the silhouette out of a "Dog" target at 500 yards.

But Archery was also meditative for me. Even as a very young boy with my father. He had a really old English Longbow. Probably over 4 generations in the family. One afternoon he and I went out. I with my fiberglass double recurve 60lbs pull and he with the Longbow that probably pulled 90 or 100 lbs. We had done this hundreds of times. He and I alone, target shooting on the stalking range at Cherry Point, MCAS.
On his first draw he was holding the aim when the bow exploded. It literally came apart into about a hundred pieces. He was left holding the bow string, leather handgrip and the still knocked arrow.

I always thought that one day I should try to replace that longbow. And once again enjoy that quiet, private and satisfying peace of archery.