Archery when you were a kid

[John O]

I came across this story on another website, and just had to share it. I can vividly remember as a 6 year old boy taking a shot at a moose in our campground at Yellowstone Park, and my dad ripping me a new one for it. Oh, the memories.... Something to kill some time in the off season. Enjoy.

 

 

 

For all young bow hunters

Life as a child

 

 

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those wicked little compound

bow beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land

sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you

know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor will take 6 rounds before it

goes down? Tough sumb****.

 

 

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard fan

that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused

in chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all

over the place. Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so

there really wasn't any fire danger. Ill put it this way- a set of post

hole diggers and a 3 ft.. hole and you had yourself a well.

 

 

One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large

rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and

see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether). The light bulb went

off.

 

 

I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would

probably just spray out in a disappointing manner...lets face it to a 10

yr old mouth-breather like myself ether, really doesn't "sound"

flammable. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of

pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).

 

 

At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up

the can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit

around the ether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie... 1

lb pyrodex and 16 oz ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a

firecracker you know?

 

 

You know what? Screw that, I'm going back in the house for the other can.

Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we're cookin'.

 

 

I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I drew

the nock to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the

arrow launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck... OH ***** he just got home from work.

 

 

So help me it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to

the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a *** look in his eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow

pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the

main pile of pyrodex and into the can. Oh ****.

 

 

When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don't know

if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex

jerk back from 235 fricking decibels of sound. I caught a half a

millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I

will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above

the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground

layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a crawfish or two.

The daylight turned purple.

 

 

Let me repeat this...THE FRICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE. There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture. Notice I said "was". That son-of-a-(edit) got up and ran off.

 

 

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes

with my thundercats T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the

carport having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback: ECHO

BRAVO CHARLIE YOUR BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE. CEASE FIRE!!!!!

 

 

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the driveway. All

windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow

rolling mushroom cloud about 2000 ft over our backyard. There is a Honda 185cc 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.

 

 

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't

know- I know I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside

my own head. I don't think he heard me either... not that it would

really matter. I don't remember much from this point on. I said

something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp

pain, blacked out, woke later....repeat this process for an hour or so

and you get the idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR so dad could beat me some more.

 

 

"Bring him back to life so dad can kill him again!" Thanks Mom.

 

 

One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump

again, Mom had been ******** about that thing for years and dad never

did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.

Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. And I still have some

sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating. Or

both. I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery.

It's good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in

life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BML]

That was great!! Thanks for the good laugh!

 

 

 

[Tines]

Oh the memories. I used to fill soda cans full of gasoline, light them on fire, stand back 20 yards or so and shoot them with a shotgun. It was cool to see anything explode when you were 8. I'm sure we can all look back on our childhood and agree that there HAD to have been some sort of divine intervention.....otherwise.

[deercrazy]

Great story. Brings back fond memories of having to blow up something with every firecracker I have even owned.

[dillon_camo]

That is one crazy/hilarious story. Good times. I'm glad I never did anything like that.

[BigBfever]

LMAO, Awesome!

[bonecollector]

Thats great, I remember doing some pretty stupid stuff also!

[Zackman]

Hilarious story. Kids do the darnedest things. Thanks for sharing.

[ajohunter]

That story brought back all kinds of memories!

[jeffcros]

I can remember shooting arrows from my yard to the neighbors and back. I also remember the whooping I got for the one that missed and stuck in my parents camaro.

[willhunt4coues]

Way too freakin funny man I was laughing so hard. I remember those days of crazy crap. Now for all of you that have kids just remember what you did in the past and not get onto them too much we don't want to turn out like our parents do we?

[Browning'sCustomMeat]

Oh my sides hurt :lol:

The stupid things we've done....

 

thanks for sharing!

 

-Jeremy-