Golden age archery, a description.

[elkslayer4x5]

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A tiny sample of the bows and wood avaiable back then. A late 68 Ben Pearson Cougar Utility class bow and a 1971-2 high end hunting bow, A Darton Fury. The cCougar shown is a wonderful example of the exotic woods used even in ecomomy line bows.
It's around March of 1966, I'll soon be 22 and we are living in Occidental where I'm the lead pearl diver/custodian/prep cook at a large Italian family style restaurant about 65 miles north of San Francisco, Ca.
One of the older kids that worked week-ends had a bow and peaked my interest again. Took the wife to Sears for something? and wandered into Sporting Goods and left with an Indian Archery bow rebranded Sears. 45 #s stacked like bricks Couple string burns sent me shopping for an arm guard and a tab. Had tried Ike's clove and didn't like it. I had seen some archery stuff in a Western Auto store in a near by town closer to home. Turns out the owner and his wife were members of a local archery club and of course invited me and the family to come to a meeting. Their clubhouse/indoor range (7 yds - 30 yds) was in a converted orchard barn. They had a club business meeting once a month. After the meeting was adjourned, out came the gear! An indoor round was 7 ends 4 arrows each from 7ys, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and a walk up/back 30, 25, 20 &15yds.
Did work parties where they made paper mache 3D animal targets for their yearly trail shoot. Needed that trail shoot to pay the rent of the canyon of redwoods that the outdoor range was on, 42 targets, in ranges of 14 NFAA targets. The outdoor range was 3 miles for home. I joined that night.
A few weeks later I came to my senses and decided to get a target bow. Jerry Rowe, the Western Auto store owner, had a used Bear TigerCat, 62" 35#s. After that Scout, Warrior, Brave, whatever it was it drew very nicely. Jerry helped me get a good anchor and measured my draw. Offered to set me up with a half dozen Easton Swifts. Please, forgive me, as I don't have the photos to go with my description, which will take several posts to complete. Following pics are from ebay.

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My wife had been going with me each time I went to the indoor range, and several of the ladies there had gotten her shooting enough that she wanted to play too1 Talking with everyone at the club, most of the gear came from the Bow Rack in Albany, 60 something miles south.
Now I don't have the photos to show what greeted us when we walked into that shop, but imagine if you can racks and racks and racks of every bow you can find of the Vintage Archery pages. One of the wife's new idols was a woman from the other club, a high B class archer, a string walker, Bev shot a Wing "Swift Wing"

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. Gerri settled on a Wing "Gull".

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I'd found that I really liked the light draw weight. The Gull shown below is a hunting weight bow, lighter weights had white class. Hum, This Gull looks a lot like my Cougar above, I wonder how it'll look with tip cap or overlays as most call them.. So much that when a 30# 72" HC-30 was put on the club bulletin board, I grabbed it Shot it 3 years instinctive, getting to high B class, just couldn't break 430.

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It took more power for that, went to a Hoyt Pro Medalist. With the HC-30 I'd notice wind drift on the longer shots, and on the 2nd 14 the 80 yd walk up was across an open field. Cross wind. So was 65 yd shot. I got that extra umph, the Hoyt was marked 37#s, but after a week of trying to decent flight, I weighed it. 43 at 28. Small wonder I couldn't get those 31" 1814s to fly straight, the 2014 did. Shot 437 club shoot after I finished those arrows. Two scores in the class above you moved you into that class. Shot a bit better the next month but it was at May's shoot I broke into A class instinctive. July is or was deer season, so from May on, I shot hunting tackle. Had learn to walk the string to get competive over that winter.

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[Carpdaddy]

Thanks for sharing the pictures, educational history, and personal memories, enjoyable read.

[elkslayer4x5]

Thanks Carpdaddy. Your username sure brings back lots memories of fun days.

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I'll include an explanation of the NFAA's Small Game program later in this thread. I loved it!
I'm just getting started in this thread, setting the stage as it where. I was several paragraphs into explaining what kind of targets we shot when USPS broke my concentration and I closed the tab. Ah, well, I'll continue soon. Gonna deal will some of those bundled shafts as I've got a string due soon and really want to shoot the Classic.

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[elkslayer4x5]

National Field Archery Association is a family oriented organization. Way back in the day I'm talking about here, we had two divisions and 4 groups within those divisions. The Divisions where Freestyle (sights n such) and Barebow the Groups were Adult; Men Women and Youth; Boys Girls Remember it was the 60's, no pc stuff then.
What we shot;
NFAA has three types of rounds; Field, Hunter and Animal. Scoring is the same for Field and Hunter, but different set up. In Field and Hunter rounds an arrow scored 5 point if cutting the line of or inside the inner circle, the spot was noted on your card but did not add to score like it does now. If the arrow cut the outside line or was in the outer ring it was 3 points. We shot 4 arrows each at 28 targets, with a possible 20 points, totals 560. These were the rounds set up for the quarterly NFAA qualifiers. As an animal round is quite different and is much like what is shot these days, but scoring was different. I'll discuss that round in a later post. To avoid any confusion I explain each separately, first the field round. Shot from 7 yards to 80 yards, 14 different targets, again 4 arrows each, ( we said we're shooting today right?) 112 shots in the round. The targets as seen below were in four sizes for both Field a nd Hunter as follows;
7 to 10 yards 6" face 1" spot
15 yards to 30 yards 12" face 2" spot
35 yards to 50 yards 18" face 3" spot
55 yards to 80 yards 24" face 4" spot
There are 10 fixed positions where you shoot all 4 shot from the same place.
15, 20, 25 and 30 yards at 12 " target
40, 45 and 50 yards at 18" target
55, 60 and 65 yards at 24" target
Four of the targets are position shots where you shot one arrow from 4 positions as follows;
The Birdie as it's call is a walk up beginning at 10 yards, 9, 8 and 7 at the 6" target.
35 yard fan, 4 shots at 35 yard, different positions at 18" target
45 yard walk up, one arrow from 45, 40, 35, and 30 yards at 18" target.
80 yard walk up from 80, 70, 60 and 50 yards at 24" target
I'll list the Hunter shots after another cuppa. Field face ( back and white, black dot) and Hunter (black, white spot) below

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[Grizzly]

In Sep. 1966 I went to basic training at Fort Dix, NJ. I passed nearby you in March of 1967 as I stopped in Oakland for a week or so before flying across the Pacific, landing in Hawaii for fuel, then onto maybe Wake Island for more fuel and then into Viet Nam for two years. I traveled back and forth a few more times and got to land in the Philippines, Guam, Japan, Alaska, Washington State and finally back home to NJ. During that time, my archery actually continued. While in Viet Nam, at an old Catholic Seminary with a cross on top, that the Army leased and fortified, I was rummaging around in the closets one day of our small supply room and spotted a big round straw target and stand along with two fiberglass bows and a handful of arrow. My eyes lit up as I asked if I could use this. Sure, I was told, have at it. No one else has ever wanted to. I strung up the first bow and came to full draw, only to have it break in half. Oops. So, I strung up the second and luckily, it stayed together and lasted all the time i was over there. So I moved them to the little storage building that was attached to the 2nd floor on stilts (you can see it all the way to the right in the picture, just before the small red/brown roof) that contained all the pallets of beer and soda along with the shelves of liquor for the enlisted men's and officer's clubs. The first Sgt one day prior to this told me that he was moving me into the club. I thought, why would I want to bunk in the club, as at about that time I had moved into another bunk area with a Sgt friend. No, he said, you're going to run the club, keep the books and manage all the supplies. What???? I never even took bookkeeping in High School, how was I going to do that?? The fellow who left that job had been an accounting major. The 1st Sgt replied, you can read, can't you? Yikes, what a job. I'd go into the officers quarters and announce, who took accounting in college? Luckily, one had and I'd have him explain all these new principles I had to learn and follow. It was pretty interesting and years later I almost became an accountant myself. But after maintaining a 3+ average in my first two years, I decided I really didn't want or think I would be able to manage other peoples money and dropped out. But the bow was a hoot. After work every day I'd go in the supply room and work out with that bow and then head for the showers. I got so I could hit a bar coaster on the mat from 15 yards shooting from the hip. Practiced daily for almost a year. The guys would kid me and ask if I took the bow out on guard duty with me. Went to Japan on Rest and Recuperation and came back with a dozen new arrows and a Yamaha harmonica I still have. While you dived for pearls, I once swam in the South China Sea as some pilot flying an A-1 Skyraider that resembled an old WWII fighter plane buzzed the beach at tree top level. That was fun, though I wouldn't wish war on anyone.

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[elkslayer4x5]

I thank you for your service and thank my maker that my teenaged marriage proposal to the young mother worked out for me, made me 4F in 1964 and I never got the call. Thank you.

[elkslayer4x5]

The Hunter Round;
In the Hunter round the targets face size and distance ratios applies. There are 4 fixed positions, shoot all 4 arrow from one place;
11 yards at 6" target
40 yards at 18" target
44 yards at 18' target
48 yards at 18" target
The other ten targets are positional shots as follows;
15-14 yards two 12" targets, two arrows each.
19-17 yards two 12" targets, two arrows each.
23-20 yards two 12" targets, two arrows each.
28 yard fan 4 positions one arrow from each at a 12" target.
32 yard fan 4 positions one arrow from each at a 18" target.
36 yard fan 4 positions one arrow from each at a 18" target.
53, 48, 44, 41 yard walk up one arrow from each at 24" target.
58, 53, 48, 45 yard walk up one arrow from each at 24" target.
64, 59, 55, 52 yard walk up one arrow from each at 24" target.
70, 65, 61. 58 yard walk up one arrow from each at 24" target.
National Field Archery Association is a family oriented organization. Way back in the day I'm talking about here, we had two divisions and 4 groups within those divisions. The Divisions where Freestyle (sights n such) and Barebow the Groups were Adult; Men Women and Youth; Boys Girls Remember it was the 60's no pc stuff then.

[elkslayer4x5]

Once a month, (weather permitting , time out for hunting) everyone who could make it, shot a qualifying round. Each month the official score card was sent to the NFAA headquarters, in Redlands Ca at the time. These score established what class you shot in.
0 - 100 = D class 100-200 =C 300 - 429 = B and 430 - 560 A class. If you shot two scores above your class, You got a class pin and moved up! Oh nice, didn't notice one of the 300 pins is upside down.

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... the spot was noted on your card but did not add to score like it does now.

I also mentioned that NFAA got your score card. The NFAA awarded you for spots and perfect targets. I didn't mention that I shot both ways. Shot Barebow for a couple of years, then string walked, I also shot Freestyle. Black is Barebow and Green is Freestyle.

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[Captainkirk]

Wow, you were into it deep! I long for those days, when archery (and lawn darts!) were considered a wholesome family backyard (or front yard, even!) activity! I shot my glass Pearson in the back yard as a kid. I shot archery in high school and yes, I was allowed to bring my own bow to school to shoot (try that today!)
Now the city I live in prohibits launching projectiles of any sort, arrows included, even on private property with a fenced in yard. Go figure. It's a sign of the times we live in.
Please go on...I find this fascinating!

[elkslayer4x5]

Naw, that's barely getting your feet wet! You would have loved it, everywhere you looked during these activities where high end target bows Those pins shown were replacements, all of them are broken or have something missing, Most of my Archery gear was in my old room at Mom's when the house burned. Bows, quivers, arrows, and the list goes on. The Vest I wore shooting is something I really miss, I covered the target on the back with NFAA Small Game patches, NFAA Big Game Buck patches, all those personal trophies one collects. I have shown a Carp patch. I'll show that stuff after I talk about the Animal round.