Long story, no Red Rider.

He was on an Army ROTC scholarship to VMI. Lost the eye between his junior and senior year. Lost his commission as well.

reachme, if you know VMI then you know how great the folks there are. It was his deal all the way.

Now, Mas has enough land to do the pellet gun as well. I’d do both:)

Yeah, we could manage a BB/Pellet gun and/or a 22. I had a couple of pellet guns when I was a kid, but probably not until I was 11 or 12. I'm pretty sure we've got a kid sized 22 bolt action in storage too.

Sorry about that, I thought it was a temporary issue.

I didn't realize my comment followed Seahawk's post when typing and just noticed the context. Sorry there. Foot in mouth disease. I saw something like that happen a couple times when in the class and thought it needed to be mentioned especially with excited kids. In my youth I had bb gun fights with neighborhood kids and got pinged literally on the bridge of the nose by a lucky shot under the garage door by crazy Donnie who pumped it up to 10. A few close calls welding overhead. Walking and biking into tree branches. etc. The best one was a bowie knife chucked across a camp cabin into the bunk between the legs.

Guys, not to worry - that was in 2015. He graduated in 2016, took a year off then went to Law School. He is doing great.

He has mentioned many times he is glad it was his left eye so he didn't lose his aim points:cool:

Just wanted to follow up. We stuck with the arrows that came with kit and bought a few more so we'd have 5 total. Archery with a "real" bow and arrows was a hit. At first he didn't seem that interested. He has a cheap plastic "toy" bow with suction cup arrows at home that hasn't been very fun. I demonstrated a shot with the arrow sticking in the box, and he was excited.

We had him wear a long sleeve shirt and used the arm guard. I'd watched a few videos on YT to get him going correctly. I helped him with the first shot or two. Then we just shot the arrows with a little coaching here and there and a lot of encouragement. I think we were 4-5m back from the "target."

He had a little bit of a tough time since his regular play hadn't really developed the muscles used by archery. I could tell when he started getting tired, but he had a great time. He'll be here frequently this summer, so we'll keep practicing. If he maintains his interest, then we'll eventually get him better gear, but for now this is great.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1654445570.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1654445570.jpg

Dude! Great stuff! I think that smile says it all.

That's awesome Steve! Don't put any apples on top of yer head and prepare for one of those "windows" to be sacrificed eventually :D

Very cool...

Exactly.

Little bit of 'tude, which is great!

Awesome. You need to PM me your shipping address.

I’ll check to see if I have any arrows to donate to the cause!

PM Sent

Thank you

We are now looking at getting a traditional recurve for the missus and myself. It seems the Southwest Archery Spyder and the Samick Sage are both highly regarded basic, beginner, budget friendly options (practically the same bow).

You might try FB marketplace. You might find a good classic Bear bow for each of you

good call!

He's still enjoying it. I try to take him out shooting at least once every day that he's here.

I was afraid that yesterday was going to be a problem. He had an off day and was just having a hard time with almost every shot. When you're a kid an off experience can be disheartening and crush the enthusiasm. Thankfully, today was a good day, and he hit almost every shot and the couple that he missed were good shots (good form, arrow with plenty of velocity) that went over the target.

If he struggling, walk away from it, do something else. His issue could be he didn't sleep well the night before or his arms were tired from doing something else. Maybe the focus just wasn't there.

Something to watch for, make sure he's not "torqueing" the bow. In the pic above, the bow looks straight up and down. Make sure he's not gripping too tight and causing the top or bottom to tip out. You want the bow to be pretty much straight up and down.

Exactly. It was in the evening, and I suspect he was hot/tired/distracted.

I try to watch that the bow is vertical, and watch his pull and release on the string. Sometimes he really grips the string in a death grip.

I tried to get him to alter his grip on the bow a bit, but that caused issues, so we went back to his natural grip. As his strength improves and he gets more consistent, I'll try to work on his form more. I have been trying to offer pointers and guide him without sucking the fun out of it. He normally does pretty well and has a great time.

Sounds like you're doing a great job!

He's still loving it. But the reviews were right that plastic vanes on a bow like this aren't good for accuracy. Although, I'm not sure how much it would matter since the bows not strong enough to get the arrow to bend around the bow when fired. So every arrow fishtails to the left. He's gotten better, more consistent at shooting. At this point, just hitting the box is enough to keep him excited.

Hopefully, we can keep him excited enough until he's big/strong enough to handle a better bow.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1655856538.jpg

with some congrats on a job well done by his little brother.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1655856538.jpg