There is a piece of land outside my gated community. It has a tall slope and is enough to accommodate three shooting lanes for archery.
Every day, I walked past this vacant spot and wondered if it would make an excellent place to hone my archery skills.
Michelle, my wife made mention of this many times.
Archery and politics...
Traditional bows are not welcomed at places such as the Keramat Archery centre that are endorsed by the National sports council.
The last time I was there, some old ass ex-army dude gave us a lecture about the "dangers" of bows without archery sights.
He went on to belittle traditional archers and later, revealed himself as a coach.
Word went around, we got kicked out of the Keramat centre.
Later, Michelle and I shot at the Kg Pandan sports centre. It's RM10 an hour for a target butt and we had to book the lanes for a minimum of two hours and pay in advance.
Last year wasn't a great year for me.
And even in Kg Pandan, it was Compound bow vs Recurve bow. Factoring-in the travel distance and how often we could go there to have a go at archery, I totally gave it up.
This time, it's home ground!
I must say that having overlooked the empty plot of land and it's advantage in terms of setting up a shooting range, the sloped area was in every word: "perfect".
I transported my target stand and butt to the site, set up my bow and started shooting away.
It's been a while since I shot my Martin Panther #45 takedown recurve bow.
It sat in the hard case and when I checked it, everything was in pristine order.
I set the target at 25-meters and let go 10 arrows onto the bud.
Since the Monster Chill tournament in Malacca last year, I still haven't lost it.
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| Having a go at the 25-meter range |
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| Putting arrows down range |
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| My grouping on the target butt |
The Chinese New Year break was long enough for me to plan my leisure activities.
I made arrangements with my former schoolmate KP Lau who is a teacher to join me at the site.
He came with Joshua, his youngest child to give it a go at the new range.
It was perfect as the site was empty in the morning.
Lau came with his Korean Horse bow while Josh, the 11-year-old shot with his target recurve bow.
We were also joined by Jeffery Chang, our old friend at the shooting session.
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| With my buddies |
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| Jeffery having a go with a Mongol bow |
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| Lau and son |
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| Young Joshua is training for a district meet next month |
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| Michelle at the range |
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| Shooting at 10-meters |
Nothing goes to waste...
The new range and it's ideal location will be a regular fixture for me.
I will shoot on weekends especially on Saturday mornings to hone my instinctive shooting skills.
So far, I have managed to put all my arrows into the circle with little mistakes made on my aim and release.
And as a follow-up, I built a new target stand out of discarded timber from a home renovation nearby. The recycled timber was put to good use and with this new shooting range, I hope to make the best of it.
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