Get the family indoors to practice archery

Now that both of my boys have bows of their own, it’s time we all start getting out to shoot them regularly. When the weather’s good, it’s no problem. But what do you do when it’s freezing and snowy outside?

I’d like to get out to shoot the bows with my boys more often, but the weather doesn’t always cooperate. I should probably go out and shoot no matter what the weather is doing, because I’m not going to give up on a hunt just because of a little snow or cold temperatures.

But I don’t want to make the boys hate shooting, so it’s time to renew the membership at the local indoor archery range. If you have an indoor range in your area, no matter what the membership fee is, it’s worth it. It’s great for youngsters just learning how to shoot, but it’s also nice for seasoned archers who don’t always enjoy the season in question.

And if you’re trying to improve your shooting or fine-tune your sights or your rest, you don’t want extra variables, like wind, thrown in to confuse the issue.

Getting inside an indoor range can eliminate those variables. Once you get good without the wind, or after you’ve sighted in your bow, you can always step out into the wind, if you want.

But if you’re taking a couple of kids out to shoot the bows, an indoor range is almost a necessity. I’m glad we’ve got one in Cheyenne, and I’m pretty sure there are quite a few more around Wyoming. Find the one closest to you and get yourself a membership.

My wife keeps talking about building an indoor arena on our place, and I’d love to help her get that done. Don’t tell her, but I could care less about riding horses in it. I’d use it for shooting our bows.

But until we can get that arena built, we’ll get our family membership at the Cheyenne Field Archers range and shoot there whenever we want to get in out of the wind, cold and snow. That might be quite often around here.