The Hard Way

 Art Young and his Lion

My love affair with longbows began back in the '50s I had rode an old horse down to my Uncle's place up on Cowiche Creek.  He lived in the mountains by himself all his life.

He had an old longbow made from Yew he had harvested up near Mt. Rainier.  He brought it out to show me.  Strung it up and handed it to me. 

Try as I might, I couldn't draw it.  He told me it drew 100lbs.  He laughed and laughed at my efforts.  Not laughing at me, but just having fun.  That day began my love affair with the longbow. 



I remember when the compound appeared on the scene.  I had just come in from a Mule deer hunt on the breaks of the Columbia river.  In those days it wasn't unusual to see 2-300 deer every day.  I had gotten a 3x4 muley buck and stopped by the archery shop to show him off a bit.  They had  one of the first Jennings compounds.  Didn't know what it was at first.  I thought it was a joke.



Well, that next year, there were 30 of those things being packed around in my hunting area.  Where prior to that, you rarely saw any one hunting with a bow, there were people every where.  They were flinging arrows at deer and elk at more'n a hunderd yards!  They said, this compound is great, now we have a whole nother month added to rifle season to kill something.  Wasn't about getting close, wasn't about the art of hunting, now it was about killing...  Still don't know why they call those things bows!?  Aren't they a machine?

I've always loved archery.  Everything about it!  It's inspired my imagination for over 50 years.

Our sport has changed much.  Most of the change I don't like, and I guess the reason I want to write a book at this stage of my life is with the hopes that somewhere there is a young boy or girl who might see in it the things I have seen and enjoyed all of my life.

You see that's what true Archery is, it's a heritage, a legacy, a connection to the good part of the past.  It tests and challenges you every time you string up and shoulder your quiver.   Just like it did that day so long ago that I tried to pull that 100# Longbow.
It can never be completely mastered!

Modern Archery, compounds are just about bolting on the latest lazer device.  You don't need any skill really.  I see them as being the sign of a lazy person with no real desire to know what they are made of.

Well, maybe it's too late, maybe no one cares about any of that stuff any more.  But maybe there is one somewhere who does. So for that one, I'll write a book for him or her, so that when I'm no longer here, they will know I passed this way.  "The Hard Way."