a cheap bow at Walmart, a bow that came with three arrows, she took it out to her backyard to try it out. She didn't have any kind of target so she was essentially shooting at nothing...at one point, she shot one of the arrows, went to retrieve it...and couldn't find it. She knew the general area where it had landed but after stomping around her backyard for almost 20 minutes, she still hadn't spied the arrow. The next time I was over, she had me look...nope, nothing. That arrow is still somewhere in her backyard. Auntie is convinced it's buried all the way in the ground; it had rained a lot the days before she lost the arrow, so the ground was super soft and muddy. I told Dad about the lost arrow and he was skeptical. I was too...at first. But the first time *I* went out shooting solo, I launched one arrow clean over the target. I saw roughly where it landed, and indeed, there was a streak in a patch of snow that was left over from a snowstorm a few days earlier, but the arrow? Nowhere in sight. I gave up after looking for about 10 minutes and went back at the end of my session to check one more time. I finally spotted the arrow...it was in the ground all the way, with just a tiny tip of one piece of fletching still sticking up. So I absolutely believe Auntie when she says she lost an arrow in the ground.
Are you called shooters or archers?
Hmmm...I don't know. On the one hand, "shooter" seems more appropriate since I think of "archers" as being very, very good at the sport, either professionals or top ranked amateurs who maybe hunt or defend a kingdom somewhere. OTOH, I don't like the assumptions made when one hears the word "shooter". I wish there was a third option!
ETA: the last time Auntie and I took a bow and arrow class at a local park, we were shooting on a range that had a hill right behind the targets. I sent an arrow over my target and into the hill and after everyone finished shooting, our instructor climbed the hill to look for the arrow. He found it...and two more, the extra two being high quality and *definitely* not ones used by the park during their programs. So it's very possible I found someone else's arrow and maybe on a nice day, someone will find mine buried in the ground. No idea what happened to Auntie's arrow, the one with the trimmed fletching though.
