Over the past couple of years, I’ve been telling myself that I need to get out and shoot my bow more often. From the outside, looking in, I’m sure that seems a little silly. You are the President of an Archery Club yet yo don’t shoot – What’s the deal with that?
Unfortunately, when you’re involved in a club as an officer of some sort – you tend to do more working than shooting. This year, I was determined to tip the scales and do a better job of balancing work and play.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been meeting up with a small group of guys from Stowe Archers
and making the rounds at the surrounding clubs in the area. We kicked off the Outdoor 3D Season at Chestnut Hill in early March and headed out to Limerick Bowmen this past Sunday.
Shooting 3D at Limerick Bowmen
Limerick Bowmen is a private club located in the Schwenksville / Limerick area – just a few miles from the Sanatoga Exit on 422 (Philadelphia Premium Outlets). 3D Shoots are held on the 1st Sunday of each month as well as the 3rd Sunday (UBASS League Shoot).
The course at Limerick consists of 30 Targets (Mostly Rinehart) and utilizes 35 acres. This particular shoot was set up for two shooting positions – Unlimited and Hunter. The registration fee to shoot the course was $12.00 per shooter.
My Experience
About 12 years ago, I was a member at Limerick Bowmen. At the time, I was living at home with my parents and trying to get back into the sport of archery. I had a lot of spare time on my hands and was happy to come out and work around the club.
As life tends to, things got busy and I spent less and less time at the club. Before long, it was time to renew my membership and I hadn’t been there in months. I allowed it to lapse and haven’t been back until this past weekend.
On Sunday, our group arrived at 8:00am and immediately hit the practice range to start warming up. As I stepped off of the line and into the grass to retrieve my arrows – I knew it was going to be a long day. My shoe sunk into the saturated grass and muddy water soaked into my sock.
Two days prior to the shoot, our area was hammered with heavy rain. I expected some water on the course but I wasn’t expecting it to be as bad as it was. Waterproof boots would have been a smart choice – unfortunately, they were back home with my hunting gear.
Aside from the mud and standing water in the low areas, the woods at Limerick are beautiful. At Stowe Archers, we have about 32 Acres of land and our course doesn’t feel nearly as spacious as Limerick.
Walking the course was fairly easy – there weren’t too many steep spots to climb and targets were spaced out well. There were a couple of easy shots but they were offset by a handful challenging enough that I missed and busted an arrow before the day was out.
My only complaint on the day had to do with the marking ribbon in the woods. There were a couple of spots that were very confusing. After one shot (Catalina Goat) we didn’t know if we should go left or right. We opted to go right, which must have been for a different course layout. We wound up circling back around and were downrange of two targets. Fortunately, no one was shooting at those particular targets.
Aside from the ribbon issue and the mud (which was out of their control), Limerick put on a very nice 3D Shoot and I look forward to going back.
Looking for More on Archery
WaltInPA has launched a new Archery Website entitled Archery Compass. We aim to be a source of information to archers of all ages and experience levels, and we would love it if you would take a minute to check it out!
Recent Posts
When most people think about Motorcycle Group Rides, I believe it conjures up images of large packs of Harley Davidson Motorcycles riding for a cause. While there is no shortage of these types of...
On June 18, 2023, I went for a Father's Day Motorcycle Ride to Lancaster, PA, to see a historic covered bridge. I was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of PA Rt 422 East and PA Rt 82...