Shooting Arrows... In the Dark?

Hobby Update Weekend One -
I (Quinn) really liked the lesson I took with a bow, and thus am now the proud owner of a Genesis Compound Bow. A blue one to be exact, which is pretty sweet. I decided to bring it on one of my trips home, and thus the ideas began to flow. The first weekend I brought it home, my sister really wanted to make a milk jug filled with water explode. So we set about filling the milk jug and just setting it on the ground. We had started the day with it set on a metal deck chair, but someone (naming no names because you know who you are), hit the chair and snapped the arrow clean in half! Having a limited number of arrows, we opted for the safer route, but this resulted in the arrows being buried in the ground. Luckily we were always able to find them though. Back to the milk jug explosion... sounds pretty epic right? That's what we thought at first. Since it was my sisters idea, she was first up. It takes a couple "warm-up" shots, but she had it! And... nothing. No explosion, no water flying everywhere, nothing. She was super bummed, but no one anticipated that the arrow wouldn't actually go ALL the way through the jug. Instead, it just got stuck in the jug, so when we pulled it out the water, in a very unexciting way, just sort of trickled out of the jug. With that myth busted, we just continued as usual, because hey, even if it didn't explode in a fountain of water it was still satisfying to finally hit the jug!

Hobby Update Weekend Two -
It's Memorial Day weekend, and what better way to show your patriotism than once again shooting a bow in your backyard at a target? This weekends target was a lot more exciting than the first one, and not only did it sound exciting, it stayed exciting until the very last moment.We didn't get the idea until about 8:30 in the evening, but finally we decided on shooting more arrows, and this time we were set on getting the explosion effect. That was it... balloons filled with confetti! What could be a better target? Since it was a Saturday night, we thought we had until 9pm to shop at Hobby Lobby, so off we went. And... it was closed. Apparently it had closed at 8, so we had to re-group and develop a plan B... and that would be Wal-Mart. By this time, the sun was setting, so we had to revise our original plan and by the time we got to the store we were on the hunt for anything that glowed in the dark. And boy did we luck out! Not only did we find glow in the dark balloons, we grabbed a couple glow-sticks to use the insides. We also found glow in the dark sand that would be a prefect balloon filler instead of the confetti, which we probably wouldn't be able to see at this point.Back to the house we drove, super excited about the epicness of most current adventure. What could possibly go wrong with shooting arrows in pitch black at glow in the dark balloons? Nothing. Niente. And so we proceeded with building the target. Good thing my mom had just bought a grill. The balloons were thus attached to "the box the grill was in", which quickly became a catch phrase for the evening. We realized that the glow in the dark balloons actually contained LED lights, which was perfect because we could transfer them to the other, cheaper balloons, and thus keep the supply of glow balloons alive for the next 15 hours of battery life. Not that we would be shooting for 15 hours, but if we had wanted to, the option was there. #15Hours. #BetterThan5Hr.
And thus the target was built.

Our make-shift target. Yes that is another glow balloon hanging from a tree in the background.

Pretty sweet, huh? We all took turns shooting until popping at least one of the balloons, and it was GREAT! It was pretty difficult, because let's face it, it was dark out, we didn't use any lights, because that wouldn't have been fun. Everyone made their shots, and then it was my turn. I was the last to go, and multiple shots in I was getting a little irritated. All of my shots were hitting along the outside edge of the freaking white glow balloon and it was starting to really tick me off. And then I did it, I lost my arrow. Everyone was down by the box looking for it, and couldn't find it. We even shuffled the box around. And then it was felt, a rain drop. Looks like I would be walking in the house a failure. A failure and it was MY bow! WHAT?! We were about to give up looking for the arrow when it was found, directly behind where the box the grill came in was. My sister looked at me and I knew. "Go for the Hail Mary shot! It's all or nothing!" She exclaimed as we hurriedly put the box back in place and I jogged to the distance we had been shooting from. My heart pounding, I knocked the arrow, drew, semi-aimed because it was really dark and hard to see, and then... I released. I held my breath for a split second, and BOOM! The balloon was done, finished, exploded!! I had done it, right before the rain, right after finding the arrow had almost been a lost cause, the last shot of the night! A success, and everyone burst out hollering. So all in all, it was pretty epic. Now my sister and her boyfriend have found an outdoor archery course by them, and my friend was thinking about getting into it as well. It's addicting, and what can I say, totally satisfying when you hit your makeshift target of glow in the dark balloons attached to the box the grill was in.

#NeverQuit,

Quinn