Outdoors Indoors on Cedar Valley Saver Inc.

November 2, 2008, what a great but yet sad day. Great because the weather was beautiful and I got to enjoy it while catching some dandy smallmouth bass on the Mississippi river. Sad because it is bound to be the last one of these with several months of winter staring us down. This depressing thought got me thinking that it may be time for me to broaden my horizons and find another hobby. Hunting would be an obvious choice with my love of nature and the great outdoors and I do like to chase deer and pheasants around every now and then but these are set seasons that don’t always fit a busy schedule. I am looking for some thing that can be done any time and even indoors if old man winter kicks up a nasty storm. I believe my search is over with archery! I didn’t have to search very hard, many of my buddies already shoot and my son just recently purchased a bow so it is a perfect fit. To make sure I get started properly with this new past time I wanted to talk with an expert so I contacted Double Lung archery in LaPorte City, our areas only full time archery only shop, and talked with owner/operator Dave Stueve. I did not have to tell Dave that I was a novice he picked up on that right away, he explained that it is very important for the bow to fit the shooter correctly and that this coupled with proper form are key to becoming a good archer. He even went as far as to say 20 minutes with him and he can have any one hitting bulls eyes from 20 yards, I plan on putting him to the test on this very soon. When I questioned Dave about how much I should spend on my first bow he suggested that I try shooting before investing any thing. Now he was really talking my language and I thought I was getting some special privileges since I am the top outdoors writer for the Cedar Valley Saver, of coarse it turns out I was wrong. Double Lung Archery has teamed up with Iowa Whitetails in purchasing several Mathews bows including a youth size so that any one can stop by the store and give it a try. Dave wants the whole family to get involved and is planning a kids day and a ladies night, how great is that! As Dave and I continued our conversation I let him know that I was looking for some thing to get me though the long Iowa winter and that I was not to interested in practicing my archery skill outside. This is when he informed me he has brought the outdoors indoors with a shooting range that consist of 20 3D targets and that it is always 70 degrees with simulated sunlight at Double Lung. Dave went on to talk about the different bow hunting and archery clubs in our area and that there are archery shoots close to home about every weekend during the summer months. I am super excited about this “new to me” sport and look forward to learning more from Dave these next few months and hope that others will also give archery a try and share in my enthusiasm. Until next time keep your lure wet and your arrows straight!