For years I’ve wanted to take up target archery. I’ve plinked around a little once or twice with borrowed gear, but I’ve never had the opportunity to really pursue it. One of the appeals of archery (aside from the fact that it’s fun) is that I could conceivably have a totally historically accurate kit and it would be legal to use according to SCA rules. In other words, I can have accessories that are both pretty and functional. This is not the case in any of the various martial arts, so I may stick with it more. Being able to literally walk out the back door of my house and have a place I can shoot doesn’t hurt either.
I’m trying to do this as inexpensively as possible, or at least space the expense out over as much time as I can to ease into it. My big purchase so far is a longbow from woodbows.com. It needs some linseed oil and a bit of leather for the grip, but those are things I can do. The bow shipped quite a bit sooner than I expected, so I ran out to the local sporting goods store and got some cheap aluminum arrows. I’m sure proper wood-and-feather arrows will shoot differently, but these should give me something to play with until I get around to buying/making something better. I also needed something to shoot at. After poking around websites and videos yesterday, I decided to stuff a cardboard box with a bunch of horrible junk fabric that I have had stashed away for years and literally could not give away for free. While I would never make clothes out of any of that stuff, it stops arrows perfectly.
My next steps are to procure a pair of reasonably un-modern-looking gloves and make a bracer, and maybe a serving tool (which I did not even know I needed until this morning). I tried wearing my rattan-legal arm harness in lieu of a bracer yesterday, but the one place the string slapped me was a spot that it didn’t cover. Boiling leather is fun, though, so that should be an entertaining project.