Archery is a great sport for kids...

Chattanooga Fishing Forum

Help Support Chattanooga Fishing Forum:

SpurHunter

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2007
Messages
15,863
Location
Cleveland TN
<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">For all young bow hunters : Life as a child

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little badazz compound bow
beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land
sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow.. Did you
know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor will take 6 rounds before it
goes down?
Tough sumbuck!

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard fan that
I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in
chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all over
the place. Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so there
really wasn't any fire danger. Ill put it this way- a set of post hole
diggers and a 3 ft.. hole and you had yourself a well.

One summer afternoon , I was shooting flaming arrows into a large
rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and
see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether). The light bulb went
off. I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would
probably just spray out in a disappointing manner...lets face it, to a 10
yr old mouth-breather like myself, "ether" really doesn't "sound"
flammable.. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of
pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).

At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up
the can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit
around the ether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie... 1
lb pyrodex and 16 oz ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a
firecracker you know?


</p></span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt">You know what? Screw that I'm going back in the house for the other
can.
Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we're
cookin'.
I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I drew the nock
to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow
launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my
dad getting out of the truck... OH CRAP he just got home from work. So
help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to
the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a "what the devil" look in
his eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the
arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through
the main pile of pyrodex and into the can. .

When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don't know
if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex
jerk back from 235 fricking decibels of sound. I caught a half a
millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I
will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above
the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground
layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a crawfish or two.
The daylight turned purple.


</p></span></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Let me repeat this...THE FRICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE. There
was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture. Notice I
said "was". That son-of-a-buck got up and ran off.

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with
my thundercats T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the
carport having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback: ECHO-
BRAVO-CHARLIE YOUR BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE.
DANGIT, CEASE FIRE!!!!!

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the driveway. All
windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow
rolling mushroom cloud about 2000ft over our backyard. There is a Honda
185 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are
drooped down and are now touching the tires.

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't
know- I know I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside
my own head.

</p></span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt">I don't think he heard me either... not that it would really
matter. </span></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt">I don't remember much from this point on. I said something,
felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked
out, woke later.....repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the
idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR so dad could
beat me some more. "Bring him back to life so dad can kill him again". Thanks Mom.

One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump
again, Mom had been whining about that thing for years and dad never
did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.
Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. And I still have some
sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating.
Or both. </span></font></p>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt">I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery.
It's good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in
life.</span></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt">
Author Unknown

</p></span></font>
 
Great post Spur. I was laughing the whole way through. It brings back alot of memories, I thought I was the only one to wrap a flaming rag on my arrows. Why is it "Dad's" gun powder was so much fun as a kid. I had a sort of potatoe gun for a while as a kid and would put a slice in a tennis ball and fill it with gun powder and about 100 strike anywhere match heads and launch them against a block wall. emoLaugh emoLaugh Good times!
 
Good read.
Reminds me of the time I cut the pellets out of a 12 ga shotgun shell packed it with tissue paper and shot the primer with the bb gun. You know, just to see if I could actually hit. I mean that's an impossible shot.....what are the odds? First shot from about 15yds....kaaapooowwww!! It was deafening. Keep in mind I grew up in a VERY residential area of Fort Lauderdale. After putting the small fire out I ran inside. Within minutes 2 patrol cars were cruising my street. I was so nervous I threw up. After 30 minutes or so I could finally laugh about it. Good thing Mom and Dad weren't home!!
It seemed like a good fun idea at the time. One of those stupid ideas that resulted in a very close call. We live and we learn.
 
SpurHunter - 8/28/2009 10:43 AM Man, I am going to have to rename this thread to "What stupid crap have you done?" !! LOL Too funny guys.</p>

</p>

<font color="#ff0033" size="4" face="comic sans ms,sand">I would rather not talk about it......great post.....brings back many fond memories.....</font></p>

<font color="#ff0033" size="4" face="Comic Sans MS">like the time I put a M-80 under some cans.....but I don't want to talk about it....FA</font></p>
 
My uncle beat the crap out of me once. he caught me standing on 12 gauge shells and hitting the back with a hammer. I was demonstrating this to my younger cousins. How I did it with out blowing my foot off i'll never know, but I took one heck of a but kicking for it and I never did it again. Quite possibly the stupidest thing I ever did!
 
Churly I got caught doing that with a handful mind you a handful of 22 short rifle cartridges on a flat rock and me with a big hammer. Man they were skid marks all over that back yard. I don't think I came to for three weeks after that whooping.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top