It is time to get out the quiver and bow and shoot some arrows as a hunt of a different kind comes to the South.
The Southland Bowhunter and Crossbow Club is holding a team target course event tomorrow.
The course is on a farm out the back of Tapanui with targets set out across the property.
Three of the targets are actually mannequins — two deer and a goat — while the rest are flat faces targets.
Event organiser Wayne Crawford, of Invercargill, said the difference in the events for bowhunters was the shots were set up to simulate hunting so there were different distances. There were natural objects in the way and then uphill and downhill shots.
‘‘The idea is to try and simulate the type of conditions you’d be hunting in. There’s a lot more people doing it and there’s quite a few bowhunters down this way.
‘‘Bowhunters, by nature, they’re normally lone hunters anyway, so they don’t normally tend to get mixed up in clubs.
‘‘The reason we’ve got it going is just to kind of get everybody together and anybody who’s new, who’s interested, kind of get them on the right path of some hunting ethics.’’
He said a bow and arrow was a lot different than using a gun as the hunter had to get a lot closer to the animal and wind was a very big factor.
Bowhunting was growing, as was crossbowing. Bowhunting used human strength to draw and hold the string while aiming, a more traditional effort, while a crossbow held the string mechanically, taking a shot, more like a rifle.
Mr Crawford said when he was young there were a lot of goats, but now there were plenty of deer to hunt.
But it is a pursuit where the rewards take a while but are appreciated.
‘‘The average rifle shooter probably shoots 10-20 deer in a year. A bowhunter might be lucky if they get two or three a year.’’
He said a club member had shot a seven gill shark with a crossbow a few weeks ago while someone had bagged a tahr with arrows earlier this month.
