FAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....

When I was going home to my detachment in Ontario from a holiday at an old army buddys place in Illinois. My wife and I stopped at the Cabelas in Dundee Michigan to look at some archery equipment at my wife's suggestion.
So I go to the archery section and I actually get a very knowledgible salesman who shows me the different bows for sale and lets me try some of them in the shooting lanes. The lanes are open to other people in the local area. So I shoot a couple of times and as luck would have it I got a little too comfortable for my own good. I drew back on a bow and had my arm straight out instead of in an arc and I let fly, the string hit from my inner elbow to the base of the palm of my hand. INSTANT pain, INSTANT black and blue.
The salesman is in a panic, I am imbarassed, and he is asking me if I want to go to the hospital and asking where I was from, who I was etc etc etc.
I was in so much pain that I couldn't hink straight and babbled answers,
that I was a Fishery Officer which is like the US fish and wildlife service stationed in Ontario but that I was just some cowboy from southern Saskatchewan.
All the time trying not to cry in front of everyone. I told him that I would be alright and to continue on with the demonstration of the bows so that I could buy one. Then I hear from behind me, some guys saying "Oh he's a cowboy! He won't show any pain or fear." I felt like turning around and shooting him with the arrow. The salesman finished his pitch, I chose my bow package and he boxed it all up and I paid for it. My wife shows up and I greet her with a forced smile on my face, I am sweating profusely and we walk out of the store to our car. I hand her the keys and tell her to run ahead and open the trunk and the passsenger door. At this point she doesn't notice that my left arm is black and swollen but she complys and I get into the car and cry. We are about 5 hours from home and it was the longest five hours I think that I ever had. I also learned my lesson last year when I decided to raise my index finget when I was shooting my bow and that nice soft flight on the arrow cuts skin very cleanly . OUCH!

ITD Chimo wrote:

...the string hit from my inner elbow to the base of the palm of my hand. INSTANT pain, INSTANT black and blue.

WOW...is the string that dangerous? I can imagine it would twinge a bit if it hit, but to cause an injury like that, it must be downright nasty.

Cheers. Vince

Showed the picture at the gunrange today. One of the guys showed the scar of when he did it himself. His brother had a shorter bow and arrows and he grabbed a shorter arrow on this big bow by mistake.

Got though the palm, but luckily not the fingers.

Vince wrote:

ITD Chimo wrote: ...the string hit from my inner elbow to the base of the palm of my hand. INSTANT pain, INSTANT black and blue. WOW...is the string that dangerous? I can imagine it would twinge a bit if it hit, but to cause an injury like that, it must be downright nasty. Cheers. Vince

A fellow I used to know decided to teach his wife to shoot a bow. Of course, rather than starting with a light-draw target bow, he started her with a 45-pound draw thinking to get her into hunting. After making sure that she could draw it without too much trouble it was time for the range. That's where things fell apart. On her first shot, the lady (who, shall we say was more than blessed by God) was struck in a generously protruding portion of her anatomy by the accelerating string. After the cursing died down they both decided that maybe bow-hunting wasn't for her.

According to my friend, until the swelling went down, she was decidedly asymmetrical.

SSL wrote:

...According to my friend, until the swelling went down, she was decidedly asymmetrical.

WOW...that is scary...although I must admit, as I was reading the latter parts of your post I was almost expecting to read about an unplanned and traumatic "amputation" of the pointy bit of said "generously protruding portion of her anatomy".

I have seen pics of bow shooters with what looks like leather arm pieces... just never realised that they were a very necessary part of the safety equipment. Ya live and learn.

Cheers, Vince

The Amazons were a tribe of warrior women. Their name is supposedly derived from Greek a-mazos, "without a breast," because according to the legend they cut off their right breasts so as to be better able to shoot with a bow and arrow.

Go to any on line archery catalog and look up chest protector. Made for women archers. It is a real problem.

Can't use a bow anymore but yes bow string awareness is important, hurts like a muth-r.

The guy in question thought of himself as a humorist and had a bad habit of not letting anything drop. His wife got pretty tired of him bringing the subject up as a point of "humor" when he had an audience and a sufficient quantity of adult beverages under his belt. It all came to a head at a Christmas party where he was entertaining the crowd at her expense and she finally had enough. She made the rather pointed comment that she felt he could benefit from a bowstring accident with its attendant swelling if applied to a different portion of his anatomy.

As far as I know he never mentioned it again.