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a lil arrow from a cheap bow never hurt anyone did it?

Thought yall would get a good laugh outta this. Got this from another board....

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those Little Bad-boy Compound Bow

beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our place

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 sonofagun.



That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazzard fan that I

was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up Tshirt 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. I'll put it this way - a set of

post hole diggers and a 3ft. hole and you had yourself a well.



Anyway, one summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a

large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I look 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 it

would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner . . lets face

it... to a 10 yr. old mouth-breather/experimenting scientist 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 ) to add to the

excitement.



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...1lb pyrodex and

16 oz of ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker - you

know? You know what?heck with 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 15ft 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 NOOOOOO! 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 heck 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. OH - LORD.



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 decibels of sound. I caught a half millisecond glimpse

of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there

was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1ft 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. Let me repeat this...



THE DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE!



There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture.

Notice I said "was". That rascal 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 200 feet over our backyard. There

is a Honda 185s three 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. I don't think he heard me either... not that it would really

matter. 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 griping about that thing for years and dad never did

anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.



Dad sold his muzzleloaders a week or so later. And I still have some

sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating.

Or both.



I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery.. Its

good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in

life. Something they won't learn in school.
 
LOL, thats too funny,i can picture myself doing the same thing at that age, especially with the neighborhood kids we had.

good one.

~billy
 
LOL. Haha, that's great.
 
We tried the flaming arrow thing and it didn't work. But that was >30 years ago and I don't remember how we did the flames. Maybe aiming at a lb of black powder would have kept them lit. Life works that way.
 
Somehow...I have a feeling Ozzy would have a story to top that...

:-))
 
LOL, wow! I could see all of that like a little movie. Very cool story. It would have been awesome to get that on a camera.
 
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