When we were young my brother took up the sport of archery and bought himself a compound bow, from memory I think it was a Hoyt compound bow. We’d take that bow out to our relative’s farm and set about shooting at targets and the odd wild animal. There were plenty of rabbits running around on the farm and he happened to bag himself one, one day. He thought he’d made it as a hunter he was so pleased with himself.

He took it a bit too far just after that when he shot a magpie. Rabbits I don’t have a problem with, they are overrunning the place, but when you shoot a magpie, that just seems wrong.

Anyway, I had a go at drawing and firing my brother’s bow and was amazed at just how difficult it actually was to draw back the string. I was also a little surprised at the necessary equipment he had to buy to go with his bow.

I wonder what happened to that bow. For us young fellas it was ideal. It felt as though we were shooting it particularly quick, although these days the speed of the old bow would probably be laughable.