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 Howdy
and welcome to my first column for my friend Rich Walton at Bowhunting.net.
It's an honor to host a column for the first and largest bowhunting only
site on the net. I am 36 years old and live in Winfield, West Virginia
with my wife Amanda, our puppy Miss Ellie, three barn cats and two Quarter
Horses. I've been shooting a bow and arrow since age 4 (1971),
which makes me the youngest old timer in our sport!
I feel fortunate to have parents who started me in archery at an early
age. Mom & Dad are successful bowhunters and have taken many
record sized animals with their bows. In June 2003 my mother harvested
her 14th bear with a bow & arrow. My Dad has a room full of trophies
and I harvested three deer before I was 12. I shot my first bear at age
18. In January my father & I will be with Butch Thompson
at the famous King ranch in South Texas bowhunting trophy whitetail.
When I was a kid family vacations always seemed centered around archery
tournaments and hunting trips.
My parents own and operate a retail archery business in West Virginia.
Pop started Addington's Bowhunter Shop in 1978 in the corner of a garage
and today it is housed in a 5500 foot store complete with stone fireplace,
pro shop and indoor range. We live, eat & sleep archery
at our place.
I've shot instinctive all my life. Growing up I remember filing
the sights off my BB gun because they kept getting in my way.
I also was a pretty fair shot with a slingshot and blowgun.
Shooting a bow without sights or any aiming method came second nature to
me. I look at what I want to hit, draw and release.
 There
are various ways to shoot a bow and arrow including;
point of aim method or gap system where you use the point of the arrow
to sight with, barebow or walking the string, and of course the various
styles of scopes and sighting devices. Then there is the purely instinctive
method which means you focus only on your target and forget everything
else. Fred Bear shot this way, but he often referred to it as snap
shooting. He'd pick his spot, draw and when that pointer finger crossed
his anchor point he'd let the arrow fly. Howard Hill on the other
hand shot a point of aim or gap method.
Speaking of Papa Bear, I owe a lot of my shooting ability to him.
I spent HOURS in my back yard as a kid pretending to be Fred on some exotic
hunt in a far away place. Some kids are cowboys, some firemen,
I pretended to be the great bowhunter. Fred & I became friends
and when I told Fred this story those big, lanky shoulders rocked with
laughter. That is what I miss most about Fred, that grin and his
ability to tell great jokes and stories. He was a class act
and did so much to promote our sport. You can see vintage pictures
of Papa Bear and I on the website www.FrankAddingtonJr.com.
Another one of my early shooting influences was Rev. Stacy Groscup,
49th Inductee into the Archery Hall of Fame. Rev. Groscup tossed
a Pepsi can into mid air in 1986 and challenged me to hit it.
I did and that same afternoon he put me in front of an audience.
I am proud when someone refers to me as his protégé?.
Groscup is the best instinctive shooter I've ever seen draw a bow.
After having shared practice time, hunting camps and time at shows on stage
with him I can attest to the fact that he's done what no one else ever
has with a bow. I once saw him nail an aspirin tablet from
mid air when he was 82 years old! I just hope I can see an
aspirin in flight when I am 82!
Ann Clark also played a role in my exhibition career. She had
me help her on stage one time when I was a teenager while she was in town
doing archery exhibitions at a sports show. She taught me a
lot about stage presence and how to present the sport in a positive light.
She is also a Hall of Fame member and one of her bows can be found in a
Woman's In Sports exhibit in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian.
My archery exhibition career began modestly in 1986. I went to
county fairs, schools, camps and about anywhere that would have me.
I even shot at a Possum Festival once... I'd do 45 minutes
of shooting and then do question and answer sessions for the crowds.
By 1988 I was on the road and doing major events like the Bowhunter Jamboree
in Union Grove, NC, the Dixie Deer Classic and other big shows.
One time at the Bowhunter Jamboree in Union Grove I made what remains
the "luckiest" shot of my career thus far. They had a nice
practice area for me to shoot in and in the background was a 3-D deer target
about 70 yards away.
It was a long distance deer shot the host club was using as a fundraiser.
Anyway, in the shows I normally shoot relatively short distances.
There was a heckler in the crowd that had had one beer too many and he
kept interrupting the show by yelling, "shoot the deer ... those shots
are easy---shoot that deer way out there...". I knew what he
was talking about so about the 5th time he yelled I spun in one quick,
fluid motion, drew my bow and released the arrow.....it went airborne,
floated to its peak and then glided in to the very center of the bullseye.
A very lucky 70 yard shot.
I don't know who was more shocked, my audience or me. I wouldn't
try that again for a million bucks. Anyway, the drunk shut
up and crowd was won over for the rest of the show. A few years later
the rumor of that show and the famous long distance shot had grown to over
100 yards. What can you do? Grin and know that it was pure
luck is my theory.
Now the show has changed a lot from those early days.
I still travel a lot and do my share of work with young people in DARE
programs but the content of the show is different. I do the show
shooting from behind the back---down to an aspirin and baby aspirin.
This emphasizes the point that I am not "trick shooting" or sighting.
It gets a crowd's attention when you come out on stage and start nailing
targets from mid air from behind the back. They say I'm the first
in the history of the sport to do these types of shots.
Jeanne Moos with CNN captured the aspirin and baby aspirin shots in
July 2003 on film and dubbed me the "William Tell of Popping Pills."
Yet I contend that Groscup is hands down the champion in the field and
I am his protégé?. My father is also a heck of a shot
instinctively at long ranges. I've seen him do amazing things at
90 yards with a bow and arrow.
I like a challenge and attempting to hit small pills thrown into the
air from behind the back is, well, as about challenging as it gets.
It's instinctive. There is no trick, no smoke and mirrors.
Sometimes it takes a few tries, but usually I get the aspirin within three
or four tries.
I have learned that "Trick shot artist" is what I'm often called. I
guess the media needs to be able to pin a label on my show so I have gradually
learned to accept the title.
I want to make something else very clear. Our young people today
now more than ever need positive role models and people to help them discover
hobbies and activities that keep them off the streets and out of trouble.
This summer I got to do exhibitions for kids from the Bronx in New York
City and I had a blast helping get these kids excited about archery.
Take a kid hunting, shooting or fishing. Get them interested
in the outdoors and helping to preserve our natural resources.
Tell them about the dangers of drugs. Since 1986 this has been a
major part of my show...the SAY NO TO DRUGS -- YES TO YOUR ABILITIES message.
Thanks for taking time to read this introduction. Now you
know more about me & my show. Drop me a line and tell me about
you & your archery/bowhunting adventures at Aspirinbuster@aol.com
or visit our website at www.FrankAddingtonJr.com
. You can also email questions to me at the email address and I'll try
to help. In a future column we'll explore instinctive shooting
and some tips on how to practice instinctively.
Until then, Shoot Straight....
<-----------------------------((((
Frank Addington, Jr.
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