Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 23, 1995 TAG: 9502020004
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The deer is nervous, walking stiff-legged, its black nose testing the breeze, its big ears erect and cupped to catch any sound.
Grace eases his bow and arrow upward, not happy with the target the deer is offered him, but aware that the animal is spooky and ready to run. When the buck makes a slight turn, Grace sends an arrow streaking its way. It's a perfect hit.
Wait a minute! Isn't deer season over?
Not at Blue Ridge Sporting Supplies in Salem. Bowhunters there can jump aboard the digital superhighway for a quick trip to places where deer and bear roam, along with most everything else from elk to armadillo.
It's called the Techno-Hunt System, a computer-driven video archery range that sends animals waltzing lifelike across a huge screen. Archers can take a whack at them from a 20-yard distance while firing an arrow equipped with a special head.
"It is just like hunting, where you might pass up a shot, saying, 'I will wait for him to step out into the open,' and he doesn't step out," Grace said.
One thing for certain, it can make shooting paper targets appear bland.
So bland, in fact, that Blue Ridge Sporting Supplies, the new home of Star City Archery, has had a tough time getting enough participants together to from an indoor winter league for shooting traditional targets.
"We offered it, but no body wanted to shoot," said Grace. "We couldn't find 16 people who wanted to form a league to shoot bull's-eyes instead of shooting [video] animals."
What Grace did was form a league around the video target system. Six teams a night are shooting Mondays through Thursdays, 6 to 9 pm. Other archers walk in throughout the day to challenge the new computer range.
"People are getting hooked on it," Grace said. "We have had people come in here and spend $200 on it, $5 at a time."
Grace got hooked on archery long before the computer age. In the early '80s, he was a member of the archery team at James Madison University where he was an All-American for three years. After college, he won a couple of state archery titles. For 10 years he operated a pro shop and shooting lanes near Lakeside, under the logo of Star City Archery. Late last year, that business was absorbed by Blue Ridge Sporting Supplies on Chapman Street in Salem. Grace runs the pro shop and new range. The video shooting system has been in operation for about six weeks.
Three archers can fire on the Techno-Hunt System range at the same time. A sensor system records individual arrow placements and arrow speeds. Archers can bring their own equipment and simply replace their field points with special heads. Rental equipment is available.
The shooting system offers 65 hunting scenes. Archers select their shots and are scored on how accurately their arrows stroke vital areas. Just like in hunting, a limb or other obstacle can cause a miss, and shots often must be taken in poor light conditions.
If you really want to make things tough, you can activate wind conditions, but few shooters have done that, Grace said.
"It's been tough enough as it is," he said.
A perfect score is 10, but the average shooter scores about half that, Grace said.
by CNB