Bow Bash archery event draws crowd for first year in Fredericktown
Police Officer Alex Lunsford fires a TenPoint crossbow from a 50 yard distance at a styrofoam wolf. He competed on a team with officer Austin Smith against the fire department at Cedar Falls Outdoors annual Bow Bash.
Cedar Falls Outdoors held their annual “Bow Bash” for the first time in Fredericktown, inviting a crowd of archers to kick off the season with a small festival of arrows and targets. The police and fire department also competed for a “golden arrow” trophy.
The event hit the bullseye in terms of weather and municipality, where cloud cover broke the weeks long heat wave, and a new ordinance requested last month was passed just last week. It allowed for projectiles to be shot on special occasions.
“I literally got our insurance papers in yesterday, just in the knick of time,” Cedar Falls Outdoors Owner Jason Nash said.
Six targets and styrofoam animals were placed throughout a field downhill next to Cedar Falls on N Mine La Motte Ave. Various sponsors marked the targets like Bowtech for traditional long bows, Easton, and Wicked Ridge.
It wasn’t run like a competition, but like a free style for anyone to practice on targets with compound bows, crossbows and longbows.
At the Mathews target, archers gambled on a steel silhouette “iron buck” with a hole in its stomach. Winners were placed in a drawing for a dozen Easton arrows; a missed shot would break your arrow–and fill the “box of shame.” Another door prize was a $300 sight for a compound bow.
Representatives from Ravin Crossbows, Bear Archery and Bowtech took questions from attendees about new products, for advice or to help try out bows. He said people like to prepare for bow season early, which starts in September but requires lots of refinement.
“And the thing. The thing about shooting a compound bow, is it’s a lot of practice,” Nash said. “And so people start months ahead for muscle memory. And a lot of times they’re getting their bow, their bow size, new equipment, their strings changed, and all that stuff takes time.”
The Fredericktown fire department and police volunteered two representatives each to shoot bows at a styrofoam wolf. They were allowed one practice shot and one real shot, with guidance from Seth Firebaugh, who used to work at Cedar Falls. They used a small, “Ballista Bat reverse mini crossbow,” from 20 yards away, and then a TenPoint crossbow from a table at 50 yards, which shoots over 400 feet per second, Nash said.
Each department would get four shots each, two from each member for a total of 48 points.
The fire department won by just two points at 40, earning a golden arrow on a plaque, which will be treated like a capture the crown. Every participant won a pair of light weight Vortex sun glasses.
Longtime archery store associate Tim Wilson fires a traditional longbow at Bow Bash.
“We’re going to try to make that a yearly thing, like bragging rights,” Tim Wilson, a longtime archery store associate, said. “Whoever wins it, they get to keep it. And then next year they got to bring it back.”
The sheriff’s department was invited but was occupied by a sudden emergency at the same time as the event.
Bow Bash previously took place in Bonne Terre for the past four years, but the store moved its archery “outdoors” location to Fredericktown just last year.
Nash said he thought the bow bash met his expectations, and was a success. “With the heat, and the new location, I think it went pretty good. There were times when it was busy in the field, and it was always busy in the store,” he said.
