Archery is a very safe sport. Injuries in the sport are more likely the result of repetitive strain from pulling a bow incorrectly, leading to tennis elbow (previously known as archer's elbow before tennis became popular).
Another common archery sports injury is when archers over tense their bow shoulder and don't learn how to relax it; Your back muscles should be doing most of the work, not your shoulders!
Lastly there is also "Bowstring Burn"... This is what happens when you keep hitting your elbow or arm with the bowstring. If you bruise easily you should really be wearing an arm guard or bracer to protect your arm. Furthermore if you're a beginner, you really should get archery lessons so you learn how to position your elbow correctly.
However just because the vast majority of injuries in archery are sports injuries like tennis elbow (cough cough, archer's elbow) that doesn't mean that more bizarre and serious injuries don't happen.
Plus accidents do happen.
#1. THE BACKYARD RICOCHET MISHAP
Take for example 2012 case of a young Australian man who was practicing in his backyard when he missed a shot, the arrow ricocheted off a door, and then hit a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk 30 meters away.
Which is all the more reason why people should practice archery in a proper archery range like the Toronto Archery Range. Or at very least in a wide open field, on a farm, in a secluded forest, etc. Accidentally hitting someone with an arrow isn't really an accident if the person was shooting in their backyard and not taking adequate precautions to prevent any kind of ricochets that could lead to someone being injured.
Nor is this an isolated incident. Many cities around the world have laws in place regarding the firing of guns and/or archery equipment in backyards, largely because of the associated dangers of such reckless behaviour.
#2. THE GALKA VS STANKIEWICZ INCIDENT
In October 2000 two men in Toronto were at the Toronto Archery Range and lost an expensive arrow. In a bizarre turn of events however one of the men proposed the idea of shooting over one of the targets while his friend stood in the vicinity of the lost arrow and reported where it landed. But instead of this unusual plan leading to the lost arrow Patryk Stankiewicz accidentally shot his friend Wieslaw Galka in the eyeball (and brain), resulting in the loss of his eye, permanent brain damage, mobility problems, and psychiatric needs.
You can read details about the case in the court document PDFs found at:
- http://www.archerytoronto.ca/pdfs/Galka-v-Stankiewicz.pdf
- http://www.archerytoronto.ca/pdfs/Galka-v-Stankiewicz-Appeal-File.pdf
The two men ignored the safety bylaws and presumably were each fined about $4000 CDN for reckless endangerment with a firearm.
#3. THE TEEN SHOT IN THE HEAD & SURVIVES
This particular incident happened in October 2013 in Piatt County California. According to the Sheriff's Report the incident was caused by multiple factors:
- Archer fatigue
- Bow not tuned properly
- Lack of safety precautions
Not necessarily in that order.
The victim was a teenager (16-year-old Maci Webb) who was down range from where the archer was shooting (in the line of fire). She was sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck at the time.
The archer, Andrew J. Dick (age 21) loaded his compound bow while other people were down range from him, which is a big safety no-no.
The bow was relatively brand new and had not yet been tuned properly yet, which means the arrow could go further to the left or right than the archer is expecting.
It is also noted that AJD was a new archer and had only been shooting two days, and he had shot roughly 80 arrows (approx. 16 rounds of 5 arrows per round), and thus was exhausted.
AJD then either drew back his loaded bow, while either intending to fire or perhaps just to pull it and let it back down slowly, when he misfired, his arrow flying down range and striking the unsuspecting teenager.
And this is why you never load a bow (especially not a compound bow) while other people are down range from you.
And you certainly don't pull back the bow in such a situation, because all it takes is a misfire for someone to get injured.
Such an incident also wouldn't have happened if the shooter had had archery lessons. Any competent archery instructor would have given him a safety lecture first, his compound bow would have been tuned second, and he would have known to follow safety etiquette when shooting, which includes things like:
"Don't load your bow when other people are in front of you."
So yes, another reason why you should get archery lessons.
For archery lessons in Toronto please contact me to discuss availability.
