at the age of like 12 I started getting acclimated to firearms and such. Gotta 22 at the age of 12 1/2, got a bow at the age of 11-12...Dad always taught me these are real, they do what they are supposed to do, know your area and know your weapon. Of course at the age of 11 who knows the most...you got it me the 12 years old, it's not as big a deal as my old man says it is.
Take my bow, and and my best friend and head behind the house (had a creek about mile down a road that turned into a path that turned into just bent grass where animals travel. Since I just got the bow I couldn't hit the side of a barn inside the barn. I aimed at a target we took with us and over shot it by a mile, since we had just so many arrows had to do a "golf ball" hunt for it beyond the target.
We found it, it had hit a male cardinal that we didn't even have in our sight. Looked at each other scared shi%Tless...the state bird of WV is a cardinal, thought for sure this was worth time in jail if not some type of prison for bad kids. We took out the arrow, buried the bird and took off for home, for the next few days everytime the phone rang thought for sure it was a ranger,cop asking about me...
Learned a lesson that day.....my old man was more right then I thought he was, and make double sure of your area, not only the target area but the areas behind it as well.