2009: St. John man hopes bow, arrow lead to a job he’d love (+video)

Editor’s note: This story was first published in The Eagle on June 28, 2009.

A central Kansas man hopes to work his way to his dream job, one arrow at a time. “I'm trying to get good enough to be an exhibition shooter, that's my goal, " Heath Getty said after shooting fast-flying clay targets with his bow and arrows Wednesday evening.

Getty, 24, started bow-shooting the thin targets about a year ago. His personal best is seven in a row.

It's not his first adventure in shooting.

"We're all really into hunting and shooting, the whole family, " said his mother, Diane. "I can't tell you how many bands I had to buy for slingshots and how many BB guns he wore out when he was little. He's always spent a lot of time getting good at it."

From slingshot and air gun, Getty progressed to a .22 rifle before he was 10. When stationary targets became too easy, he began tossing progressively smaller targets into the air.

His personal best with the rifle is shooting Tic Tac-size empty .22 cartridges. Wednesday, he routinely hit a tossed golf ball. He shot a quarter out of the air twice.

"I used to be a lot better, but I haven't shot a rifle much the past couple of years, " he said.

Getty prefers to do his hunting and target shooting with his bow. The compound bow is made up of space-age materials, cams and cables that propel arrows about twice as fast as traditional bows.

A local co-op worker, Getty said he has about $1,000 invested in the bow, sight and quiver.

Accuracy requires near-perfect coordination of breathing and dozens of upper-body muscles.

Getty is so skilled that he has to shoot at separate targets to keep from tearing up arrows with other arrows. Four times he's shot one arrow into the back of another, Robin Hood-style.

"It's kind of neat, but it's kind of expensive. It ruins two arrows, and they cost about $15 each, " he said. "I could do it more often, but I really can't afford to."

His first tries at aerial archery were plate-size foam targets lobbed upward by a friend. They're child's play compared to his current challenge.

Wednesday, Getty stood beside an electronic target thrower designed for professional sporting clays courses. Targets less than an inch thick and about 4 inches long fly at speeds of more than 60 mph.

The targets fly Frisbee-flat. It takes an almost perfect hit with the arrow's point to break them.

"You can sometimes see where the arrow chips the edge of the target without breaking it, " he said. "I'm shooting at something about a half-inch by a couple of inches flying at about 35 yards."

Getty used 30 special arrows with oversize feathers and blunt tips.

Because of a recent equipment problem, Getty's bow was not as accurate as normal Wednesday. A video camera gave him an admitted case of the shakes, too.

Targets and arrows both began to fly. Most times, they passed within inches of each other. With a shotgun and its yard-wide pattern with hundreds of lead pellets, he'd probably have shot 100 percent.

Several times feathers were heard brushing the target. A few wobbled from a glancing blow.

"It's all about timing, " Getty said. "I can be off even a little bit right here, and it'll be a foot off or more out there."

On about his 12th arrow, Getty shattered a clay target. He broke two more before all of the arrows were shot.

Getty predicted his success will steadily climb as he gets his equipment re-tuned and keeps practicing. He'll spend most of his free time this fall and winter bowhunting deer, ducks and geese.

After that he'll be back at flying targets several evenings a week and most lunch hours.

"I want to get to where I can break most of them flying in one direction then start letting the thrower alternate so every target's in a different direction, " he said. "I think I can do it. It'll just take a lot of practice."

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 11:58 AM with the headline "2009: St. John man hopes bow, arrow lead to a job he’d love (+video)."