Finding a safe and challenging place to shoot your bow and arrow is getting tougher each year. To help archers keep their skills sharp, the Ben Avery Shooting Facility is offering an eight-week long winter archery league starting January 7, 2009.

Every Wednesday night, under stadium lights, on the FITA Range shooters can safely shoot 3-spot or single targets at 20 yards. Archery classifications for men and women include compound unlimited, compound bowhunter and recurve/longbow. A junior class is also available for shooters ages 8-17 to encourage family participation.

Leagues run from January 7 - February 25, 2009. There will be a cookout and an awards banquet on March 11. The cost is $60 per adult and $30 for junior shooters. Registration fees are reduced for families. If one parent participates, each junior is only $20, and if both parents participate, each junior is only $10. Some introductory loaner bows (compound and recurve) are available.

"We are really happy to offer these discounted family rates," said Mike Raum, archery coordinator with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "Archery competition is a fun, and a great outdoor family activity."

Preregistration is required. To register or for more information: contact Mike Raum at (623) 582-8313 or mraum@azgfd.gov.

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At fourteen thousand feet we watched the elk heard move across the meadow and bed down at the edge of a rocky outcropping. After a long and arduous hike we position ourselves above, and a few hundred yards away from the biggest bull elk in the sleeping herd. We waited diligently for two hours. Finally, the bull stood up and turned for a nice broad side shot. The shot rang out in the thin mountain air shattering the silence and scattering the elk herd into the spruce trees.