Where can you grab your bow and arrows and go hunting for buffalo, bear, wild pigs, turkey, deer . . . even dinosaur and a huge mosquito?

Ringgold county’s Fogle Lake Rec- reational Area. And that’s not just a tall tale.

It’s the 3D archery course that has brought archers from around the area to- gether for weekend shoots on the trails through the Fogle Lake Recreation Area for the past two summers.

There’s room for folks who are very competitive and want to turn in their score as part of the shoot or folks who just want to have fun and aren’t keeping score at all.

In fact is a family atmosphere that has shooters of all ages making the rounds of targets like one would the holes on a golf course. Each target is a little different and tries to draw on a variety of skills.

ing a way to sharpen shooting skills that can be used for bow hunting or just hav- ing a fun way to spend some weekend time.

Though the goal for many is hunt- ing practice, hunting broadheads are not used, as they would tear up the foam

It all began a couple of years ago now when Jim Norris and his wife Lori were on their way home from a 3D archery shoot that they had traveled to in another part of the state.

“We began to talk about how nice it would be to have a course closer to home so we didn’t have to travel so far,” Norris said.

As they brainstormed they thought about the trail at Fogle Lake Recreation Area just outside Diagonal, started to get

the park board with the idea of starting a 3D archery course right here in Ringgold county.

This year 40 of the targets were used and archers moving around the course have a chance to shoot at a little bit of anything.

stands were added to provide the oppor- tunity for honing some other skills and a new shelter house was built for the course as well.

The Diagonal Lions Club and the Ringgold Outdoor Alliance offered to help sponsor the shelter house, but a grant provided most of the money needed and each of the groups only had to help with

for the course with groups like the Ring- gold Outdoor Alliance and Timberline Sporting Goods helping with providing prizes for these.

Plans for the future for the course in- clude more elevated shooting stands and other improvements.

The course has a website -- www. fogle3d.com, where schedules of the shoots at Fogle Lake are put up and re- sults posted.

The course season begins near the end of March and includes one weekend shoot (Saturday and Sunday) a month for most of the summer.

In September, as hunters prepare for bow season, almost every weekend had a shoot sponsored on the course.

The course also hosts events for young shooters and often borrows bows and ar- rows from the Diagonal school archery program to loan out so youngsters will be able to try their hand at the sport.

An average of 80 to 90 shooters take part in the events, coming from com- munities like Bedford, Clarinda, Atlan-

“We don’t get as many local shoot- ers as we would like,” Norris said. “I think some of them think that it is a very competitive event when its not. Anyone

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Friday & Saturday
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A group of archers from Page county that have shot at the Fogle Lake course are working on setting up one of their own at Braddyville. The two groups hope to interest other 3D groups around the area in setting up a series of events that would take archers from site to site over the summer in some sort of archery series.

The targets are taken down over the winter to protect the investment in them and then are reset each spring.

At one of the shoots in September, the In Your Backyard Iowa television pro- gram came to the shoot and put together a show about the Fogle lake course.

The program airs on KCWI on Sun- day mornings at 9 a.m. and other times through the week on Mediacom Channel

This exposure should help make the gem of southern Iowa known more around the state.

All the money from the entry fees to use the course go back to the Fogle Lake park board for improvements around the park.

Jim Norris has been shooting a bow since he was a kid, he says, and really got interested when he started hunting with a bow in high school. His wife Lori joined his interest in archery about 10 years ago.

Doug Ruby got reintroduced to the sport when the 3D course was be- ing developed and has really taken off with his interest. Ruby’s son Layne won the state elementary boys National Archery in the Schools competition this last year so the sport has become a real father-son bonding process.

And archery isn’t just a guy thing, Norris pointed out. Many women are be- coming interested in the sport and when cars pull up for the meets there are often couples coming bringing their equipment together.

As the course got going, Jim and Lori Norris helped run a concession stand for those participating, but the Diagonal Junior Class has taken that over the last couple of meets and Norris looks forward to this relationship continuing as well.

Once the bow season is over Norris says they will be working with archery in the schools this winter, helping inter- est a new generation in appreciate an art that has a long history of helping provide food and enjoyment for people.

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