Page 31 - January/February 2023 Outdoor Oklahoma

DON P. BROWN/ODWC

DON P. BROWN/ODWC

Practice took up much of Butts’ time for the next six weeks, and then
it was off to Italy for him and his wife, Sahara. “Never in my wildest of
dreams would I ever have imag-
ined that I’d go halfway around “Right out of the gates, they all came out ‘guns blazing,’ and I felt

the world to just shoot my bow like and shot like I’d never touched a bow compared to how they
in a tournament, much less do it were shooting . After the first half of the targets had been shot, I
on a stage this big, all the while
representing the USA.” was the bottom man in my group and could not get myself together .”
Competition began Sept. 5. He didn’t shoot as well as he’d wanted
and ended the day in second place. The next day’s round was held on a
different course. It was “a chance
to step up and see if the first DON P. BROWN/ODWC
day was a fluke or not, all while
shooting with the top longbow
shooters from the first day.”
“Right out of the gates, they
all came out ‘guns blazing,’ and
I felt like and shot like I’d never
touched a bow compared to
how they were shooting. After
the first half of the targets had
been shot, I was the bottom
man in my group and could not
get myself together.
“One of the gentleman in my
group, Alfred (the No. 1-ranked
shooter after day one) from Austria, who spoke no English, tapped me
on the shoulder and pointed at me then smiled really big, so of course I

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 29