ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STANARDSVILLE
SOURCE: RONALD J. HANSEN THE (CHARLOTTESVILLE) DAILY PROGRESS
A VIRGINIA SQUAD AIMS to defend the national indoor bowhunting championship by "killing" laser-generated targets.
Elkton residents Ricky Hall and Allen Dean killed plenty of bull elk here last weekend.
Well, sort of.
By combining old-fashioned archery with high-tech laser disc images, the men were able to take aim at elk normally found in the Rocky Mountains at Rangeland in Seminole Park Plaza.
``You can imagine you're just about anywhere in the world,'' said Tony Shifflett, manager at Rangeland.
Video bowhunting, as it is known, is a growing indoor sport among hunters looking to keep their skills sharp. Hunters fire actual arrows at computer-generated images to score points. The only things the sport lacks are blood and early-morning wake-up calls.
Rangeland's team hoped to defend a national championship as the sport's weeklong tournament began last Saturday. Last year's tournament attracted about 3,600 participants around the country. This year, Shifflett expects as many as 5,000 people to take part in the Easton-Dart North American Elk Challenge.
Shooters stand 60 feet from a canvas backdrop. With the narrow room's lights dimmed, a video disc shows an animal on the backdrop complete with motion and sound.
The discs, which look like compact discs but are as large as vinyl records, contain a variety of targets. There are black bears, wild turkeys, African wildlife and even polar bears.
The hunter must fire an arrow toward the heart of the animal before it walks off the screen. When the arrow hits the backdrop, sensors detect where the blunt-tipped shaft would have struck the animal. Hunters receive up to 12 points for a direct hit in the ``kill zone.''
How popular is video bowhunting?
``I've got a thousand names in my system in a hundred-mile radius,'' Shifflett said. He gets hunters from as far away as Lexington and Fairfax. ``We get Boy Scouts and birthday parties that come here. We get a lot of women, too.''
Shifflett also has tournaments for specially designed handguns, rifles and shotguns.
Last year, Rangeland's team won the sport's second national championship, dethroning a squad from Texarkana, Ark.
In the national tournament, hunters shoot 30 arrows at bull elk shown at various distances and situations. Last year's individual champion scored a 328 out of 360.
This year's tournament runs through Sunday. Hall and Dean were the first to compete in the tournament at Rangeland. Afterward, they discussed the sport.
``It's fun, but it keeps you in practice, too,'' Hall said.
That's the beauty of video bowhunting - hunters can practice even on the coldest day of winter, and no animals die.
Hall, 41, has been hunting since he was 13. He considers video bowhunting a realistic simulation.
``It's as close as I've come to hunting elk,'' said Dean, 30.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Anthony Shifflett (left), 15, and brother Kenton,by CNB12, practice for a national bowhunting tourney that ends this
weekend in Stanardsville. color.