Big game species from around the world are stalking the basement of High Desert Sports on River Street in Hailey. Bow hunters gather here to practice hunting Idaho elk and moose, as well as African gazelles, giraffes and lions as they move through their natural surroundings.
"A lot can happen when you are out bow hunting," says Wayne Clayton, who owns High Desert Sports with his mother Jean. "New bow hunters get impatient and oftentimes don't know the animals they are hunting as well as they think they do."
In order to train hunters in the challenging art of bow hunting, Clayton installed a virtual archery range several years ago in the basement of the hunting store his father, Bill Clayton, built 25 years ago.
The senior Clayton was an industrial arts and drafting teacher at Wood River High School for 32 years, and also taught archery, until he passed away ten years ago.
"My father's students still come in all the time and say hello," says Wayne, who stands below a mounted collection of traditional bows and arrows made by a tribe of hunters in New Guinea. The specialized arrow tips are made for shooting fish, larger game, and sometimes one another during ritual warfare.
Below the collection is a typical archery range with paper targets. Next to the range, behind a 60- foot long wall, is a darkened theatre where the hunter's landscape comes alive. At one end of the theatre is a 10x8 foot movie screen made to withstand the blows of blunt-tipped arrows. Across the screen walk game animals large and small, filmed on location around the globe. Sound effects contribute to the life-like experience. Archers take aim and shoot. When the arrow hits the screen the action stops. Specific target areas over the vital areas are then displayed on the image of the animal's body along with scores for accuracy.
It may not provide a cure for "buck fever," but the range certainly gives a taste of the adrenaline associated with real life hunting.
Plum T.V. general manger Trey Spaulding has practiced his archery skills with a compound bow for three years at High Desert Sports.
"This is very different than shooting at a target," he says. "You learn in there that you only have a few seconds with which to get a good shot. An animal move behind a tree, or out of sight. This will blow your shot, but that is a typical real life hunting scenario."
Spaulding shot a bull elk earlier this season at 25 yards and stalked an antelope in a field before killing it with an arrow from 30 yards out. He says his practice sessions at the virtual range have contributed to his success.
"It is quite a challenge getting close enough to an antelope to hunt them," he says. "The virtual range helps you learn to pick your spot before you shoot. It has surely improved my shooting."
Mortgage broker Eric Newman also practices his hunting skills at High desert Sports, shooting on a four-person team during the winter.
"The social aspect is delightful," he says. "But you also learn patience as a hunter. The life-like scenarios you encounter in the range allow you to assess an animal's behavior. You learn not to take an unethical or deflected shot."
Newman has successfully hunted wild pigs and antelope with his bow. He and Spaulding will take advantage of late season archery hunts that run through November to hunt elk and deer in southern Idaho.
Both Spaulding and Newman hunted with rifles before taking up bows and arrows in the hunt
"Bow hunting is a deeper and more intimate experience," says Newman. " It requires more commitment and more knowledge on my part."
After a life spent hunting in Idaho, Wayne Clayton spent two weeks bow hunting near the city of Bloemfontein in the Republic of South Africa last year. He traveled there to hand deliver a bow to a client.
At an elevation of 7000 feet, Clayton said the terrain closely resembled the Owyhee (a largely road-less region of southern Idaho). Yet the animals he hunted in South Africa were very different than the ones he encountered as a young man growing up in Idaho. After two weeks he returned home having successfully hunted a Cape Eland, a Zebra and a Springbok. One of the trophies, a Black Wildebeest, hangs over the gun counter at High Desert Sports.
But Clayton says, "It's not the kill that's important. It's the hunt that is important. The point is to get close and count coup on the animal before he sees you. I had a wonderful season this year and never even drew my bow."
Last season he took down a bull moose, which brought 1000 pounds of meat to his freezer.
"After you shoot something, that is when the real work begins," he said.
Wayne Clayton takes aim at a virtual beast.
