Mirror photo by John Hartsock
Dan Deterline of Roaring Spring uses a compound bow on Saturday at the Bear Rock club.

LILLY — With the beginning of Pennsylvania’s fall archery season for antlered and antlerless deer less than six weeks away, a local sportsmen’s club provided the perfect tuneup Saturday for area bowhunters.

The Bear Rock Sportsmen’s Club of Lilly offered its first annual Bowhunters Festival on its grounds, and by early afternoon, a total of 61 people from the Bear Rock club — along with several other clubs from within an 80-mile radius — showed up to shoot arrows at 3D artificial field animal and paper targets using crossbows, compound bows and recurve bows.

Shooters competed in two prize divisions — a money divison and a trophy division — with a men’s class, a women’s class and a youth division all accounted for in the event.

The event was organized by Bear Rock Club members Mike Jones, 46, of Portage, and Bill Woolridge, 59, of Imler.

“We’re very, very happy with the turnout,” Jones said. “We have people coming in from as far away as Cumberland, Md. We’re just trying to promote the sport of archery and benefit the shooters that participate here, as well as our club itself.

“This is our first year for this event, and we’re hoping to make it an annual event,” Jones added.

Woolridge agreed that he hopes that this year’s event can be a work in progress.

“We’re going to try to grow it and make it bigger each year,” said Woolridge, who pointed out that the club maintained the recommended 6 feet of social distancing for Saturday’s event in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve received a lot of positive comments about this event so far.”

A total of 20 club members helped with things like course and target setup, and cooking the day’s meal.

Two local archery stores, the Open Season Outdoors facility in Altoona and The Archery Zone in Johnstown, supported the event with door prizes and advertising for the Bear Rock Sportsmen’s Club, which, in turn, offered the archery businesses an opportunity to show off their products.

A tree-stand vendor, Rutmasters of Somerset, manufactures motorized tree stands that benefit handicapped hunters. One was on display Saturday.

“When we heard about this event, we definitely wanted to support it,” said Shawn Booth, who owns the Rutmasters business and is himself battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. “It’s something local, and we’re trying to promote self tree-stand hunting in order to help the handicapped and enable them to hunt again.”

Another Bear Rock Sportsman’s Club member, Dan Deterline of Roaring Spring, was participating in the Trophy Division with a compound bow Saturday and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere.

“It’s shooting for fun today,” Deterline, 56, said. “You don’t have to get that serious about it. It’s as competitive as what you want to make it. I’ve been in bigger tournaments where you’re shooting for a lot of money.

“Today, I’m just getting ready for hunting season,” Deterline added. “This is a warmup for deer season.”

Saturday’s event was a positive learning experience for all the members of the Bear Rock Sportsmen’s Club.

“This is our first one, and we’re trying to figure out what works best,” Jones said. “Everybody here seems happy.”