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HOLMBERG: Hunger Games adds a shot in the arm to Richmond-area archery

Posted at 1:21 AM, Nov 27, 2013
and last updated 2013-11-27 01:21:49-05

Behold, the archer!

Perhaps there is no more heroic pose known to man. It has changed little since history began, when warriors were buried with the bows that fed their families and defeated their enemies.

And perhaps there is no other weapon as romantic, as toxophilites will tell you.

We, of course, recall the mythological Cupid firing his arrows of burning desire. And Apollo was the god of target archery (among other non-violent, pleasurable pursuits).

It has been perhaps the most honorable of distance hunting weapons, long revered by the Boy and Girl Scouts of America and many other cultures.

Television and movies have long featured archery. You may recall William Tell, Robin Hood, John Rambo,  Mulan, Wonder Woman and those dadgum Duke boys, Bo and Luke.

But perhaps no one and nothing in recent memory has rekindled interest in the sport as much as Katniss Everdeen and “The Hunger Games.”

Big time manufacturers are even cashing in, selling the likes of the “Katniss Silver Bow.”

We braved the elements and Patterson Avenue traffic to visit HNS Archery to seejust how much this wildly popular series of books and movies have added twang to a shooting sport that has long been  attractive to women as well as men.

Click on the video for Mark's full report.