Shooting Star Is Right on Target : When It Comes to Success in Archery, Chula Vista’s Powell Hits the Bull’s-Eye

Rube Powell had been out in the woods, outside Donnelly, Ida., for two days.

Powell and his buddy John Pyle were out after big game to shoot with their bows and arrows.

“A lot of guys will go hunt just anything,” Powell said. “But I just hunt for big game.”

On the second day in the national forest, Pyle’s dogs came across a brown bear. They chased the bear, with Powell and Pyle right behind them, for a few hours. Finally, they chased the bear up a tree.

Powell raised his bow and aimed carefully. He needed to shoot just one arrow.

Many bowhunters hunt for years without achieving the success Powell has.

But for the 75-year-old Powell, it is just one of many stories that make up his 43-year archery career.

However, this story is special. Powell shot this bear less than two months ago.

It was Powell’s third bear. He also has shot two mountain lions and six or seven deer. He needed only one arrow each time.

“It’s hard on an old guy like me,” Powell said with a laugh. “Sometimes you’re so tired you can hardly pull a bow.”

Powell’s accuracy can be attributed to his competition days. He won the national freestyle championship five times between 1951 and 1956, and he was second in 1952. In 1953-55, he finished third each year by fewer than nine points, each time after four days of competition.

Powell says that at his age, he cannot compete anymore, but he keeps up with archery by shooting an hour each day before work at the range he built at his house in Chula Vista. He works six days a week at his archery store, also in Chula Vista, and he shoots most Sundays with the San Diego Archers.

How does he keep up such a pace?

“He’s probably in better physical shape than most younger people,” said Dwayne Severn, a fellow Class-A archer who has shot in 70 countries and known Powell for 25 years. “He’s basically Mr. Archery. Rube Powell has probably forgotten more about archery than most of us will ever know. I just hope I can shoot that well when I’m in my 70s.”

Powell said he has heard of stories of bears and mountain lions turning on hunters. But so far, he says, he has been lucky. Hunting with a bow makes it even more difficult, but Powell said he would never use a gun.

Though he has been a very successful hunter the last 20 years, Powell became famous because of his target shooting.

Actually, Powell got started in bow hunting when he was stationed at a Navy base near Jacksonville, Fla., during World War II.

He was making a bow for his 3-year-old son, Mike, and decided he might as well make one for himself, too.

“It was just something to do,” Powell said. “I would sit around and wait for airplanes to come in and shoot targets while I was waiting. That’s how this whole crazy thing started.”

After shooting in some local contests in Florida, Powell forgot the sport for a few years. He didn’t take up the sport seriously again until he was transfered to Miramar Naval Air Station in 1949.

Here, Powell found many more archers who were using much better equipment.

One bow in particular stands out in Powell’s mind. He saw an archer in the 1950 California championships using a bow made by Stew Hamlin from Ohio, and he was amazed by its quality. He borrowed the bow and had a replica made.

He won his first national title with that bow.

“We didn’t have the fancy equipment they have now,” Powell said. “The equipment is so much better now. I won most of my titles with a recurve bow, a conventional bow.”

A recurve bow, which is still used by hunters, does not have a sight or other accuracy aids like modern composite bows.

With that simple bow, Powell held most of the field archery records at one time or another. He even recorded a perfect score in the animal round of a tournament, which was unheard of at the time.

In all, Powell competed in 15 national championships. His lowest finish was fifth in his final competition in 1966.

Five of Powell’s students went on to win national titles as well. His son Mike, who is now a 45-year-old policeman, won the California Junior State Bare Bow championship in 1954.

Powell was one of the first three inducted into the the California Archery Hall of Fame. He was also one of the first inducted into the national Archery Hall of Fame.

But the honor he cherishes most is his place in the San Diego Hall of Champions. Powell was in the second group of inductees in 1972.

He has ribbons from each of the induction ceremonies on the wall of his store, Rube Powell’s Pro Shop. But that’s not all that hangs on those walls.

On his front window, he has a poster of one of his sport’s most famous patrons, Rambo. Sylvester Stallone’s infamous character used a bow and arrow in the “First Blood” movies.

On one wall, there are mounted big-game trophies given to him by friends. Next to those are different animal targets. He even has a drawing of the Ayatollah Khomeini with rings around his face and a bull’s-eye marked between his eyes.

On another wall are several pictures of Powell with his two mountain lions and of his friends with all sorts of other animals taken with bows and arrows.

On another wall hangs everything a target shooter or hunter needs--quivers, arrows, animal calls and a wide variety of bows. Everything except arrows, and they are in cases on the floor below. His best bow sells for $525.

Powell spends most of his time behind his workbench in the back of the shop. Here, he makes arrows and repairs bows from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“It’s not much, just sort of a hole in the wall,” Powell said. “It’s just something to do. I’ve made a little money, but I wouldn’t want to try to live off it.”

But Severn said the store is much more than that.

“His shop is far superior to others,” Severn said.

Though Severn is an excellent archer who has shot for 30 years, he said he does not argue with Powell when it comes to buying equipment.

“He basically tells me what kind of equipment I’m supposed to use, and I use it,” Severn said. “And if you don’t agree with him, you might as well just give up because he won’t sell you anything else. He knows what kind of equipment you should be using and won’t let you use anything else.”

Though Powell works more than 50 hours a week in the store, his first love is shooting and helping others with their archery.

“People come up and ask questions and I try to help them,” he said. “It’s just great being out there with the people. Plus, I still like to get out and go hunting.”