Local archer branches out to bigger tournaments

FRUITLAND, N.M.

Calvin Largo spent the earlier part of his life hunting with a rifle.

He came from a family of hunters, each sibling equipped with their own rifle, but when he was 26 years old he noticed how some hunted with bows and arrows.

“I was never an archer in my life,” he said. “I saw a few friends at work that were archers –mostly hunters – and so I watched them shoot; and I just picked it up from there.”

And just like that, his knack for the sport came to him with such ease.

Now 30 years later, he won the regional USA Archery Indoor Nationals in Albuquerque this past spring and finished 27th nationally.

Shortly after, he won the Archers Shooters Association New Mexico 3D Championships in the senior division.

Largo, 56, from Thoreau, taught himself to shoot with a bow. He made a homemade target that was about five feet tall and five feet wide knowing his aim would not be as good since he was just starting out.

But after hours of practice, he entered his first shoot and won.

“Today in archery, there are classes – levels of mastery – in the past there weren’t any,” he said. “There was a shoot in Tohatchi. I went in blind, I didn’t even know what class I was supposed to be in, yet I still won.”

He won in the six-pin category and decided to try another shoot, this time a 3D competition.

He said the 3D shoot consisted of a foam animal as a target, where shooters would get points based on where they shoot the foam animal. His coworkers told him about 3D shoots and he decided to give it a try.

“It was really rewarding. If you see people that already know what they were doing but you went in there in shot off the hip; there was something there,” Largo said. “I never took a break. Once I shot my first 3D, I was pretty much hooked on it.”

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