Bullseye!

IBEW Local 58 member Bob Jones is quite familiar with that term these days, having won his division in the 2000 Indoor U.S. National Championship and the International Field Archery Association World Championship.

Jones, 37, shot 60 arrows each day during both of the two-day competitions, which were held on separate weekends in March in Tulsa, OK. Of the 120 arrows he shot, 107 hit the bullseye, 20 yards away. This is the second time he won the national championship - the other win came in 1998 - and it was the first time he took a world title.

"It was a real thrill when I won in 1998, because before that I had a lot of second-and third-place finishes," Jones said. "But it was a great to win again and really nice to take the world championship."

Besides practicing, Jones said he doesn't do much to prepare for an archery competition. "I eat a normal meal, and limit my caffeine intake, but other than that, I don't do much to prepare," he said. "Ninety percent of this is mental concentration."

On the national level, men and women archers from around the country competed in one of 22 divisions. Jones competed in the Bare-Bow Division, which is a finger-release bow without a site. His score of 587 out of a possible 600 beat out 10 other contestants. Each division has equipment differences: Freestyle, for example, involves the use of any bow on the market with a site. Scoring is done on a 5-4-3-2-1 system, in conjunction with the rings of the target.

An electrician since 1988, Jones has been shooting a bow since he was five, when his dad got him involved in the sport. Bob has passed his knowledge of the sport along to his 10-year-old son, Jason, who took second in the national outdoor title a year ago. And Bob met his wife Chris through a mutual interest in archery.

Jones won't be around to defend his world title two years from now - the competition is in Singapore - and the Olympics aren't in his future, either. Olympians use a straight-limb bow rather than the compound bow he uses in competition. "There are some guys who are able to make the transition, but only 10 percent of all archers use the straight limb," he said. But as he does every year, Jones will be out in the Michigan outdoors this fall, hunting deer with a bow and rifle.

"Taking part in the competition is fun," Jones said, "but there's nothing better than sitting up in a tree during deer season."

ELECTRICIAN Bob Jones, who has won national and international archery titles, used his skills to down this black bear in northern Michigan.