Amell’s been doing archery since he was 8. That’s when he started learning with life-long archer Charlie Marshall.

Marshall, a certified instructor, offers free archery classes at the fish and game club every Thursday from 2 p.m. until the sun sets. If the weather’s nice, they shoot outside. On inclement days, they shoot indoors.

Marshall has been offering these lessors for 15 years now. He comes from an “archery family.” His father worked for the tech corporation IBM, and he, his mother and his brothers all learned at the company’s range.

They got hooked. Marshall won statewide competitions in high school. Now, he’s passing the skill onto the next generation.

Charlie Marshall takes aim at a target at the Saranac Lake Fish and Game Club on Thursday. while Orson Amell, 10, sets up his next shot. Marshall offers free archery lessons there every Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Amell said he got into archery out of “curiosity.” He tried it out and realized he enjoyed it a lot. Amell is knowledgeable about the sport, clearly explaining the safety procedures, what the whistles mean, how points are scored, what the equipment does and how to shoot a tight cluster.

His shooting on Thursday was close to the center of the target. Once, he said he hit a dead bullseye — directly in the center of the target. That was an exciting day.

Marshall said he can teach how to shoot pretty fast, and then his students work on perfecting their shot. The women’s Olympic bobsledding team stopped in recently and within 30 minutes were shooting well, he said. It’s an inexpensive sport, too.

While ammunition for pistol or rifle shooting is costly, bows and arrows will last a long time shot after shot.

To learn more about the free weekly lessons, go to tinyurl.com/ywm8c5jw.