(wind rustles) (bicycle pedals) (bicycle pedals) - [Narrator] Alan Case is chasing a boyhood dream.

To shoot an arrow farther than any human in recorded history.

And he's close.

- Kind of surprised I haven't seen one.

See how far out we're now?

So this is about a mile out.

Well, the arrow's intact.

So that one did not do anything like I expected.

It's only about 1200 yards.

That's way short.

That's why we're testing.

- [Narrator] Each summer, Alan and his daughters make an annual family camping trip to Oregon's Alvord Desert.

- I think that's jasper.

- Yeah?

- [Narrator] Unlike most summer vacations, this tradition centers around shooting arrows, sometimes farther than a mile.

- All right.

- [Narrator] Alan can't just fire off arrows from his suburban home, so he comes here.

This ancient alkali lake bed 7 miles wide and 12 miles long, offers Alan an unobstructed expanse to test his equipment that he's made by hand.

- Get this guy strung up.

Start putting tension in here.

- [Narrator] Alan is an engineer by profession, and in his free time, he puts those skills towards designing and building each piece of his custom bow.

- It takes a while.

Can you can hear that pitch change?

(ratchet cranks) - [Narrator] So the first step on his trip begins with testing his homemade equipment.

- The angle I have it set at, 40 degrees.

The brace height is 4 and 7/8 inches.

- [Narrator] The goal of the day is to fire his bow by hand and foot.

- [Alan] There.

- [Narrator] But to dial in his equipment, he starts with a tripod.

- Fire in the hole.

- [Narrator] And a ratcheting crank.

(ratchet cranks) A typical target practice bow takes about 25 pounds of force to draw back.

And a powerful hunting bow around 60 pounds.

But Alan's bow takes five times the strength at 300 pounds.

(ratchet cranks) (bow fires) If you didn't see the arrow flying from the bow, neither did our cameras, at first.

That's because the released at a split second, 1/100th of a second to be exact, launching the tiny arrow at about 550 miles an hour.

(bell dings) (bow fires) - Looking at the shape of the hole.

And so that means the knock was here, the point was here.

So it was like it was coming out like at an angle like this.

Maybe I didn't have it really lined up as well as I thought.

I'm going to try again.

(ratchet cranks) (bow fires) (bow fires) (bicycle pedals) - [Narrator] Target archery is all about accuracy of aim, but flight archery is only about distance.

So where Alan's arrow has actually landed is anyone's guess.

- [Alan] You're always like, "Where really did this thing go?"

And then when you find it like out past a mile, and you look back at the camp, and it's just a little tiny dot on the horizon.

I really love trying to figure out how to do this, because, unfortunately, the main guy that did this is no longer here.

He's been gone a long time.

Oh, geez.

- [Narrator] Alan is talking about Harry Drake, who he first met when he was a 9-year-old boy in the pages of the "Guinness Book of World Records."

- [Alan] I was just kind of thumbing through all the weird stuff.

And then I flipped open this page, and it talked about this guy named Harry Drake, who holds the world record for the farthest an arrow has ever been shot by a human.

- [Narrator] That chance encounter set the trajectory of Alan's life.

For decades, Alan has been trying to duplicate what Harry Drake did in 1971.

- There's only three people of all time that ever shot an arrow past a mile.

And I'm one of them.

But I'm number two.

And then there's Harry Drake.

(hammer thuds) This is exactly the record distance I'm going for.

So Harry Drake's right there at the hammer, and I put one right about here in official competition.

And yeah, like I say, I could almost hear him probably whispering from here.

Like, "Stop."

(chuckles) Is it breaking his record, or is it just trying to rediscover what he did?

There's a lot of mysteries I still haven't figured out.

- [Narrator] When he is not testing his bows and arrows in the Alvord, you can find Alan in his garage back in Portland making them.

- [Alan] You just need one to break the record, so it's like I take my time.

Even if I just end up with just one arrow as an output, it's going to be the best.

So I just treat each one like that.

It's a process.

- [Narrator] A classic target arrow like this has an aluminum shaft and feathers, but Alan's bow is so powerful that it'd make this arrow explode into shards.

So Alan crafts his from solid carbon fiber shafts, stainless steel tips, and even razor blades.

- Instead of feathers, we use razor blades.

So there's this tuning of just this little piece.

(chuckles) And it makes a difference.

(Alan groans) - [Narrator] The shooting Alan did in the morning was to adjust his bow and test some of his new arrows.

But for Alan to shoot an arrow as far as Harry Drake, he has to do it the same way, on his back, a style called foot bow.

- [Alan] Okay.

Ready?

- [Narrator] Alan's youngest daughter, Joslin, helps spot him.

- Oh boy.

Yeah, you're way too far.

Way too far left.

- Yeah.

- [Joslin] Okay.

That's a lot better.

That's perfect actually.

(bow fires) - That was actually a really good shot.

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] Alan's daughters aren't just a support team.

- [Joslin] I'll shoot this one first.

- [Alan] Okay.

- [Narrator] They've taken up competitive flight archery too.

- [Joslin] The whole family dynamic is a little bit interesting 'cause he's kind of my dad and he's kind of also my coach.

Where's my angle?

- Oh no.

A little left, no, a little right.

Sorry.

You were perfect.

(bow fires) That was good.

- I am super stoked that I was able to be in a family that does stuff like this because I think it's so cool.

And, I don't know, being able to hang out with him and have that quality time I think is really cool.

I think he's one of the coolest people I've ever met.

- You feel good?

- [Joslin] Yeah.

- He's also one of the craziest people I've ever met.

And I don't know, I feel like I'm starting to understand his crazy a little bit.

(bow fires) - Ooh.

That one's going to be a little bit of a bike ride.

- [Narrator] Alan goes in search of his arrows.

He returns at dusk.

- Let's measure that.

Oh, 5,055 feet.

That was really good.

I mean, this was some light shooting we did today.

So, geez, I'm thrilled.

So, feeling real good about the next couple of days, - [Narrator] The first day of test shooting ends and tomorrow brings the chance for Alan to push the limits.

(insects chitter) (birds chirp) At first light, the air is still, the temperature cool.

The perfect time to shoot an arrow really, really far.

But to do that, Alan has to push his prototype equipment to its very breaking point.

And that brings the very real danger of injury.

- This'll be a no hernia zone.

Yeah, I'm an archer that managed to figure out a way to shoot himself in the foot.

- [Narrator] When Alan says he shot himself in the foot, he doesn't mean metaphorically.

No, that's very literal.

In a competition in 2021, Alan's arrow misfired and lodged into his right foot.

(bell dings) - [Alan] That kind sticks with you a little bit, 'cause you go, okay, this is not a little bit of energy.

Your feet are just inches away from the path of this gun pointed.

Man, you start thinking about that, and then arrows start bouncing around.

And if it releases, it can be bad.

(bow fires) (Alan grunts) For a period of time, I was almost embarrassed to talk about this because, and this is what you did when you were nine?

But it's like, no, I actually do get joy in this.

All of this.

- [Joslin] It's like he's always solving a problem, and he's got to find the answer.

And I don't think he can rest until he figures it out.

I do think he can break the record.

I think he's done it.

He just needs to figure out a better way to find his arrows.

- Got to keep looking though.

(no audio) (no audio) (no audio) - Great people just doing their thing in their own northwesty way.

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