Monthly Archives: Nov 2015

Nov 6 2015

Blogging Future and answering questions

So over the last few months I’ve had a few questions from fellow archers at shoots, many of whom are followers of this site. In response I’m going to try and answer their questions now.

Why not YouTube?

A couple of people have asked why I don’t produce video or YouTube blogs like other archery reviewers. There are quite a few UK based sites such as the Merlins archery adventures , Wolfie instinctive archery , Nathan Skyrme add to these the US sites like 3D Archery  and you can see there are quite a few.

Perfect face for radio

Perfect face for radio

The simple answer is, I have a perfect face for radio 🙂
I’m also too self conscious when in front of the camera, so prefer a written or at least typed blog.

What are your future plans for the off the arrow shelf blog?

Autumn, or Fall for my American readers, is here, making for shorter days and longer nights. It also marks the slow down in the field archery calendar with less shoots along with less time and opportunities to practice.
This will mean a slight switch in articles as I post less shoot reports. My plan is to write a few more equipment reviews on items archers might feel useful.

Timber Creek Cobra

Timber Creek Cobra

I’m presently working on one on the Bear Grylls walking trousers, Leatherman multi tools, Timber Creek Cobra, along with testing the prokill24 target faces. I am always looking for other ideas for reviews, so let me know if you have any suggestions.

Example of the Prokill target face on the practice bosses

Example of the Prokill target face on the practice bosses

The winter months give me some time to catch up on my reading so I’m looking at literature reviews along with general archery or coaching related topics, including the use of mobile apps and cameras to support archery coaching.

How many Off the arrow shelf blogs are there?

The original blog is the one on WordPress which has been going for a number of years and has over 260 articles.
I recently started a tumblr site too as I found there was quite a lot of good material on there along with reaching a larger audience.
I can also be found on instagram, which is my latest adventure into blogging.

So there you have it. I’m always happy to hear from readers and it’s even better when I actually get chance to chat with you at shoots. Please come over and say hello.
Thanks for reading.

Nov 2 2015

Spooky shoot report – SVYF Halloween night shoot – October 2015

Halloween shoot

Halloween shoot

Well that was a very busy weekend. Saturday morning we were driving up to Loughborough for Sharon to collect her new Blackbrook American flatbow from Andy Soars, then back home to collect the bows for club Halloween themed night shoot which meant we finally got home about 10:30 pm. Sunday we were back to the wood for 9:30 am to tidy and clear away the temporary course and for Sharon to try out her new bow.
Anyway on to the shoot report. Some of you might remember that last year Severn Valley ran a charity night shoot and this year Nigel and crew set about doing another.
This year we had just over 50 people for the shoot, made up of members and guests arriving in the early evening as dusk began.
SVYF welcome all, just don't feed the zombies

SVYF welcome all, just don’t feed the zombies

Even the weather helped to set the mood, with mist just forming as people started to arrive. The weather was unseasonably warm and completely dry, which was as good as could be hoped for for this time of year.

Mist appearing as dusk falls

Mist appearing as dusk falls

One thing about a night shoot is how very different the woodland is at night and you can hear the owls not being too happy with us being in their woodland.

woods at night

woods at night

As was the case last year it would be a simple 20 target course with custom faces and scoring from one arrow getting you 40 points to negative scores if you were unlucky in picking the wrong target. The flock of bats (or should that be colony) was one where you picked the target and shot two arrows. Problem was you only found out what you scored when you got to the target.

Themed pumpkin target

Themed pumpkin target

The targets themselves were illuminated with candles buried in the ground just in front of the bosses . (Yes you did have to be careful not to go too low or you ran the risk singeing your arrows.)

baby ogre target

baby ogre target

There was the floating bat distraction too, which Nigel controlled on a length of fishing line and would bob up and down as a distraction. sound effects were also played at some shots or along paths to set the atmosphere.
One target that worked well was the skull. Normally you have to hit a target to score, with the skull you had to shoot through the eyes or nose and had one arrow.

skull shot in day light

skull shot in day light

Here is what it looked like in day light from the peg. At night it looked like it was floating in air.

Skull target from the peg in day light

Skull target from the peg in day light

There weren’t any very long targets,  the longest target was about 30 yards
Once the shoot was over there was hot food of chilli or a variety of soups along with mountains of cake to warm you up for the journey home. The atmosphere was great with lots of laughter and joking around. Congrats to Nadeem on shooting so well in longbow. I’m sure you will remind Rich of your sucess, but stop picking on Cliff 🙂
I  think we raised just under £300 with the plan being to donate the surplus once the costs are covered to local charity.
Thanks for reading