It seems ages since I’ve written a shoot report, hopefully I haven’t lost the knack of what to include and cover. So here goes with this shoot report for Centaura Bowmen March shoot, which I think could have been called the snowdrop shoot. For those interested here is a link to a previous shoot report.
Unlike some of the recent weekends we’ve had of late, it wasn’t that cold, though there were areas of the woodland covered in a think blanket of white, with hundreds of snowdrops in flower.
One of the nice things with going to Centaura shoots is the opportunity it presents to catch up with old friends and a few blog followers, even if only briefly and that day was no exception.
So joining Sharon and myself in the shooting group on the day was Sue and Andrew, both shooting Bare Bow. We quickly discovered it was only the second NFAS shoot Sue had done, but I have to say I think she did really well.
Sharon shooting our first target
Hopefully we haven’t put her off continuing in the hobby, though as we had a good laugh shooting round and chatting about anything and everything, I think we will see here again.
Sharon shooting 3D turkey target
The course was familiar to many of us who had shot Centaura competitions before, consisting of 36 targets being a mix of 3D and paper faces. To be fair to the course layers they have added a couple of new shots, which seemed to work pretty well.
If you ever shoot at Centaura you will discover that the club produces some custom paper faces, which though can be quite small generally have generous scoring lines and offer a nice change to the normal ones seen at other shoots.
Andrew shooting 3d
Overall the day went pretty well, but with over 120 archers in quite a small wood it was at times a bit slow, whilst waiting for the group in front to shoot or clear the target.
Sharon framed between the trees
Personally I feel there was only one 3D shot (the bedded goat in the quarry) and maybe one paper face (fox) that could have been thought of as a bit stretched for the size of target.
Sue shooting the long paper fox target at Centaura
To be fair though it looks like the club have invested in some new 3Ds which work well and look good. Being a small wood I think they struggle to change shots or course without starting from scratch.
3D lizard
As normal for Centaura there was a lunch break of 45 minutes to allow archers time to grab some food before being back out on the peg. For those not familiar with this lunch break concept it is a break, normally between 12:30 and 1:15, during which time all shooting is stopped. They have added a drinks table outside that speeds up the process of serving 100 plus thirsty archers.
Andrew shooting 3D bedded deer target
I wasn’t shooting too badly in the morning, but after the food stop I hit a problem. I had a muscle twinge in my shoulder, from then on I was struggling to hold at full draw, obviously this impacted on the last 10 targets with me blanking two and dropping to second arrows on others. I think I need to do some more practise and build the shoulder up a bit. Sharon shot well, getting first in ladies Flatbow and despite my shoulder problems I managed a first in gents.
The only real downside would be a very slow drive home partly down to shoulder twinges but mostly due to heavy traffic on the motorway.
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