Author Archives: Rob Jones

Nov 11 2011

Artemis Shoot

So it has been awhile since I last posted, sorry for that. Last weekend (5th-6th of November) saw me camping in a field just north of Belper in Derbyshire, helping out at the Artemis Archers shoot.

This was their first NFAS shoot and because of the vandalism that the site has suffered from recently a few of us braved the cold November night and camped out, patrolling the 20 acres of woods until the early hours to make sure no undesirables tried to trash the place. It must be said that is was a little cold that night and I was very grateful for my sleeping bag which kept me warm through the night.

I’ve uploaded a few photos from the day here https://picasaweb.google.com/111701601294639380446/ArtemisShoot?authuser=0&feat=directlink

It proved a great day with over 130 archers attending the shoot enjoying the wide mix of targets and ranges, ranging from over 60 yards to under 10 yards. The club had chosen a mix of target faces including Martin, Delta, JVD and the new ones from Flybow (DFSV faces) and some of the new range from Merlin Archery  too. One thing I thought was a great idea was a display at admin with images of all the target faces on, showing the scoring zones. Since many people hadn’t seen them before it gave people the opportunity to have a look and idea of where to aim for.

The photo below shows the longest shot in the wood. Over 60 yards across a small valley to the target (brown bear) which was the one I was helping Marshall at.artemis archers famous long shot

Feedback has been really good following the shoot and I hope to be able to get the chance to shoot the course sometime soon, rather than just marshal it. Bye for now

Oct 3 2011

Shoot Report – NFAS Nationals

Well it’s been a while since I last posted on this this blog, so here goes.

So what has been happening?

The big thing has been the NFAS National Championships 17th-18th September at Eastnor Castle, near Ledbury. This is a 2 day shoot, where you shoot 2 different courses. A course on Saturday and this year Y course on Sunday. Photos here https://picasaweb.google.com/111701601294639380446/NFASNationals2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Originally there were to be 4 courses, 2 for wooden arrows (A+B) and 2 for metal (X+Y), but thereweren’t enough entires to warrent 4 courses so X course was dropped. This was a bit of a shame as it meant as I thikn it was obvious that Y course was not set for wooden arrows. I’m not complaining about the distances of the shots, but the choice of faces (very skinny for the distances) meant it pretty tough for woods. Whilst discussing target faces I was disappointed by the number of repeated faces on the courses. There are enough faces out there for a nationals course not to have to repeat faces

On the subject of target faces Merlin Archery (http://www.merlinarcherycentre.co.uk/) had a selection of new taret faces on display at their stall.Nice to see some new taret faces and some of them look really good.

We headed down on Friday and pitched the tent in the afternoon, glad we headed down in day light as it wasn’t the easiest place to find. There were a few people who had to pitch their tent in the dark, witht he aid of headlights and torches.

Ok so how did we get on? Well not too bad really. I came 20th in my category, best result at a nationals. Am really proud of Sharon though as she came 2nd (was second after the first day and managed to hold it together onthe second day despite a harder course) My personal achievement was not blanking any targets over teh weekend. Oh and we were 10 points behind the winners of the Nearest and Dearest trophy (2004 to 2014, Congrats to Andy and Carol Soars)

There are a load of photographs of thecourse and the weekend  (http://www.nfas.net/photos/2011Nationals.asp)

Overall a good weekend. Think the cost and distance may have put some people off which is a shame and maybe something organisers need to consider in the future

Sep 13 2011

Pines Park 9th September 2011

It was once again with some nervousness I returned to Pines Park this last weekend. I hadn’t shot the week before as I was helping out at Artemis Archers site (they are about to run their first NFAS shoot in November and there is still quite a bit of work to be completed for the course) Sadly Artemis have been the victim of vandals that have repeatedly burnt their buildings and some bosses.
I’d managed to shoot a little on Saturday but my should was aching and causing quite a bit of pain so kept it to just a few shots at the practise bosses. Back to the Pines Park shoot.

It was a 36 target course with a mix of paper and 3Ds. Some people had commented they would prefer all paper faces in readiness for the nationals, but I like many others thought the mix was just right
By their standards it was a quite shoot with only about 100 archers in attendance, which made for a very relaxed feel. Sharon and I were joined by Helen “H” Harris from LEFA, making only 3 of us in the shouting group. Big thanks to H for her support and company, was a great laugh. Maybe some people had been put off by the weather forecast but it remained dry and not that cold, but it was windy at times. Despite my shoulder giving me quite a lot of pain I managed to scrape a 3rd place with 526 points. When the painkillers kicked in the afternoon my score jumped by 100 points!! Must remember them for next weekend and take them in good time. Sharon didn’t shoot too well but managed a 2nd place (This in theory meant she bought dinner on Sunday night, which ended up being fish and chips by the way, but she didn’t have any cash)
The course was really good, with only a couple of targets that could be thought of as stretched distances and enjoyed shooting the new paper faces they have got from flybow (http://www.flybowshop.com/) in Ireland. If you could mark 24s on them I think they would be great. I’ve shot their course 5-6 times and think this was by far the best they had laid, with some really nice 3D locations that just looked good and right.
Top marks pines and look forward to next one. Now just have to survive the nationals