Jun 28 2012

Shoot Report – Long Eaton Field archery – June 2012

LEFA announcements

The solstice shoot is famous for being both themed and fun, with this years theme being Robin Hood. Some how appropriate for an archery shoot. Little touches like the wanted posters offering 100 gold pieces for the outlaw were dotted round the wood added to the scene.

The course laying team had worked hard to overcome problems resulting from the terrible wet weather that hit a couple of days prior to the shoot which had resulted in sections flooded, along with treebranches down across paths.

3D Fox though the trees

The tracks were very slippery as one person said Torvell and Dean would have found it a challenge.

The course was made up of 40 3D targets with a couple of predator prey shots that were very nicely set.

The course was very well laid with great use of available cover and framing of targets.

For those not familiar with predator prey targets let me explain. Predator prey shots are ones where you have a predator target positioned to look like its attacking a prey. Here it is a mountain lion against ram.

With your first arrow you target the prey, if you are successful in hitting the predator you can then have a bonus arrow at the prey. If you miss the predator with your first arrow you then target the prey with your second arrow, but even if hit the predator with your second arrow, you now don’t get to shoot at the prey.

I’ve said it before that i don’t like lunch breaks when shooting as i tend to go off the boil but on some grounds it is a necessity and lefa is one. Whilst talking food and got to say top marks to all the catering staff for great food, throughout the day. The other thing it did make for was a great atmosphere.

So how did I do? 1 Blank in the afternoon that upset my head and meant that I messed up the next few shots 😦

The only one I blanked on the day. Taken from red peg

Need to sort this out for my own piece of mind.
I came away with 560 and a 3rd, should have broken 600 on a 40 course. Score card here.

Sharon shot really well and won ladies Barebow with 682 points

Full results can be found here

Thanks for reading

Jun 6 2012

Shoot report – NFAS 3D Championships 2012


Pride Park – Saturday

Home and after a hot bath along with some sleep and then some more sleep, we are nearly unpacked following a weekend long archery competition. It was the annual NFAS 3D championships and it proved to be a really great weekend, despite the best efforts of the British weather to drown us all. For those of you reading this and don’t know the 3D champs are one of 3 championships the NFAS run throughout the year. It is normally well attended with over 700 archers,this year there were a few less though, probably due to the economic climate.

Sorry but having re-read this, it is really long post

We’d decided to camp for the weekend rather than driving up each day, so headed to just outside Osmaston Park, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire on Friday night to pitch tent and meet up with everyone. We joined up with the Artemis guys in their marquee and had some food and a few drinks. Thanks guys.

This year there were 4 courses in total A&B for wooden arrows, X&Y course for metal / carbon arrows. By splitting it in this way courses can be tailored to suit class.

Before I go any further can I say a big thanks to Hanson club who provided the catering at Admin and Y course, it was great to have hot food and not just burgers, but steaks, cakes, and fantastic apple pie. They started at 7:30 am and went on until gone 7 pm. Thank you so much.

Over the course of the weekend archers shoot 2 courses 1 on Saturday and 1 Sunday. Each course consists of 40 3D targets of varying sizes shot over a range of unmarked distances and elevations. The 2 courses I shoot were, course A laid by Cheshire Oak and Course B was done by Pride Park.

Think A course was fortunate enough to have the better terrain to work with as the problem B course had been a large fenced off area which was off-limits. This limited long shots so they worked on using dead ground and foliage to trick archers and frame shots.

One of the hardest shots is shown here. Wendy is taking her second go at it, but you can just make out the brown bear in the trees. I was really happy to just hit this one

Brown bear in trees B course - Pride Park - Saturday

Brown bear in the trees

I went up to a few target and thought this was easy and then needed a second arrow or third.

Long elk this was the only target I blanked all weekend

The course was designed so you passed catering twice so you could grab some food. After our first break the target below was what greeted us, a velociraptor 3D at an angle. I later found out it was over 50 yards away, so I was really happy when I got it with the first arrow. Below you can see Mark about to shoot it with his longbow.

First shot after lunch

The only problem with the venue was the sheer distance from the camp site to the courses. Archers once they had finished had to walk over a mile to get back to Admin to hand cards in. Made for a couple of long days as you had to register by 9:30 and walking out at 10 am, Sharon didn’t get back to Admin until nearly 7 pm both days

The walk back on Saturday – not in the rain thankfully

Sunday was wet, very very wet, quite a few people retired due to the weather and this is why there are no photos of Sunday, wanted to try to keep phone dry. I would have liked to shoot the Cheshire oak course in the dry as Sunday resembled a monsoon at times. Glad I took a large brolly.

I lost quite a few arrows in the rhododendron bushes which was a bit of a pain but really enjoyed the 2 days. I heard that a few people retired early from the competition due to a combination of the very poor weather and losing too many arrows

Quiet a few people who were camping stuck around on Sunday night rather than trying to take their tent or caravan down in the rain. So saw quite a few sore heads on Monday. We’d decided to stay so that on Monday we could give the organisers a hand to take stuff down and walk one of the courses (x course laid by Yorick archers) to check for any lost arrows, clear signs etc Glad I took the metal detector as found a load of crossbow bolts and arrows.

So how did I get on ?

30th in AFB and considering my lack of practise time I’m more than happy with that. Only blanked 1 target over the whole weekend too.

B Course – Score card only 1 blank

Very wet score card from Sunday

Sharon won bronze (3rd place) in ladies BareBow which I am very proud of since she has been shooting this new bow (Andy Soars Black Brook bows) for a bout 5 months. Congrats to Andy Soars too who won Gents Barebow.

May 21 2012

Shoot report – Hanson Field shoot – May 2012

Hanson Bowmen only recently took on this large wood outside Derby and I must say they have worked hard to develop the grounds. The wood itself looks to be a mature broad leaf woodland filled with a few beautiful old oaks and a carpet of blue bells at this time of year. You can imagine it in summer with leaf cover and bracken. It lends itself to some lovely long shots with 3D deer set in meadows etc.

Sunday saw dry weather and though cloudy it was bright and warmer than recently. My shooting group for the day was going to be made up of myself, Sharon (my better half) shooting barebow, Scott and Zac Ball shooting compound limited and bowhunter. So again I would be the only wooden arrow archer in the group. There were about 160 archers on the course shooting 36 (37 targets as there was a bonus one)

Last time I shot the wood, Hanson had only recently moved in and it was late winter so there was very limited ground cover. They had lots of problems with access and parking for competitors cars. I think it took over 2 hours for all the cars to get out due to the track being so churned up. Since then they must have had over 5 tonnes of gravel dropped off to create an access road and it was so much better. At the end of the shoot everyone got away without a problem. Well done and thanks for all the hard work.

Meercats 3D

The targets, mostly 3Ds with a couple of Hessian faces had been set out to really challenge people. The course layers had framed some of the shots really well, making the the archer shoot through gaps between trees as is the case with the sitting 3D lioness, which is nearly 4 feet tall, but doesn’t look it from the shooting peg .

3D Lioness between the trees

Other shots had you viewing the target through windows in holly bushes as was the case with the walking bear which looked tiny until you got up close.

Sharon shooting White wolf 3D

The wood is pretty flat so there were a few long shots at well placed deer or boar 3ds. They also used dips in ground and hollows to catch you out.

Scott Shooting at the 3D brown bear

I misjudged one shot at a 3d bear in a hollow and dropped my arrow into its leg rather than chest. But that is good course laying.

Standing 3D bear between the trees

Our last shot was the 3D cobra which they had positioned in a hollow.

We look forward to returning to see what they change next time.

Small Red Fox 3D

One thing that was good to see was 3D targets with bosses a safe distance behind to catch stray arrows. This speeded up the search for any arrows that might have missed the intended target. At a lot of shoots 3D targets are put out with no backstop to catch wayward arrows, this results in time spent searching the undergrowth. I know some people say it spoils the look of the 3D but if camouflaged with undergrowth you normally don’t spot them.

So how did I do?

612 (2 points off 3rd place) top AFB was 682, so I guess not too bad. There was an interesting statement made by Scott when walking between pegs. “In last 5 targets the 4 of us in total had shot 22 arrows.” I was the only one in the group not to get a medal 😦

1 blank and 8 second arrows, much better than I thought possible with the limited practice I have been able to fit in round work and club coaching (only got to shoot 12 arrows on Saturday). The one I blanked was a small deer at about 50 yards, with 1 arrow under its belly and 2 to the left of the chest.

Score Card – Hanson May 2012

You might notice that there was one bonus target which if you hit meant you could shoot a small rabbit. That is why there are 2 scores for 1 target.

You can see more photos here

Hanson May 2012

Thanks for reading

My Archery Experiences

Field archery experiences, shoot reports, equipment & book reviews, tips and advice from a UK archer and coach.

Category Shoots Reports

Shoot Report – Long Eaton Field archery – June 2012

Shoot report – NFAS 3D Championships 2012

Shoot report – Hanson Field shoot – May 2012

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