Tag Archives: archer

Nov 6 2014

Shoot report – spooky night down at the wood

Spooky club house

Spooky club house

Bit of a different shoot report this week as it is for a spooky night shoot. As opposed to the normal club shoot in August, this year SVYF decided to organise a themed Halloween shoot which was open to all members and guests.
Starting shortly after 6pm it would be a 20 target round with special scoring on each target ranging from a positive 20 points to a negative 20.
Entrance to the wood as dusk falls

Entrance to the wood as dusk falls

Being close to Halloween all the targets were suitably themed as were some of the archers costumes.
ghost target

ghost target

Another interesting shot was the ghost shot where you shoot your two arrows but didn’t know until you got the boss whether your arrows scored positive or negative.
ghost target description

ghost target description

Rules were simple; you were allowed to use torches to find your way from one shooting peg to the target or along the course but couldn’t shine it on the target when you were shooting.

target 20 - vampire or zombie

target 20 – vampire or zombie

An old oil lantern was set by the shooting peg and there were a couple of night light candles  set in a trench in front of the target to provide some illumination.
You could shoot from anywhere within a yard of the peg and distances varied from 3 yards up to about 20 yards, which seems a lot further at night.

The grim reaper with a few arrows

The grim reaper with a few arrows

All proceeds would go to charity  (bowel cancer research ) with club members bringing a variety of hot food in forms of chilli, vegetable soup and Sharon had made some of her spicy pumpkin soup too. In all we had about 45 archers on the night and we were very fortunate to have good weather that was warm for November, with the rain holding off until after we had finished.

Sharon in her costume

Sharon in her costume

Sharon and I  had never been to a night shoot so it was a new experience and we were joined by Nadeem and  Cliff. By the way my thanks to Nadeem for  the pictures.

Normally you can see the flight of your arrow but at night you have to go by instinct and hope to hear the thud as the arrow gets to the boss.
Trying to judge distances at night proved challenging for all as was testified by the number of  arrows we found the following morning when tidying up.
In all it was a great laugh and we managed to raise just over  £150 for the charity. Big thanks to Nigel, Debbie, Jason and Bernie for all the hard work for setting it up.

Thanks for reading.
Oct 31 2014

Useful video form Merlin archery

Grizzly Jim at Merlin have been putting out a few videos on YouTube recently and this one on How to Anchor and Release is well worth looking at.

I agree about the statement on consistent and form, I know a few archers that have what some see as poor form but are consistent, self included. Have a good weekend.

Thanks for reading

Oct 22 2014

Shoot report – Severn Valley – October 2014

Archers waiting to start

Archers waiting to start

Last weekend saw us even busier than normal as we prepared for the club shoot. Saturday we were at the wood early to sort through the targets, stake them in position, finalise shots, re-felt some of the bridges and generally put finishing touches to the course in readiness for the Sunday shoot. When I say finishing touches it still took from 8 am until gone 4:30pm. I’d like to thank those in the club who helped on Saturday and in the run up.
Sunday was shoot day and at the beginning of the week the forecasts had predicted rain and wind but we got lucky. The day was dry and sunny.

Target 5 - brown bear 3d

Target 5 – brown bear 3d

So Sunday would see SVYF host their autumn shoot with approximately 170 archers of different classes descend on our wood. The club runs two shoots a year one in spring and one in autumn with the entire course being reset between each shoot.

Target 4 - 3D Ram

Target 4 – 3D Ram

This was the second course we had put our names to officially in the past five the club had set since we joined. Though we had helped out on the others we hadn’t been the primary course layers.
Despite having over thirty people drop out over concerns about the weather we had glorious late autumn sunshine all day. Though in fairness it was a little windy in the more exposed parts of the wood. Think the one downside was the noise from the local shotgun club which were hosting an event the same day.

One of the long shots 3D Ram

One of the long shots 3D Ram

The course itself comprised of 36 targets mainly 3ds with a half dozen paper faces spread out over the course. Sharon and I had helped Nigel, Birnie and Jason lay targets 1-18 so we were keen to see what people thought. As always SVYF members marshall the club shoot helping archers search for lost arrows etc.

Raising boar 3D

Raising boar 3D

In all the day appeared to flow well with only a few hold ups which may simply have been caused by some archers naturally shooting more slowly than others.
Feedback has been positive with archers enjoying the challenge of the course.
Thanks for reading.