Tag Archives: archers

Mar 7 2014

Course and Target laying – So What makes a shot challenging?

My personal view is there are several ways in which you can make a shot challenging. Instinctively you will sometimes see how the land and vegetation can combine to make a good shot. But that doesn’t make it very easy to explain here or to new course layers developing their skills.
The art is combining one or two of them together to make a shot challenging without being too hard. In essence there is a fine balance between challenging and demoralising and as a course layer you need to judge this carefully.
In the next few posts I will look at different options from target distance to size of target, intervening terrain to footing on the peg.
First off though I’m going to give some comments on elevation.

So what do I  mean by elevation?

Any shot that is not along flat ground and requires you to change your stance or aiming because it is down a hillside or hung in a tree.
Shooting along the flat is one thing but in field archery you have the opportunity depending on terrain to introduce a shot that goes down or uphill and it confuses people. Shots across the slope also increase difficulty as you have to judge the angle and distance to the target.
An example of this can be seen here, where it looks a straight shot up a hill to a target by the tree.
View from the red peg

View from the red peg

This isn’t a straight up hill shot though, but one at about a 30 degree angle across the slope.
Arrows shows the target

Arrows shows the target

Though it doesn’t look it, it is a largish paper target of a Ram too from the Merlin archery  range of faces, shown below. Many archers will judge the distance but not necessarily the elevation. When setting this shot we decided that a paper face mounted on a target boss was better than a 3D target.  Why, I hear you ask?
We thought that a boss would mean people would find arrows more easily rather than them skipping along the ground, also a target boss deceases the chance of an arrow skipping off the top of the target and traveling on.
target face - merlin ram

Merlin Ram

Raising a target can also work as was the case in the tree shot. You will notice we have put a lower target in for juniors.

Elevated shot for adults

Elevated shot for adults

This isn’t a long shot, being approximately 7-9 yards, but because of its elevation in a tree it often throws peoples judgement.
I hope these ideas help and generate some ideas of your own. Have a walk round your wood this weekend and see if you can apply any of these ideas. If so then let me know, via the the message for Rob.
As always thanks for reading.
Mar 4 2014

Early spring weekend activity

spring is almost here - snowdrops

spring is almost here – snowdrops

In one quiet less muddy corner of the car park there were a few signs of spring.
Whilst at the wood this weekend helping to prepare for next month shoot we bumped into a couple of friends Irene and David walking off the course having been down to the wood early.
In hand was an example of good grouping. Dave had been shooting his compound bow at the target but lost sight of where the arrow hit so thought he’d have another go.
A Course - Target 10

A Course – Target 10

The result a “Robin Hood” on the first arrow.

Robin hood arrow shot

Robin hood arrow shot

If you look closely you can see the carbon threads. Good shooting Dave though a bit costly on the old arrow front.
Just a quick note to Chris, Keith, Badger and Denzil. Well done guys on getting the new B course up and running over the weekend, 20 new shots all set up in 2 days is great going.

Also thanks to other members of the club who helped laying gravel on the entrance path  (50 odd bags of it) along with the 2 bags of hard core that went on filling in the ruts in the car park. Really good to see so many members helping out.
Thanks for reading.
Feb 24 2014

Shoot report – Paget de Vesey – February 2014

Well the Field archery season has started with a very, very windy Paget shoot thankfully the rain stayed away.  (An unusual event this winter). Though not officially the start as you can shoot all year round, I always think of Paget as the start of the shooting year.  (Previous reports can be found here 2013)
On this occasion we were joined by Roy and Karen from Frankley Bowmen each with new bows or limbs in Karen case and a new longbow for Roy. Our thanks to them for making it a really enjoyable day.
Sharon and Karen at Paget

Sharon and Karen at Paget

As always the food was fantastic with two separate food huts providing ample quantities of hot food, cakes and gallons of tea and coffee.

The course

The course layers set a challenging course made more so by the extremely strong winds in a couple of areas of the woods. The Paget ground is made up of 2 woods and the course was split between the 2. In hindsight I think it might have been better to move a few pegs closer in to the targets to make shorter shots that would have been less affected by the wind. Though it is a challenge enough to set a course that works, factoring in the weather makes it really hard.
They had also suffered from falling trees in recent storms resulting in course changes. Well done guys .
The course itself comprised of 36 mixed 3Ds and paper faces. The club capped the total number of competitors to 180 but with a few no shows on the day it meant most pegs had 4 archers making for an easy flowing day.

3D lion in tree

3D lion in tree

Another great shot was a 3D crocodile between tree stumps which gave a lovely window shot. Sorry I didn’t get a photo of this one. I did manage to get one of the mountain lion in the tree which was a lovely setting.

Arrow Casualties

With the strong wind it was somewhat inevitable there would be a few casualties, with Sharon breaking one but it was Roy who won the prize for the most unusual casualty. It’s not uncommon to see arrows snap behind the pile or in half if they encounter a branch, but I’ve never seen an arrow split like Roys.
Roy misjudged one target and skimmed the top of the boss. Clattering into some branches. After a short search we spotted it and appeared fine until you picked it up.

Image arrow looks fine

Image arrow looks fine

It had split down the line of the grain.

Split down grain

Split down grain

They say imitation is a great compliment if so I’m feeling very happy. In a recent post I made reference to a different kind of shot where there was 1 target face but at different sizes. Paget members who had shot it at our shoot liked the idea so much they copied the idea putting out a very similar shot.

Ironically this was the only target I missed all day as when I drew up for it a combination of wind and hand slipping resulted in me releasing early 😦
Neither Sharon or I felt we shot particularly well with the lack of practice evident but it was a good day shooting and catching up with friends.
SVYF did well coming away with a few medals. Well done to Chris Harley on her placing in ladies longbow. Next time keep focused and stop getting distracted. Congrats to young Alfie in placing in his first ever shoot.
Thanks for reading.