Tag Archives: archery blog

Aug 25 2014

Archery tales: Robin A’Dale and his travels

Robin A'Dale

Robin A’Dale

This is Robin A’Dale and he may well be visiting a shoot near you sometime soon. Robin is traveling round the country to different shoots whilst keeping a diary of his activities and travels. He’s now headed North East so keep an eye out and who know you might be taking Robin home and on to a shoot near you.

Thanks for reading
Aug 22 2014

Shoot Report – Wolverine – August 2014

Kong from afar

Kong from afar

Last weekend we headed up to Wolverine Archers outside Stoke on Trent for their August shoot in weather that felt more autumnal than high summer.
I must admit to having second thoughts about going.  Not because of the course but because for the previous few days I’d not been very well and had less than 8 hours sleep in total for the past few nights. The previous day I’d been coaching which had left me very tired so I wasn’t feeling my best.
But the option was to either stay home feeling rough or to try and work through it. So we loaded the car and set off.
The course comprised of 40 mixed 3Ds and paper faces. You can see previous reports here.
Shooting group

Shooting group

We had a really good group with Zeena and Dan from Lyme Valley joining Charlie from Hanson and ourselves.

Shooting Group

Shooting Group – Charlie, Sharon, Zeena and Dan

I learnt two things from this day. The way to stay looking young is to drink Guinness as evident from the very youthful Zeena. The other is that Charlie should stick with shooting longbow rather than crossbow as he is a natural.

Charlie shooting at 3D beer

Charlie shooting at 3D beer

The Wolverine team always put on a good course and this was no different. Shots were challenging and not stretched,  with Kong making an appearance as always.

Charlie moving on to shoot

Charlie moving on to shoot

The only thing that marred the day was Sharon falling down a slope half way round the course. Fortunately she wasn’t injured but now has a scratch on her bow that will need seeing to. Could have been much worse and like many archers she was more concerned about her bow than herself. Note to Sharon when reading this. “Bows can be replaced,  you can’t.”

Dan shooting

Dan shooting

We came home having had a lovely day but I must admit to feeling shattered and having an early night. Despite her fall Sharon came first in ladies hunting tackle and I somehow managed to scrape a third place despite dropping 50 points in the second half as fatigue and lack of sleep started to play a part in my shooting.
We also came home with a new friend. Robin a’Dale who is travelling round the country visiting different shoots and keeping a diary of his adventures.
Thanks for reading.

Aug 19 2014

Equipment review – Mybo boss

Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing some coaching with a couple of new archers down at the wood which has been great fun. Been good to get back to doing some coaching.
One of the students was asking about getting a practice boss for their garden and what to get, how much to spend etc. This got me thinking, dangerous I know.
Well, a while back I wrote a piece on setting up a practice boss and the safety considerations. (Here is the link if you are interested.)
This was based on a layered foam boss, but there are bag targets out there and a few months back I picked one up from Merlin archery store. You can see the Archery Adventures  video review here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVx16sYH2JE) .
So I thought it a good time to write a review of how we have found it.

So why did I buy one of these?

We were after something we could use not just for the recurves and flat bows but also the compound. Whist at Merlin I got chatting to the guys about target bosses and how our old tuff butt had seen better days and we were looking to replace it. They showed me the then new mybo sureshot  target boss range they had started to stock.

The staff demonstrated its stopping power by shooting a compound crossbow at about 5 yards into it. The result was about an inch or two of the bolt sticking out the back of the smallest boss. Not bad and a good demonstration of its stopping power.

First few arrows

First few arrows

Cost wise they aren’t bad. I believe replacement covers can be bought from Merlin.

90 cm are £75 and 70 cm are £49

There are three sizes are available. We have the mid range one. (70cm)

The mid range one isn’t to heavy,  manageable by me  to move round so can’t be that heavy as I’m not the strongest archer in the world. There are a couple of handles on top to make it easier to move. I’ve used these with some rope to tie ours in place.
The larger one needs a couple of people to move more due to the bulk than weight.
I’ve put ours on top of our current boss so you have a size comparison.
Mybo bag target

Mybo bag target

Initial tests are positive we’ve been using for a few months now shooting at it a couple of nights a week.

  • Arrows are easy to draw too.
  • Weave hasn’t frayed yet and the holes appear to close up quite well but can still be seen after drawing the arrows.
  • The arrows don’t penetrate too far at least from our recurve bows.  Haven’t tried my compound yet as concentrating on practice with recurve for upcoming National champs in September.
Hole after drawing arrow.

Hole after drawing arrow.

I think it works well for a practice boss and has lasted well from repeated shots though I haven’t shot it with anything other than recurves and flatbows. Although I do think you need to occasionally to shake the bag up so that the contents resettle themselves (bit like when you fluff up a pillow)
Whilst I don’t think you could replace foam bosses with these for a shoot.  I think they work well for practice at home or for a club indoor range potentially.

Top tip

One tip I would give is to get some heavy duty plastic sheets.  I’ve got a load I use in the garden and when I’m not shooting at the boss I cover it to protect it from the worst of the British weather. It also helps prevent birds or other wildlife using it as a scratching or scent post.
I hope you find this useful and if you have one of these or experience of them then let me know. Please remember when setting up a target consider safety above all else.
Thanks for reading.