Last night we headed to the wood for some practise as I know I need it. The following are the hard lessons I learned. I hope you learn from my mistakes.
Don’t go to the wood to practice after a long tiring day of work. Might seem good to get some practise in but really wasn’t.
Don’t try and practice as dusk approaches as depth perception is poor and you can’t see where your arrows land.
Don’t get stressed and agitated about the shoot. this is a lot harder than it sounds and something I completely failed at.
Don’t let your frustration effect those around you. Sorry Sharon for my mood.
Don’t keep practicing when it’s not going well you just get more frustrated and smash arrows.
There are no easy or quick fixes no matter how much reading you do, searches of the net, youtube videos watched. Sometimes things just don’t gel.
I believe it is fair to say that I’m heading to this years NFAS championships with less conference than ever before in both myself and my shooting. I’m feeling very low and racked with doubts about my ability and capabilities. It’s not just archery related there are things going on at work which I can’t go into but its all having an effect.
I really appreciate all the positive comments, advice and support that has been offered me. Thank you. I wish I could convert them all in to confidence. Good luck to all heading to the national championships.
A friend has posted this on the NFAS Facebook page and I thought it worth promoting here.
“Fellow archers though these guys are not an NFAS club they are fellow archers and as such I post this sad email……
Ivanhoe archers last night was broken into and had all their 27 trainer bows and approx 200 arrows stolen the value to replace would be approx £3k, should any of you be approached regarding second hand goods please can you let me know so I can inform the police. This is a massive blow to our club so any information would be great full.
Kind regards
From what I understand Ivanhoe club are based in Ashby, Leicestershire, UK I don’t have a breakdown of the types of bows etc but please pass this message on to other clubs and contacts. It is a huge hit for any club.
In addition can I suggest everyone checks the security of their grounds and club stores. I know we used to tag our equipment with the clubs name in case it did go missing.
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
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
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.
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.
My Archery Experiences 