Tag Archives: arrows

Mar 6 2013

Shoot Report – Pride Park

Pride Park

This shoot report covers our experiences of the Pride Park March shoot. This was the first trip to their new wood, which is only a stones throw from one of our old clubs Black Arrows wood.

So on Sunday we headed just north of Derby, about  an hour and 20 minutes drive for us. The weather was dry but not as sunny or warm as the previous day, which had been the first real sign of spring arriving. But as I said it was dry, though it did get cold in the afternoon, which was a shame.

The shoot would also be a test for Sharon’s new arrows or rather piles for her x7. We have been experimenting with the pile weight in her arrows and she had tried a few different ones out on Saturday. So Saturday evening was spent with me swapping out old points for new inserts and screw in points.

Our shooting group was made up of 5 people, Pride Park limit their group numbers to 5 and I think this is a good plan. There was a good flow with no hold ups. The only delay in the day was after the lunch break, by which point it was getting a bit cold as the wind had picked up. In fact there was a really relaxed atmosphere all day.

The course was a mix of paper faces, 3D targets and couple of hessian / fabric faces. We started in the small wood, with a downhill hessian target.

first target

Sharon at first target

It was good to see that targets, especially paper ones, had been put out at sensible distances making them hitable targets.

target 13 Close paper duck

target 13 Close paper duck

In fact there were a few larger faces put closer than normal that confused a lot of archers, resulting in them misjudging the distance.

Scott shooting target 15

Scott shooting target 15

The paper faces included my 3 least favourite, the ermine,  standing hare and red squirrel.

JVD Ermin target face

JVD Ermin target face

JVD Hare target face

JVD Hare target face

JVD Red Squirrel target face

JVD Red Squirrel target face

Why do I hate them? Well besides 2 of them being very small (ermine and squirrel have a 20mm inner scoring zone) the 3rd, the hare, is easy to miss if you lose your line and go slightly left or right, as it is quite tall but skinny.

For those interested I scored 20 on the ermine, 8 (3rd arrow) on the hare and 16 on the squirrel. so that is 2 first arrows and one 3rd, not too bad really.

It all it was a good day with Scott and Zack Ball, Norman joining Sharon and I to make up our group of 5.

Despite being very close to Black Arrows wood the grounds are very different. Black arrow is on a hillside and quite small whilst Pride Parks ground is made up of 2 woods with a connecting field / hedge row, with a small coppice that allows for steeper angles and downhill shots, the other wood is more open and flat allowing for longer shots.

As for how I got on, not great 604 on 36 targets, top score in my class was 654 I think. Sharon did well getting first place again in ladies Barebow. Guess the new arrows worked.

As always thanks for reading.

Dec 7 2012

Friday Funny videos

Its Friday so I thought time for a funny video. Think what makes this funny is that you can see some of the characteristic in people you know.

Love the drawing arrows from back quiver.

Enjoy

Nov 21 2012

How to measure your draw length?

I’ve had a couple of people ask about how you measure your draw length and what length to make arrows?

There are a couple of ways of measuring draw length, I know Jordan Sequillion has posted a method on her site. The one I feel works best is using a measuring stick or measuring arrow.

You can buy them from most archery suppliers but I made mine. In essence, mine is an unused arrow shaft which I have glued a nock in one end and then marked up in one inch intervals. To make it easier to read I’ve painted the increments in contrasting colours.

Measuring Arrow

Homemade Measuring Arrow

Get the archer to draw up 3-4 times and then coming down obviously without releasing the measuring arrow. (make sure they are in a safe environment so on the range pointing towards the target boss just encased they accidentally release)

Full Draw

Archer at Full Draw

Ensure they are drawing to their normal anchor point each time, this way you can ensure the measurement is correct.

You can then see easily what there draw length is and the technique can be used for all pretty much all styles of bow, though please be careful when trying this with a compound bow, since it is easy to release the measuring arrow when you come down from full draw.

Here is a couple of additional tips.

Camera Phone – Use your camera phone to capture a couple of images of them at full draw. This will make easier to check the measuring later.

Rubber band or Tape – If you don’t have a camera to hand try using a piece of tape or rubber band at what you think is their draw and then have them draw up a couple more times. This way you can see if it is in the right spot.

If they are a beginner add another inch on as shown in this photograph below.

Measuring Arrow

White tape shows potential arrow length

I tend to recommend a slightly longer arrow if shooting woods and field archery. simply as in winter months you might be wearing a glove on bow arm and it gives you a little more clearance. Also should you lose the pile or snap the tip-off you might be able to taper the end back down and still have a usable arrow.

For competition I tend to cut them exact leaving no “spare”, if I lose the tip the arrow is added to the wood pile for the fire 😦

The other useful thing with using this method is spotting archers who either overdraw or overdraw and then collapse slightly. But I’ll cover this in more detail in my next posting.

Thanks for reading, any questions let me know.