Tag Archives: arrows

Jul 12 2012

New toy – tapering jig for wooden arrows

I recently saw at one of the trade stands at the 3D champs retailer selling tapering jigs.

Taper jig

Taper jig

Lee Philips has produced a jig that allows arrow makers to taper wooden shafts down for barreling of arrows. Sadly I didn’t get chance to buy one at the event but ordered one which arrived at the weekend.

I’m yet to use it but am very impressed by the construction, just need to find some shafts to try it out.

close up of taper jig

close up of taper jig, you can see the feed into the sanding blocks

Will give a full review once I’ve tried it out.

Apr 16 2012

Archery tip – always carry tape

Always carry tape in your quiver or pouch on a shoot.
I have found that carrying micro pore tape to be incredibly useful and now always carry some with me.
I have used it not only to patch up fellow archers when they have cut themselves and required the wound dressing, but also useful for broken arrows, especially carbon ones
No I’m not suggesting using the tape to repair the arrow, that would be a really bad idea.
Time and time again I have seen archers who have splintered a carbon arrow simply drop it into their quiver, potentially resulting a quiver full of carbon splinters. A simple solution to this is to cover the tip in tape, this stops the arrow from splintering more and filling your quiver with splinters. Just be careful when applying the tape to avoid getting splinters in your fingers.
Any sticky tape will do and a good alternative is gaffa / duct tape, though carrying a roll of this on a shoot might be a little bulky
Aug 16 2011

Shoot Report – Lyme Valley shoot

Waking early on Sunday we headed north to Lyme Valley, just outside stoke. The ground is a wooded valley with quite steep sides and we were both hoping it remained dry as it is very ,very slippery when wet.

As luck would have it the weather held, with only a slight shower early on in the day. As for my shoulder it coped for about half the course but was locking up by the afternoon – resulting in a drop of 100 points from the first half. This was really demoralizing as I’d been feeling really good initially. I managed to score 292 in the first 18 targets but only 194 in the second 18, truly terrible!!

Having said I didn’t shoot well, I’m very proud of Sharon who won first place, with 584 and 4 spots. Her face was a picture when she realized she had won.

The course is always challenging and with over 160 archers it was a busy day for all. The morning proved a bit slow, largely due to numbers and a few targets requiring 3rd arrows. One thing I will say is the we were up and down the sides of the valley. Some really technical shots that you had to judge height etc on By Lunch we had shot 14 targets, which seemed average for most groups.

I’m not a big fan of lunch breaks, much prefer shoot through but not all grounds can accommodate this due to their geography. The advantage Lyme Valley has, is a large field that means there is enough.

In all a good shoot, but has made me wonder about my shoulder and whether I will be able to cope with the flatbow. Chances are I’m going to have to shoot the recurve for the nationals 😦

Lyme Valley website