Tag Archives: Doverdale

Sep 9 2013

Shoot report – Doverdale September 2013

 

My grandparents raised me when my mam went out to work. They always said if you can’t say something good don’t say anything.

I don’t entirely believe in that as constructive comments can be very helpful.

So here goes. On Sunday we headed about 15 minutes drive down the road to Doverdale shoot ground, a local club who have seen a number of changes in recent months.

We’d shot there previously and been demoralised by their tendency to stretch distances to shots. Stretching is a term I use when the target face or 3d is set further than the norm i.e. if a target is normally set at say 20 yards it might be a challenge at 22 yards but stretched if at 25 yards or more. (under NFAS rules all targets are shot over unmarked distances)

I know a few members of our club had not booked on the shoot because of past experiences, but we thought we would give them the benefit of the doubt.

Sunday was sunny but had a slight chill in the air, fortunately it stayed dry all day. Some 80 archers attended the event which would see a mix of 3d and paper faces. They have a mix deciduous mature woodland with a few dips and avenues.

So on to the course. Well I would say some targets weren’t stretched they were plain ridiculous.

Can think of two out of 36 that were sensible distance.

To give an example of the type of shot we faced. JVD, a paper target face publisher, produces a pheasant target face you often see on shoots. Normally it is set at 15 -18 yards for the first shooting peg, maybe 20 yards at a push. That day it was set at over 30 yards!!

pheasant

We shot (or attempted to) a paper face mallard that could have been a duckling for the distance.

duck

The shoot was immensely depressing to shoot and I must admit to giving up half way round. The only redeeming feature was the company as all of us were fed up.

I have never walked off a shoot but came close at lunchtime as did a number of others. I think many will vote with their feet next time and simply not book for their next shoot.

The day before we did our club shoot, which was a 36 target 3d course. Sharon scored 536 on Saturday and at Doverdale she scored 412, that was the winning score. I shot 670 on Saturday and 500 at the open shoot. Although we were both placed we were immensely demoralised by the shoot. Heaven knows what others thought.

Thanks for reading.

Sep 10 2012

Shoot report – Doverdale September 2012

Last Sunday saw us travel 20 minutes down the road to Doverdale archery club. The last time we had shot there was over a year ago and a lot longer journey time.

Unlike last time the weather was great, bright sunshine and blue sky for most of the day. Numbers were down too, though there was a good turn out from SVFY with us shooting with Sue and Ian from the club. Due to the low numbers they opted for a lunch break from 1 – 1:45 rather than a shoot through. On that topic I would like to say thanks to the catering guys who slaved in a hot kitchen to make sure we had a hot meal. Thanks guys the food was great.

Doverdale bow stand

Doverdale bow stand

As for the course, this was a mix of 3d and paper faces, making a 40 target course in total (10 3ds and 30 paper).

The course was hard, not like Wolverine the previous week which used the terrain very well. Here it was small targets at longer distances than they need to be. Don’t know whether they set it up as a pre champs (National Field Archery Champs is next weekend), but think it was very tough, tougher than it needed to be.

Second target on the day

Second target on the day

It’s a lovely large mature wood with lots of great opportunity for deceptive shots. For that reason I couldn’t work out why they would put a target out 3-10 yards further than it needed to be. I don’t believe this helps to make a shot a challenge, just stretched. This won’t affect the very good archers but gets demoralizing for us mere mortals.

There were also too many repeat target faces and a lot of archers commented on that. I think we shoot the same paper duck target face 4 times at different points in the wood, and standing hare a few times too. For a 40 target course where 10 targets being  3Ds,  having the same face 4 times is a bit much to say the least. Bit disappointing too when you consider the number of faces out there. (This is turning into a bit of a moan sorry readers.)

The other thing I would like to say is how much I hate the plastic legs on some of their 3d deer or on any 3D.

For those of you not familiar with these 3D targets I’ll explain. The body is the normal foam 3d but the legs from just below the body are hard plastic like the plastic used for heavy-duty plant pots or urns in garden centres. They aren’t very friendly for wooden arrows, I  snapped 1 arrow in them when trying to remove it. They tend to close round the piles. I know a couple of archers that joined me in losing piles or snapping arrows. Sue who was shooting a low poundage bow due to a shoulder injury had her arrow hit the leg and bounce back because they are so hard.

So why are they used? Price I guess, I think they are cheaper than having full 3D targets

Last target of the day

Last target of the day – deer with plastic legs

There were some nice shots one-off the raised platform, but even this was off-putting as the next peg was so close you had archers in front of you.

View from platform

View from platform

Sharon did well despite blanking one target she won first place in ladies Bare Bow.

In all I think I might return, not because it’s a great shoot but because it’s convenient, though I will take spare arrows.

As always thanks for reading.