I know I’ve said this before but I have always thought of the Paget de Vesey shoot as marking the start of the NFAS outdoor season. True there are shoots throughout the year now but I still think of it as the start of the shooting year. For those interested you can have a read of a past shoot report here. Surprisingly there wasn’t any rain or even snow this year, which in the past has marked Paget shoots. Actually it didn’t really turn that cold until the afternoon.
Paget club have a small wood where they had set up a twice round 18 and unlike other shoots who simple have you go round the course twice, Paget had added another dimension.
The first time you shot round, you were shooting at a 3D target they’d set up. When you shot the last target in the first circuit you removed the 3D target and uncovered the target boss behind, which had a paper face. This meant you would shoot 18 3D targets and 18 Paper faces. Nice simple idea of providing different options.
This year there were 5 in our shooting group, Wayne and young Tabbatha, with Mike and Hazel (though Hazel wasn’t shooting).
Our shooting group at Paget
Pagets’ ground is flat and criss-crossed with small drainage gullies ditches, which the course layers tried to incorporate into their shots. They had also built a series of raised platform to offer a different prospective but due to the confined space their weren’t many long shots.
Sharon shooting off one of the platforms at Paget de Vasey
There were a couple of shots that felt a bit close to one another but it seemed to work okay.
With over 80 archers it was a bit of a slow day at times. Having said this, it was really good to meet up and chat with a few followers of the site about different shooting topics, from coping mechanism on shoots when things don’t go well to past articles and possible future topics.
3d Armadillo at Paget de Vasey
The course set up with the 50/50 split, seemed to work well and was I think well received by most attending. It is quite a good way to offer a bit of difference to the normal twice round 18. The only negative comment I heard was from a gap shooter who said once you’d shot the first time round you had a good idea of the distances.
Wayne shooting complete with unique hat
One observation with the course set up is concerning the junior pegs. Whilst they worked well for the 3Ds they will have to be careful for them not to be a bit far when the paper faces. I do think it is a layout that works well for small woodlands, so well done guys.
Sharon shooting a 3D dragon target at Paget de Vasey
The shoot was a shoot through which worked well with the twice round 18. With the paper faces being the second half I think people struggled more, as paper faces are less friendly, this resulted in more second and third arrows, which in turned slowed the day down a little.
Overall, I thought it was a good day, though a bit slow. Sharon shot really well being the highest scoring wooden arrow shooter on the day.
Thanks for reading.
My Archery Experiences 