Tag Archives: instinctive archery

3D deer in field
Nov 13 2019

Shoot Report – Barry Cheadles’ 3D course October 2019

Sun through the trees

Sun through the trees

This was another shoot where I would be behind a camera rather than a bow, but I wanted to get something written and out there as I feel its worth promoting. This isn’t an NFAS club by run Barry Cheadle who does all the course laying and preparation.
Situated at Bower Hill, Nr Button Oak its about a 45 minute drive for us, depending on the traffic. In fact it wasn’t the traffic that delayed us but the weather, as when we were packing the car to leave we were having to scrape the ice off the outside, that was  once we got that far as the padlock on the gate was actually frozen. Anyhow lets get back to the shoot report.
Groups mustering

Groups mustering

The course consisted of 30 targets, all of which were 3D targets ranging in sizes from some small rabbits to wolves, not forgetting the small carp set in the stream.
The grounds are a hillside which comprises a mixed woodland and sections of confers, offering a variety of terrains and lighting.
Archers in the woods

Archers in the woods

One negative comment I will make and to be fare was completely outside of Barry’s control. The previous day the area, like much of the UK had had very heavy rain. This made some of the paths and routes through the course quite treacherous underfoot, with them resembling streams rather than pathways. I know Barry is looking at this for his next shoot and as I said I don’t think he was expecting the weather we had the day before.
Archers waiting for the off

Archers waiting for the off

This wasn’t his first shoot and I was glad to see the course numbers were up from previous shoots he’s organised with there being over 40 archers all of them shooting unsighted classes.
Archers gathering

Archers gathering

The scoring system  was different to other competitions but was easy to follow. Barry combined elements from the NFAS and  Border archery competitions. You got your shooting peg on which there was one for an adult and one for a junior. You shot your first arrow and if you were in you were going to score 15 points if in the animal or 20 points if in the kill /  central marked zone. If you were not successful of your first arrow you can take a second row from the same peg, with a potential of 5 points or 10 points. This made it very easy for both the maths and also for newbies or experienced archers. It also made for a pretty fast shoot, which is ideal in the winter months.
Wooden arrow and Carbon arrow

Wooden arrow and Carbon arrow fighting for central spot

Unlike the NFAS you weren’t having to move pegs and it meant you could try and adapt for your second shot if you need one.  I wonder whether it makes it a bit easier for the course layer too as you set your shooting line and have less issues with different positions along that line. I’ve commented already on the weather on the previous day and early morning but have to say that Sunday was a truly glorious day with bright sunshine if a little on the chilly side.
As I said getting round in a few places was quite challenging due to the previous days heavy rain fall. I think a few more direction signs might have helped too as Barry was using new areas of the woodland.
Archers in the field

Archers in the field

Not all targets were in the woods somewhere outside in fields making for a bit of a nice mix. He also has the ability to shoot out from the wood into fields or from fields into the wood which offers a nice contrast.
3D deer in field

3D deer in field

There weren’t that many long shots, by long I mean over 30 yards but I think it is quite a technical course and works well for developing skills.
I hope Barry will run future shoots as I’ve been to a couple of his and each has improved on the previous. He asked for comments and feedback and I think he’s received lots, the majority of which have been positive and constructive in any criticism.
Sharon shooting

Sharon shooting

One interesting thing Barry has to do, which is the same as we have to at our shoot grounds is to mark any deer targets. He actually puts some coloured tape around the ear all the neck to signify it is actually a target, as his area has a small resident wild herd of deer which occasionally puts in an appearance.
On the peg waiting for the start

On the peg waiting for the start

 In all I think it was  a really good day I think the only downside was if the fact that it was 30 targets without a break I think maybe in future he could reorganise the paths so that you can have a break halfway around.
Considering this has been set by one person I think it’s done really well and want to wish him the best of luck in the future.
Thanks for reading.
Rob Shooting
Oct 15 2019

Upcoming articles

Sorry guys, I have been a bit swamped with real life stuff recently and been neglecting this site and the followers / readers.

Just so you know I have a few articles in the pipeline and I thought I would give you a quick heads-up.

  • Inspired by some other archers and blogs I am going to be repairing some 3D targets the club recently purchased and are seeing signs of wear and tear. Along with reviewing the actual targets.

3D Repairs

  • I’ve been helping a few people recently with target panic so plan to put some of this material out there too for archers. Hopefully it will be of use and will be spread over a couple of posts.
  • A few months back I asked for the top 3 tips for improvements and top 3 newbie problems which is going to be split into a couple of articles one on problems one on improvements.
  • Since I shot the NFAS National Championships this year with a camera and not a bow I thought I might do a behind the scenes shoot report for it. You can see some of the photos on the NFAS website
  • I’m doing a lot of coaching at present so if readers would like something on this front let me know. There will probably be a review of the Core takedown recurve bow which we’ve been using.

I think that covers everything. Thanks for reading.

Sep 19 2019

How a couple of strips of tape can help your archery?

What you need is a length of card board about 3 foot 6 inches in length and about six inches wide. This may sound a little Blue Peter but it does work. (For anyone who was not raised in the UK, Blue Peter is a long running TV program famous for making stuff with double sided sticky tape, especially in the early 70s and 80s).

3 colours of tape and card board

The idea is similar to the concept I shared the other week with using a bamboo pole to help distance.

My practice bosses as 3ft tall so by making the card 6 inches longer I can attach the card on top of the boss.
In my example I applied a strip of grey tape down the centre of the cardboard along its length.

Grey tape

I then added 6 inch strips of black tape alternating so you had a strip of black then a 6 inch gap showing grey.

Marking out 6 inch sections

The idea being to alternate black and grey so the archer can us it to aid distance and aiming. Some might want to use 4 inch sections but I keep it to 6 so it ties into the bamboo cane method.

White tape

The last thing is to apply a strip of white tape down the centre of the black and grey tape. Cheap masking tape works perfectly for this.
The white tape is what you will be shooting at. The coloured tape is there to aid in distance judgement and to act as a contrast.

Card on the boss

So how do you use this?

Fix the target to the boss and then at 5 yards shoot a set of arrows. I normally shoot 4 arrows in a set when I’m practicing.
I start at lower part of the boss, bottom 6 inches and try and get my arrows in a vertical line gradually moving up the boss and in the white tape.
When I’ve reached the top of the boss I repeat the exercise but moving down from the top of the boss.
The focus is on you being able to put your arrows in the white tape consistently.
When that’s done I move back to my next distance and repeat. I’ll usually do this to about 15 yards or so. Reapplying white tape when needed.
Past 20 yards I focus on my arrows being in the silver or back tape. The way I look at it is if I am in the tape at this distance I’m hoping I should be in the highest score zone when shooting on a course.
The technique is not that dissimilar to one my first archery coach used to use where they would dangle a coloured ribbon down the boss and aim for that.
If you really want to challenge yourself try replacing the white tape with string and ensure each of your arrows are touching it.

So why do this?

Not all scoring zones are central to the boss. If you look at different target faces or 3Ds the height off the ground varies. You might be shooting a deer 3D where the kills 24 inches or more off the ground. With the next target being a 3D crocodile where the highest scoring zones inches off the ground.
I recall one championship where the paper face ermine was on ground level about 8ft away.

Paper Ermin

So this technique helps you focus on keeping your line and adjusting for height.

It also aids you in bending at the waste, sometimes called tea-potting. If you recall the children’s nursery rhyme “I’m a little teapot” that is where it gets it name from.

By the way the keen eyed among you will notice the target doesn’t have the white tape on it. This is because I took the photograph and then realised I hadn’t applied the tape. So I went back and applied it so you had a photograph of what it should look like.

Thanks for reading.