Tag Archives: national field archery

Jun 6 2013

Shoot Report – 3D National Championships

Morning Sunrise

Misty sunrise over the fields

The weekend of the 25th-26th of May saw the arrival of the annual National Field Archery Society (NFAS) 3D championships.
This 2 day event would see archers from around the country (just under 600 competitors) travelling to Osmaston just outside of Derby. This was the 4th year the event had been hosted there and possibly the last as the contract with the estate is ending this year. Here is a link to last years report.
3D Badge

3D Badge

I will admit to approaching the weekend with a level of apprehension, the week before I had struggled to shoot round our wood on both days, so wondered how my shoulder would cope with 2 days of no doubt challenging courses. Only time would tell.
We’d chosen to camp this year with a group of fellow archers from SVYF and had taken the Friday off work so we could get up early and set up the tent.
3D Champs, Sharon sheltering from the wind

3D Champs, Sharon sheltering from the wind

As it was pitching the tent was a bit of a challenge in winds, gust up to 50mph and showers but we managed it.
Rainbow over campsite

Rainbow over campsite

Format of the weekend

Each class would shoot a different course over the 2 days, A+B course if shooting wooden arrows X+Y course if shooting metal / carbon arrows. The courses had been set by 4 different clubs Artemis Archers, Lyme Valley, Hanson and Duvelle.
Since I was shooting my recurve in the Hunting Tackle class as my shoulder was still not 100% I would shoot course A on Saturday which had been laid by Duvelle archers and Sunday it would be Lyme valleys course (B course). Sharon would be shooting X&Y course (X course Saturday and Y course on Sunday)
The courses were made up of 40 3D targets of various size and distances and I do mean all shapes and sizes. Over the weekend I shot everything from 3D deers, bears, frogs, raccoons to the occasional dinosaur.

Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning – archers gathering

You register between 8:30-9:30 and go through arrow check, this is where a marshal will check your arrows to ensure they are marked with your name, and shooting order. (this is a requirement for both the rules and insurance)
Announcements started at 10 and we were sent off onto our respective courses on the walk out, which can take up to 15-20 minutes itself before you even get to your course and then have your course briefing and escorted to your starting peg. Roughly by 11am you should have started shooting.

Saturday

Saturday dawned with a clear bright sky, thankfully the wind from Friday had gone too. having made up a few new arrows I thought I’de try them out on the practise targets before they got too busy.
The day didn’t start too well with breaking 2 arrows on the first 6 targets, one of which hit the target but broke on the leg after hitting the leg support. By the end of the day I had smashed one into pieces and had to re-pile 2 others.
My only criticism of this course would be that within the first 16 targets we shot,there were a number of the same targets, we had 3 of the same bedded panthers and 2 Velociraptor. This isn’t the clubs fault as they are given the 3D targets, but I think it would have been better to spread them out a bit more.
Having said that the targets weren’t stretched for their size or distance. I think a few more signs informing archers to shout clear when they had left the target they had shot, so the following group knew they were clear and could start shooting would have been good. There were a number of large bushes that blocked vision so at times it was hard to tell if people had cleared the area.
As for shooting, well I didn’t blank any targets so wasn’t too bad a day, though my shoulder was beginning to ache. Here’s hoping for a decent nights sleep.
We had finished by 4 pm and I was back at the tent shortly afterwards, A course being the closest to the campsite.
As the evening approached we gathered round the camp fire, lit the barbecues and sat chatting about the days successes and failures over some hot food and a few drinks. Good social end to the day.

Sunday

Sunday was another bright and clear day, a complete difference to last year when it was continual rain all day.
The one downside was I hadn’t slept well and my shoulder was stiff and painful, add to that my stomach wasn’t feeling 100% (guess that was the Barbecue I thought). The organisers had posted the first day results on the net late Saturday night and a copy at Administration so there were people massing round comparing notes and scores.
This days course had been set by Lyme Valley archers. Lyme Valley’s home ground is in a valley outside Stoke on Trent and they make great use of up and downhill shots. They had obviously taken this skill set to the course and applied it very well.
There were a number of deceptive shots making use of the height and dead ground.
I’m sorry but I didn’t take any photos of the course, but I’ve included a couple of photos from the course Sharon shot on Sunday.
upsidedown Baboon Y course - thanks to Sharon

upsidedown Baboon Y course – thanks to Sharon

Including an interesting upside down baboon.

Photo from Y course - thanks to Sharon

Photo from Y course – thanks to Sharon

I didn’t shoot as well on this course as Saturday, partly down to it being a more testing course and partly due to my shoulder beginning to cause me grief. Despite blanking several targets I came in with 30 points less than Saturday, just under 600 points.
Hanson were doing the catering for Lyme Valley and they always do a great spread, sadly my stomach was not feeling right so I only snacked.
It transpired that I had a better day than Sharon who was shooting on Y course (Artemis), she had had the misfortune of being held up on most targets which interrupted her flow and concentration.
Sharon on Y course

Sharon on Y course

So how did we get on? Well Sharon came away in third for ladies Barebow (despite shooting badly on Sunday) As for me well I came in 15th, not bad for feeling off and having a bad shoulder. You can see the full results here.
We got home on Monday after a fun weekend, the only down side was I came down with a very unpleasant stomach bug which saw me not venturing far from the toilet for 3 days. The doctors think it was gastroenteritis.
So despite falling ill after the event, it was a great weekend. What is more it has made me realise that despite having a bad shoulder I can shoot and do well. Big thanks to all those archers and friends out there who have been so supportive, especially a certain lady called Sharon. Thank you.
As always, 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.