Tag Archives: NFAS

Sep 12 2014

Theft from midlands Archery Club

A friend has posted this on the NFAS Facebook page and I thought it worth promoting here.

“Fellow archers though these guys are not an NFAS club they are fellow archers and as such I post this sad email……

Ivanhoe archers last night was broken into and had all their 27 trainer bows and approx 200 arrows stolen the value to replace would be approx £3k, should any of you be approached regarding second hand goods please can you let me know so I can inform the police. This is a massive blow to our club so any information would be great full.

Kind regards

From what I understand Ivanhoe club are based in Ashby, Leicestershire, UK I don’t have a breakdown of the types of bows etc but please pass this message on to other clubs and contacts. It is a huge hit for any club.

In addition can I suggest everyone checks the security of their grounds and club stores. I know we used to tag our equipment with the clubs name in case it did go missing.

Thanks for reading

Sep 10 2014

Shoot Report – Centaura- September 2014

Club house with trees behind just turning.

Club house with trees behind just turning.

Over a hundred and twenty archers joined us on a sunny Sunday morning for the Pete Bates Trophy Shoot. We had good weather though you can feel the autumnal nip in the early morning air starting with the leaves just beginning to turn behind the club house.
Centaura has a small wood situated not far from Derby with a course made up of a mix of a few 3d targets but mostly paper faces.
Our shooting group comprised Neil and Mandy from Forest of Arden, joined Sharon and myself.
Our First target was a red squirrel between the trees and I must admit that I did wonder if was going to be a good start.
First Target Of Day - Red squirrel

First Target Of Day – Red squirrel

In fact the day flowed well with few hold ups and there was a very relaxed atmosphere not dissimilar to the wooden arrows shoot they ran a few months back (shoot report can be found here).
In fairness I think we might have started on the small targets as the first 7-8 targets were mostly group fours including the red squirrel, jay, reflective duck, and Partridge.

Duck target

Duck target

The course is situated in mix leaf deciduous woodland with mostly flat terrain,  though there is the quarry section which will see going up and down there steps and presents the opportunity fir some nice down hill shots.

Deer target

Deer target

Due to the nature of the course Centaura operates a lunch break of an hour which gave archers ample time to enjoy the sunshine and have a bite to eat. Sadly the long lunch break did have a negative impact on my shooting as it a while for me to get back into the swing of things again.

Paper face Hare

Paper face Hare

By lunch we had shot 19 targets and had finished shooting the course by 3:30.

Paper face tiger target

Paper face tiger target

Congrats to fellow club members Stephen Parsons and Chris Harley on placing. Congrats also to Sharon who won ladies hunting tackle.

Sadly I only managed second in hunting tackle with a score of 654 30 points behind first. Well done Roger. Guess it’s not too bad considering in the last week I’ve fitted a new string with 2 less strands, made some new arrows, started a new glove, set a different bracing height for the string and obviously had to set a  nocking point.
Only criticism of the course was I think they could have put a wider selection of target faces as there were a number of repeats. With the selection of faces on the market I don’t think clubs need to repeat any.
In all though it was a good shoot and a good day. Thanks to all the club and I’m sure Pete would have been proud of you all.
As always thanks for reading.
Aug 28 2014

Shoot report – Castle – August 2014

Castle Bowmen

Castle Bowmen

Last weekend we were up in Woodhall Spa for an archery friends birthday. Being a gentleman I refuse to give the ladies age, but will say it was a great evening and thanks for inviting us.
On Sunday we headed to a local club for their trophy shoot
On a non archery note we were incredibly lucky to be in the best spot possible to see the only 2 remaining Lancaster bombers fly past the wood. These beautiful old aircraft cruised over the wood in formation giving a wonderful display to the handful of us that saw it.
Lancaster bomber

Lancaster bomber – sorry not a great photo

Castle’s grounds are flat but as is tradition with the club they make use of some of the old army bunkers to allow you to shoot off the top of them. The course was made up of 40 3d targets of varying distances and quality. It had been a few years since we had made it to Castle, a previous shoot report is here.
Sharon shooting off the rooftop

Sharon shooting off the rooftop

We would be shooting with Roger and Irene from Kings Lynn club.

Not sure why but I don’t think I gelled with the course. Our first target was billed as a predator prey but in reality it was simply two targets set up with one one set of pegs. I’m glad we shot this early in the day as I know it provided a hold up for others.

First target of day

First target of day

Think some of the juniors might have struggled with the distance as the red, white and blue pegs were next to one another on several shots, which made them on the longer side.
There were a couple of really nice shots like the grizzly bear though the trees, though there was a stone block behind it.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear

I think a couple of shots could have been positioned a little further from surrounding trees so that the arrows did not ‘whip round’ against them.
Beaver in the wood

Beaver in the wood

Another nice shot was a black panther through an abandoned and partially collapsed roof.
Black Panther

Black Panther

An interesting shot was the drunken bear, complete with empty cans and traffic cone.

Drunken bear

Drunken bear

Sharon came away with a first place but I only managed a 3rd, should have shot better but just couldn’t get my head into the right place or the arrows.

Thanks for reading.