Tag Archives: off the arrow shelf

Jun 11 2026

Episode 149 – Shoot Report – Black Arrow Field Archers

Regular listeners and readers of this site will know I have a soft spot for Black Arrow Field Archers club (BAFAC). I do my best to attend as many of their shoots as possible in the year. It is a club I used to belong too for several years and only left due to moving house and was where I started my field archery shooting and coaching. Feel free to look back and read my last shoot report from there.

Links to the episode can be found below for Spotify and Amazon music

100 or so, archers would join us on the day to shoot BAFAC grounds and thankfully the wet weather promised earlier in the week never materialised, making for a cloudy but pleasant day. It was really good to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in ages, though it did feel a lot quieter than previous shoots. Especially Lynne

The course consisted of 36 3D targets arranged in 2 loops round the wood, with us starting on target 6, which was a 3d otter target.

The day started well with me shooting ok, not scoring the kill shots but hitting with first arrows. Sadly this would not continue as one one shot a few things triggered my down fall and I blanked what should have been an easy 16. I managed to get my head back in for the next but after the break I couldn’t get things to come together.

Speaking of break, I need to thank the catering team for the lovely chilli and baked potato I had for lunch. As always they put a lot of effort into the food and I think they probably had quite a lot left over due to the no shows on the day.

Now I know some of the people reading this will have seen the shoot results on NFAS page or on my Instagram feed and will know that I won my class, in fact all 3 of us would walk away with 1st (Sharon in ladies AFB and our son in U12 Unlimited). Whilst I won I feel it was a bit of a hollow victory as in myself I didn’t feel I shot well.

I had gone with my Hunting tackle rig and despite my best efforts, I would loose or break a few arrows. This time I would lose one, when it clipped the horns of the Wildcrete feral goat and skip off skyward into the depth of the woods, never to be seen again. Two others broke in tree roots, when I misjudged the distance and they slide under the 3D target. This seems to happen at BAFAC shoots as I often seem to break them there. Sharon broke one in one of their new 3D Chameleon target, when she hit a metal support tube.

Chameleon

The course was very similar to the last shoot and I think that got into my head a bit too as I thought I should be able to hit things as I did it before, so I was getting a bit frustrated when I wasn’t , especially in the afternoon, where my shooting was worse. It’s left me to do some serious thinking of what to do next.

Overall it was a good shoot, flowing well and with no significant hold ups throughout the day.

With fewer archers than normal we actually were all packed up and leaving the site by 4.30 and we were one of the last to leave. This was partly due to catching up and chatting to people we’d not seen for ages

Other topics mentioned

The Push

I did mention an episode of The Push, episode 426 with Ian Edwards that I am listening and relistening to and I’ve included a link to it below

Briar Rose Open shoot

We still have places for the Briar Rose open shoot is on the 19th of July and details can be found on the clubs website https://briarrosefieldarchers.wordpress.com/ It is open to all bow classes and members of the National Field Archery society.

NFAS coaches

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Most of all remember to enjoy your shooting and as always thanks for listening, watching and supporting.

Mar 26 2026

Episode 143 – barebow tinkering, archery news, crossbow concerns, suggested podcasts and more

Episode 143 is now live and in it cover quite a few different topics. As always it is on Spotify and Amazon music

If you are on any archery forums you will probably have heard the various reports about Quicks Archery going to administration. Now I’m not 100% clear on the situation here as some are saying it is still trading while others are saying it has closed. Either way it’s a shame, as we bought our beginners bows from Quicks, when they had a shop just off the M69.

The other big news concerns the government’s proposals concerning Crossbows and how the government have plans to stop the sale of new crossbows and potentially bring in licencing for current owners. There has been so much chatter on various groups that it is getting hard to find the complete details.

There is a lot of concern that this might start the process of outlawing or restricting other types of bows.

Any loss of life is tragic and yes there have been deaths associated with crossbows but, when you look at the figures for knife crime which last year saw over 200 fatalities in 2025, and over 260 in 2024 I feel this new legitration is a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

For those interested here are the results for the call for input https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/controls-on-crossbows/outcome/controls-on-the-use-of-crossbows-on-public-safety-grounds-government-response

In other news, the NFAS results are out and all the proposals have been accepted into the rules except the altered scoring for Pro ring,  which is a shame as I quite liked that one as it made a distinction between the inner kill and pro ring.

Briar Rose Club shoot date is out and it is the 19th of July. The good news is we have people already booked on, I think over 20 so far. The dates in July so if you aren’t attending the Welsh Champs up in North Wales why not pop along. It’s open to all nfas archers and all styles, sadly no dogs though. It would have been nice to avoid the same weekend as the Welsh champs but this was the only date our land owner agreed too due to other events on site.

Full details are available on the Briar Rose website https://briarrosefieldarchers.wordpress.com/

I’ve been trying out the Skylon edge 6.2 arrows and huge thanks to Steve at the club helping me tune in a barebow set up. I think I need to replace the rest though as the current ones not quite long enough. I’m using the Kinetic Honoric limbs on my old Samick vision riser. Also need some 100 grain points as I thought I had some but only 80 grains in the right size thread.

Here are some links to podcasts I mentioned

Merlin Archery adventures podcast which is a new adventure for Merlin and Jim , there are 2 episodes out currently

The other one is Rich over at Archery Geek Outdoors

That’s all for now, enjoy your archery and thanks for supporting this site.