Tag Archives: outdoors

Mar 6 2013

Shoot Report – Pride Park

Pride Park

This shoot report covers our experiences of the Pride Park March shoot. This was the first trip to their new wood, which is only a stones throw from one of our old clubs Black Arrows wood.

So on Sunday we headed just north of Derby, about  an hour and 20 minutes drive for us. The weather was dry but not as sunny or warm as the previous day, which had been the first real sign of spring arriving. But as I said it was dry, though it did get cold in the afternoon, which was a shame.

The shoot would also be a test for Sharon’s new arrows or rather piles for her x7. We have been experimenting with the pile weight in her arrows and she had tried a few different ones out on Saturday. So Saturday evening was spent with me swapping out old points for new inserts and screw in points.

Our shooting group was made up of 5 people, Pride Park limit their group numbers to 5 and I think this is a good plan. There was a good flow with no hold ups. The only delay in the day was after the lunch break, by which point it was getting a bit cold as the wind had picked up. In fact there was a really relaxed atmosphere all day.

The course was a mix of paper faces, 3D targets and couple of hessian / fabric faces. We started in the small wood, with a downhill hessian target.

first target

Sharon at first target

It was good to see that targets, especially paper ones, had been put out at sensible distances making them hitable targets.

target 13 Close paper duck

target 13 Close paper duck

In fact there were a few larger faces put closer than normal that confused a lot of archers, resulting in them misjudging the distance.

Scott shooting target 15

Scott shooting target 15

The paper faces included my 3 least favourite, the ermine,  standing hare and red squirrel.

JVD Ermin target face

JVD Ermin target face

JVD Hare target face

JVD Hare target face

JVD Red Squirrel target face

JVD Red Squirrel target face

Why do I hate them? Well besides 2 of them being very small (ermine and squirrel have a 20mm inner scoring zone) the 3rd, the hare, is easy to miss if you lose your line and go slightly left or right, as it is quite tall but skinny.

For those interested I scored 20 on the ermine, 8 (3rd arrow) on the hare and 16 on the squirrel. so that is 2 first arrows and one 3rd, not too bad really.

It all it was a good day with Scott and Zack Ball, Norman joining Sharon and I to make up our group of 5.

Despite being very close to Black Arrows wood the grounds are very different. Black arrow is on a hillside and quite small whilst Pride Parks ground is made up of 2 woods with a connecting field / hedge row, with a small coppice that allows for steeper angles and downhill shots, the other wood is more open and flat allowing for longer shots.

As for how I got on, not great 604 on 36 targets, top score in my class was 654 I think. Sharon did well getting first place again in ladies Barebow. Guess the new arrows worked.

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.

Aug 16 2011

Shoot Report – Lyme Valley shoot

Waking early on Sunday we headed north to Lyme Valley, just outside stoke. The ground is a wooded valley with quite steep sides and we were both hoping it remained dry as it is very ,very slippery when wet.

As luck would have it the weather held, with only a slight shower early on in the day. As for my shoulder it coped for about half the course but was locking up by the afternoon – resulting in a drop of 100 points from the first half. This was really demoralizing as I’d been feeling really good initially. I managed to score 292 in the first 18 targets but only 194 in the second 18, truly terrible!!

Having said I didn’t shoot well, I’m very proud of Sharon who won first place, with 584 and 4 spots. Her face was a picture when she realized she had won.

The course is always challenging and with over 160 archers it was a busy day for all. The morning proved a bit slow, largely due to numbers and a few targets requiring 3rd arrows. One thing I will say is the we were up and down the sides of the valley. Some really technical shots that you had to judge height etc on By Lunch we had shot 14 targets, which seemed average for most groups.

I’m not a big fan of lunch breaks, much prefer shoot through but not all grounds can accommodate this due to their geography. The advantage Lyme Valley has, is a large field that means there is enough.

In all a good shoot, but has made me wonder about my shoulder and whether I will be able to cope with the flatbow. Chances are I’m going to have to shoot the recurve for the nationals 😦

Lyme Valley website