Frosty morning

Slightly different shoot report this week as although we attended a shoot on Sunday it was not as a competing archer but as a marshal.

This was the first SVYF shoot we would not be shooting but marshalling  shame as we thought it was a great course.

We’d spent all Saturday putting in the 3d targets and checking target bosses, clearing paths and low branches.

Sunday morning saw a ground frost and had me scraping the ice off the car before 8 am, by the time we reached the wood it was -1 centigrade.

Something very beautiful about a frosty Autumn morning with the sun slowly burning off the mist as it rises in the sky. We were very lucky with the weather earlier in the week it had looked like we’d have a wet weekend.

Cob webs on frosty morning

The course was a mix of 3d and paper faces about a 70/30 split. The 40 target course is split in two, with one group laying 1-20 & other group doing 21-40, with us helping out lay 21-40. We had about 170 archers and 30-40 helpers.

Gathering of archers

Thanks to the early Autumn light through the trees some of the 3d targets were in partial shadow making distance judgements that little bit harder. Was interesting to see how different styles shot the course from sighted compound to longbows.

3D boar target

I spent sometime talking to a few archers about how far they thought one shot was a slightly downhill shot at a 3D boar. I was interested in the different distances they thought the target was. As someone who doesn’t use a sight or gap shoots, I had paced the target distance at 31 paces (about 29 yards) and archers were guessing everything from 28 yards to 36 yards.

Turkey 3D shot

There was a difference to previous shoots I’ve been involved with simply in the sheer number of marshals and helpers, making it less stressful and a bit easier.

Think I must have walked our part of the course at least 4-5 times over the day.Feedback was really positive, with only a couple of things to change for future shoots. Was a long day but worth it.

If you ever have an opportunity to help run or lay a course then take it. You learn a lot and realise just how much work is involved in putting on a shoot.

We must be mad as we’re helping on another shoot at end of month.

Thanks for reading.