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 1^st (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.

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

Episode 127 – Shoot Report – Lyme Valley

Several weeks ago, we ventured to the Lyme Valley club for the first time in what seems like years. Only now have I’ve finally got round to writing this shoot report. Sorry guys for the delay.

This would be a 36 mixed target course with some cracking shots and some JVD faces (I really don’t like the old JVD faces. The course is situated in a valley, hence the name, not far from Stoke on Trent. Being in a valley the course offers a variety of gradient based slots, both up and down hill, something few clubs can offer.

One great shot was the grizzly and fish from the top of the hill to the screen below. This was a double shot where you would shoot both the Grizzly 3D and fish 3D from the red, then if needs be you would take shots from the white. Etc

Another shot worth mentioning was the 3D polar bear, where they had positioned white sheets and duvets, making it look like the bear was exiting a cave.

Check out the podcast for a full breakdown of my thoughts on the course and shots.

I’m afraid I can’t embed Amazon music on this page but can provide a link https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/c649e917-695a-4c30-aa50-d99742ccd824/episodes/c314e454-dad9-41a1-9812-ecf3b66655e4/off-the-arrow-shelf-episode-127-%E2%80%93-shoot-report-%E2%80%93-lyme-valley

I much preferred the shoot through for lunch, with catering being central in the woods than the old situation where you would stop at 12.30 for 30-40 minutes.

Overall it was a good shoot with some interesting shots.

Thanks for reading.

May 7 2025

Episode 117 – Shoot Report – Duvelle Bowmen

In the latest episode of the podcast I give a shoot report for Duvelle bowmens shoot in late April this year.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been to Duvelle and you can see another shoot report from May last year. It proved to be a long day due to a road traffic incident that delayed our arrival by over an hour, but it was a great day, with some fantastic shots. Sadly I did not do the course justice, but it is a learning game this barebow class. Having said this I did manage to get one very lucky shot, with the arrow barely holding in place..