Tag Archives: spider web

Oct 9 2013

Exhausting weekend but nearly there…

Not touched bow this weekend a few arrows of the directional variety. Have spent 2 long days at the wood redesigning the course in readiness for our October shoot. With the season changing from late summer to early autumn work starts in earnest.

spiderwebs

spider web in trees

We are hosting a 36 target mixed 3d and paper faces shoot in a couple of weeks and been planning new shots routes round wood etc. for last few weeks. This weekend saw us set the course and have it agreed by the safety officers at the club.

SVYF split the wood into two courses A and B and we (Steve, Tom, Sharon, Mary and I) were doing A course. This would mean setting 18 sets of target pegs and bosses. I’m afraid I can’t show you any photos of the course as yet, so here are a few of the amazing spider webs we found round the wood.

another spider web

another spider web this time overhead

We had a very heavy dew on Sunday and everywhere was cloaked in mist and fog. This also coated the webs in dew.

hedgerow spiderwebs

hedgerow spiderwebs

Amazingly we had all the bosses in by Saturday night leaving Sunday free for the course inspection, path clearing and signage. By 3 pm we had it open and our first club archers testing it. This is really useful as it gives us a week of the course being shot which should identify any issues.

It’s not yet 100% as still needs tweaks and couple of new paths cleared and foot bridges finished / repaired but we have next weekend for that. Next weekend we finalise the 3d targets and target faces so come the day before the shoot we can concentrate on erecting arrow nets and final target placements.

Big thanks to all that gave up their time and put so much effort in this weekend. (yes Chris that means you and Keith, and everyone else. Not forgetting Mr Strong Robin. Maybe next time, don’t wear a Mr Man T-shirt with Mr Strong on it)

Thanks

Oct 15 2012

Shoot Report – the other side

Frosty morning

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

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

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

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.

example of shot

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.