Spirit of Sherwood December shoot
On a chilly and slightly damp Sunday Sharon and I headed to the Spirit of Sherwood grounds. It is a course we have shot numerous times before and you can check out the previous review here. This shoot would be a wooden arrow only
Sadly this was the first time I have ever had to withdraw from a shoot but after falling fowl of a chesty cough I did not feel up to shooting the entire course and withdrew after a few shots. A couple of days later and following a visit to the local doctors surgery I would be diagnosed with a chest infection and on a course of antibiotics. So this is a bit of a short review.
Anyway back to the somewhat brief shoot report. There were 36 targets on the course mostly 3Ds, sadly I only got to see a few, but he ones I did view were set to the normal high standards expected of SOS courses.
One of the more open shots
I spoke to a few people who said they had a long slow day, having to wait on targets. I think might be due to the popularity of Spirit of Sherwood. It attracts a lot of archers of all levels, which is great but can sometimes cause delays.
Sharon shooting a 3D goat
Of the few shots I did get to see was a very nicely set Ram 3D positioned by a tree stump. I think it was a great bit of course laying and what made it a good shot was that you weren’t sure of the size of the target or exact angle of the 3D.
Close up of the 3D goat shot
I think Sharon probably had the luckiest shot of the day where she managed to get a very lucky shot on a 3D bear.
Sharon showing off her trick shooting with a lucky shot on a 3D bear
As has become a trademark of the Christmas shoot at Spirit of Sherwood there were boxes of quality street boxes located round the course.
The woodland terrain is flat with the course arranged in three loops round a central admin and catering spot, making it pretty easy to get round.
The course layers make good use of the tree covers affording for framed shots using the trees to provide avenues for archers to negotiate.
Another thing that Spirit are famous for is their cake stall and if you ever have the chance of shooting there make sure you get the cakes early as they disappear very quickly.
Archers gathering at the Spirit of Sherwood cake stall
I do wonder what the future will hold for the club as their grounds are due to be visited by loggers in the next few months and going by the number of trees marked for removal I wonder what the woods will look like. Here’s hoping for the best for the club as they set some of the best courses in the NFAS in my view.
As always thanks for reading. I would also like to say thanks for following this blog over the past year. I appreciate all the comments on here or in person.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Christmas, with safe journeys and great memories. Good luck for the New Year too.
Bear target face in the woods
Those of you who shot the NFAS National Championships this year might have already seen some new target faces produced by Phoenix Archery (https://phoenix-archery.co.uk/). Well thanks to the generosity of Mark at Phoenix Archery we have been able to enjoy using a couple of his new range of target faces down at the Briar Rose club course.
The first thing I have to say is that the few faces I have seen do look good, with much more definition than I’ve seen in other faces. They are high definition faces are printed on a plastic fabric rather than the normal paper, making them more water resistant and potentially ideal for the approaching winter months.
Generally the wound lines are pretty generous following the main outline of the animal, though a few of the inner kills are a little small, but not that bad. The reason I mention this is if you have a lot of very accurate archers in the club shooting, maybe compound sighted or crossbow archers. Then it is likely they will shoot out the centre on smaller target faces.
close up of the MeerKat target
Not all the faces are life size and I think this is probably my only gripe. I’m not a big fan of shooting target faces that are half or two thirds size of the real animal.
I think a development that Mark might like to consider is producing these faces on paper rather than plastic as it might reduce the cost and may work better for the smaller faces where the scoring zone could get shot out quickly.
Meerkat target on the boss
So how did they get on with being shot? From testing of the faces I have found a few things
Unlike hessian targets the fabric weave doesn’t close up after the arrows are drawn so you are left with a hole.
Bear target face – close up
Overall I think they can work pretty well especially if you looking for an all-weather target face suitable for leaving out over the winter months where paper faces would simply turn to mush. If you have a few good archers the 24 might get shot out pretty quickly but they will still look cool.
I’m not sure when Mark at Phoenix is going to post the prices details on the website for the full range, but there are some up there, so drop him a line.
Once again, we’d like to express our thanks to Mark for his generous donation to the club of the face.
Thanks for reading.
My Archery Experiences 