Sunday 4 September 2016

Wonky Bow in the Woods

I went to the Aurora Field Archery Club shoot. It was excellent as always with tasty catering and a testing course.
I shot round with Roy and Colin who are both excellent shots. I was rather floundering with judging the distance/elevation, but was scoring steadily. The first 18 targets scored me 180 which is just about ok, with a new bow. The timber wolf was a tease, with a sapling growing up in front of it... first shot low, second smashed on the the sapling and the third bounced straight back off the sapling. When we got to the target I found I'd scored a second arrow wound, as the fore end of my second arrow was firmly embedded in the back of the wolf!
Second half I managed to stop thinking and trying to aim for the right distance as my eye/brain/body was beginning to adapt and the number of  "FFS" exclamations slowly diminished.

The turning point was a Javelina which was a lovely shot but I put all 3 arrows just over its back, at that point I just gave up and relaxed... "Don't think, don't aim, just shoot" I told myself. After that I got some nice first arrow hits on long shots and finally managed a couple of 20s and a 24.
Second half I scored 214 which is a big improvement on 180.

I really need to get out more and go to more shoots, but for me it's about making them and enjoying the occasional shoot.
The Wonky Hazel got some admiring glances and comments and performed fine, it was just the archer! The arrows do flirt a little if the loose isn't crisp and I may tweak the brace height, Interestingly my mate Mick was shooting a Yew self AFB that I made him and he scored about the same as me, he was disappointed as he's a better shot than me, but maybe the course didn't suit a self bow. I have endless excuses I can use, but I was happy enough with 394 over 36 targets with a bow I'd only shot at 10 yards.
The pic was taken to show the contrast between belly and back and the undulating line of the bark as it ripples over the knots. An elegant bow reclining in the woods.

Thanks to all at Aurora for a great day. They were collecting for a powered wheelchair to allow a disabled archer to shoot field, an excellent cause which was being generously supported. Hopefully the collection bucket was nice and heavy at the end of the day.
The results are up on their website and there were only 3 primitives shooting. My score actually compared well with theirs, but I was only shooting Sunday, not both days so it doesn't count. Makes me feel better though :-)

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