WMAS Flight Shoot

I drove up to Telford on the Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight for the shoot on the Sunday.
After a full English breakfast I arrived early at the shoot to leaden skies and a brisk wind.
The field was the sports ground of a posh school and was on a slight uphill, that, with the dampness and a brisk headwind made it obvious that no records would be set!
I'd taken a little tent with me which was very handy as I could keep my kit dry and have little lie down.
There were only about 20 competitors but most competitors were shooting more than one class and there was a good variety of bows, compounds, recurves, English Longbows and some interesting horsebows. My little Osage flight bow was put in the American Longbow class (unlimited).

It was 6 arrows (maximum) to an "end" and there were 4 ends being shot during day, each end including any class of bow.
The compounds shot first from a shooting line which was further back (100 yards?) and we all retreated behind the line while they shot.
I shot the boo/Yew longbow first ( not exceeding 50# class). After everyone had shot we walked up the field and planted a flag with our details on it where our furthest arrow had landed. Mine were rather spread about and my Ipe/pine laminated arrow had kicked well off left, so for the next end I swapped that for my number 7 arrow. I was disappointed to see I was barely up to the 250 yard mark! Then I heard someone say that the wind was taking 90 yards off their distances.
On the next end I had another go and shot a bit further, moving my flag up about 5 yards to the new distance.

Time for lunch, I only had water and a biscuit bar but was invited to join Tony (the range master... seen in the pic from my tent) and his daughter Rachel who had a huge spread of food. A chicken leg and chunk of bread topped me up nicely while we had a good natter about bows and shooting.

When you shoot, you are allowed a helper to tell you if you are aiming high enough and in the right direction. There were a variety of devices for judging elevation from simple spirit levels, to tripod mounted gauges. Tony had a nice hand held wooden gauge with a built in plumb bob pendulum. After he and Rachel had shot I stepped up to the line and she acted as my helper, which allowed me to shoot with more confidence and more smoothly (she also took the pic of me ). My arrows were flying fairly well, but some wagging their tail a tad.

After lunch I thought I'd try the Osage with my 26" arrows, and if they went well, I'd try the 27" on the final end.
Well, it's a while since I'd shot it and initially struggled with the weight! It was good to have a helper to tell me when I was about right for elevation as I was busy heaving it back and watching the tip of the arrow... they certainly went away fast compared to the ELB.
On the last arrow, a tried that whisker too much and BANG.. a shower of smashed arrow went about 10 yards forward and left. Fortunately nothing struck my hand or anyone else, I think the fact that the bow has a shelf saved me from injury. The string had sheared off a small portion of the Elm nock overlay, which had only meant to be temporary for tillering, but had been left on. The parent wood of the bow is fine so fitting new horn overlays is no problem. I think the bow is ok, but I'll give it a careful examination and some flexing.

I imagine the chain of events was as follows, I drew too far, the tip of the arrow slipped to the right and stuck in the belly of the bow. (You can see the small mark on the belly) The arrow exploded on loose which would dissipate some of the energy, but it would be close to a dry loose once it had broken. the string slamming home sheared off the nock overlay. Hopefully by then most of the energy had gone into the arrow, the string and shearing the nock and didn't leave enough to damage the bow.

I pretty much felt I'd shot my bolt by then, but with only one more end to shoot and the weather having calmed I strung the longbow for a final 6 arrows.
Walking up to collect the arrows I'd spotted 5 of mine short of my flag, but right next to my flag was one of Tony's 50# ELB arrows, so he was obviously getting similar distances. Then I spotted my final arrow 12 yards further up the field, definitely worth shooting those last six.
Time for a lie down and packing away my kit while the measuring was in progress. I also had a very interesting chat about using a thumb ring and a bit of a demo', something that's definitely on my to do list.
We sat round awaiting the results, I was hoping for a mention somewhere and was delighted to have won both my classes, narrowly beating Tony in the 50#ELB, he assures me that he'll beat me next time! Mind he won in other classes and Rachel won hers.

Many thanks to Nick Mitchell the organiser, Tony Bakes the range master and all at the WMAS for an excellent shoot making me (a newbie to formal flight shooting) feel welcomed.