The National Championships!

 

Hi everybody!

This weekend (1/2 December), ArcheryGB hosted their Indoor Extravaganza at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. It was the Junior Nationals and the Back2Back shoot off on Saturday, and the Senior Nationals on Sunday. My friend Chris and I entered the Senior Champs on Sunday and Chris drove us up for the afternoon session.

This was by far the largest shoot I’ve ever been to, the venue was huge with over 900 archers shooting across the 2 days! When I walked into the hall, I was a little blown away by how many targets there were and how many archers were taking part!

 

We were early as the roads were clear on the way up, so we signed in, set our equipment up and had a wander around the trade stalls. Wales Archery, Merlin and TheArcheryCompany had mobile shops on display among other retailers, so I treated myself to a few bits and bobs I needed and grabbed a brand new fletching jig from WA. The one I’ve been using is a little simple and I could do with something better quality.

I managed to grab myself a nice little keepsake too :) ArcheryGB were selling 122cm FITA targets from the Olympics. These are full size coloured targets that were ready for the Olympics but were never used, and they are made of a waterproof treated fabric so they are more like a canvas print than a paper target. They were only £2 so I grabbed one which I’ll keep rolled up in my cupboard, and as and when I ever get my own man-cave/workshop its going on the wall as a big poster!

The announcements were made for us to get ready, and then it was onto the line! The round was a FITA18, inner 10 scoring. My shooting was fairly strong with only 1 arrow dropped out of the gold, a high 8 where I punched the release but no other issues. The lighting in the hall could’ve been better, the targets were dimly lit and a little tricky to focus on. The other side had black curtains behind the targets which made it even worse I’m told. It was only a minor complaint though, my target companions were great guys and we had a fun time shooting together all day and chatting which took the edge off how big an event it was!

 

I was a little behind, but had a string of 10’s in the final half dozen and finished on 569.. the same as the last competition I shot – consistent! The scores went in and we all waited anxiously for the announcement of what was required to make the cut, the top 32 archers that go through to the shoot offs for a chance at the final.... The announcements came out and the list of names was put up... the cut was 567 and I was through in 25^th place!

The ladies shot the Recurve and Compound eliminations first, so I had a chance to have a quick practice and get ready. The call came out and I collected my scorecards, and was drawn against an archer named Colin Geenes in the shoot off. We exchanges scorecards and went up to the line to shoot...

Oh..my..god. I didn’t think it was possible to be so nervous! I usually get a pang of nerves on a target shoot when you move from sighters to scoring but nothing serious as it’s just me against the target – I score what I score and that’s it. This time, I was shooting against someone, and the pressure was on. I found it quite hard to concentrate and was a bit wobbly! We drew 2 ends, and then Colin won 2 ends with a perfect 10 10 10 (very impressive shooting under pressure, fair play!) and took the match 6 points to 2.

 

So the end result was I came 25^th in Gents Compound out of 105 competitors, and joint 17^th in the shoot off with the other archers knocked out in the elimination.

I wasn’t disappointed with this at all, as I was fully expecting to be knocked out in the first round given the level of skill I was shooting against but I was absolutely thrilled to have made the cut and the shoot offs on my first ever National Championships, and hope I did my sponsor Wales Archery proud on my first official outing shooting for them  It was my big shoot debut and it was great to see my name up on the board with the leading British archers, albeit some way behind them but still a great feeling!

Also worthy of note is that I was very impressed with the way the shoot was run and organised, everything was clear and the presentations, announcements and control of the shooting was spot on, as was the quality of the equipment and targets – a credit to the work party and organisers for their efforts and hard work!

So - the usual post-shoot performance review... I was happy with my shooting and couldn’t think of anything I would criticise myself for archery-wise, but one thing is for sure, I need to do a lot more preparation for shooting under pressure before next year. My shooting was good enough to carry me forwards a little further, it was entirely nerves that gave me problems so I’m going to look into techniques to strengthen this aspect of my shooting and improve my mental game and focus.

Amazing News!

I’ve had some fantastic archery news in the last week!

First of all, I received an email from Mat Symmonds, president of the Welsh Field Archery Association – saying that I have been selected for a position on the Welsh Field Archery Squad for 2013! So next year I will be able to represent Wales on the field circuit as an official member of the team J Woohoo!

The other bit of news is.. I am now a sponsored pro-staff shooter! I sent an email to Wales Archery Specialists a little while ago enquiring about the possibility for sponsorship. I’ve always been impressed by the service they offer and recommend everyone to their shop. As I have been doing so well in a lot of competitions recently, and shooting on a par with many sponsored archers I thought the time was right to ask if I could represent and promote Wales Archery in an official capacity and join their shop team, and they have agreed! So I am now on the Welsh squad, and a Wales Archery Specialists pro-shooter – what a result! 

I am absolutely over the moon! This is what I have been hoping for and working towards all year, spending a lot of time and effort improving my game and attending as many shoots as I can to raise my rankings and now with this news, it has all been worth it! J

 

I am visiting Wales Archery on Friday to pick up a few bits and pieces I need, and they have a pro shooters shirt there ready for me, so I will be able to wear the Wales Archery colours at the Nationals in Coventry this weekend, the biggest indoor shoot on the UK circuit – one hell of a debut! My usual scores on that round are 565-70 and the cut last year to make the top 32 archers in the head to head shoot off was around 560 so with any luck I may get into the final... fingers crossed!

 

The Welsh 3D Championships!

Hi everybody!

This weekend on the 25th November was the Welsh 3D Championships at Llantwit Major Archers course in Fonmon, an IFAA unmarked 3D round of 28 targets. As my main bow Maya is set up at the moment for indoor target with huge slow arrows it wouldn't be suitable for this shoot, so I spent a little bit of money on a 5 pin hunting sight, a bow quiver and a short dampener and set my second bow Vasquez up as a BowHunter Unlimited rig.

Check it out, dressed to kill!

The Guardian is really a hunting bow anyway - being short, fast & quiet so this is the kind of outfit that the bow is designed for. It balances great even with the bow quiver fitted and is extremely accurate and fun to shoot. This type of bow just suits unmarked 3D a lot better than an unlimited setup in my opinion.

The weather for the previous week before the shoot had been absolutely atrocious, with record rainfall and severe flooding in many parts of the UK and rivers bursting thier banks everywhere. The decision was made to go ahead with the shoot as there had been a break in the weather, but by now the damage had been done! What the hell, we're field archers and this is what we shoot for!

The mud was up over our ankles in most parts of the course, and the climbing/walking was very hard going with slips and slides being par for the course. I almost fell over several times and the river crossing was interesting! There is a shallow stream with  stepping stones that you need to cross 4 times in total during the day. The stones were completely submerged in fast flowing water... this river is normally about 6" deep and about half as wide as this...

I shot fairly well through the day considering it was a new style and put in a decent score, coming in second place by 5 points. The 3D round is scored 10 points for a 'kill' in the inner zone, 5 points for an outer zone 'wound' so i was only 1 killshot off taking 1st place, not bad for my BowHunter style debut :)

I had a lot of fun shooting the round and it only took about an hour to clean the mud off my boots and equipment! The next shoot on the calendar now is the big one, the National Indoors at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, really looking forward to that one!

Wobbly bits, and a good result!

Hi everybody!

I’ve been looking at adding some dampeners to my Insanity CPXL because my friend Chris just bought a new  Hoyt that comes with AlphaShox limb dampeners. After trying his bow out you could really feel the difference when they were fitted and I was jealous!  So I went looking around for something that I can add to my CPXL to dampen the vibration that is left in the bow after the shot.

After doing some research and watching some impressive tests, it seems that BowJax are the best on the market and BowJax Revelations which would best suit my bow. Direct from them they wanted $18 per pair + $25 to ship to the UK! But after a search I found a US seller on eBay that were charging $16 for 2 pairs of them, with $8 shipping – that’s more like it! They turned up in about 5 days and I put them on the CPXL and took it for a test drive...

 

Wow, what a difference! It has dramatically changed the feel of the bow post-shot. It sounds totally different, a lot quieter and there is far less vibration - impressive! So much so that I’ve ordered the BowJax string stop enhancer as well, which apparently makes the bow even quieter and is less harsh on the string as it is a softer stop . These are only available stateside but luckily, I have family on holiday with friends in the US at the moment so they have been mailed to them and they are bringing them back for me in a few weeks – result J

So that was the wobbly bits! Now on to the good result!

 On Sunday 18^th November I went down to St David’s College to shoot their annual FITA18. Everything was going well and my shooting was on form. My first dozen was 116 and my name went up on the leader board in first place, which is a new experience J As the day went on I stayed out in front, and going into the final dozen I was 5 points ahead but I had a string of 9’s where I was just outside the 10 ring and lost the advantage – so the archer in 2^nd place closed the gap.

When it came to the results, they read out the 3^rd and 2^nd place scores and awards, and it turns out that I had the exact same score as the other archer – with exactly the same X and 9 count! They had already put all the targets away so awarded a joint 1^st place instead of a shoot off, so I came out of it with a gold medal in joint first place – woohoo! The medal/memento board is looking healthy these days!

The archer that I drew level with is a professional sponsored archer with experience on the pro circuit, and if I had scored just one more point in the final dozen I would have come in ahead. I also beat a few seasoned target archers so I am really happy with the result, it shows that the effort is paying off and my shooting is reaching a respectable level these days in both Field and Target archery.

St Kingsmark's Annual Portsmouth

Well, the indoor season is now well and truly upon us and I have shot my first competition of the season. It was a nice introduction into the season shooting the Gwent County Championships & Open,  a 3 spot Portsmouth round hosted by St Kingsmark Bowmen at Beachley Army Barracks.

I drove down with Mr Bruno and we were shooting the afternoon session. We arrived a little early so had plenty of time to have some food/drink, get our equipment set up and signed in. The hall was absolutely freezing so I was glad I wore the extra layers under my club strip!

 
I had a bit of a shaky start with a couple of wild 9’s but I managed to find the 10 ring eventually, and held a steady pace for the rest of the shoot and finished on 572 which is a new PB, up from 565 that I shot last year (I haven’t scored a Portsmouth round at all in the last year!) . When the final results came in, the top Gwent shooter was in the 560’s and my score was in second place so I came home with a silver medal in the Open. 

I was over the moon with the result and very happy to bring home something shiny! But I was also a little disappointed with 572 as I was hoping to nudge closer to 580. So as I always do, I looked at this as a learning experience to improve my game. I noticed that my shots that were out of the 10 were almost all low hits, 6 o clock outer  10’s/9’s. After watching a video of myself shooting, and some feedback from a coach at the club it seems that I am relaxing my bow arm prematurely. The arm is relaxing and the bow arm dropping before the shot is complete, so I am going to use my practice sessions to work on keeping the bow arm steady and solid, and keep a firm pull into the back wall against this without pulling the arrow into my face which causes clearance issues and erratic arrow flight.

 

Roll on the next one!

 

Going Indoors!

Hi everybody!

As you can see from my previous few posts, I have gotten absolutely soaked through on a few outdoor shoots in a row and it’s getting cold and wet out there. I had one more outdoor round left on my calendar, a Hunter round in March Hare on the 20^th October but I have made the decision to call that one off and go to ground for the winter, it’s time to retire indoors and break out the linecutters to shoot indoor target until the start of the next field season in February next year.

I have my 2315 X7’s which are the largest size legally permitted in FITA indoor competition from last year, so I am going to be using those for the season. They are 31” with heavy 220gn ProPoint Pins and large fletches, optimised for indoor shooting.  The only thing I don’t like about them are the huge plastic SuperNocks. They are cumbersome, chunky and have a poor string fit in my opinion so I got in touch with GoatBoy Archery who do custom work, and Nick was very helpful in machining a dozen inserts for me to glue into the Unibushings to reduce them down to accept regular G-Nocks (my favourites, G nocks or G Pins). I’ve fitted these and they are absolutely perfect, check it out!

I refletched them with large 4” white Bohning Killer Vanes with quite a hefty offset to give them a stabilising spin, and they were ready. I went up to the club last night to try them out and it only took 5 minutes to adjust the rest height for the larger arrow and find a rough sightmark. You can tell the sheer weight of these things (650 grains) as the 20 yard mark for them is the same as my 43 yard mark with my FMJ’s!

I wanted to shoot a scored round to see how the new bow and the newly configured arrows feel so had a look in the target bin, and found an IFAA 5-spot face. I’ve only ever shot the IFAA indoor round once about a year ago and scored 297/300 with 37 X’s so I thought that would be a nice benchmark,  put the target up and started shooting. This is how the round came out after a 5 minute tune and quick sightmark..

I shot a clean 300 with 51 X’s! That was 1 X better than the score that won the WFAA championships last year! It was shot in club conditions and not as much pressure as a tournament, but I now have great confidence in the kit and know that I am capable of a winning score, so I need to work on my mental strength and keep my head in the game, stay focussed and bring it home.

I’ve got a few weeks to tweak and prepare, the first indoor round is a FITA18, the Gwent County Open on November 4^th at St Kingsmark Bowmen, so i’m going to shoot indoor 3 spot exclusively from now on to prepare.

Bring it on!

FITA Welsh & Open Field Championships 2012

The last weekend of September is always the FITA Welsh & Open Field Championships and it was hosted by my club, Pentref Bowmen as usual this year. Being a 2 day FITA event, the shoot was in the usual format of a 24 target unmarked course on the Saturday, followed by the marked distance round on the Sunday.

Everything was tuned nicely on my bow and my sightmarks were good, so I rocked up nice and eager to day 1! I have been shooting IFAA rounds pretty much exclusively for a while, and don’t have a really accurate ranging ‘cheats’ system so the unmarked was going to be a nice challenge J The weather was fairly decent with little wind and mostly cloudy all day, and the course was easy enough to walk with only a few muddy/difficult areas.  I shot quite well with only a few of the longer targets giving me any trouble on the ranging, finishing up on 364, 20 points into Bowman and a 16 point increase on my unmarked PB!

Unfortunately this wasn’t to be repeated a second day! On the way to the club for day 2, the heavens opened – and stayed open all day. It rained relentlessly all day for the full duration of the shoot and through the night, the ground was sodden and very difficult to navigate with mud up over your ankles a common thing. I have to say a big thanks to Tracey Anderson of the GB squad for her loan of a Ziploc bag to keep my sight/scope clear in between targets!  Her shooting was on fire and she had an amazing weekend with some incredible targets, especially 3X’ing  the longest distance in heavy rain. In the end, totally soaked through my so called ‘waterproofs’ I finished on 352 which is 12 points below my PB, but given the conditions and that my PB was shot on a much flatter course in good weather i’ll take that score and be very happy with it J

So all told, I finished with 2 x Bowman level scores and ended on a combined total of 716 which put me in 8^th place overall, 6^th welsh. I had hoped to make the top 5 Welsh and only missed out on it by a handful of points , so it’s within my grasp and there’s always next year!

Welsh Field Masters Tour Round 5 - the final!

Hi everybody!

The Welsh Field Masters Tour round 5 was this Sunday (23 Sep 2012) at Fonmon Castle Estates near Cardiff Airport. I was in first place on the leaderboard but this round was the Marked Forrester round which is a very high scorer, on some targets you can clean up 60 points so I was hoping for a good result to cement the victory.

The weather forecast was looking decidedly poor, and sure enough the Welsh weather didn't let us down. It started raining on my way down the motorway to the shoot, turned into a torrential downpour that stayed with us all day without mercy or let up. I have good boots and waterproods specifically for shooting in poor weather, and i'm used to it so didnt let it get me down or get in my way. We started on T10 so after 4 targets we were back at the refreshments tent, and one of our group of 3 made the decision to drop out because he'd had enough of the weather so there were only 2 of us and we had to wait for someone to team up with to go back out. By this time, the course had already gotten so treacharous underfoot and slippery that the organisers chopped the competition to a half round of 14 targets. We went back out with one of the retired archers who acted as a marshal for us so we could complete the run.

I've never shot the Forrester round before and it was a very interesting one. It is shot on animal faces, with the usual kill/wound scoring areas but there is a black or gold spot in the middle, the 'clean-kill' area which is worth extra points and gives a nice clear point to aim at. The weather made the course difficult enough as it was, but poor lighting and rain spattered sights made it a bit trickier, even so I had a good half and shot very well. I only took one photo as I didnt want to get my phone out of my pocket in those conditions, but I couldn't let this one go without getting a picture. Only 25 feet away, but could you ask for a better shot than this? :)

I got around the course and shot 420 points for the half which was fairly decent, and as it happened my only competiton on the day had quit early on so I was the only AMFU shooter that finished the day, winning the individual stage by default, i'll take that!

This stage's win with the points cemented first place by a large margin, making me the 2012 AMFU Welsh Field Master!! The weather was so atrocious that the decision was made unanimously to give the trophies and the formal awards at another time, which will probably be at the WFAA Indoor Championships so not until January now, but the results went out by email and on the website so it is all official :)

I am absolutely thrilled with the result! In my first year (almost to the week) from picking up my first compound bow, I have secured the Senior Bowmaster rank with only 2 points short of the highest ranking possible of Grand Bowmaster, I have won the Welsh Field Masters tour and I am in a strong position to hope for a shot at Welsh Squad for next year, fingers crossed!

EFAA National Championsips

This weekend, I went to the EFAA National Championships hosted by March Hare Archers in Throckmorton. While an English tournament, Welsh archers can still shoot for classification scores as guests so I went up with one of the guys from my club to see if I could raise the bar a bit.

We arrived nice and early on the Saturday for the Hunter round. The weather was on our side with a bit of mist in the morning, which soon lifted to a really nice clear day. The course was quite flat with no real challenging angles and I shot very strongly all day.  The only hiccup all day was on the bunny. I accidentally aimed at the wrong target (shot top target first instead of bottom, GNAS style) and nailed a perfect X on the wrong face so that was down as a miss but even with that, I came in on a new personal best for the Hunter round of 526.

We travelled to the local campsite we were staying at, The Cottage Of Content after the shoot and got the tent up, and chilled out in the local pub with a nice big gammon and chips and a few ales to wash it down with! There was a travelling fire performer group staying at the campsite and putting on a show, and I ended up jamming with them in the pit juggling and fire spinning for an hour! That was a nice unexpected treat J

We got up bright and early after sleeping like a log (the new sleeping bags are great!) and got the tent down, ready to head out for the Field round on day 2. I have been chasing 530 points to reach Grand Bowmaster rank and only narrowly missed it because of the bunny mistake on Saturday so really concentrated and made sure I took my time on the course. There were no mistakes or misses during the round, but a few 18's and a 17 in the middle meant I missed the 530 mark, but still raised my pb for the Field round by 7 points to 528 which is a career and season best – so still a winner in my eyes!

 I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t reach the 530 but there’s always another time and I know that it is within my reach if I concentrate and shoot well. One of the main things I have been struggling with is consistency in my grip. I absolutely love my new Insanity CPXL but I have had a bit of trouble with the rounded back of the grip, the same as I had with the Guardian so I have ordered a custom Torqueless grip for it. I shoot a Torqueless on my Guardian and it makes a great difference to the feel of the bow, so I am hoping this will go some way to addressing this and will smooth out the inconsistency... time will tell!

The next shoot now is a Marked Forrester round for the final of the Welsh Field Masters Tour in Fonmon on the 23rd, followed by the Welsh FITA at the end of the month so it is going to be about 6 weeks before the next IFAA round so I have a bit of time to prepare. It's a long shot, but i'm hoping to go from unclassified to Grand Bowmaster in my first season of picking up a compound so I have one, maybe two more opportunities to do it... efforts must be doubled!

Welsh Field Masters round 4

Round 4 of the Welsh Field Masters Tour was on August 19^th at the newly formed Llantrisant Field Archers club, officially opening their new course. It had quite a small turnout compared to usual as it was on the same weekend as several other shoots but I am determined to shoot all 5 stages of the FMT so rocked up bright and early! The road into the course was difficult for my trusty Ka, she made it through and I had my doubts if it was going to make it back through the mud on the way out!

 It had rained heavily for a few days so the ground was sodden and shortly after arrival we had a torrential downpour for about an hour. This made the lower half the course very slippery on the steep climbs , and one area of about 4 targets was a bog. Standing on the peg I was sinking in the mud over my ankles, boots completely submerged!  After the rain passed it got quite sunny, and very humid making glasses and scope steam up. Bit of a nightmare with the weather on this one!

Despite the conditions, the course is nicely laid out with some challenging shots that are a bit deceptive and I had a great time shooting it, even if I ended up looking like I had trench foot (boots flooded!, new waterproof ones on order!). I had quite a good days shooting with only one hiccup (punched a shot into the 1 ring on a long downhill) and finished on 512 Expert – 520 Field which equals my PB and earned me first place!

I’m out in front now on the leaderboard and the final round is on the 23^rd, a marked forester at the Fonmon course which I am really looking forward to as I haven’t shot that round before. Ahead of this though is the English Field Archery Association’s National Championships being hosted by March Hare archers in Throckmorton. It’s a 2 day shoot a few hours’ drive away so I’m going to be staying at a local campsite on Saturday night and then driving home on Sunday.

I've made a few adjustments to the new bow since this shoot (mainly tiller to have it sit correctly on the grip) and its holding dead steady compared to before so with any luck we can push the score up a little bit at this competition and close the gap on that elusive 530 for Grand Bowmaster.

Fort Purbrook Field Championships

Hi everybody!

The weekend of 11/12th August was the second open FITA Field Championships hosted by Fort Purbrook Bowmen at Fort Purbrook in Portsmouth. The new bow was all set up and tuned as best as I could in a week, so I brought her along with me and went down for the weekend!

I travelled down with friends on Friday afternoon and we arrived at the fort around 4pm. The place is absolutely amazing! A hilltop fortress built in the 1800's to defend against invasion on the south coast with an expansive view over Portsmouth docks. The place is a maze of tunnels and corridors with cannon/naval gun emplacements and gunports everywhere and imposing high walls and outer defenses.

We signed in and got the keys to our rooms in the original barracks where we were staying for the weekend and got settled in. The practice targets were open on the courtyard and there was almost no wind that evening and nice evening sun, so I took the chance to get some quality practice and final tuning done.

I did some walkbacks and corrected a minor right drift, recentred the scope and was soon nailing the gold. My marks were spot on from 10m right back to 60 so I left it there and put all my gear in my room until the morning. The Fort is an an activity centre these days so has plenty of facilities, and the Welsh archers took over the games room for the evening. It got quite loud as the night went on and the drink started to dissapear and the rules of the games were a distant memory.. so much for one foot on the floor at all times!

We went for a midnight wander down the underground tunnels to find the climbing walls but unfortunately the doors were locked which is probably a good thing! Still, we had fun wandering around and getting a bit freaked out as the place is allegedly haunted!

In the morning it was up bright and early and onto the practice targets for a quick blast to make sure everything was in order. Once that was sorted and i'd grabbed some breakfast, we checked the target lists to find out our groups and assembled ready to move out. It was fully booked with waiting groups, i've never seen such a good turnout!

So, on to the tournament! We started on a bunny target in the outer perimiter, followed by some of the longest shots on the course. My unmarked distance judging was decent with only a few mistakes, the odd first shot going in the 3/4 but no misses and nothing that couldnt be corrected. On a 50m target I put my first arrow in a low 3, aimed high for the following 2 arrows and nailed 2 sixes - get in! :p

Everything was going great until we hit the courtyard at the top of the fortress, it was like a hurricane was blowing up there! In total contrast to the still air of the previous night, we were being blown all over the place and it was impossible to hold on target. All the tricks came out to deal with it but even then it was stupidly difficult. Everybody had the same wind all day so it was an even playing field, but shooting in that wind really wasn't fun and was almost dangerous at times.

To get an idea of the wind,  this shot was at about 35m if I remember correctly and the target is square on to the camera shot, with the shooting pegs directly behind me so these  arrows should be going in straight. It was impossible to hold steady long enough to get an accurate aim.

Even with these conditions, I managed to finish on 348 which is the highest I have scored to date on the unmarked round. It was an Arrowhead status round as well and this was over the threshold to claim my Grey Arrowhead award so I filled in the claim form, a good result for day one!

We all rocked up to a local pub for some good hot food and a few pints, and had another fun evening in the games room with some new faces who were staying on Saturday night as well. It was a bit of a chore to get up on Sunday morning and there were plenty of sore heads around, but after a shower and some breakfast we were all feeling a bit more human and ready for the marked round.


The weather was cloudy compared to the clear skies of the previous day, but most importantly the wind had calmed down! There was still a bit but nowhere near what it was on Saturday so this was a relief! We shot the course without any real surprises and finished the day on 361 points. This was also a big jump up from the last FITA marked round I shot and was enough for the next Arrowhead so I was able to claim my Grey and Black on the same weekend, score!

In the end I finished in 5th place overall and I was absolutely over the moon with the result! It was some of my strongest shooting to date and I came away with 2 new personal bests, and 2 Arrowhead awards. The new bow is excellent and shoots like a dream, it holds dead on the target and feels fantastic so I was really happy with its debut, money well spent ;)

Following my tradition of naming my bows, I have also settled on a name for the Insanity. I was going to go with something vicious as the model is called the Insanity and its a speed bow, but she's so smooth and steady to shoot it called for something more relaxed. I've decided to call her Maya (pronounced My-ah).

The next outing is round 4 of the WFAA Field Masters tour at the opening of thier new course in Llantrisant and Maya is ready to rock. The course is apparently quite a difficult one with some challenging shots being on the side of a valley but i'm really looking forward to it, a new permanent course that is less than 20 minutes drive away is always welcome!

Unleash the Insanity!

Hi everybody!

I've been debating changing my bow for some time, and this weekend I finally took the plunge and thought what the hell, after some of my results recently I deserve a treat and could benefit from the new advances in bow technology, so I took a drive to Wales Archery Specialists on Saturday to treat myself :)

I tried a few bows out, but the new Bowtech lineup had my eye. The Specialist was a contender as it is designed for target, but I've wanted an Insanity CPXL since it was unveiled so I took the time to compare both. I shot them for about an hour and chose the Insanity CPXL. If i'm being honest, the Specialist felt a bit nicer on the shot, but the draw cycle was awful. It stacks against you really early and the hump to drop into the valley is very tough, it feels far heavier than it's set and would wear me out on a long shoot. The Insanity has a very crisp shot as well and feels great, but the draw cycle sold it to me. The draw is dead smooth, and it just rolls back into the valley and sits absolutely dead. Its so easy to hold stable it's incredible even without stabilisation, and the FLX guard takes all of the torque out of the handle, it has no twist at all.

Here she is, all dressed up with my usual fit!

The cams were synchronised and timed at the shop and the peep fitted for me, and i've set everything up and levelled the sight and 3rd axis. I've got a halfday off work on Wednesday so i'm headed up the club to spend some time tuning the centreshot and getting it all in line. I chrono'd the bow in Wales Archery and with my usual heavy field arrows (400 grain FMJ's) its doing 270fps at 56lb - my Guardian at 56lb with the same arrows does 255fps so its 15fps faster for the same draw weight!

I've got the rest of this week to get her tuned because this Friday is her debut. I'm off to Fort Purbrook in Portsmouth for thier weekend shoot, travelling down on Friday afternoon with friends and staying Friday and Saturday night in the dorms at the fort itself. It's a huge activity centre now with shots off the battlements, in underground tunnels in the holding cells etc and they have climbing walls/games rooms etc that are open to archers staying in the dorms in the evenings so it should be a great trip!

Welsh Field Masters Round 3 - big success!

Well, what an adventure this trip was!

Sunday 29th July saw Red Kite Archers host round 3 of the Welsh Field Masters tour at thier course in Broad Oaks, Carmarthenshire. Chris and I were both down for this one and he didn't have the car for the weekend so I drove us up to this one and thats where the fun begins..

We were driving down the A40, past Sennybridge onto the quiet rural stretch when the front passenger wheel starts shaking like crazy, a flat tyre. I barely had time to say 'awww b******s' before the tyre jumped the rim and dropped us on a steel rim at high speed! Stopped safely to find a destroyed rim smoking hot from the road! Jacked her up and we couldn't get the wheel off :( It was stuck fast on the hub so we had to call the AA out who used oil, leverage and sheer force to pop it off and put the spare on.

We always travel early to have time to get ready, eat breakfast and hit the practice targets for a bit without rushing so we had just enough time to make it. Parked up, got our bows assembled and gear on faster than I thought was humanly possible and jogged up the hill to the staging area just in time for target groups and the walk out onto the course... phew!

Hopefully that was all the bad luck used up for one day! :p

I was in an excellent group with seasoned pro's and  friends and had a fantastic day. The weather was on our side, a little overcast but mostly bright with a little sun. There was a moderate wind at the top end of the course on the longer shots that made them tricky. As I reached A-class a little while ago, this shoot was a chance to take a higher award so I was hoping to break 505 points for the Bowmaster rank and see where I could place among the other archers.

As you can see, the standard was high all day!

I had a strong round, reaching the last 2 targets with a nice margin to reach my goal. These targets were the longest distance walkups on the course, both downhill into a fair bit of wind blowing left/right. I made my adjustments for slope, and aimed off about mid-4 to the left to counter the wind and cleared the target with the full 20 points. This meant on my last target, I was at 500 points so only needed 5 from 4 arrows - piece of cake :)

The last target was also a long walkup in the same direction, same conditions. I lined up my shots and took my time and shot a perfect 20, finishing on 520 points! I was absolutely chuffed, I aced 2 of the hardest targets on the course at the end of a long tough day, finishing in 2nd place - smashing through Bowmaster... and hitting 520 which is the qualifying score for Senior Bowmaster! Result!! I am also in first place on the tournament leaderboard by a good margin for now!

I think the success on this shoot came from a change in my approach. I've always rocked up to the peg, lined up my shots and off they go. This time around, I took my time - assessing the shot before moving up and I made my sure my footing was solid. This made the most difference I think. I spent time 'digging in' and getting a solid base, and if the ground was sloped too much I build up a platform with branches/rocks to get level and it really made a world of difference in how easy it was to hold on target without wobbling.

All the fieldcraft and shooting skills I have been working on are really starting to come together and show in my scores. I can't wait for the next outing to see if I can build on this and push a further 10 points to hit the highest class possible of Grand Bowmaster. Fingers crossed!

Red Kite Summer Shoot

Hi everybody!

On Sunday 8th July, Milly from my club and I went up to Red Kite archers in Carmarthenshire for thier summer shoot. This was a FITA mixed round with 12 marked and 12 unmarked targets. It was a non record status shoot so quite quiet as all the big names were off at target championships that weekend but worth shooting to support a local club and get some vital practice in on unmarked targets!

The day went really well and I'm happy to report that my revised estimating system for working out distances paid off. Of the 12 unmarked only 1 gave me any real problems and aiming off brought the 2nd and 3rd arrows in. I nailed a 6 6 5 on a 55m unmarked as well which really made my day :) My bunny shots were pretty good as well with a 3 spot on the 20m bunny, I have yet to 18 a bunny so i'm going to make sure my close in marks are spot on before next time.

In the end I put in 342 with 42 golds 19 X's. Thats 2 points short of field Bowman level and 45 points on my pb from the Glamorgan in March, quite an increase in 3 months which shows the practice regime and form changes are having an effect!

I did notice that my long distance marks are out though and get progressively further out down the track. I confirmed this at practice on Friday shooting at very accurately measured targets. 50m hit gold on 52m, 70 at 75 and 90 went under the target and killed an arrow on the metal peg holding the frame down o_0

At field distances this isn't really evident but I've noticed I've had to overcook the long shots 55/60m by a metre or 2 to bring them in and the 90 yard shot in IFAA is always low so I've redone my sight marks and they line up against the old ones in what looks to be the right place. I've treated myself to a laser rangefinder with money from selling old arrows so I can get some very accurate measurements at next weeks practice and check them against my sight marks to make sure they are accurate as can be.

The next shoot now is an IFAA Hunter round at Red Kite again as it happens on the 29th. I know their course well now so there won't be any real surprises but I haven't shot the Hunter round yet with compound so I'm really looking forward to it, and those accurate marks and rangefinder will come in handy!

Welsh Field Masters Tour - Seconds out, round two!

Hi everybody!

This sunday was round 2 of the Welsh Field Masters Tour, a Marked Animal round hosted by Dinefwr Archers in Bishop's Mill, Llanwrda. I drove us up to the course and Chris and I arrived nice and early and got everything set up, leaving plenty of time for the traditional pre-shoot bacon butty!

I made a few last minute tweaks to make sure everything was ok, and had to move my sight pin slightly to get it spot on but was soon nailing the practice targets. Once everybody turned up, the groups were called and I was put with Chris and Colin on target 8. I've never shot the animal round before and my fears in the last post about difficulty making out the targets was unfounded. The targets are easy to see and the killzones are clearly marked so it was just a matter of picking a reference point on the animal and aiming at that.

Everything was going ok until target 3 which was a fairly long shot, on one of the smallest targets - a Meerkat with a very narrow body. I was a bit nervous and pulled my first shot wide and left, and my second arrow only wounded so I dropped 6 points. It set me on edge a little, but most of the other targets weren't as tricky and I had some very good shots during the course. My favorite being a 50 yard uphill shot along the river bank at a Moose target where I adjusted the angle perfectly and nailed the inner 'super-kill' area both times around!

Apart from the Meerkat target, the only target to give me any trouble was a steep 44 yard Wolf, shot at over 30 degrees downhill. On my first time around I wounded so dropped 2 more points, and on the second time around my arrow was high and on the line, so I moved forwards to take a second shot from the next peg at 41 yards. This arrow was a kill but on reaching the target the first arrow was in, so a first arrow wound was scored.  This picture was taken on the 41 yard closer peg, which is a bit shallower as the 44 yard is on a raised bank just out of frame on the right, so you can see the kind of angle we're talking about!

Chris had a bad target in the first half and dropped 10 points behind but Colin and I were neck and neck all day, overtaking the other by 2 points and then levelling etc, so the pressure was on to keep the standard high and not give any quarter. I dropped 2 points giving Colin the lead on target 20 leaving 8 more targets to catch up. We matched each others arrows shot for shot for 7 targets and came up on the last, a steep 30 yard downhill on a wild cat with 2 points in it.

I was up first, took my shot and nailed a comfortable kill shot. Colin was up next, a kill would secure a win and a wound would draw. He took his shot and the arrow fell short, landing low on the outer line. It was unclear if it was in or not so he took a second shot about an inch higher in the wound area.... We climbed down to check the scores, and Colins first arrow was just outside the line by about 2mm, so he scored a second arrow wound, dropping 4 points and giving me the win by 2 on the last arrow!

My first WFAA win with Compound, shooting a 548/560, I was absolutely over the moon! I was called up and collected my award and we all said a big thank you to Dinefwr for hosting a fantastic shoot. It was a very rewarding day and an excellent experience, I like the animal round and will definitely look forward to shooting one again now that I have a personal best to beat!

Trigger Troubles

Shooting my Guardian, I use a Merlin MAC Victory 3 release. It's a lovely bit of kit but I recently tried out a Carter release which are higher quality and I was quite surprised at the difference in the feel. The action was a lot more polished and the trigger smoother. I haven't got the money at the moment to buy a Carter (£150+) so I thought to myself OK, you must be able to improve the MAC one a little so I went to work on it.

Firstly I opened the case, which was a job and a half because of how snug the components fit. Upon checking, the trigger sear and levers were gunked in a heavy grease that had gotten quite dirty so that must be slowing things down a bit, and the trigger pressure spring is stiff as a board, even with the adjuster backed out completely. I removed all of the components and gave them a bit of a clean. Here's a pic of what the inside of the release looks like with the casing off...

 Once it was cleaned I reassembled it and  used a quality bearing lubricant from a skating shop on the pivots. The trigger spring was far too stiff as I mentioned, and as I do not have any other springs I took a drastic step and cut about 1/3rd off it.
What can I say, it's like a totally different release! It cocks incredibly smoother than before and the trigger feels fantastic, with much less pressure needed to release. I tried it out at the club and it's amazing now, I think i'll stick with this one for a while longer before changing to a Carter or a Stan :)

The next shoot for me now is on Sunday at Dinefwr Archers in Llanwrda, a marked animal round. I have never shot this round before and it will be quite strange shooting at animal pictures to hit the 'killzones' instead of at circular targets. Bruno and I shot some of these at the club at various distances to get a feel for it and it is very different.

The earthy colours of the animals is harder to pick out through the scope, and you have to select a point on the animal to aim at rather than the middle of rings so a lot more care has to be taken in aiming and i'll need my stronger glasses! The shoot promises bad weather and lighting so this may make it a bit trickier, but in practice I was nailing killshots on almost all arrows so I should be ok. It's a high scoring round i'm told, and since I am now A Class if I have a good day, I may be able to claim an incentive award... here's hoping!

The next post will be the post-shoot review, fingers crossed :)

Good result at the Welsh Field Masters round 1!

Hi everybody!

The first round of the Welsh Field Masters was on May 27th at Zenith Archers' field course in Hay On Wye. Comrade Bruno drove us both down to this one in some of the best weather we have had this year. It had been amazingly sunny for days with blazing temperatures, so plenty of sun block was on the cards, as well as silly hats!

We rocked up to the course and got set up and loosed a few on the practice butts to make sure everything was settled, and then we went out on the course in our groups. We got to shoot together with 2 of our friends so we had excellent company all day and there was plenty of cover from the trees so we didn't catch the sun that badly!

This was the competition debut of my new FMJ's and grip, so I focussed on keeping my bow hand consistent and tried to maintain a strong shot. My personal best for an IFAA round is 501 and I shot a first half of 255 so I was on the right track, but now the pressure was on for the second half. Fatigue becomes a bit of an issue in the second half due to the number of targets/arrows from what I am normally accustomed to shooting but I had already shot the same targets in the first half, so knew the little tricks for each target so could balance this out. I finished the shoot with all hits (woohoo!) and a second half score of 256, scraped in with one point higher :)

 Final score 511 which I was absolutely chuffed to bits with! It was my second 500+ score so I am now in the A-Class which is the higher banding, result! It was a qualifying score so it can't be used to claim a higher incentive unfortunately (you need to already be A-class to do that) but it was a BowMaster level score so I know I am capable of that rank now. I came in 3rd place in the compound division, and the 2 archers that beat me are both register Pro's so i've got my work cut out there!

Overall I had a really strong day with some fantastic groups and performances on some of the targets. I had to get a picture of this one for bragging rights lol!

Mr Bruno had a strong day's shooting as well, putting a lot of the changes to his form into practice and securing his second 400+ score with plenty of margin to get B class under his belt. There was one unfortunate incident with a slip in a riverbed crossing that saw a hard landing, and the string derail off the cams on his bow - but fortunately he wasn't injured apart from a knocked shin, the bow wasnt damaged and it was on the way back from the last target so we re-assembled the bow (gotta love Bowtech's no-press-required takedown) , carefully tested it and he has now retuned it at the club.

So there we are! A good time was had by all with great results and excellent weather, leading to a happy satisfied drive home and a big Indian takeaway as a reward!

The next shoot now is on Jun 24th, stage 2 of the Masters Tour at Dinefwr.. bring it on! 

New toys!

I had a bit of disposable income this month, so I decided to treat myself to a few things on my archery wishlist ;)

First on the agenda was new stabilisers. I've been using W&W HMC's from my old Recurve and while they do the job, they aren't built for the shock of a Compound and there was some wobble/vibration in them that's bothering me. I looked at different options and chose set of SF Elite Carbons. They have a profile like FUSE Blades, but with a bulge in the centre to stiffen them while keeping the weight down. A Pro shooter at my club recommended them and let me try his, and I was impressed so ordered myself some. I debuted those at the Red Kite shoot and they performed brilliantly, they hold dead still and there is no vibration on the shot - mission accomplished!

Next on the list was new arrows. I've been using 3-39 ACC's and while they are a very good arrow, they are on the chunky side and affected by wind easily. I wanted something skinny and heavy to cut through wind so went looking. I preferred Navigators with Recurve and spotted Alt Services had Navigator Full Metal Jacket's on sale as they are discontinued so I snapped up a dozen! The Nav FMJ is a brilliant arrow, very thin and strong because of an alluminium outer skin over a carbon core (which is covered in deckplate graphic which looks awesome!) but this makes them a bit heavy. Coming out of a 56lb compound, speed isnt an issue and I still get excellent marks. I've switched to these now and have accurate marks, and will be debuting them at the Welsh Masters which starts in a week - I cant wait :)

Next was a new grip on my Guardian. I love this bow but the grip has always made me envious of newer bows. On the Guardian, the part that sits against the hand is rounded and prone to torque, unlike almost any new bow which has a flat handle that sits dead in the hand. I found several companies that make flat grips for this bow, but fell in love with the grips at www.torqueless.com and ordered one. I ordered a medium wrist grip, in the Timber Wolf colour wood with a bit of custom engraving on it, and have fitted it - check it out...

The flat back is extremely comfortable, and the extended top makes consistent placement a walk in a the park. I have had the chance to shoot this now for a few hours and it's a different beast! It's easy to hold, very stable and nigh on impossible to torque left or right. Oh, and if you are wondering why it says Vasquez - that's my bow's name. It was nicknamed that at the club after the character from Aliens because, like Vasquez, she's a viscious bitch! :)

The final thing then was a new quiver. I've always used a Gompy Elite leather quiver which is built like a brick outhouse, but it is large and quite heavy and has been getting on my nerves. I shoot field and its heavy (over 1kg empty) and flops about, hitting my legs when i'm climbing so I have replaced it with an Easton field quiver which is half the size, a third of the weight and a lot more comfortable to wear.

Bit of a spending spree!

Hi everybody!

Since the last post, I shot a marked round at the Red Kite Spring Shoot, hosted by Red Kite Archers in Llanwrdda. This was my first full round since making the changes to my form as the last shoot was chopped to a short course due to the appalling weather conditions. I drove down to the shoot with my shooting comrade Chris, and we were both looking forward to a nice day's shooting. The weather was on our side for a change, cloudy with some sunny spells so the shorts stayed on! But most importantly, the wind was fairly light.

It was a really challenging course, I've shot on harder but I would put it down as 4/5 on difficulty with some very tricky shots due to steep angles and harsh lighting conditions. I had a fairly moderate first half, but improved in the second half to finish on 314. My previous FITA personal best was 297 and that was on a Mixed round which is easier, the Marked round is a harder shoot so I was pleased with raising the bar by 17 points on the more difficult round.

This score is also 2 points into FITA Field First Class so I have achieved that level now. This was also a personal victory, as it was my first field shoot with all 72 arrows as scoring hits! Something always comes up like a miss on a bunny, or aiming at the wrong target on a 4-face etc but I kept my head in the game and pulled it off. So we have a new PB, 1st ever First Class score and first round with no misses.

All-told, a productive day! :)

Adventures with Peppa Pig, and the Chris Farr Memorial Shoot

It's been a busy weekend!

On Saturday, we had to clear the attic of all the detritus and general junk that we have accumulated in the years since moving in (and a lot of stuff that went straight up there when we moved in!) as we are having loft insulation and draught proofing installed by the energy company on Monday. This was a bit of a trial, but my wife decided she wanted to do it as she has a kids enthusiasm for going up in the attic, and since she is small enough to stand up without having to bend over - I gallantly decided to let her get on with it and she did an absolutely sterling job of clearing it down - go you!

In the afternoon then after we were all cleaned up, Erin's grandparent's took her for a few hours so we could take Daniel to Peppa Pigs Treasure Hunt in St David's Hall! He absolutely loved it! He was shouting along with the puppets and actors, singing the songs and laughing his head off at the jokes, it went down an absolute treat and he loves his Peppa Pig book and light spinner we got him there :)

Today was the second round of the Chris Farr Memorial Shoot at my home club, Pentref Bowmen so I went up there to shoot the 24 target Marked round. The weather was absolutely was absolutely atrocious! Driven rain and VERY high wind all night beforehand bringing down trees and sending wheelie bins for a walk down the road... ours went down the stairs upside down and tried to escape, the broken gate luckily jamming itself in the way!

I'm surprised the shoot went ahead at all but given the conditions, the top half of our course was impassable and so they hurriedly redesigned it to a 12 target course and we shot that instead. It was my first time shooting Compound in the rain and I wanted to keep as much rain off my scope as possible, cue some redneck engineering - MacGuyver style with scissors, a pop bottle and some elastic bands to make a scope hood!

Despite the awful weather, I did fairly well as it happens. The changes in my form and grip I put into practice recently paid off and I finished on a 153 with all arrows hits. I've only ever done one FITA field round before this one and it was in nice conditions, and the best half was 154 so the improvements I've made in the months since are apparent if I can shoot that kind of score in such bad conditions. Make no mistake, I am not exaggerating at all - today was by far the worst condition I have ever shot in, and some of the worst weather I have ever been outside in. My score was in the same kind of area as a lot of the really experienced compounders, so I was very happy with the end result and I am improving steadily.

I'm looking forward to my next field shoot where I can put these improvements into practice on a full 24 target course in hopefully halfway decent weather!

Well, where to start... I suppose the beginning is as good a place as any!

I'm Neil, father of 2 amazing kids Daniel and Erin and husband of the most caring and loving wife in the world - Paula. I'm an average joe kinda guy but I do have some pretty strange quirks! For one, I like juggling and poi spinning (fire poi too!), and have tried my hand at unicycle at open evenings with the NoFitState Circus. I'm also a minimalist, sometimes barefoot runner and when i'm not barefoot, I live in some pretty strange shoes called Vibram FiveFingers which have seperate toes and no padding/heel so it feels like you are barefoot. I'm well known for these and for being a bit of a hippy/alternative, they've become part of my personality and people react in shock if I'm seen in normal shoes now! We all love being outside and go camping/hiking as much as possible and go on trips to various educational places quite often, such as museums, caves, national parks etc and get cabin fever if we haven't gone out somewhere on a day off!

As you can probably tell from the title of the blog - my main hobby, sport and passion is archery.I've been tempted to start a blog for a long time now as I always come back from a competition, or a night tinkering with my bow up the club and think the days findings would make a good post, so here we are! Archery will be the main focus of my blog but there will be other topics touched on as we go but i'll start with a bit of history on how I got started.

I've always enjoyed shooting, and have shot air rifles and airsoft guns (plastic BB) for many years since my early teens, and toyed around  with some cheap plastic bows when I was younger. I'd fancied trying archery properly but never really looked into it with any effort. In 2006 my wife and I went on holiday to Bulgaria and there was an archery 'have-a-go' on the beach opposite the hotel where it was 1 lev (about 30p at the time) for 6 arrows. I noticed they had some bows I had never seen before with all manner of strange bits attached to them which I now know as stabilisers and sights and had to try them out! With a bit of brief safety instruction, I loosed my first arrow and I was hooked! I absolutely loved it and kept going back to the guy constantly and had a great time shooting the different types of bow he had.

As soon as we got back to the UK, I checked the net and found my archery club nearby, Pentref Bowmen. I signed up for the beginners course, completed it, joined and bought my first bow - a wooden trainer recurve with a plastic sight and i've never looked back! I tried the Barebow style briefly but enjoyed shooting with a sight more, so stuck with that and gradually upgraded my equipment and began to advance in my ability and skill. I shot for Wales in the European Field Archery Championships and ranked 14th in Recurve in 2009, and joined the Glamorgan Archery Squad in early 2010 and shot with them competitively for a year before deciding to take a bit of time out from competitions. I moved to traditional archery and shot a Korean bow with a thumbring style draw for about a year to relax, but before long the itch to play with something technical was overwhelming and I decided to go to the dark side and buy a Compound bow...

I've had a bit of a love affair with the Bowtech Guardian since I saw one and shot it in 2008, and I had the offer of a black marble one for an excellent price on the archery forum I frequent. I couldn't resist so I drummed up the funds and treated myself! This is the bow  I am shooting in the background photo of the blog. She is an absolute beast, very fast and accurate and i've been shooting compound for about 6 months now. In those months I have advanced quite well and found the bowstyle that seems to suit me the most! I have only shot a few competitions so far but am already seeing successes, on my first competition with it I scored 297/300, only missing out on 3rd place by 5 x's. Since then I have taken 2 silver medals at indoor shoots, and a 3rd place at my last Field shoot so it's going quite well!

My next competition is this weekend. It's a 2 day shoot but I can only make the Sunday, so I won't place no matter how well I shoot but I can still take a classification score from the round, I only hope the weather is on our side! It's meant to be awful with heavy rain forecast all day but shooting in the rain doesn't bother me, i've been there before and have good quality waterproofs for it! This will  only be my 2nd FITA field round since switching to Compound. On my last one, my goal was to break 300 points and I scored 297 which was dissapointing. I've made lots of changes so hope to break that barrier and start climbing, but this is a marked 24 round which is considered harder than the mixed round I shot 297 on, and the weather may be against us so we will see what happens... wish me luck!