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!