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!
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