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!