Chippenham Archers Mixed FITA, and testing the Brigadier

Hi everybody! It’s been a little while since the last update so here it is. The last competition I shot was a mixed FITA round at Chippenham Archers on the 8^th of September.

I don’t shoot a lot of FITA rounds so it would be a nice change of pace, and as it was a mixed round there are 12 unmarked targets which will be good practice for the unmarked round of the FITA Welsh Championships at the end of the month.  It would also be a good opportunity to test out the new Bohning Blazer nocks that I have switched to.

A few of us from my club went down there and I was very impressed with Chippenham Archer’s facilities. They have storage units for all their equipment and toilet facilities, right next to a 150 yard field for target archery and their field course in the woods that border it – a very versatile location!

As their field course is only 12 targets, we shot 12 unmarked targets and when we broke for dinner, the work party went out to make some adjustments and put out the marked pegs. This was a little unusual but it was a small shoot and it was turned around quickly.

In the morning I shot an unmarked half of 191 which I was very happy with, but I dropped a few points in the afternoon finishing on 183 for a final score of 374. I am convinced that some of the targets were further away than stated as I know my marks are accurate, but on everything further than about 40m everything went low. 

On the 50m target I put in a tight group at the bottom edge of the spot with some out which equates to about a 2m error. On my way around the course then I bumped into a friend who said he noticed that the long targets are all out by 2-3m himself. When I got to the 55m target I checked and all of the arrow holes in the face were low so I overcooked it by 3m shooting it on my 58m mark and scored a 6/5/5 all in.

You are not allowed to carry electronic devices on FITA rounds so I did not have my rangefinder with me, but I wish I had so I could have verified the distances. For 2 of us to both notice that the targets are longer than stated would suggest a measuring issue and not our sight marks are at fault.

Even so, my shooting was consistent and I cleaned up on the closer targets and finished in first place, narrowly scraping through by 4 points so it was a close one! 

I was really happy with how the bow performed after making the tiller adjustments and resetting the timing, it sounds normal again now and was nice and stable to shoot so I am confident it is set up properly, and any misses or fliers are because of the person pulling the string! My next field shoot now is the final of the Welsh Masters on the 22^nd in a few days time which I am ahead on the leader board for so fingers crossed! 

Now that I know the Insanity is set up properly I took the opportunity to shoot the Brigadier now that it’s ready.  I shot a few arrows through it to settle everything down and checked the draw weight. I cranked it up to 55lb what I normally shoot, but this bow feels better to shoot and follows through nicer a few pounds less, so I set it to about 53.5.

As this draw weight the draw cycle is smoother and the shot feels clean, not so harsh. I am using 2314’s with 190gn points as well which may be slightly too weak for 55lb anyway and they seem to come out of the bow cleaner at this weight. It’s only ever going to be shot at 18m/20 yards anyway so that draw weight is more than enough.

It only took a few adjustments and it was shooting well in no time, nailing 5X ends on the IFAA indoor face and once set I didn’t put a single arrow out of the spot so I think we have a good indoor bow on our hands! She still needs some work around stabilisation/balance, and the peep is also rotating but not by much. I will continue twisting the peep every shot to try and ‘train’ it into staying straight as you can do, but if it doesn’t settle within the next few sessions I will just add/remove a twist to the string to settle it.

The only thing I am undecided on it what to do about the arrow rest. I originally had my Trophy Taker 1 on it with a wide Launchtec blade but this is so wide it is causing fletch contact. I have popped my TT2 rest from the Guardian on it for now and fitted my spare Launchtec 2 hole narrow blade and this is shooting well, but these are quite heavy arrows and the blade is sagging a bit.  For now I have put my .014 narrow steel blade on it and will test it with that the next time I shoot it, and see how it performs.

Field Masters Round 4

Hi everybody!

Sunday the 18th of August was round 4 of the Welsh Field Masters Tour, and this one was a Hunter round at Fonmon. The weather forecast wasn’t too bad, but it had rained for 2 solid days before the shoot and North course at Fonmon is slippery at the best of times, so it was going to be tricky!

We arrived and got signed in/set up in good time, I verified my marks were good and then we went out in our groups onto the course. As expected the course was very slippery,  I almost went over a few times and a few people had a hard landing sliding down the slopes!

All was going well until we reached the bottom part of the course which is under heavy tree cover. The lighting was terrible, and it was very hard to see the targets through the scope. A few targets had us stood in light, shooting into shaded areas and I accidentally shot an X on the wrong face on a walk-up losing 5 points - oops!

I made a good comeback though in the afternoon and put in a stronger score. My favourite moment though was the second chance at Target 1. This is a 64/70 yard (depending on the round) walk-up, shooting downhill at near 30 degrees. It is Fonmon's trademark shot and is very difficult - so you can imagine how pleased I was when I scored XXX5 and cleared the full 20 points on it - result!

 

In the end I finished up on 528 and took the gold for stage 4! It would’ve been a 533 had I shot that X on the right target. Fonmon North is considered one of the toughest courses in the WFAA at the moment so I was really happy with my score, even with the mistake.

Coming out of the shoot, I was pleased with my shooting but I wanted to check things over as the bow is making a bit more noise than usual on the shot and feels like it is kicking. I found the problem to be the tiller. I was changing tiller a while ago to find the best balance and found the top limb was wound in 2/3 of a turn more than the bottom. I levelled them both and then added about 1/8 of a turn to the top limb to get it to my usual sweet spot and it sounds and feels better now, nailing tight groups and shooting well.

On the subject of bow tuning, the Bowtech Brigadier is coming together nicely! My friend Dave cleared out all the overspray from the threads so I could reassemble it properly, and Kevin at Wales Archery Specialists has made me a new set of strings for it.

This is what it’s looking like now fully assembled, but with the old strings still on it. The new ones are black with red end serving.

I also bought a new set of indoor arrows while I was in Wales Archery. My 2315's are a little beat up, and they are spined to be shot out of the much faster Insanity CPXL. The Brigadier is a slower bow, so I grabbed a dozen 2314's with slightly lighter points. These will give me optimum spine at my usual 55-56lb but in a correct length arrow (not a huge overhang) and be a fair bit lighter so I will reclaim a little speed.

 

I am trying the new Gas-Pro indoor points with these, and I have ditched my Super Nock - G Nock reducers and will be trying the Easton Microlite Super nocks. These will be more consistent and they are nice and minimal, not huge like the regular Super nocks that I do not like using.

 

 

The fletches have arrived for them (red 4" Bohning Killer Vanes) and I have ordered a new clamp for my jig to put them on with a helical twist instead of just offset, to see if that makes them more stable. I will be fletching these up when the clamp arrives and will start the tuning process then to get the Brigadier up to spec ready for the winter indoor season.

 

I still have a few field shoots left to go before this though, the next ones being a mixed FITA round in a weeks time, the final round of the Welsh Field Masters Tour shortly afterwards and then the FITA Welsh Championships so plenty to keep me busy until then!

New Target - The Block Black

Hi everybody!

My layered foam garden target has been out in the elements for 6 years and has taken an absolute beating in that time. I must have put 20-30k shots into it over that time and it has been rebanded and ratcheted down more times than i can count.

Its finally given up the ghost though, and even with the softer boss I was given by a friend behind it I am burying arrows in it up the nocks or getting pass-throughs quite often. The time has come to get a new target! Enter the Block Black...

 

The Block Black is made by Field Logic in the USA and comes in a variety of sizes. I went for a middle sized one at 18" and it is bigger than I expected in the flesh. It cost £92 so it is a bit pricey, but if it performs up to its claims and the reviews I have read all over the net it will be worth the investment.

The  BB target is essentially a cube of a high density self healing foam, with a central core similar to a layered target but under high compression and fused together with Field Logic's patented 'Poly-Fusion' process. It has an inset solid carry handle at the top and is fairly light for its size so it is very portable to move around or take with you if you want to go mobile!

Regular faces can be pinned to it, but it already has high contrast targets stencilled onto the 4 shootable sides. 4 of them are multi-dot patterns and one side has an animal target showing the vitals as this is from the US market, and is aimed primarily at bow hunters.

A nice feature is that all of the  multi dots are offset from the ones on the opposite sides. This means once a side is completely shot out and you turn it, the new dots are over fresh foam so you can shoot out 4 targets in one.

So - stopping power...

I was a little short on time and didn't have chance to set up my full Unlimited rig, so I grabbed my Bow Hunter gear to test it. This is a Bowtech Guardian shooting ACC's, 56lb at about 280fps. I popped the target halfway up my garden steps so it was being shot very close, from about 5-6 yards and I was impressed with its performance.

The arrows don't thump or whack into it, they seem to be slowed down gently and still had plenty of material behind them. If it can stop them that well, at that speed from that close then I have lots of confidence with it. This was in the thinnest orientation as well, if you shoot the other sides you get another few inches of target behind them for extra stopping power.

Arrow extraction was as easy as they claim, the arrows slide out nice and easy.  I only had time to shoot about 2 dozen arrows into it so it got 4-5 arrows in each spot and they were all stopped well. In a training session I normally shoot 5-6 dozen so that will only be about 12 arrows per spot per session. At that rate I should get a lot of use out of each spot before they start getting soft, and then I will just change sides. Once all 4 sides are eventually shot out, I will stencil new spots onto it in the unused areas. I can see this lasting a long time!

Before I put it away, I couldn't resist having a pop at the animal target on it - especially considering I was holding a Bowhunter style bow...

Got him!




So only a quick session to try it out, but so far I am impressed with the quality, finish and stopping power of this Block Black target. The various surfaces and offset spots should offer a long target life and value for money. I will post a follow up to this review in a couple of weeks once I have shot several training sessions on the target, and report in on how it is holding up.

Thanks for looking!

UKIFAC - The UK & Ireland Field Archery Championships 2013

Hi everybody!

The weekend of 3/4^th of August was the UK & Ireland Field Archery Championships, hosted by Forest Spirit Archers in Kirkcaldy, Fife.... the big one!

The WFAA fielded a large team this year, and I was part of the group that travelled up together on the minibus to the event. We all met up early on Friday morning, loaded up and hit the road! It’s a good thing that we left early, the traffic in the midlands was atrocious and it took 11 and half hours to reach the hotel! We got booked in, gear stowed and went out for dinner and a few drinks to wind down after such a long trip.

 

In the morning, we all met up and went to the course in the minibus and met up with the rest of the Welsh team who had travelled down by themselves. Once we had registered and got our welcome packs and scorecards, I went to the practice butts to check everything over. I’m glad I did this as I identified that my shots were all going low, good groups but mostly 4's instead of the spot for any given distance. I ran out of practice time before I could sort it properly and we went into our groups and out onto the course for the first round.

one of the wood carvings out on the course

 

On the first day, I was shooting a Hunter round on the East course. I started off with a 19 but they were all still low, skirting the bottom edge of the spot. In the few targets that followed I shot 2 x 17’s before I identified what had happened. At some point on the journey down, my bag must have been crushed and my arrow rest had been pushed down just slightly. I loosened it and moved it back up a touch, literally less than a mm and locked it back down.

In the 13 targets that followed I only dropped 5 points, scoring 255 out of a possible 260 so that definitely did the trick! I kept this kind of performance up for most of the round, with a few 18’s near the end on the longer shots and those that were exposed to the wind. The wind was quite harsh all weekend but the courses were in dense woodland so only a few targets really felt it.

Really nice shot through the trees - literally!
 

 

In the end, I finished the Hunter round on 536 points – a new pb by 2 points which put me into first place going into day 2! I was absolutely over the moon with this performance, and I feel sure that if my rest had been in the right place at the start, and if I hadn’t deflected a shot off another archer’s arrow into the 4 ring that I might have hit 540!

We all retreated back to the hotel to get cleaned up, changed and we went back out for dinner at the same pub as on Friday night. I had plenty to drink, a fantastic curry and a great evening!

Cyril John, President of the WFAA

I think we'd had a few too many at this stage!

Posing on the Glenrothes monument!

 

We all met up in the morning again, nursing our sore heads from the night before, and got the minibus loaded up with everything for the long drive home after the shoot. We arrived in plenty of time on day 2 and I went back onto the practice butts to verify everything was ok this time around.

We were split into target groups by ranking and I was in the top group, shooting head to head with the other archers contending for the top spots. We had a good day shooting together and the competition was tight. We were at each other’s heels all day and there were only a few points in it towards the end. We were grouping so tightly that on the shared targets we kept shooting nocks and fletches off, and one of the archers in our group was down to his last useable arrows when we finished!

Getting crowded on the 50 yard target

The standard of shooting was very high at this tournament
 

 

We finished the round and the scores went in, and there was a bit of a delay before the award ceremony as the Pro shooters were still on the course. When it was all finished and the results were announced, I was absolutely thrilled to find out that I had finished in second place and had taken the silver medal in AMFU! First place was taken by Daniel Rae who shot extremely well and deserved the win, and third place went to Dennis Groom.

Now for the best part...once the final awards had been given, they announced the results of the Home Nations Challenge. To compete in this, each country must field a team of 2 x Compound, 2 x Recurve, a BowHunter and a Historical archer and I was one of the compound archers selected by out team captain at the start of the event.

 

All the scores are added and the highest cumulative score wins. The results were read out, and Wales took the top spot by a commanding lead! We were all called up and presented with a gold medal and Gary Hart, the team captain called the whole Welsh squad together for a team photo with the trophy.

 

 

This was an incredible achievement, and it is the first time that Wales have brought the Home Nations trophy home since 1992 – the first win in 21 years! Mat Symmonds and Cyril John, VP and President of the WFAA congratulated the whole team on our most successful UKIFAC turnout in memory, with 7 new champions and many more silver and bronze medallists as well as the Home Nations win.

It took about 9 hours to get home because of some bad weather slowing us down on the motorway, and we arrived back in South Wales in the early hours of Monday morning, but spirits were high and we all considered it to be an incredible trip.

All in all, a very successful weekend that will be hard to top!

 

The Welsh & Open Field Archery Championships 2013

Hi everybody!

It's been quite a while since I shot this, but I forgot to update my blog!

The weekend of 29/30^th of June was the Welsh & Open Field Archery Championships, hosted by Llantwit Major Archers at Fonmon Castle. It was a 2 day shoot, shooting an IFAA Hunter round on Saturday and the Field round on Sunday. We went down nice and early on the Saturday and got a few practice ends in to verify my marks and make sure everything was good, and then grabbed a spot of breakfast before the groups were called and we went out onto the course.

The Hunter round was shot on the South course and the weather was actually really good for us! It started off slightly overcast, but this lifted and it was nice and sunny all day. The ground was fairly dry and easy going compared to usual, so footing on the targets was ok. I shot a good round, with consistent performance between the halves, shooting 266 in the first half and picking up 2 more points for 268 in the second. This put me on a final score of 534!

This is a new PB for the hunter round by 8 points, my second GBM score and the highest IFAA score I have shot to date! I was absolutely thrilled with this result, and it put me in joint 1^st place with David Home, a professional archer who also finished on 534 so the shooting was going to be tight on Sunday.

Shooting the 53 yard walk-up

On the Sunday we started slightly earlier, and were split into groups based on bow style and position so I was shooting with David and the other AMFU archers, and  the pressure was on. Fatigue is always an issue on the second day with stiff shoulders and tired backs. I didn’t shoot any practice arrows and I think this was a mistake as my first few targets felt difficult to shoot and were a bit shaky.

Because of this I dropped points early on (10 points on the first 5 targets) which dented my score too much to recover from. Once I got up to par I shot the rest of the round fairly well but because of the poor start I finished up on 522 points.

The results went in and David Home took the win by 7 points, and I finished in second place by a comfortable margin and came away with the silver medal! I am really pleased with the results – a silver medal, picked up my GBM patch from 2 weeks ago, and shot a new Hunter and all-time PB.

So lessons learned for this weekend – get more rest the night before day 2, eat/drink more healthily between the shoots (I doubt the Chinese takeaway and ale did me any favours!) and make use of the practice targets to warm up before going back out to get on a roll before you start scoring.

Equipment wise I am really happy with how the CPXL is shooting now. The new strings are settled in and shooting very nicely indeed and I seem to have everything dialled in. It is holding steady and putting arrows in the X from 20 feet to 80 yards, so long as I shoot it properly so it can be left alone now.

I don’t have any tournaments on for a little while, so I am going to use this time to have a bit of a play with my other bows. I haven’t shot my Guardian in a little while so I will take that up the club to have some fun with, and my Brigadier is in the middle of a makeover!

It was matt black and a bit worn from its previous owners so I had it stripped and powder coated. I always liked the look of the Specialist in the limited edition gloss-white, so I had my Brigadier done in that colour.

I am in the process of refitting the various components but the coaters didn’t mask off the threads as they were supposed to, and the arrow rest/sight mount threads are caked up. You can’t get the screws in them and the rest one rounded off the first thread, but one of my friends has a set of taps so he can clear the threads for me. I am going to pop round to his place in a few days and get it sorted. Once that’s done then I can reassemble it properly and tune her up ready to use in the next indoor season.

Classification round at Fonmon

Hi everybody!

On Sunday the 16^th of June, Llantwit Major Archers hosted a classification round at their course at Fonmon Castle. It was a Field round, standard 28 targets shot to IFAA rules. The weather forecast was terrible for the weekend, but I made the decision to go anyway. I needed to test out my new strings in the field and make sure my sight marks are accurate and everything is ready for the Welsh Championships in 2 weeks.

We got there and it was just starting to rain, and by the time we got everything geared up and went onto the course it was raining steadily and it kept it up all day. I have good waterproofs though, and I don’t mind shooting in the rain – it is good practice and you need to be prepared for when it happens on serious tournaments.

After the first few targets, I discovered that my peep was too high so I needed to move it down about 1/16^th of an inch and that of course moved my sight marks. It took another 3-4 targets to get everything dialled in so I dropped a few points but that was to be expected testing a new setup, and I finished the first half on 261.

In the second half though, I shot well and with the adjustments it was the best performance I have ever put in, even with the rain. I finished the second half on a new PB for a half of 269, for a final score of 530!

At last! I have reached the 530 that I have been chasing, which now puts me into the highest rank under WFAA of Grand Bow Master. I have sent off the claim form and score card and had confirmation that it has been received, so I will receive my GBM patch at the Welsh Champs in 2 weeks to go with my BM and SBM ones – full house!

Looking back on the shoot, I am very impressed with how well the Insanity is shooting with the new strings. It took the first quarter of the course to get the bow dialled in so my first half was down a few points, and in the second half I shot 2 x 17’s because my longest marks were out. All of this was shot in very poor weather as well, so the chances are if the bow was set up correctly at the start and the weather was better, I may have been closer to 540 than 530!

The Welsh & Open Championships are on the 29/30^th of June and are being shot on the same course, and I am now familiar with the ground so I am hoping for a fairly good result.  I won’t have time beforehand to check my longest marks but with the changes I have made they should have come in a bit more so fingers crossed!

String Change

Hi all!

I’ve had my Insanity CPXL for almost a year now, and have really put it through its paces. As a rough estimate, I would say the factory Octane strings it came with have had about 10-12000 shots through them and they are getting a bit shot out and fuzzy. The time has come for a new set of strings!

I bought a bow-press recently so that I can work on my own equipment and change strings/fine tune so I got in touch with Kevin Weller at Wales Archery Specialists who sorted me out with a set of custom strings for my CPXL in hot pink and black that I could fit and set up myself.

They are superb quality, with tight serving and smooth even tension throughout. The clear-served sections for the roller guard looks perfect with the stripes visible through it and the end loops are small and tight. One of the bottom speed nocks has ‘WELLER STRINGS & CABLES’ on it, a really nice personal touch.

I was a little bit nervous as this was my first full harness change on a compound, so I took measurements of everything before making any changes. I have always known that my CPXL is slightly too long ATA (just shy of 1/8”) but everything on it was in time and it shoots very well so I lived with it. Upon taking it down I measured the strings on it and found that they are ever so slightly too long, which explains the ATA error.

I checked Kevin’s strings and they were spot on the factory spec, so I went to work setting them up. It was easy enough to install them and then it is a matter of adjusting the cables by twisting to get the timing marks lined up, and then adjusting the yoke legs to get the cam lean back to how it is supposed to be. Once this was all done, I installed the peep sight and checked the ATA – bang on!

I fitted a rough D loop and shot a few dozen arrows through it to settle everything in, made sure everything was in the right place and fitted a permanent nock point/loop. I checked the draw weight was still correct and shot a dozen arrows through the chrono which is showing 285 fps, about 10fps faster than before – result!

I printed off sight marks to match the new speed and fitted them, and did some tuning at the club to get things lined up. Here is the results of paper tuning once i’d adjusted the cam lean with the new strings, and a group shot at 35 yards..



Paper tear at 5 yards - perfect bullethole!




35 yard group - not bad!



Not bad! I’ve only been able to check my marks back to 35 yards but everything seems to be ok. There is a classification round at Fonmon shortly which will be a nice road test of the new config, no awards or pressure just shooting for a score and to see how the bow performs. It’s also 2 weeks before the Welsh Champs so time for final tweaks before the big one!

The FITA All British Championships

Hi everybody!

This weekend was the FITA All British & Open Championships at Pentref Bowmen. This was a 2 day tournament, shooting a FITA 24 Unmarked round on Saturday, and a Marked round on Sunday.

The weather for this shoot was absolutely stunning! We had sun all day with only minor cloud cover on Saturday, and on Sunday we had glorious sunshine all day – and not a breath of wind all weekend! Definitely the best shooting conditions that we have had all season.

On Saturday I arrived nice and early and got everything set up, had a good breakfast and shot 2 dozen or so arrows on the practice targets to get warmed up. We got into our groups and were led out onto the unmarked course.

On the unmarked round, you shoot 24 targets at various distances but none of the distances are given – you need to estimate and work out the distances which can make many of the shots quite tricky.  I have a system whereby I can estimate the distance depending on how much of the target I can see through my scope. This worked well for most of the targets, with only 2 targets catching me out when I shot high 3’s. As I had misjudged the distance, I didn’t know how much to adjust the sight to bring them in so I just aimed off the same amount and put the remaining arrows in the gold.

I had a great day with some strong shooting, and finished on a new personal best for the Unmarked round of 385 – up 24 points from my previous best of 361! I haven’t shot the Unmarked round for about 6 months which explains the big jump, but this was a great result – it was my first Master Bowman level score (377+) and was over the threshold to get my next Arrowhead badge so I put in the claim form.

Day 2 was the  Marked round, shot on a different course of 24 targets again but this time the distances are given. Contrary to what you may think, the marked round is usually harder as even though you are told the range, the targets are further away. I had a fairly good first half, and a new personal best for a half in the afternoon with 197 finishing on a total of 381 for the marked round - another MB score!

The results were announced once the courses had been cleared and all scores submitted, and I ranked in 4th place at the British Field Archery Championships, only 6 points short of making the podium. I was absolutely thrilled with this result! So in summary I shot my first 2 MB level scores, won my next Arrowhead award and finished in 4th place - not a bad result for a weekend of shooting in the sun!

The Welsh Field Masters Tour - Round 2!

Hi everyone!

Sunday the 19th of May was round 2 of the Welsh Field Masters Tour, a Hunter round at Red Kite Field Archers course in Broad Oaks, Carmarthenshire.

I drove down to this one with Chris and it was a superb morning, the weather held out for us all day which was a welcome change! It was sunny and bright, quite warm with only a mild breeze in the afternoon– it was the best conditions we have had so far this season and the first shoot where you could get away with a T shirt!

Beautiful woodland at Red Kite Field Archers'course.

Even though the weather was on our side, it was still a bit tricky as the course there is quite challenging. The long shots are exposed and prone to wind because of the landscape there, and there are a few sharp downhill shots on slopes that can catch you out.

I had a bit of a shaky start, dropping 12 points on my first 6 targets but I soon figured out what was wrong. My 2nd axis must have taken a knock at some point and it had dropped slightly so my bubble wasn’t true on the slopes, and I was trying a slightly different bow hand position out but it wasn’t comfortable and felt forced, so I went back to my normal grip and things improved from there on in.

A little bit low, but still very pleased with this group on the 70 yard walkup!

I pulled it back with some good targets, including 20’s on the longest distance walk-ups and then shot a strong second half but I had dropped too many early on. I finished on 524 which is around my average – I’m usually in the mid 520’s and I was happy with my shooting once I got it into gear! If I had put in the same performance at an easier course I think I may have been able to get closer to my goal of 530, it will come eventually!

So – my analysis of the day’s shooting.  Firstly the grip – I grip a bow deeper into my hand than most, if I try to get it on the pad of my thumb it feels forced so I was trying to get used to it. It feels alien and inconsistent, so I have decided why fight it? The bow is comfortable in a deeper grip, it is more relaxed and consistent so I will shoot it how it feels right. Another thing that came up is my sight marks may be slightly out, I think they are about a yard short so I need to verify them against a physical measuring tape and also calibrate my rangefinder against it.  

Lastly, I need to do some fine tuning to make the bow more forgiving, but it is not worth doing now as I will be putting new strings on it within the next few weeks. I am having a custom hot pink/black string set made for my CPXL and will be able to set it up and tune it from scratch. I invested in a bow-press so that I will be able to work on and tune my own bows (expensive at £350 but worth it in the long run!) and I need to build a draw board to sort out cam timing. Once this is sorted I will be doing the ‘kitchen sink’ method of tuning to ensure everything on the bow is squared away and shooting as well as it can be.

The All British Championships is coming up, a 2 day FITA unmarked/marked tournament and I have a few weeks gap after that, so I will be get the tuning done during this break to make sure everything is ready for the rest of the masters tour.

The Welsh Field Masters Tour 2013

 

Hi everybody!

The Welsh Masters Tour 2013 kicked off on Sunday 21^st April, with a Marked Animal round at Llantwit Major Archers course at Fonmon Castle. Everything is set up properly and it was a chance to debut a change in fletching.

I’ve ditched my usual config of white wraps and blue fletches, they keep getting scagged/shot up by close groups and start looking grubby very quickly. Also the wrap is a weak point as if the fletches get hit in the target, they rip the wrap off. I have gone for smaller, tougher fletches glued straight to the shaft and went with Bohning X-Vanes in hot pink to make them really stand out on the target!

I picked Chris up in the morning and we headed down there nice and early for a bit of practice and to confirm our marks.  To everyone’s surprise, it looked like it was going to be quite a decent day for weather. It was a little chilly, but crucially the wind held off and while it did rain slightly it was fairly light and only at the end of the second half.

In the Marked Animal round, the targets are pictures of animals with a ‘wound’ area, and a ‘kill’ area that is worth more points. If you miss with your first arrow, you are allowed a 2^nd and 3^rd attempt but the first arrow that scores a hit is the one that counts. The kill area is usually quite large so it is usually a high scoring round.

Got him, right in the pro-kill ring!

I went round with a few other compound archers who kept the pressure on all day, and on the last target of the first half I had an arrow that was cutting into the ‘kill’ line, but not through it as you have to in IFAA so it was only a wound and I dropped 2 points. (20 kill 18 wound with the first arrow). That was on Target 1, a 55 yard 30 degree downhill shot that I didn’t take enough of a cut off for the angle so the arrow went in high – I made sure I wouldn’t make the same mistake the next time around!

We broke for dinner, and then went back out on the course and I shot a clean second half – finishing the shoot on 27 kills 1 wound, 558 out of a possible 560! This was a new personal best by 10 points and only 1 line cutter away from equalling the Welsh record! This was only good enough for 2^nd place however, as Dave Home was on perfect form and shot a clean 560 – taking the gold medal and the LM Archers 560 Trophy. 

I had a really good day and was thrilled with the result, just one arrow a few mm off a perfect round. The bow is in good tune, my marks are spot on and my new Carbon One arrows are flying very well for me so I think I will be sticking with these for the foreseeable future.

The next shoot now isn’t for a few weeks time, a Hunter round at Dinefwr which combines my favourite round at one of my favourite courses, so I’m not going to put any pressure on myself by chasing a score – I’m just going to relax and enjoy the shoot for what it is, a day out in the woods shooting with good friends.

Red Kite & March Hare - good results but fed up of this weather!!

Red Kite Archers in Carmarthenshire put on a Hunter round on the 7^th April so Chris and I drove up there to give their new course a shot and test the new arrows in the field. We arrived nice and early, got set up and took to the course.

Ready to rock and roll!

It was a very cold day, but the biggest hurdle was the wind – it was awful! One half of the course was down in a valley and fairly sheltered, with some high scoring targets but the other half with the longest distances was along a hillside with open fields on either side, with a fierce wind blowing across every target that didn’t let up at all. On many targets it was impossible to keep your peep and scope lined up, never mind keeping the sight on the target! 

I don't think he's going to make it!

A couple of low scoring targets because of the high wind dashed any hopes of a high score, and I finished in 3^rd place with 513.  This is still a good A class score so I was happy with the result, you can’t control the weather and everyone’s scores were lower because of the conditions.

On a good note though, the new arrows performed very well! On the targets where we were sheltered, they flew great and grouped exactly where I put them, cleaning several targets and the extra speed has reduced the amount I need to cut for angles. Worth the money!

Field round at March Hare

A week later, we went up to March Hare Archers in Throckmorton, Worcester to shoot their course. It was a classification shoot so no awards, but their course is pretty much flat so it’s usually a high scorer and worth the drive!

We got signed in, split into groups and went out onto the course, starting on target 3 close to the clubhouse. The course was easy going but again the weather interfered with shooting. It was raining on and off all day, nothing too heavy but it meant extra layers which get in the way a bit and the wind was blustery. Not as bad as Red Kite the week before but enough to make certain shots tricky.

I put in a decent performance, clearing several targets including an XX55 on the 80 yard walk-up which made my day! But in the end I finished on 525, 5 points short of that elusive 530 for the GrandBowMaster award.

I was still really pleased with the score which is only 3 points short of my personal best, shot at the same course as it happens but in glorious weather last summer at the EFAA Nationals. I’m confident that I will break 530 this season and get my GBM title, I just need a day with the weather on my side, which is hard to come by in this country!!

I’m going to give up on chasing the score for now to take the pressure off, and just shoot for fun and see what happens. On several targets I could feel myself getting nervous and tense, fighting to keep the bow steady. When I’m shooting at the club in practice there is none of this – i’m relaxed, the bow floats and the shot is smooth and on target. I need to shoot tournaments with that same mentality and just let the shot happen with confidence. Easier said than done, but I’m going to work on adopting that relaxed approach in the future and see what happens.

The next shoot is a Marked Animal round at Fonmon, stage 1 of the Welsh Field Masters Tour. There is no classification for the Animal round so i’m going to have fun with it and enjoy the day! I’m off on holiday the day after, and then there are no more rounds for a few weeks so I will use the time to relax, get some quality training done and give everything a once over to make sure it's all in perfect tune ready for the rest of the season.

 

New arrows, ready to rock and roll!

Hi everybody!

I’ve been doing some tuning lately to make sure everything on Maya is squared up and ready to go for the Field Archery season which begins in earnest this month.

Everything is going well, but I’ve been thinking that my FMJ arrows may be slowing me down – literally! While they are a fantastic arrow and I like them because they’re skinny and heavy (good in the wind for the reason), it is that weight that is causing me concern.

They come in at 420 grains which for a Target/Field arrow is very heavy. I’ve been looking at different options and see a lot about the Easton Carbon One arrow. They don’t break the bank, they’re tough and lighter due to all carbon shafts. I’ve read many reviews that rate them alongside ACE’s and other top end arrows, and after chatting with Kevin at Wales Archery I decided what the hell and picked up a dozen.

Dressed up in my usual colours!

I built the set, ending up with a final weight of 370 grains with a 0.5 grain spread across the set. That’s about the same spread as my FMJ but 50 grains lighter all-up. They were built in my usual colours and config and I put a slight offset on the fletches to give them a little bit more spin than I usually do.

I don’t have access to a Chrono to check the arrow speed at the moment, so I ran the numbers through Archers Advantage which estimated 270fps – nearly 20fps faster than my FMJ which has given much tighter sightmarks – good for unmarked rounds!

The first test of them was at 35m.I shot 6 of my FMJ to get a comparison and then send 6 C1’s downrange. You can really tell they are lighter! The bow feels more aggressive, and they shot a tighter group than my FMJ but higher up the target as expected due to the extra speed.

I printed off sightmarks and after aligning the pin I went around our mini course at the club and tested them from 15 to 70 yards and the marks are good, grouping very tight in the gold at every distance. This was shot at 50 yards...

A little high, but all in!

 

From what I have seen I am confident that they will group better in the target and hopefully scrape me those few extra points I’m looking for. There is a shoot at Red Kite tomorrow, an IFAA Hunter round on their new course so it will be a good opportunity to debut them and see what they are capable of in the field. Watch this space!