New toy!

Ahhh the end of the indoor season is in sight! Only 2 more to go now, the FITA Welsh Senior Championships and the Glamorgan County Championships in the coming weekends.

It’s about this time of year that I start getting cabin fever and can’t wait to get back outside. I’m a Field archer, not a Target one. I miss shooting in forests and up and down slopes and I’m itching to set my bow back up for outdoors. I’ve made some tweaks to my arrows to try and chase down a little more accuracy (different fletches in a new position, slightly heavier points) and can’t wait to try them out.

That’s one of the things that I hate at this time of year, changing setups. It's a pain changing rest positions, retuning for best arrow flight between skinny outdoor arrows and huge heavy indoor ones, and i've missed a few shoots because my main bow isn't set up for long distance, so I made the decision to pick up a dedicated bow for indoor target. Something with conventional solid limbs, a very tall axle to axle and nice and simple config. Being a Bowtech fan, I went looking at their past Target bow options and managed to bag an excellent second hand deal…

Allow me to introduce Kiara, my new (to me anyway!) Bowtech Brigadier in testarossa (matt black, metallic red cams)

It arrived last week and it needed a fair bit of work out of the box. I borrowed an arrow rest to try it out, and it felt bloody awful to shoot. It flopped like a jelly bow and didnt feel right so I gave it a full check over and found that it was set up totally out of spec.

It was over ½” too long ATA (close to 41”, should be 40 3/16ths”) , the cables had no twists in them and were poorly made with uneven tension and the string only had about 1 twist in it. The previous owner said it was set at 55lb for me but it was almost 10lb below this, which is below the limbs safety rating (they should be shot no lower than 50) and because it was long-strung the valley felt like 90%+ let off, the string was actually starting to go slack before the cams bit which is dangerous as the cams can lock up or the bow might derail (blow up!) trying to get it to wind down.

I made a new set of cables for it myself to Bowtech’s spec, fitted them and synchronised the cams while twisting up the string to the correct length. The limbs needed a few turns and it is now at 55lb and feels much better. It only has one draw stop on it and in the correct hole, the letoff is quite high which made the wall feel a bit spongy so I have advanced it one notch whch has it down to about a 60-70% letoff I would estimate and it feels a lot sharper. I also cut about 1/2" off the carbon stringstop so it can be pushed further into the bow, and fitted my spare BowJax stringstop enhancer over the worn stock one to improve its effectiveness.

 

I've ordered an arrow rest and a V bar so that I can fit my spare stabilisers, and start shooting arrows off it to get used to it and see how it performs. I can’t afford a sight/scope for it yet or a proper case but this isn’t going to be needed for another 8-9 months so I have plenty of time to pick up the parts and get her set up ready for next year’s indoor season.

 

Squad training, and the WFAA Welsh Indoor Championships

On January 5^th and 6^th, the WFAA Squad had training led by our coach Ray Howells. It was a really productive session, focussing on correct use of back tension through the shot and placing a lot of emphasis on developing a solid shot routine based on the BEST method developed by Korean coach Kisik Lee.

I found this really helpful because I am my own worst enemy. I will come to draw, aim and something doesn’t feel right. Instead of letting down and starting again, I will power through it and make a poor shot – then kick myself for not coming down! It’s a surprisingly hard thing to do and most people do the same, so by using a solid shot routine there is a set sequence to follow and if anything deviates from this then you know something isn’t right, reset and start again.

On the Sunday, Ray had a little betting going on to try this under pressure! Everybody who wants to shoot chucks 10p on the floor. You all shoot and score 3 arrows and the highest score gets the pot. If there is a tie, it rolls over and you need to put 10p more in to stay in. It was amazing how much fun this was and knowing that you are shooting to win the pot, even though it’s a matter of a few £ made it very interesting to see how the pressure affected everyone!  We did it for a few rounds, and after about 4 ends of tying I won the final pot with a 10 10 10. Put in about £1.50 across the morning and picked up a fiver, my first prize money – it’s a start haha!

Ahhh, smug mode :)

I adopted the new shot sequence during the following weeks practice session to start to drill it into my head, and had a great opportunity to test it in the field as the 13^th of January was the WFAA Welsh Indoor Championships. It’s an IFAA indoor round, 60 arrows at a 5 spot target. I was on the same target as the top WFAA archers so the pressure was on.

We were matched for about 2 dozen, until my opponent dropped one into the 4 ring and I took the lead by 1 point. There were still 3 dozen to go, the door was open so it was a case of staying cool and making strong shots. I was very nervous, especially towards the end but stayed in the spot and was on course to win. The final end of arrows were a bit nerve wracking, but after a few recent experiences I am getting a little more confident shooting under pressure. I focussed on calming my breathing, and on the shot sequence to make sure every arrow was as strong as the last and put down the last end - 5 X’s, finishing on a clean score of 300/300 with 46 X! 

The afternoon session followed, and all of the compound archers dropped a point or 2 during the round, so I had the only clean score and when we were all finished, the award ceremony was held and I received the gold medal as WFAA Indoor Champion for 2013! The award ceremony was also held for the WFAA Welsh Field Masters Tour stage 5 and final awards, as it was rained off on the day. I received 1^st place for stage 5, and 1^st place overall awards so I was also announced as WFAA Field Master in Freestyle Unlimited for 2012!

Not a bad way to start the season, WFAA Field Master & Indoor Champion going into the new year! I was absolutely thrilled with this result, and hope I have done my sponsor Wales Archery Specialists proud so far. Mat Symmonds who is also sponsored by WAS took gold in Recurve so it was good to see the Wales Archery shooters at the top on the day!

 

The AIUK Ironman Frostbite!

Hi everybody!

Things have been a little quiet recently on the competition from since the Nationals, there has been a gap of a few weeks with nothing on. However the Archery Interchange UK forum run a winter competition at this time of year, and the Welsh leg of the shoot was at my home club Pentref Bowmen.

The round being shot was the Frostbite, which is 7 dozen arrows at 30m, at an 80cm face. I went up bright and early and put all the target bosses out and pegged out the shooting lanes. The weather has been absolutely atrocious recently with record rainfall (the second wettest winter since records began!) so the ground was absolutely waterlogged and muddy, but that wasn't going to stop us bunch of brave archers (for brave, read idiot) from shooting!

Chris Bruno and myself at the start, before the rain moved in!

Freezing cold and wet, thrilled to be here! Feel sorry for Chris, he forgot his waterproofs!!

There were prizes for silliest hat!

Milly (the organiser) with her Mongolian bow, ready to rock!

Gavin looking suave under pressure, competing against Milly!

Milly taking a shot with the Mongolian.

The mud at my shooting peg, at least consistent foot placement was easy!

Maya is set up for 18m 3 spot with huge heavy X7's and they would've been blown everywhere in that wind. AIUK class all compounds together regardless of how they are set up (its only a friendly comp anyway) so I shot Vasquez in Bowhunter style. It made quite a nice break to shoot a Bowhunter style bow at spots instead of 3D or animal faces.

It rained on and off for most of the day, at times quite heavy so the trench coat at wide hat stayed on all day, and the pile of hand warmers I brought with me made me very popular! In the end I put in a score of 783/840 which put me in 6th place out of all AIUK compounders - happy with that considering the conditions we had! The winning score was 796 and I reckon I could beat that if I had Maya in outdoor config (getting cocky now!), so there is always next door when Maya will be set up ready and I have a dedicated indoor bow.... watch this space