The Fonmon Winter Shoot - back out in the field!

Hi everyone!

So, last weekend was the first shoot of the Field season (at last!!) – the Fonmon Winter shoot, a Marked Forrester round which I have never shot a full round of before. The final round of the Welsh Masters last year was this round, but we only shot a half because the weather was so bad. That meant that whatever score I shot would be a new pb by default!

As it is an Animal round and not part of a series like the Masters or ranked, I had hoped to take Vasquez and shoot as Bowhunter. That style suits animal targets as it is a hunting setup, but my arrows for that bow were in the middle of being refletched and I didn’t have enough of them finished yet. If I’d lost the fletches on more than 1 of them I wouldn’t have enough to finish the round.

They’ve been finished now though and they look the business! These arrows are going to be shot at dark animal faces and 3D targets, I wanted them to stand out and be visible – so I went with blaze orange zebra-stripe wraps and matching vanes/nocks – check them out, no way I’ll miss those in the target!

So as the arrows weren't ready, I took Maya with me – my Freestyle Unlimited setup. I had spent some time in the weeks before setting Maya back up for outdoors and getting sightmarks ready for the Glamorgan Championships in a week’s time so this was a good road test. 

We got to Fonmon bright and early, and boy was it cold! It was only about 1 degree but the wind chill and shade on the course made it feel far colder - it was a good idea I decided to wear extra layers just in case! It did have its good side though, the ground was frozen so it was the first time I’ve ever been around Fonmon without being knee deep in mud!!

I went around the course with Geraint Thomas and Dave Home and put in a fairly steady performance, finishing on 865 which secured me 2^nd place and a silver medal – result! Geraint won the day, with an incredible 940 points – 10 points (2 spots) short of the Welsh record! He had a slow start as it was a new setup and he had to dial his marks in, but cleaned up the 2^nd half. If the bow had been setup from the start I think he would’ve broken the Welsh record with ease. 

The standard of shooting was high!

As it was a Forrester round, the targets are animals with coloured spots for the ‘super-kill’ high points area that are smaller than the spots on regular targets. I used the day to test my cuts and I was spot on all day, and the targets where I missed the spot were quite close, not miles out so they may well be spots on a regular face. It’s given me a confidence boost to know my estimations have improved , so I’m really looking forward to the regular Field/Hunter rounds that are coming and hope to break 530 points this year to claim my Grand Bow Master title!

The next shoot is the Pentref March and Glamorgan this weekend as I mentioned above. They are FITA 24 target Mixed rounds, and the targets are much bigger – and closer! 12 of the targets are unmarked, but my range estimations are usually pretty good so I am hoping to put in a decent score and maybe get my next arrowhead award. We shall see!

Going Back Outside!

I’ve been doing a bit of work on my gear over the last weeks in the gap between the indoor target season ending and the field season kicking off to make sure everything is ready and as accurate as possible.

Maya has been set back up for outdoors with my FMJ arrows again. I set it up and got it shooting bullet holes, a vertical line on a walkback and I put it through the Chrono. At 55lb I am getting 255 fps average. This is a little slow for a field bow (usually in the 270’s at least) because these are such heavy arrows (419gn), but I love their performance in wind so I can live with that.

I put the numbers into Archers Advantage and generated my marks. A friend from WFAA let me shoot on her farm so I could get back to 80 yards and test them all. At the longer distances they were drifting low, about 2-3 yards out at 70 and 80 yards. I made a minor adjustment to the draw weight of the bow (about 1/3^rd of a turn on each limb bolt) which brought these up into the spot. The arrow flight is still good and the marks are accurate now for all my distances so I think we’ve nailed it!

I’m trialling one of the new LaunchTec rest blades at the moment. It’s made from an epoxy-composite instead of spring steel, so it won’t rust or bend, its more resilient and recovers faster. I tried it out on my bow and the draw is smoother and the shot is quieter. It seems to be very consistent and shoots well, but I’ve noticed a burning smell occasionally and it and it has scorched where the arrow flies off it a little. I’m going to keep an eye on this and will contact the company if it gets any worse, but it could just be settling down/breaking in.

I’ve done a bit of work on my Guardian as well. I took the cheap Decut rest I bought for it off and shelved it, it’s true what they say – buy cheap, buy twice! It’s awful and wobbles, so the Trophy Taker has gone back on it. It only took 10 minutes of tuning to get it shooting a straight line on a walkback, and my pins are still accurate for 20/30/40/50/60 yards, shooting great groups so she is ready to compete now as well.

The arrows I am using with it (ACC’s) fly perfectly, but they are a bit shot up. The wraps are scuffed up and only 5 of the 12 still have decent fletching, they’ve all been shot or torn off on pass-through’s. As this is a ‘hunting’ config, I want the arrows in bright visible colours like hunters do, so I’ve ordered neon orange fletches and nocks, and orange zebra stripe wraps! They are going to look crazy, but bright and easy to spot on 3D and Animal targets which is the point as this bow is my 3D rig.

Last weekend was a WFAA squad training session at Blandy Jenkins, and we focused on physical fitness and stamina. We completed courses of circuits, short runs and an ‘Ab-Blaster’ workout over the 2 days with lots of information and handouts on sports nutrition, and healthy eating to give us a physical edge in competition as well as our shooting skills. It was a real eye opener into just how bad for you some of the food I eat is and what I should really be aiming to eat. I have gone back to the gym since January anyway to shift some of the weight I put on last year (half a stone gone so far!) but the information and exercises we picked up at the course will be very useful.

So everything is all set and it’s less than a week now until the first shoot of the field season, a Marked Forrester at Fonmon. We’ve got some new WFAA members from Pentref who will be making their debut so it will be a good fun day, I just hope the weather is better than the last time I shot Fonmon!

Fingers crossed!!

Glamorgan County Championships

Hi everybody!

The Glamorgan County Championships were held today at St David's College in Cardiff. I shot in the afternoon session which was a good thing - our kids kept us up all night long so I was absolutely worn out in the morning!

It was a FITA 18 round, and I shot quite well for most of the day, dropping one 8 but the rest were in the gold. I finished on 568 around my usual kind of score which saw me take the bronze medal in 3rd place. I was chuffed with the result, and my club Pentref Bowmen also took the compound team trophy!

This was the last indoor shoot on my calendar, and a good result to round off the season! Now its time to look forwards to the Field season. I've been looking forward to going back outdoors, shooting in sports halls for so long with no field shoots on drives me crazy!

I've got a half holiday booked on Wednesday, so I am meeting my friend Chris and we're off up the club for the full afternoon to get everything sorted out. I have switched rests over tonight and set it up where it was before tweaking it for indoors, so it should be a nice easy transition. I just need to paper-tune to make sure the arrows are coming out straight, walkback to check centreshot and then make sure my marks are accurate.

I am trying a few new things out with my outdoor setup this season to try and chase down those few extra points and get my Grand Bow Master 530 score. One of them is the rest, I have ditched my usual .010 spring steel blade and I'm trying out the LaunchTec blades out. They are an epoxy-composite material instead of steel and offer a lot of advantages - they don't rust/snap, they recover faster  and don't 'chatter' on the draw, they are smoother and kinder to arrows and my personal fave that sold it for me - they don't bend. I've caught my rest before and bent it and its a bloody nightmare getting everything back in line where it was. I stress tested these blades including pushing one to destruction and they are bloody tough. I can bend it right down to the arrow shelf, let go and it springs immediately back to position with no set or deformity - I wouldn't even attempt that with a steel blade, so fingers crossed this will be more consistent and nicer to shoot with.

The other thing is a few minor changes to my arrows. I use Easton Navigator FMJ's outdoors and they are a heavy arrow but I like them, heavy and skinny - they cut through wind and fly well but I only have 100 grain points in them so the FOC was quite low at just under 8%. Maya is a speed bow, so a little extra weight isn't an issue so I switched the points out for 120gn which increased the foc to almost 10%. This should get a bit more 'ballistic' arrow flight and more accuracy at longer  range. I also changed fletches, switching my usual AAE Plastifletch Max for Flex Fletch shields. They are a bit lighter, but also slightly larger so I should get a bit more steering effect from them. I also moved them forwards slightly to improve face clearance.

They look good in my usual colours too, blue fletches and nocks on new white wraps...

So there we are, the arrows are ready and the bow is ready to be fine tuned to them. I shot the arrows across a chrono to check the speed and they have only slowed slightly from the extra weight in the points, coming out at 256fps where they were 261 before. Not much change, but the longer marks will change so I have generated new sight tapes from Archers Advantage and will print these off to try and make sure they are good as I can get them.

The first field shoot on my calendar is in exactly 3 weeks, a Marked Forrester round at Fomon, followed a week later by the Pentref March shoot & Glamorgan Field Championships, so it will be a good test to see if the changes have made any difference.

Fingers crossed!!