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.