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!