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 8th 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 22nd 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.
