Chippenham Archers Mixed FITA, and testing the Brigadier

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 8^th 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 22^nd 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.