Welsh Field Masters Tour - Seconds out, round two!

Hi everybody!

This sunday was round 2 of the Welsh Field Masters Tour, a Marked Animal round hosted by Dinefwr Archers in Bishop's Mill, Llanwrda. I drove us up to the course and Chris and I arrived nice and early and got everything set up, leaving plenty of time for the traditional pre-shoot bacon butty!

I made a few last minute tweaks to make sure everything was ok, and had to move my sight pin slightly to get it spot on but was soon nailing the practice targets. Once everybody turned up, the groups were called and I was put with Chris and Colin on target 8. I've never shot the animal round before and my fears in the last post about difficulty making out the targets was unfounded. The targets are easy to see and the killzones are clearly marked so it was just a matter of picking a reference point on the animal and aiming at that.

Everything was going ok until target 3 which was a fairly long shot, on one of the smallest targets - a Meerkat with a very narrow body. I was a bit nervous and pulled my first shot wide and left, and my second arrow only wounded so I dropped 6 points. It set me on edge a little, but most of the other targets weren't as tricky and I had some very good shots during the course. My favorite being a 50 yard uphill shot along the river bank at a Moose target where I adjusted the angle perfectly and nailed the inner 'super-kill' area both times around!

Apart from the Meerkat target, the only target to give me any trouble was a steep 44 yard Wolf, shot at over 30 degrees downhill. On my first time around I wounded so dropped 2 more points, and on the second time around my arrow was high and on the line, so I moved forwards to take a second shot from the next peg at 41 yards. This arrow was a kill but on reaching the target the first arrow was in, so a first arrow wound was scored.  This picture was taken on the 41 yard closer peg, which is a bit shallower as the 44 yard is on a raised bank just out of frame on the right, so you can see the kind of angle we're talking about!

Chris had a bad target in the first half and dropped 10 points behind but Colin and I were neck and neck all day, overtaking the other by 2 points and then levelling etc, so the pressure was on to keep the standard high and not give any quarter. I dropped 2 points giving Colin the lead on target 20 leaving 8 more targets to catch up. We matched each others arrows shot for shot for 7 targets and came up on the last, a steep 30 yard downhill on a wild cat with 2 points in it.

I was up first, took my shot and nailed a comfortable kill shot. Colin was up next, a kill would secure a win and a wound would draw. He took his shot and the arrow fell short, landing low on the outer line. It was unclear if it was in or not so he took a second shot about an inch higher in the wound area.... We climbed down to check the scores, and Colins first arrow was just outside the line by about 2mm, so he scored a second arrow wound, dropping 4 points and giving me the win by 2 on the last arrow!

My first WFAA win with Compound, shooting a 548/560, I was absolutely over the moon! I was called up and collected my award and we all said a big thank you to Dinefwr for hosting a fantastic shoot. It was a very rewarding day and an excellent experience, I like the animal round and will definitely look forward to shooting one again now that I have a personal best to beat!

Trigger Troubles

Shooting my Guardian, I use a Merlin MAC Victory 3 release. It's a lovely bit of kit but I recently tried out a Carter release which are higher quality and I was quite surprised at the difference in the feel. The action was a lot more polished and the trigger smoother. I haven't got the money at the moment to buy a Carter (£150+) so I thought to myself OK, you must be able to improve the MAC one a little so I went to work on it.

Firstly I opened the case, which was a job and a half because of how snug the components fit. Upon checking, the trigger sear and levers were gunked in a heavy grease that had gotten quite dirty so that must be slowing things down a bit, and the trigger pressure spring is stiff as a board, even with the adjuster backed out completely. I removed all of the components and gave them a bit of a clean. Here's a pic of what the inside of the release looks like with the casing off...

 Once it was cleaned I reassembled it and  used a quality bearing lubricant from a skating shop on the pivots. The trigger spring was far too stiff as I mentioned, and as I do not have any other springs I took a drastic step and cut about 1/3rd off it.
What can I say, it's like a totally different release! It cocks incredibly smoother than before and the trigger feels fantastic, with much less pressure needed to release. I tried it out at the club and it's amazing now, I think i'll stick with this one for a while longer before changing to a Carter or a Stan :)

The next shoot for me now is on Sunday at Dinefwr Archers in Llanwrda, a marked animal round. I have never shot this round before and it will be quite strange shooting at animal pictures to hit the 'killzones' instead of at circular targets. Bruno and I shot some of these at the club at various distances to get a feel for it and it is very different.

The earthy colours of the animals is harder to pick out through the scope, and you have to select a point on the animal to aim at rather than the middle of rings so a lot more care has to be taken in aiming and i'll need my stronger glasses! The shoot promises bad weather and lighting so this may make it a bit trickier, but in practice I was nailing killshots on almost all arrows so I should be ok. It's a high scoring round i'm told, and since I am now A Class if I have a good day, I may be able to claim an incentive award... here's hoping!

The next post will be the post-shoot review, fingers crossed :)

Good result at the Welsh Field Masters round 1!

Hi everybody!

The first round of the Welsh Field Masters was on May 27th at Zenith Archers' field course in Hay On Wye. Comrade Bruno drove us both down to this one in some of the best weather we have had this year. It had been amazingly sunny for days with blazing temperatures, so plenty of sun block was on the cards, as well as silly hats!

We rocked up to the course and got set up and loosed a few on the practice butts to make sure everything was settled, and then we went out on the course in our groups. We got to shoot together with 2 of our friends so we had excellent company all day and there was plenty of cover from the trees so we didn't catch the sun that badly!

This was the competition debut of my new FMJ's and grip, so I focussed on keeping my bow hand consistent and tried to maintain a strong shot. My personal best for an IFAA round is 501 and I shot a first half of 255 so I was on the right track, but now the pressure was on for the second half. Fatigue becomes a bit of an issue in the second half due to the number of targets/arrows from what I am normally accustomed to shooting but I had already shot the same targets in the first half, so knew the little tricks for each target so could balance this out. I finished the shoot with all hits (woohoo!) and a second half score of 256, scraped in with one point higher :)

 Final score 511 which I was absolutely chuffed to bits with! It was my second 500+ score so I am now in the A-Class which is the higher banding, result! It was a qualifying score so it can't be used to claim a higher incentive unfortunately (you need to already be A-class to do that) but it was a BowMaster level score so I know I am capable of that rank now. I came in 3rd place in the compound division, and the 2 archers that beat me are both register Pro's so i've got my work cut out there!

Overall I had a really strong day with some fantastic groups and performances on some of the targets. I had to get a picture of this one for bragging rights lol!

Mr Bruno had a strong day's shooting as well, putting a lot of the changes to his form into practice and securing his second 400+ score with plenty of margin to get B class under his belt. There was one unfortunate incident with a slip in a riverbed crossing that saw a hard landing, and the string derail off the cams on his bow - but fortunately he wasn't injured apart from a knocked shin, the bow wasnt damaged and it was on the way back from the last target so we re-assembled the bow (gotta love Bowtech's no-press-required takedown) , carefully tested it and he has now retuned it at the club.

So there we are! A good time was had by all with great results and excellent weather, leading to a happy satisfied drive home and a big Indian takeaway as a reward!

The next shoot now is on Jun 24th, stage 2 of the Masters Tour at Dinefwr.. bring it on! 

New toys!

I had a bit of disposable income this month, so I decided to treat myself to a few things on my archery wishlist ;)

First on the agenda was new stabilisers. I've been using W&W HMC's from my old Recurve and while they do the job, they aren't built for the shock of a Compound and there was some wobble/vibration in them that's bothering me. I looked at different options and chose set of SF Elite Carbons. They have a profile like FUSE Blades, but with a bulge in the centre to stiffen them while keeping the weight down. A Pro shooter at my club recommended them and let me try his, and I was impressed so ordered myself some. I debuted those at the Red Kite shoot and they performed brilliantly, they hold dead still and there is no vibration on the shot - mission accomplished!

Next on the list was new arrows. I've been using 3-39 ACC's and while they are a very good arrow, they are on the chunky side and affected by wind easily. I wanted something skinny and heavy to cut through wind so went looking. I preferred Navigators with Recurve and spotted Alt Services had Navigator Full Metal Jacket's on sale as they are discontinued so I snapped up a dozen! The Nav FMJ is a brilliant arrow, very thin and strong because of an alluminium outer skin over a carbon core (which is covered in deckplate graphic which looks awesome!) but this makes them a bit heavy. Coming out of a 56lb compound, speed isnt an issue and I still get excellent marks. I've switched to these now and have accurate marks, and will be debuting them at the Welsh Masters which starts in a week - I cant wait :)

Next was a new grip on my Guardian. I love this bow but the grip has always made me envious of newer bows. On the Guardian, the part that sits against the hand is rounded and prone to torque, unlike almost any new bow which has a flat handle that sits dead in the hand. I found several companies that make flat grips for this bow, but fell in love with the grips at www.torqueless.com and ordered one. I ordered a medium wrist grip, in the Timber Wolf colour wood with a bit of custom engraving on it, and have fitted it - check it out...

The flat back is extremely comfortable, and the extended top makes consistent placement a walk in a the park. I have had the chance to shoot this now for a few hours and it's a different beast! It's easy to hold, very stable and nigh on impossible to torque left or right. Oh, and if you are wondering why it says Vasquez - that's my bow's name. It was nicknamed that at the club after the character from Aliens because, like Vasquez, she's a viscious bitch! :)

The final thing then was a new quiver. I've always used a Gompy Elite leather quiver which is built like a brick outhouse, but it is large and quite heavy and has been getting on my nerves. I shoot field and its heavy (over 1kg empty) and flops about, hitting my legs when i'm climbing so I have replaced it with an Easton field quiver which is half the size, a third of the weight and a lot more comfortable to wear.

Bit of a spending spree!

Hi everybody!

Since the last post, I shot a marked round at the Red Kite Spring Shoot, hosted by Red Kite Archers in Llanwrdda. This was my first full round since making the changes to my form as the last shoot was chopped to a short course due to the appalling weather conditions. I drove down to the shoot with my shooting comrade Chris, and we were both looking forward to a nice day's shooting. The weather was on our side for a change, cloudy with some sunny spells so the shorts stayed on! But most importantly, the wind was fairly light.

It was a really challenging course, I've shot on harder but I would put it down as 4/5 on difficulty with some very tricky shots due to steep angles and harsh lighting conditions. I had a fairly moderate first half, but improved in the second half to finish on 314. My previous FITA personal best was 297 and that was on a Mixed round which is easier, the Marked round is a harder shoot so I was pleased with raising the bar by 17 points on the more difficult round.

This score is also 2 points into FITA Field First Class so I have achieved that level now. This was also a personal victory, as it was my first field shoot with all 72 arrows as scoring hits! Something always comes up like a miss on a bunny, or aiming at the wrong target on a 4-face etc but I kept my head in the game and pulled it off. So we have a new PB, 1st ever First Class score and first round with no misses.

All-told, a productive day! :)

Adventures with Peppa Pig, and the Chris Farr Memorial Shoot

It's been a busy weekend!

On Saturday, we had to clear the attic of all the detritus and general junk that we have accumulated in the years since moving in (and a lot of stuff that went straight up there when we moved in!) as we are having loft insulation and draught proofing installed by the energy company on Monday. This was a bit of a trial, but my wife decided she wanted to do it as she has a kids enthusiasm for going up in the attic, and since she is small enough to stand up without having to bend over - I gallantly decided to let her get on with it and she did an absolutely sterling job of clearing it down - go you!

In the afternoon then after we were all cleaned up, Erin's grandparent's took her for a few hours so we could take Daniel to Peppa Pigs Treasure Hunt in St David's Hall! He absolutely loved it! He was shouting along with the puppets and actors, singing the songs and laughing his head off at the jokes, it went down an absolute treat and he loves his Peppa Pig book and light spinner we got him there :)

Today was the second round of the Chris Farr Memorial Shoot at my home club, Pentref Bowmen so I went up there to shoot the 24 target Marked round. The weather was absolutely was absolutely atrocious! Driven rain and VERY high wind all night beforehand bringing down trees and sending wheelie bins for a walk down the road... ours went down the stairs upside down and tried to escape, the broken gate luckily jamming itself in the way!

I'm surprised the shoot went ahead at all but given the conditions, the top half of our course was impassable and so they hurriedly redesigned it to a 12 target course and we shot that instead. It was my first time shooting Compound in the rain and I wanted to keep as much rain off my scope as possible, cue some redneck engineering - MacGuyver style with scissors, a pop bottle and some elastic bands to make a scope hood!

Despite the awful weather, I did fairly well as it happens. The changes in my form and grip I put into practice recently paid off and I finished on a 153 with all arrows hits. I've only ever done one FITA field round before this one and it was in nice conditions, and the best half was 154 so the improvements I've made in the months since are apparent if I can shoot that kind of score in such bad conditions. Make no mistake, I am not exaggerating at all - today was by far the worst condition I have ever shot in, and some of the worst weather I have ever been outside in. My score was in the same kind of area as a lot of the really experienced compounders, so I was very happy with the end result and I am improving steadily.

I'm looking forward to my next field shoot where I can put these improvements into practice on a full 24 target course in hopefully halfway decent weather!

Well, where to start... I suppose the beginning is as good a place as any!

I'm Neil, father of 2 amazing kids Daniel and Erin and husband of the most caring and loving wife in the world - Paula. I'm an average joe kinda guy but I do have some pretty strange quirks! For one, I like juggling and poi spinning (fire poi too!), and have tried my hand at unicycle at open evenings with the NoFitState Circus. I'm also a minimalist, sometimes barefoot runner and when i'm not barefoot, I live in some pretty strange shoes called Vibram FiveFingers which have seperate toes and no padding/heel so it feels like you are barefoot. I'm well known for these and for being a bit of a hippy/alternative, they've become part of my personality and people react in shock if I'm seen in normal shoes now! We all love being outside and go camping/hiking as much as possible and go on trips to various educational places quite often, such as museums, caves, national parks etc and get cabin fever if we haven't gone out somewhere on a day off!

As you can probably tell from the title of the blog - my main hobby, sport and passion is archery.I've been tempted to start a blog for a long time now as I always come back from a competition, or a night tinkering with my bow up the club and think the days findings would make a good post, so here we are! Archery will be the main focus of my blog but there will be other topics touched on as we go but i'll start with a bit of history on how I got started.

I've always enjoyed shooting, and have shot air rifles and airsoft guns (plastic BB) for many years since my early teens, and toyed around  with some cheap plastic bows when I was younger. I'd fancied trying archery properly but never really looked into it with any effort. In 2006 my wife and I went on holiday to Bulgaria and there was an archery 'have-a-go' on the beach opposite the hotel where it was 1 lev (about 30p at the time) for 6 arrows. I noticed they had some bows I had never seen before with all manner of strange bits attached to them which I now know as stabilisers and sights and had to try them out! With a bit of brief safety instruction, I loosed my first arrow and I was hooked! I absolutely loved it and kept going back to the guy constantly and had a great time shooting the different types of bow he had.

As soon as we got back to the UK, I checked the net and found my archery club nearby, Pentref Bowmen. I signed up for the beginners course, completed it, joined and bought my first bow - a wooden trainer recurve with a plastic sight and i've never looked back! I tried the Barebow style briefly but enjoyed shooting with a sight more, so stuck with that and gradually upgraded my equipment and began to advance in my ability and skill. I shot for Wales in the European Field Archery Championships and ranked 14th in Recurve in 2009, and joined the Glamorgan Archery Squad in early 2010 and shot with them competitively for a year before deciding to take a bit of time out from competitions. I moved to traditional archery and shot a Korean bow with a thumbring style draw for about a year to relax, but before long the itch to play with something technical was overwhelming and I decided to go to the dark side and buy a Compound bow...

I've had a bit of a love affair with the Bowtech Guardian since I saw one and shot it in 2008, and I had the offer of a black marble one for an excellent price on the archery forum I frequent. I couldn't resist so I drummed up the funds and treated myself! This is the bow  I am shooting in the background photo of the blog. She is an absolute beast, very fast and accurate and i've been shooting compound for about 6 months now. In those months I have advanced quite well and found the bowstyle that seems to suit me the most! I have only shot a few competitions so far but am already seeing successes, on my first competition with it I scored 297/300, only missing out on 3rd place by 5 x's. Since then I have taken 2 silver medals at indoor shoots, and a 3rd place at my last Field shoot so it's going quite well!

My next competition is this weekend. It's a 2 day shoot but I can only make the Sunday, so I won't place no matter how well I shoot but I can still take a classification score from the round, I only hope the weather is on our side! It's meant to be awful with heavy rain forecast all day but shooting in the rain doesn't bother me, i've been there before and have good quality waterproofs for it! This will  only be my 2nd FITA field round since switching to Compound. On my last one, my goal was to break 300 points and I scored 297 which was dissapointing. I've made lots of changes so hope to break that barrier and start climbing, but this is a marked 24 round which is considered harder than the mixed round I shot 297 on, and the weather may be against us so we will see what happens... wish me luck!