Yesterday (Saturday July 12) the local group of archers known as “The Brigham Bowmen”, conducted a state archery event they called the “Utah State Formal”.  I’m not an archer, so please correct me in this article through comments below, but this event is open to amateurs and professionals as well general public archers from all over the country.  The event is meant to be a fun day of flinging arrows and each contestant signed up in his/her class of archery.  In Weasel and Conners case, they signed up as Free Lance Bow Hunters, where Conner was in a youth group and Weasel had to play with the old men and women.  There day started with helping to set up the range and a large shade tent in the Box Elder County Fairgrounds in Tremonton.  A great place for such an event.

The farthest targets were set up down range at 60 yards (for the adults) and the farthest target for the younger shooters was 50 yards.  Either distance would have cost me all my arrows because I don’t think I could hit anything at that distance.  So, you have to understand, this is my very first archery event to ever attend and so it was all new to me.  As I understood, each contestant was to shoot 6 arrows at the target and they had 4 minutes in which to accomplish this task (most did not take even half that time), the range would then be shut down and they would go down range and score their targets.  Also, with the scoring, each shooter would score their own target and then another shooter would also score that same set of arrows.  At first it was confusing to me, but then when my “denseness” caught up with me, it all made perfect sense…nobody could cheat this way.  Besides, line cuts always scored into the higher ring.  I guess the confusion came from a target with 18 or so arrows sticking out of it and they were trying to figure out who’s arrow was who’s and where it poked into the target.  It took me a minute to realize that everyone’s arrows were different in one way or another and each shooter knew what his/hers looked like.

So, 6 arrows were to be sent down range, then counted.  Then all the shooters would come back to the shooting line and do it again.  They did this 5 times at the target for a total  of 30 shots (6X5=30).  Once that set was done, the targets were moved to a closer distance (from 50 yards to 30 for the youngsters and from 60 to 40 for the adults).  Once again the action would be 5 sets of 6 shots for another 30 total shots and scoring between each set.  When that was accomplished, the targets were moved back 10 yards and the process repeated for another 30 shots.  At days end, each shooter had shot 90 times at the targets and a total of 900 points was possible….ya right, it looks good on paper.

As I sat back and watched the shooters, my eyes began to bug out of my head.  At first it was the youngsters who were shooting close by that got my attention.  Of course Conner was shooting his target while another set of young people were shooting at their distance, Conner at 50 yards, them at 30 yards.  There were 3 of them all standing at the line at the same time, and each shooting at the same target (sorting out the arrows would come once the range was closed for that set).  As I looked through my binoculars at the target and seeing the arrows striking the center of the target, each arrow right next to the first one, next to the second one, next to the third and on it went.  At one point I had to say to myself, how on earth can any more arrows fit in such a tight spot?

These youngsters were in a 9 to 11 years old age bracket (I think) and their shooting abilities were amazing to me.

(I’m sorry about the fact that the paper covered the one mans face).

I was very impressed with the shooting of most of the archers and I was equally impressed by the bows they were shooting.

There is a LOT of money tide up in most of their bows and the sighting equipment attached to them.  I asked one of the adult archers about his bow and sights and he said he thought he might be into it around $1600, and that his wasn’t the most expensive on the range!  HOLY MOLY!  One thing for sure, you don’t just lay them down any old place.

But, aside from the equipment the guys who have been shooting in competition for many years (40 plus in some cases), here is Weasel and Conners bow of choice:

Nothing really fancy, but it sure did stick a lot of nice 10 ring arrows!  Conner even had an X ring hit with it at 50 yards!  Way to go Conner!

The temperature of the day continued to climb to somewhere near 100 degrees and I sure was glad there was the big canopy over our heads to provide a little relief from the sun.  But as things progressed and Conner’s shooting session ended, we got to learn a little more about the competition.  He had to add up his scores from each of the different distances he shot and get his score sheet signed and up to the judges.

Hey Conner, why do you need a calculator?  Six shots all in the 10 ring equals 60 points….right?  6 times 5 equals 30!

Here he is with his first set of 30 shots and his 50 yard score.  No, he ain’t crying, but the flash of my camera made him squint his eyes big time!  His first ever competition with a bow, and with only a month of practice under his belt, he scored an impressive 177 out of 300 points at 50 yards!  Look out deer come this season!

Well, the shooting continued and the sun also continued to heat things up.  We consumed some very delicious pulled pork and pulled beef brisket sandwiches and drank a ton of water.  I’ll tell you the sandwiches from the concession stand were some of the BEST tasting I have ever had!  No need for extra sauce!  They were delicious!

After Conner and his large group of shooters got finished shooting their 90 arrows, it was Weasels time to show his stuff.  The judges asked the shooters if they would have any problems for the remaining day and a half of shooting if they could change the rules and have everyone line up and shoot at the same time, rather than break up into “A” and “B” groups….of course nobody had any issues with that.  There had to be a way to speed up the shooting and by allowing everyone on the line at the same time, it certainly did speed it up.  So fast in fact, I never did get any shots of Weasel shooting from the line.

That being said, I think I’ll just post up a few pictures I did take during the day.  Right now I can not tell you if the targets shown are of the youth shooting or the adults shooting, but they are all equally impressive.

And then when the shoot was all over for the day, the three shooters on lane number one, did a little showing off for the rest of the crowd.  Keep in mind, they each person shot 30 rounds at 60 yards, 40 yards and then finished at the 50 yard distance for a total of 270 rounds between the three shooters, all shots were taken at the same target and here is the results:

Only 9 hits outside of the yellow and they told me those were all at the 60 yard line.  Who are these guys?

Very Impressive Shooting !

But wait!  What did Weasel and his group do?

That doesn’t look too bad from the side, how about from the front looking in?

That highest arrow was one Weasel put down and I think he did that because the wind was blowing the top of the target around, so he “pinned” it.  I think this is a pretty impressive display of shooting as well!

Congratulations to all the shooters and to the Brigham Bowmen (and women) for pulling off such a great State sanctioned event!

And when it was all over, the President of the Brigham Bowmen Association made Dry Dog two special strings for his long bows!  I’ll bet we see these at the Willow Creek Free Trappers annual rendezvous this September!  Thanks Cory!

Great job everyone!

Bears Butt

July 13, 2014

UPDATE:

The UN-Official results of the tourney:  Weasel lands 4th in his division with an overall score of 662 and Conner takes 3rd with 633!  Congrats to you both!