A short read to let you know about my first competition last night at the range.

First of all, Squirrel is really taking his archery seriously, which is very good.  He is focused and very intent on becoming a good archer.  His goal is to be hunting with his bow in 3 years time.  You see he is 9 years old (as of last Saturday).  He received a very nice compound bow for Christmas and has been taking lessons for just over a year.  His bow from the past is just like the one they gave me for Christmas and it has a draw weight of about 15 pounds.  For an 8 year old that is quite enough to draw back.  His recurve bow is adjustable and I think his dad has it set for about 20 pounds draw.  Maybe a little less, but at any rate, it flings an arrow very much in a straight line to the target at 15 yards.

His dad gave him these goals:  Shooting at 10 yards and scoring the same way the big boys do, if he could reach a score of 200 or more, shooting the standard 10 sets of 3 shots each, he could then move out to 15 yards.  At 15 yards, if he can achieve the same 200 score (or more), he can move to 20 yards.  At 20 yards, once he again reaches the 200 mark, he will then begin increasing the draw weight of the bow.

These are very achievable goals and ones purely placed upon Squirrel to achieve.  There are no biases.  Reach the goal, and the goal changes to become more of a challenge.

Well, on Monday, last, he hit just over 200 at the 10 yard mark and was able to then move the target to 15 yards.  He was very excited.

We had our lessons on Wednesday night and he killed his target at the 20 yard mark during the lesson.  So, when his dad said he wanted to go shooting last night he was very excited because he knew he was going to be shooting at 15 yards and scoring.  He was pumped up to say the least and in his own mind he knew the 15 yard target would not have a chance of him not shooting over the 200 point mark.  And then he heard that Grandpa was going to be coming with them!

I will have my little bow and my 3, self fletched arrows and would be shooting along side him.

At the range we set things up and began shooting.  Of course my arrows were poking up and down and around in my target “area”, while his were pretty much sticking straight out and around the yellow ring which is center on the target.

Well, after a full round of him scoring and me just shooting to gain my form, we decided a competition was in order.  We would score my target as well, and whoever shot the best would be owed a soda by the other one.  I’m all for a good competition.  We agreed to score each others targets.

Each “set” is 3 shots and you score each set before advancing toward the next set.  There are 10 sets total for 30 shots and there is a total score of 300 possible.  Of course the very center of the yellow ring has an “X” in it and those get counted as well.  And so if you hear of someone shooting a 286 with 15 “x’s”, that means that half of their shots hit the very center of the target.  Ties are always given to the one with the most “x’s”.  The rings are scored from the center out, 10 (even the X is a 10), 9, 8, 7 etc. out to ZERO!  Zero’s are not good when competing against a 9 year old for a soda.

Let the games begin!

Here is my score sheet at the end of the competition:

104!  With 7 zeros and no x’s.  I did have 2 nines but I also had 4 ones.

Well my competitor shot a whopping 184 and literally “kicked some Butt”!  He won the soda of choice but did not get to advance to the 20 yard mark.  That is his goal for tonight.  I wish him luck!

Bears Butt

January 16, 2015