This picture shows just about how it was last night for my first ever scored event.  Weasel and Squirrel talked me into joining their field archery team and since I had $20, I went ahead and signed up.  You know I have had 5 lessons already and feel like I’m a pro at this stuff.

So, our team is made up of, Marv Bunderson (an old mountain man from wayyyyyy back), Weasel, Squirrel and myself.  A four man team to be reckoned with!  My first thought was that our team needed a name and even though the bulk of archers don’t like that idea, the more I think about it the more I think we do need a name.  My thought was “Marv and the SquWeButt’s”.  We will bounce the idea off Marv.

Ok, so I paid my money, got a target and went to work.  Everything about this has rules and rules are rules.  There were two other guys at the range also shooting their first score and I asked them if they would do the honors of scoring my target, in return they asked me if I would score theirs.  Of course.  So, why would we do this?  Rules!  Rules say you can not score your own target and neither can any of your team mates.  So, as the night went on and we shot our ends, I scored their two targets and they scored mine.

Everything was going great until I shot my first arrow at the target for score and then everything went down hill from there.  I kept thinking, well, at least my handicap will be high.  The zeros continued to add up (to nothing I might add) and in the end I scored remarkably well for a guy with a recurve bow, 5 brand new, never been shot arrows and 5 lessons behind him.

So, before I tell you my remarkable score, I need to tell you how the handicap works.  There are 300 points possible in this event.  Let’s say I shoot a 200.  Subtract my score of 200 from the possible 300 and that leaves 100.  Take 80% of that and that becomes my handicap.  In this case, 80 points.  So, during the competition, my score starts at 80 even before I shoot my first arrow.  You can see from this that it only gets better as the shots are taken!  (insert smiley face).

Weasel convinced me to join their team for two reasons.  One, they needed a fourth shooter.  Two, my handicap might help them win.  You see, Marv and Squirrel are such good shots their handicaps are only going to be around 10 or less, while Squirrels and mine are going to be at or near 100.  If they shoot their normal 290’s, and we can increase our scores up into the 200 ranges, adding our handicaps to our scores could put us over 300 points.  It is possible using the handicap to go over 300 points.

Well, right now there is no real pressure on my to get a very good score.  But, for my mental state, I need to be hitting the target and not like the picture above.  The 3 arrows on the ground did happen to me last night, only they weren’t laying on the ground, but they were solid ZEROS.  As time goes on I do expect to get better scores than I did last night, but that will also remain to be seen.  I had a few very good groups last night and all I have to do is get them to concentrate a bit more around the center ring and less around the outer edge of the target.  If I could figure out a way to “bribe” them to migrate that way life would be much better in my archery world.  The real answer is to concentrate on doing what I know I should be doing and the arrows will fly the way I want them.  Raise, draw, anchor, shoot and follow through!

My first ever score….114.

Bears Butt

February 10, 2015