The second day of the Formal Invitational was a very fun day.  The Brigham Bowmen group allowed me the pleasure to help run the 9 O’Clock line…what does that mean?  Well I got to wear a blaze orange jacket and carry a ping pong paddle.  It also allowed me to mingle with the shooters and take pictures.  There were two of us and we were actually supposed to watch the line for unsafe conditions and to let the announcer know when the field was clear of people so they could call the shooters to the line.  But, in reality, we just stood around and looked cool.

The only way I could have been “cooler” would be to be bigger….but those of you who know me, that ain’t gonna happen.

My goal for the day was to get some video of the archers shooting and bigger than that, the arrows hitting the targets.  I’ll be posting up links to some of that action once I get them loaded on You Tube.  Stand by for that in a future story.

What did happen at day two was some fun.  The group seemed to be more relaxed than yesterdays group.  I’m not sure why, but it seemed that way.  There was one lady shooter who had a story to tell.  It happened last weekend while camping.  Her husband pulled his bow out and started shooting at a milk jug or something and she decided to try a shot or two.  That was the first time she had ever picked up a bow in her life.  She continued during the weekend and her husband decided he needed to buy himself a new bow and gave that old bow to her.  So, they decided they needed to come to this formal shoot and give it a go.  Now, you would not believe the “rest of the story”, here is a picture of one of their groups early in the day.

I think this lady is going to be at many more events like this in the future!  Way to go!

It is always a pleasure to see the parents out encouraging their youngsters to do the best they can in all sports, but it just seems to me that archery is the one in which is it totally up to the archer to exceed expectations.  Sure it is nice when there is enough money available to set the youngster up with the “best” equipment, training and all of that, but it doesn’t take a rich person to play.  There is plenty of used equipment around and people willing to give free advise etc. to make anyone feel welcome to the sport.  I was fortunate enough today to spend most of the day with young people and watch how incredibly good they are with a bow and arrow in hand.

These two fathers were very proud of their youngsters as the days shooting progressed.  I was proud as well.  I’ve said this before…archery is one sport where it does not matter if you are large or small, girl or boy, strong or weak, handicapped or what not….YOU CAN DO THIS!  It is fun, clean, up lifting and as safe as the environment it is being played in.

To see a group of arrows all in the yellow ring, means no score is less than a 9!  This group appears to be all 10’s and X’s to me.

Remember too, that this shoot requires the shooters to pull back that bow over 90 times and after a bunch of shooting you can expect the groups of arrows to begin to spread out.  This is still an outstanding grouping of arrows!  These kids sure don’t have much of a problem with it!

And along with the shooting comes the scoring.  Each youngster would call out the score for the other shooter.  These kids were not shooting for the money, but if they had, then there would have been a double scoring sheet being written on.  In this case each shooter had their own score card and one shooter would write down the score for the other shooter.  It’s only fair.

You have been seeing the two shooters on the right, but at the 10 yard line, they were joined the the two boys on the left who had been shooting on their own line because they are younger.  Put the 4 of them together and look at the group of arrows finding that yellow circle!  Incredible shooting!

The smile says it all!  Nice X young man!

Let’s move over a line and see what is going on over there!

Boy!  That target is a LOONNGGG way down there!  But this young archer is not afraid to fling that arrow to find the mark and mom is right there to score the target!

When the youngsters start out at a young age, they pick up their form rather quickly and mold themselves into some very incredible shooting machines!  Going from groups like the one in this picture to shooting like this later in life.

So, from the line to the target it is all up to the archer to do their best.

And it wasn’t easy, but there sure were a lot of X’s scored today!

When you shoot like this and all but one of the arrows stay in the yellow circle, THAT is some great shooting!  This young lady hasn’t been shooting for too much longer than me and look that that group!  Is there an X in her day today?

Absolutely!  And even though I didn’t get a picture of it, I was told she had a 3X grouping before it was all over!  I sure wish I had been told of that one!  Congratulations!   I love X’s!

So, as with the others, the moms and dads like to participate in any way they can and mostly they were the ones scoring the targets.

Now I’d like you to follow me on a picture extravaganza showing just how X’s are born!  There were three young men who got into an “X shooting spree”, the fever to shoot X’s was growing as each end was shot and one X was not going to be enough for them!

A little background from my limited knowledge of these three shooters.  The guy on the left had 3 arrows to shoot and a heart as big as big.  His bow is a little big for him as well, but you would not have known it by his attitude to make those arrows do what he wanted them to do.  The young man in the middle has been a member of YHEC (Youth Hunter Education Challenge) for a few years and has been shooting a bow for that much time.  He placed in the State championship just this past weekend.  The archer on the right is a member of the Brigham Bowmen and has a couple of years of shooting under his belt.  All three of these young men were very fun to watch and be a part of their day.  I hope I wasn’t a pain in their behinds.

Count the fingers!  That is how many X’s they have racked up today!

We are getting close to running out of fingers!

HEY!  Where did that extra finger come from to make 11 X’s?

NOW can you see how much fun this game can be?  The pictures pretty much speak for themselves as to how much fun kids and adults alike can have shooting arrows!

A big thank you to all the archers who played this weekend!  I hope you had as much fun as I did!  Thank again to the Brigham Bowmen and the staff at the Box Elder County Fairgrounds!  A very nice venue to play in out of the rain and cold….well, it was a little cold in the arena this weekend, but at least we didn’t have any wind to blow our arrows around!  We will take that over the alternative!

JUST PLAIN FUN!

Bears Butt

April 13, 2015

Last year the Brigham Bowmen set up their formal invitational event outside at the Box Elder Fairgrounds and this picture showed my view of the targets.  Those big targets down range are 60 yards from the line.  A very intimidating distance for a guy shooting a bow.  At least from my prospective at that time.  Who would have known that one year later I would be trying to shoot an arrow that distance?

Yesterday I had the privilege of helping set up the Formal, actually help with the range enforcement and then get to shoot it.  What a fun day!

As you have read on here, there are three different lines to be shot from.  60 yards, 50 yards and 40 yards for the adults.  The kids have three different distances they shoot from, but still very far for kids.  The older kids get to shoot out to 50 yards and believe me, that is a pretty good poke!

We picked up the pieces of the setup at 6 a.m. yesterday morning and there were a lot of folks that came to help.  The trucks were loaded up and off we went to the fairgrounds to get things ready for the 9 a.m. line.  I was a bit skeptical that we would have everything ready for the 9 a.m. line, but we still had a half hour before anyone came to sign in.  From the bleachers, the line looks like this:

And down range the targets are spaced just right to allow for everyone to have plenty of room to shoot and score.

Those targets are a LOOONNNGGGGG way down there!

Well, the shooting started promptly at 9 a.m. and it’s a good thing too.  There were 90 arrows to be shot by each shooter and that takes time!  Yesterday was especially tough as the arrow stops (bunks as I call them) didn’t want to let the arrows go once the arrow was stuck in them.  Arrow pullers were used throughout the day.  Most of the shooters shoot fast, flat shooting bows and arrows that are tuned perfectly to fly straight and true.  When that combination is put to use, the arrow hits the target and the backing and drives on into it creating a lot of friction and heat.  The make up of the bunk melts onto the arrow shaft and that is what causes the arrow to be sooooo very hard to pull out.

As could be expected the 9 a.m. line didn’t have a whole lot of shooters.  Heck, who wants to get up early on a Saturday anyway?  I didn’t get any pictures of that line, but I counted about 17 shooters including some very young ones.  I have to say, the young shooters are pretty dang serious when it comes to flinging arrows at targets!  Congratulations kids!

You can see them beaming!  And actually that is a pretty good target from the far distance they had to shoot!  Good job fellas!  Keep practicing!  You are definitely on the right track!

At the other end of the line and age bracket the targets were taking quite a beating in the yellow 10 and X rings!

Look closely folks, those are two separate targets with clusters of arrows all in the 10 rings and X rings!  Absolutely impressive shooting!  With me, I like to use up the whole target and not discriminate between the different colors.  I even like to hit around the target, like in the ground and into the arrow stopping wood.  I’m a nice guy that way.

Aside from what I do with my shooting, the targets “printed” all day long were impressive and only the bottom line will tell who out-did who for the money.  Most people played for the fun of it and believe me it IS fun!  To challenge your ability to hit that yellow ring from 60 yards away is a great way to spend the day.  It makes you tired as well.  Those back muscles pulling that bow back 90 times lets you know it by the end.  My neck muscles even got into the act.

Back to the game!

The noon line was the largest of the day.  I didn’t count the number of shooters, but the line was full for sure.  To have more would have meant shooting double lines.  We didn’t have to do that.  What I did notice was the sounds and I hope to set up a camera to show you how it was for me.  Shooting outdoors doesn’t have the same effect as shooting indoors.  When the shooters step up to the line and get the signal to go ahead and fling arrows, there is a silence that comes across the area.  Then the sounds of the bow strings being released, followed by the sounds of the arrows hitting the targets….whop, whop, whop, whop.  There is little to no person noises and if you could monitor “concentration” the chart would be off the graph.

The way they had things set up, they put the adults on the right side (facing the line from behind) and the kids were on the left end.  To finish each distance the shooters walked forward when the ends were finished.  It was very organized and safe.  I wish more would come and be entertained in the arena seating.  You would not be disappointed!  Bring your binoculars.

As shooters finish shooting the required number of arrow, they are instructed to step back away from the line so the line judges will know when everyone is finished and then call for shooters to go down range and score their hits (misses in my case).  It was very apparent that everyone was having a great time and what a way for people to get to meet new acquaintances?  Come on out folks!  You too could be doing something like these kids did!

I only know Conner in this picture, he is the young man on the left in blue, but take a look at that grouping of arrows!  These four young adults are going to be shooting like those 10 and X ring shooters VERY SOON!  I was impressed with these four and their abilities to place their arrows in and around the 10 ring!  Good going guys (and gal)!  Guys is my way of including both sexes!

By the way, when 6 X 4 number of arrows are all sticking out of the target like this, it makes for scoring a little bit more difficult!

So who does this arrow belong to?

So, 3 p.m. came along and yours truly got to play!  One thing about this sport, it does not discriminate.  Even 65 year olds with antiquated methods can play.  And play I did.  My partner was a young Sophomore in high school who also was shooting a recurve bow.  His was set up with stabilizers and a sight, but a recurve bow none the less.  His arrows were a lot skinnier than mine and he said they cost around $300 per dozen….I think I’ll stay with my $6 arrows.  I can break or lose them without having an ulcer each time I pull one back and chance it down range.  Of course his score was a whole lot closer to perfect than mine, but you will see in a minute how mine faired out.

I’m 4th from the end in the purple shirt, hat on backward, not only to look like a “cool old guy”, but to get the bill of the hat out of the way.  Functional and cool!  Thanks Winemaker for the grand stand picture!

So, how did the Old Bears Butt fair in his shooting?  Remember there are 30 arrows shot at each distance!

60 yards (my practice did in fact pay off)…300 points possible and I got a 96!  And best of all, I only missed the target (bunk) 9 times!  Is that good or what?

50 yards!  Let’s talk about this for a minute.  We are going to move up 10 yards.  From 60 yards to 50 the target gets larger, right?  Well, it does in reality, but behind my bow 50 yards is still a LOOONNNGGG way down there.  My strategy was not to raise the bow too high and shoot over it, but still, too low and the arrow will hit the dirt.  The score please!

142!  And 4 zeros!  Damn!  If I had to say it for myself, I’m getting gooder!  My best end was a 44 out of a possible 60.  I need more practice I know, but I’m improving!  Now let’s get down to the 40 yard mark!  20 yards closer than that hail mary distance of 60 yards.

40 yards!  Score 147 and the best part!  1 (one) count them!  1 zero!

My final score was 385 out of a possible 900 with 14 zeros!  My personal best…..well, heck it was my first ever time shooting an event like this…of course it’s my personal best!

I can tell you from experience, PRACTICE pays dividends!  I can only imagine how this shooting event would have played out should I not have PRACTICED!

I’ve looked at a whole bunch of videos, read a book on the subject and every one of them come down to the same thing:  If you are going to get good at shooting a bow and hitting what you want to hit you need a few things behind your belt:  A good and consistent anchor point (points in my case), good and consistent form, a good and consistent follow through and tons of practice!  Do you notice anything here?  Good and Consistent!  Anchor point, form, follow through and practice!

More to come from todays (Sundays) shooting!

Bears Butt

April 12, 2015

Thought you might enjoy a little update on my archery endeavor.  The Brigham Bowmen have disassembled the indoor range and moved their operation up to Mantua at the outdoor range facility.  I have not enjoyed that range as yet but will some day soon.  What I have been doing is going down to the farm and doing some long range shooting in preparation for this weekends Formal Invitation.  When I first started taking archery lessons back in January, my mentor, Lynn Hayes told me that even though the instructions being given cover the basics of archery, everyone is different and to experiment on my own to find what feels and works best for me.  I’ve been on hundreds of websites and seen 10’s of videos on shooting recurve and long bows.  Shooting instinctively.  Walking the string.  Gap shooting etc. etc. etc.

When it all boils down, it comes to form and consistency, along with practice that makes that arrow go where you want it to go (most of the time).

So, I’ve been experimenting, like Lynn said.

I set myself up a chart for Gap Shooting and have been keeping track of my “gaps” at 5 yard increments.  Beginning on March 20 and going up through April 4th, my average gaps were these:

Gap shooting is standing at a given distance and pointing the tip of the arrow at a single place each time as you shoot from different distances.

5 Yd. 9 inches, 10 yd. 17 inches, 15 yd. 19 inches, 20 yd. 18 inches, 25 yd. 15 inches and here is where it gets interesting; 30 yd. point on for all days until the 4th of April when it went to 35 yards for point on.  I don’t fully understand that change.  But you get the drift of gap shooting.  At close ranges the arrow climb slowly as you back away from the target and then the arc of the arrow brings it back down until at some point away from the target the arrow hits where you have been pointing the tip the whole time.

On April 5th I decided to change my stance a little.  I have been using a somewhat open stance where my feet are shoulder width apart, forward foot slightly pointing toward the target and the rear foot slightly ahead of the forward foot and square with the target.  This is how I began shooting.  My anchor was with the string hand under and to the back of my jaw.  I would rotate the bow to the point the string touched my nose and then elevate or lower to where I felt the arrow would hit the target and then release.  This worked well, but not too consistent.  I’m sure it is in my release form and need to work on this.  The other thing about this form was my inability to stop the bow from moving all over the place as I held the string back.  I felt like I needed something more to stop the bow from moving.

So, I moved my feet to be square with the target.  When I draw the string back, my string hand rests under my jaw, just like before but the string automatically finds my nose AND I can feel the string touching my boob.  The bow does not move all around and when I want to elevate, all contact points are maintained and I pivot from the hip.  This has helped with my long range shooting and keeps my arrows going relatively toward the center line of the target.  Ya, I still under and over shoot the target, but the arrows seem to be hitting the ground in front of the center of the target, or going over it centered on it as well.  More practice is needed.

Back to the Gap!

With my new stance and 3 point anchor system my gaps have changed!

5 yd. 12 inches,  10 yd. 22 inches, 15 yd. 29 inches, 20 yd. 32 inches, 25 yd. 28 inches, 30 yd. 21 inches,  35 yd. 10 inches and 40 yd. point on!

I’ll have to do some checking on my draw length, but it seems possible that I have increased my draw length by changing my feet and squaring up to the target.  That is the only explanation I can come up with for the gap distances to have increased the way they have and my point on distance to have increased by 10 yards.

On a negative note, when I draw to full draw, I can only see what is directly in front of the bow with peripheral vision to my right.  Very little to my left.  My right eye is looking straight down the arrow shaft.  Is this good?  Someone who has been shooting a whole lot longer than me will have to comment on that.

Now let’s look at my long range shooting.

You’ve read that my goal in long range shooting is to “hit the bunk”….not to mean, hit the rack….The bunk is bigger than the target by a bunch but so is 60 yards as compared to 20 at the indoor facility.  Toss in a bit of a breeze nearly every evening, some late day sun in the eyes and whatever else presents itself during the practice sessions.  I have to admit these numbers are not a very big sample, but they are numbers and have to mean something at this point in the game.

I set up at 60, 50 and then 40 yards and shoot 5 ends of 6 arrows per end.  A tally at the end of the sessions looked like this:

Day one:  60 yd.  9 hits,  50 yd.  20 hits,  40 yd. 25 hits

Day two:  60 yd. 9 hits,  50 yd.  17 hits,  40 yd.  22 hits

Day three was the day I anchored with my 3 place anchor….jaw, nose, boob….

60 yd. 5 hits,  50 yd.  17 hits,  40 yd. 16 hits

Last night was day four of my practice and I was running really late and only had about an hour to play before the sun set.  I spent most of my time on the gap shooting but did manage to get two ends in at 60 and 50 yards.  My mind was on time and not so much on what I was doing with my shooting.  The results were these:

60 yd. 4 + 4 hits,  50 yds. 3 + 3 and the last 3 at 50 was only shooting 5 arrows instead of 6….you can see from this my mind was not on what I was doing.  But, should those numbers continued I could expect to have had a 20 hit session at 60 yards and 15 at 50 yards.  I really think that between the practice in and of itself and the 3 point anchor I should increase my hits substantially.

Oh, another thing I threw into the mix were string silencers….puffy strands of yarn….I know they slow the string down, but they also take some of the shock out of the bow hand.  It’s all good!

Bears Butt

April 8, 2015

WOW!  What a phenomenal day we have on our hands!  For some of you, you have ventured onto youtube.com and seen some amazing footage of videos people have taken and posted up.  One such person (people) has done such a great job at posting up personal experiences that he and his friends have landed a famous spot on Animal Planet, a series called “100 miles from nowhere”.  You can go to youtube.com and look up “Matt in the Wild”….he is the guy who does a BUNCH of very crazy stuff and a lot of what he has posted up actually scares me!  He rides a bike on the sharp edge of a rock with 100 or more feet of drop off on both sides.  That one made my butt pucker and my feet hurt from trying to stay on the bike!

Well, that’s one thing happening in our world, but the other MORE FAMOUS thing is the debut of “Weasel in the Wild dot com”……he has put up his very first video up and as I understand it, he had like 10 hours of video that he condensed down to 8 minutes.  He is asking for comments so he can refine his technique AND he is looking for ideas on what to post up next.  Give him a lookie-see and some comments!  Here is the link:

Enjoy!

On a side note, I’m working on that “gap shooting” information and will post up some stuff on that when I get it compiled.  Winemaker thinks I’m “obsessed” with this archery stuff.  Well, I’m just trying to be the best I can be and that takes experimentation and lots of practice.  Chris Barton posted up on Facebook a very good comment she found.  It goes something like this:  “It seems the more I practice, the luckier I get”.

Also, if you don’t benchmark yourself as you go along, you don’t really see any improvement (or lack of improvement) and this is what I’m doing in conjunction with the Gap stuff.  My clip board is getting full of papers as I progress…..and I must say, I am progressing.

I’m also running out of arrows.  I have 10 that are all the same…same length, same colors, same weight, same shaft spine.  But, now four of them don’t have nocks and one is being repaired with a broken fletching.  On order are 3 more arrows and 12 nocks.  I wouldn’t have this small issue IF I could hit the bunk each time I shoot.  But, the earth has a greater gravitational pull where I shoot than other places.  It also has quite a few rocks with minds of their own that jump up and grab at my arrows as they fly over top of them.  I shoot in a very spooky place.
Bears Butt
March 31, 2015

Went to the field last night and joined Weasel and Squirrel for a little “long range” practice.  My goal….hit the “bunk”…..The bunk is the big block of compressed foam that the target gets put on to stop the arrow.  It measures about 4 ft. long and 2 1/2 ft. tall.  I did place a target on it just because I had one, but my goal, like I said was just to hit the bunk.  As you know, I only have a 30 pound bow in my hands and that is if I could pull it back to 28 inches, but I don’t….my shortness comes into play and I only have a 26 inch draw….that makes my bow about a 25 pound one.  This is all just fine.  I’m working my way up to a 50 pound bow and will be pulling about 45 pounds when I get there.  Until then, I’ll learn to shoot this little guy and compete with others in my class.

So, looking at the bunk from 60 yards away is almost a ridiculous thing to be doing and planning on hitting that little thing is mostly just a dream.  When I first tried shooting an arrow down to hit it, the arrow hit the ground about 15 feet in front of it and bounced off the ground and hit it firmly in the center!  Will that work at a formal event and count?  I’m not sure, but it would be better if I could reach the target without using the forces of the ground to assist me.

So, how high do I have to aim that little pencil projectile in order to reach the bunk?  I have no references down range except a sage bush growing on top of the hill behind the bunk.  If I draw back, put the point of the arrow even with the top of the sage bush but in line with the bunk, maybe that will be high enough.  And that is what I did….The release went well and the arrow headed straight toward the bunk….and then it hit the ground at least 10 feet in front of the bunk…firmly bounced kicking up dust and planted itself into the bunk!  As long as I have hard dirt in front of the bunk maybe I could learn to “bark” (shooting squirrels from trees by hitting the bark of the tree, knocking the squirrel out and not damaging its little body) my arrows into the 10 ring.  But remembering the 3D arena we shot in a few weeks ago, the dirt there is very soft and not conducive to barking arrows into 10 rings.  I have to learn to do this another way.

So, what can I reference to now?  The sage bush isn’t going to work, not high enough.  What about the top of the barn?  That would work as long as I’m shooting down on the farm, but not anywhere else.  There must be a way.  I know the archers of way past (think of Sir Butt), used to stand and shoot hundreds of arrows at their enemies and some how get them to hit the guys down range and they were a lot farther away than 60 yards.  Heavier poundage draw weights no doubt played a part in that but still the same problem I am having right now.

Here is something that came to mind last night.  I could tie one end of a string to my leg and the other to my bow hand.  Drawing the bow up and shooting until the arrow finally hit the bunk.  The string would be adjusted as I continued my testing and once the arrow hit the bunk I would tie it off firmly.  That would be my 60 yard string length.  While lifting the bow to the proper height, as soon as the string was tight, the angle would be right for that shot…let er rip!  What a plan!  Is that legal in a Formal Invitational competition?  Maybe, but I doubt it, and besides I sure would look professional out on the line with a string tied to my leg and hand.  There has to be a better way.

Instinct shooting!  Sure, for you who have shot a million arrows and know your bow perfectly.  Just like throwing a baseball.  Look at the target and shoot!  Perfect shots every time.

I am becoming more and more familiar with my bow and I like it a lot, but I’m not an instinct shooter yet.  I want to play in the upcoming Formal and when I do I would like a few of the arrows to hit the target.  I’ve got to figure this thing out.

Well, before the night was over I actually did hit the bunk and I was doing it quite regularly…all six arrows in a few of the ends I shot actually stuck in the bunk without the aid of the ground bounce I was soooooo getting used to.  What I found might just help you when you take up shooting arrows with a bow.  My draw would begin level, as if the target was just 20 yards ahead of me, anchoring like I have learned to do.  Then I would bend my body from the waist up, like leaning back while holding my form.  I would lean back until the knuckle of my middle finger on my bow hand was even with the center of the bunk.  Then I would move my eye to the arrow itself, making sure it was in alignment with the bunk.  Of course the view showed the arrow pointing up at the moon, but that was ok, the elevation was right because my knuckle said it was.  Once I was happy with the alignment, a quick double check of the knuckle and I would release my draw….the arrow would arc up and away and fall right into the bunk!  Well, it would if I continued to keep the arrow in alignment, which didn’t happen all the time, but enough times that I came away feeling pretty good about it.  So, there is my reference point for a 60 yard shot….middle finger knuckle….I’m not so sure of this to go to a tattoo parlor and have a 60 tattooed on it, but I’ll continue to work on my shooting using the knuckle as my reference and see if things hold true.

At the 50 yard linemy reference point fell somewhere between my index finger knuckle and the curvature between it and my middle finger knuckle.  We were hurrying with our shooting at this point as the sun was going down and so I didn’t come away with the same feeling of “surety” as I did from the 60 yard line.  More practice is in order.  The biggest thing that I came away with was the movement of my upper body while holding my form from a level position.  My feet stayed where they always are and I wasn’t just aiming the bow up.  My body moved back from my hips, everything else remained the same.  I’ll continue to use this method.

My next practice session will again begin at 60 yards, move to 50 and then 40…just like the Formal is done.  April 11 will come too quickly.

Bears Butt

March 29, 2015

The next big shoot out with the Brigham Bowmen club is the Formal Invitational to be held April 11 and 12 in Tremonton.  The big boys and girls will be shooting at 60, 50 and 40 yards, while the 12 to 14 year olds will shoot 50, 40 and 30 yards and the 9 to 11 year olds cover 30, 20 and 10 yards.  Those younger than 9 will shoot 20, 14 and 10 (that is where I should be).  The targets look LARGE!  But I’m sure when one is on the line shooting it will be quite a different story.

So, Weasel had me convinced to go to the field and give it a go last night.  I didn’t have much time and so I only shot maybe 15 times and the big bale of foam.  No target was placed on it, just shooting at the bale.  I figured if I could hit the bale, which measures about 4 feet long by 2 feet high that would be a good start to my long range shooting.  Any practice is better than none.  I am going to have to get myself used to shooting every day that I can in order to do much of anything in the realm of archery.  My ultimate goal is to put a deer in the freezer using my recurve bow.  That will take a lot of range time.  I owe it to the deer to be as accurate as I can be.

As you can see in the picture, the target is quite large, but you can see also it is a long ways down to the 60 yard mark.

I shot a set of 6 arrows at the 60 yard mark last night and had arrows flinging all over the place, two completely over the target and the other 4 bouncing off the ground.  Not bad for my first time and I got the confidence that my bow will actually shoot farther than 60 yards….I had my doubts.

Weasel then convinced me I should move to the 40 yard line and give it a go from there.  His teaching said, shoot from there until you are confident you can hit the bale every time and shoot 50 or so shots.  Once all the arrows are hitting the bale, move back to 50 yards and do it all over again and then eventually you will be shooting at the 60 yard line.  OK!  I’m good with that.

Moving up to the 40 yard line I decided I needed to do some calculating in my head as to how high to aim the bow in order to hit the bale.  My bow will not shoot an arrow straight at the bale and hit it, however it will bounce an arrow off the ground and hit it….I did that several times last night.  I also employed the entire bale to stop the arrows….4 ft X 2 ft….Not too good of a group.  But like I said, I did end with all 6 arrows hitting the bale without bouncing off the ground to do it.  A start to my long range shooting.

I read a bit on the internet this morning about how a Formal Invitational tournament works and even though I watched as Weasel and Conner shot in last years, it was all new to me and I didn’t retain much of any of it.  The article I read did emphasize how taxing it is on the body.  You shoot 5 sets of 6 arrows per set at each of the target distances.  That is 30 arrows at 60 yards, 30 at 50 and then 30 at 40 yards.  90 arrows total!  That is a whole lot of pulling the bow back and letting the arrow fly!  And then….you have to walk down range and get your arrows and walk back.  5 X 60 yards, plus 5 X 50 yards, plus 5 X 40 yards……In comparison to a day of hunting that isn’t much walking, but for old people out of shape it is a lot of walking!

I’ll keep you all posted on my progress in the field before the big day.  I would like to do well in this shoot.

Bears Butt

March 27, 2015

My mentor and friend, Lynn Hayes, graciously leant me a book titled “Guide to the Longbow” by Brian Sorrells to read and glean what I could from its pages.  A very good book dedicated to shooting the longbow.  From my reading Brian Sorrells shoots a LOT!  A couple of times through the book he mentions having 3 bows near the door and ready for him to shoot should he get an inkling to do so, which is all the time.  If you are into longbow or any traditional bow shooting, do yourself a favor and pick up this book and read it….lots of good stuff in those pages.

So, what did I get from it?  A bunch of tips on how to actually shoot the bow and hit what is desired.  The very bottom line of all bottom lines comes back to the basics of proper form and lots of practice!

I found the arrow section the most interesting as that is where my biggest confusion is at this point in time.  I’ve been struggling with arrows and have finally found some I “believe in”.  Sure they are light and small, but they seem to fly pretty straight and hit the target without looking like the two arrows to the right in the picture above.  But from the book, he says that a proper arrow needs to weigh 8 grains per pound of draw weight of the shooter.  Not necessarily the draw weight of the bow itself.  With a few differences in manufacturers, draw weights are pretty much rated at 28 inches of draw distance and any difference plus or minus from that makes the draw weight different.  I draw at 26 inches and I lose about 2 1/2 pounds of draw weight per inch, so with my 30 pound rated bow, I am only drawing about 25 pounds.  So, under Mr. Sorrells guideline, my arrows should weigh 8 grains per inch of my 25 pound draw weight or 200 grains….this is his MINIMUM standard and makes a good starting point.

Next he talks about “spine” of the arrow.  Spine is the amount of flex the arrow has.  He (and others) says if the arrow has too stiff a spine it can’t flex around the handle (riser) of the bow and will hit the target with the back of the arrow to the right of the point end of the arrow.  The opposite is true if the back of the arrow hits to the left of the point, the spine is too light.  If you have little or no choice in your arrows spine you can alter the way the spine works, but adding weight to the point end of the arrow shaft if it’s too heavily spined.  There are arrow manufacturers that sell little weight discs that can be put on just in front of the arrow shaft and behind the point of the arrow, if they are screw on tips.  If your tips are glued on I have no idea what you would do in those cases.  Maybe try and pry the tip off and put on a heavier tip????

If your arrows are too lightly spined, you remove the tip and the insert and cut a fraction of the end off the arrow and replace the tip.  This shortens the arrow a bit, making the spine stiffer.  You can imagine if your arrow is say 5 feet long and it flexes pretty easily in the middle, you cut it down to one foot in length, it wouldn’t flex as much.  Remember, when cutting off your arrow at the tip end, don’t cut too much off because once it’s cut off, you can’t add it back.  A little goes a long way in effecting the spine flex.

Mr. Sorrells’ doesn’t say this, but I heard it from my mentor friend, you could add weight to the nock end of the arrow instead of cutting off the shaft to accomplish the same thing if your arrow spine is too light.  I suppose if your arrow shaft is too stiff, you could cut off the nock end of it instead of adding weight to the front….I’m guessing here, but it sort of makes sense to me.  If you try either of these to change your arrow and it blows up in your face, don’t blame me…remember, I’m guessing here!  Please read the fine print….(change font size to 2)….I ain’t responsible…..

He mentions something else that supposedly has just gotten into the Compound bow shooters vocabulary, but has been in the fore front of long bow and recurve shooters repertoire for a very long time and that is “Front of Center” (FOC).  I’m still trying to figure this one out, but it makes sense that it would figure into the whole arrow of choice scene.  An arrow with a FOC closer to the point would fly differently than one with its FOC closer to the nock.  My question to you at this time, without further explanation….Do you give a FOC?

Let’s look at this a little closer.  Your arrow is SOOOO long (outstretched arms).  If measured from just back of the tip, to the point of the nock where the string fits (inside part), the center of the arrow is in the middle of that measurement.  That is the Center of the arrow.  But, the tip weighs something and the nock weighs something, even it just a little and so the center of the arrow is not necessarily where the arrow will balance, if placed on the edge of a sturdy knife blade of something like that.  The balance point of the arrow is that FOC point, front of center.  If however your arrow balances behind the center point, more toward the nock end, you have a BOC…..Back of center is NOT a good thing.  I’m sure if you have a BOC arrow, it would tend to come back towards you should you shoot it.  Let’s say, for now, no arrows are made with BOC and that all arrows are FOCed.

As I study FOC more in depth I’ll report to you here what I find.  It makes sense (again) that adding a heavier tip to your arrow will force the FOC to move closer to the tip of the arrow.  Let’s think about what we just read about the spine of the arrow….adding weight to the front makes the spine weight go down….So, FOC and Spine weight are playing together here.  An arrow with a FOC closer to the tip has a less spine weight than one with a FOC closer to the nock.  It also makes sense to me that at some point between the center of the arrow and the point of FOC, your bow will like that arrow a whole lot better than one where the FOC is closer to the tip or closer to the nock.  That arrow needs to be FOC (spot) ON.  My goal now is to find out where the FOC my current “best” arrows is.  (Grammatically that does not sound proper….where my FOC is on my current best arrows, sounds better).  When I find that out I’ll report here.

Bears Butt

March 22, 2015

I just ran the test on my 10 “best” arrows and calculated the percent FOC for each:

1 = 8.95 %

2 = 8.14 %

3 = 8.29 %

4 = 8.49 %

5 = 8.47 %

6 = 8.14 %

7 = 8.70 %

8 = 8.47 %

9 = 8.47 %

10 = 8.84 %

So, as you can see, all my arrows are FOCed.

Butt

Weasel, Squirrel and I hit the range last night to post up our next to the last league score for the current “thing” we are shooting.  I don’t know what the “game” is called but we are shooting a five spot target.  Well, the ones that are good enough to do that are shooting a five spot target, I’m shooting at a big old blue circle with black lines separating scoring rings.  Each team of 4 shooters posts up 8 different weeks of scores, how those scores are tallied in the end is way outside my guessing abilities but somehow they will decide which team did the best, worst etc.  All I know is that my scores have been around 100 with my best a 144 and I think my average is around a 125 to 130.

The whole object for me, so far in my archery career is to get better.  I’ve read where someone (or many someones) has said, “shoot 60 arrows a day to keep the zeros away”.  It is obvious I need more 60’s in a day because even last night a few zeros crept onto the score sheet.  But, even at that, shooting an arrow and getting a zero is better than not shooting an arrow.  It’s fun and I highly recommend it for old and young alike!

The lanes were pretty empty last night as it was the first day of Spring and folks were most likely enjoying a backyard BBQ or something rather than coming out to shoot bows.  For us it was a very relaxing way to spend a few hours on a Friday night.

I was coerced into playing in this league by Weasel and an old friend from the blackpowder scene, Marv Bunderson.  Both Weasel and Marv can, and do, shoot regular scores in the mid to high 290’s all the time and they have handicaps that rival pro-golfers.  To say it another way, they don’t have handicaps.  Squirrel and I have very large numbered handicaps.  His around the 70’s and mine in the 130’s.  Personally I like a large handicap, it means I have room for improvement.  When I golfed I didn’t have a handicap, mostly because I didn’t compete in golf games, but I still could shoot close to a par game in 9 holes.  The game became boring to me and I stopped playing.  What’s the point if you only win a nickel, dime or quarter from the ones you are golfing with?  Even the beer was not cold enough by the time the ninth hole came around.  I digress.

So, with lots of room for improvement in my shooting ability, I stepped up and decided to join this team of good shooters.  Their strategy (there is one you know) is to have Squirrel and I join their team, knowing full well we will post scores that increasingly get better over the 8 weeks and of course add to our scores our handicaps and suddenly, the team score is beating the best of the best in the end.  A good strategy if you ask me.  However, with my fading eye sight, new bow, bad form, arrows that are probably not tuned properly, a brace height that needs adjusting and a myriad of other archery related items, my scores have not been what those two thought I would be posting up….until…..last night!

Squirrel has been improving remarkably well over the weeks!  I’ll make up some scores here, but they aren’t far off from what was real.  160, 170, 180, 200, 210, 220, 230 and last night 246!

246!!!!!  And 11 X’s!  That is only 54 points less than perfect!  And with 60 arrows shot, he is less than 1 point per arrow from a perfect score!  Add that to his handicap!  I’m pretty sure his overall score exceeds 300 for this weeks score!

Me?  Well, let’s just say I scored a personal best!  My number doesn’t compare to Squirrels, but for me I’ll take it!  I felt good shooting and even though I hit the board a couple of time with low shots and put up 5 zeros during the event, I still managed to also put up 5 X’s to offset those O’s.  Mark me with a 162!  I’m dancing around now!  Add in my handicap and I’m close to a 300 but not quite.  I think you will see our team up near the top of the leader board for this week!

I learned something last night about shooting instinctively like I have to learn to do….Trust in the equipment…..Keep your form correct…..Follow through with the shot…..Keep your eye on where you want the arrow to end up.

My last shot of the night went like this, as I spoke to myself in my mind:  Wynn, this is your last shot of the night, shot number 60.  Sure you are tired.  Your first shot of this 5 shot sequence went into the board below the target.  See it hanging there?  A big fat zero and an embarrassing loud BANG for all to hear.  Get over it!  Your other 3 shots weren’t too bad, now make this one count.  It’s your last shot today.  Trust in yourself.  Look at the big old white spot down there.  It’s huge!  Let your instincts find the mark.  A smooth draw back to your anchor point.  That feels great doesn’t it?  Oh ya!  You got this.  Turn the bow slightly until the string touches your nose.  The string is now lined up with the arrow…that’s good.  Now focus on the white spot.  Release when ready and let your draw fingers touch your cheek….nice!  Watch down the sight plain as the arrow arches toward the big white circle…..BULLS EYE!  A solid X!

As I turned around to put my bow on the stand, the guy who was scoring us was looking through his monocular at my target.  He looked up and said….”Show off”!

Bears Butt

March 21, 2015

After the trapping chores were done yesterday, Weasel and I decided we probably should go the the range and shoot our week 5 league scores.  We have a very busy “today” with farm work and the high probability of me hitting the trap line after that, which means a late night in the shed and so to go shoot today would be near impossible.  Sunday, the range is open but with Sunday comes church and catching up on home duties, so that is out.  Besides, Weasel and his family might head to Heber for their indoor 3D shoot.  So, off we went!

The place wasn’t too full, but had a group of fun archers.  Some were on the serious side while shooting, but came around with a smile after they were off the line.  Being new to this whole thing, I can see where the seriousness can come in to play.  I’m pretty serious when I’m settling in for a shot too.

Remember, my goal is to hit the paper, all 24 inches by 24 inches of it!  The circles on it are bonus if the arrow finds its place among them for a score.  I missed the paper several times last night and I wasn’t real happy about that.  I kept trading out one arrow for another until I decided to just stick with one arrow and learn to shoot it.  The other 4 are made for my bow and shoot just fine.  By the time I decided to keep shooting the same arrow, I was nearly at the half way point in my “ends” (rounds, frames, holes….each game has its own “what they are called”).  I was actually feeling pretty good about my score to that point.  And then it happened!  My weird arrow found its way to the white circle!  A very solid 5 points.  I made it a point to shoot the weird arrow first to get it out of the way, then I could concentrate on the good arrows and hope to put them into the ring area of the paper.

What ended up happening during the last half of my shooting was that more arrows found there way into the rings, than did find themselves outside the rings and the points began to stack up. I ended the night with 5 “X’s”!  Count em….FIVE!  1 little, 2 little, 3 little X’s!  4 little, 5 little X’s!!!!!!  On top of that there were a few more in the 5 ring than I’m used to seeing.

Without adding up the score I just knew in my heart I had just bested my best to date….but after a double count using a calculator, Weasel couldn’t squeeze out another point and I came away with a 136.  It would have been much lower without hitting those 5’s.  To say I feel good about my shooting last night is an understatement.  To close off a game shooting 60 rounds and ending with the last two shots being 5 point X’s is making me want to hit the range even more!  Obsession?  Maybe the beginning of it.

Bears Butt

March 7, 2015