Lesson 6 last night and I almost missed it.  After trapping all day, then skinning 32 rats (with Bob of course), my butt was whipped bad!  All I felt like doing after 6 p.m. was sitting back, relaxing and drinking a few brews.  I could have gone to bed right then.  Well, I called Weasel, who was already at the archery lanes and told him to tell my instructor, Chris, I wouldn’t make it.  Then I sat back, watching a little tube, and drank two beers.  I was starting to feel human again.  So I ate supper and felt great.  I told Winemaker I was going to the archery lesson and off I went.

I’m sure glad I didn’t miss this one.  Chris had us shooting at a single target, about the size of the one in the picture above.  Well not quite that big, but pretty big.  It’s the same one we are shooting at for this league shoot I’m in.  But that is not the point of this writing.

Chris had us shooting our 5 arrow ends and after the third end, she came over to me and Sandra (both of us shooting recurve bows) and said something like this: “There is one thing we have not told you recurve shooters about arrow alignment with the target.  When you look at the compound bow shooters you see all sorts of stuff hanging off their bows that helps them get aligned with the target.  They not only have sights, but bubble levels.  Your bow must be level in order to consistently shoot where you want it to shoot”.

Now that is not exactly what she said, but that is what I took from it.

She went on.  “When you draw back your bow and get into your anchor position, align the bow string up with the shaft of the arrow.  Concentrate on the target and follow through with your shot”.

I was skeptical and told her as much.  But then said I would try it.  When I did, the arrow hit at 12 o’clock above the X, about 8 inches high.  HMMMMM.  I looked over at Chris, who was looking back at me with a smile.  My thought went to alignment, and how the arrow hit straight up and down from the center of the bull.  I nocked another arrow and followed the same routine.  The arrow flew like it had a mind of its own and lodged into the X!  Amazing!  I finished with four of the five arrows around and touching the bulls eye!

Chris took a picture of my X arrow and sent it off to e-land.

I was so elated, I told her “Chris, you just unleashed the beast”!!!!

My next 5 arrows felt really good and all came within the 4 count ring of the X.  After that they got a little wild, but still within the counting rings.  She said she wanted me to walk away from the shooting lanes and concentrate on something totally different than shooting.  Go look at the activity board or something.  Which I did and when I came back she had put a ballon over my X ring and four count rings.

I asked her about the balloon and she said just shoot it.  Now here is where things get really interesting.  I concentrated on a spot on the balloon and fired my first shot.  As big as that balloon was how can I miss with my new found knowledge?  Well, I did miss it.  In fact I missed it with all 5 arrows!  How can that be?  I readied myself for my next 5 arrow end and shot them with the same result…misses!  This is crazy!  I was doing so well, now what is going on?

Chris took the balloon away and posted it next to my target.  Told me to shoot two arrows at my target and the next three at the balloon.  My two arrow targets hit in the 3 count ring on my target and my first arrow at the balloon was dead center.  I shot the next two at the deflated balloon, hitting close enough to it that if it had been inflated they would have popped it.

There is some psychological thing going on here and Chris didn’t explain it to me.  I’ll be digging in to find out just what was playing with my mind and why I didn’t pop it with my first arrow.

So, there you have my lesson number 6!  Look out scoring rings, I’m coming to poke holes in you!

Bears Butt

February 12, 2015

After trapping yesterday and skinning the catch, I had to take a short break before heading up to the league to post up my second week score for this league event.  I’m not sure what is it called, but each contest has a name.

I learned a little more about “handicap” and I’d like to share some of it with you today.  Well, it will sort of look like a math lesson before I get through with it, but you will totally understand when it is all over.

Remember X + Y = Z?  Well, in the world of handicap it has some of that.  Remember X/2 = Y?  Well, in the world of handicap it has some of that.  Remember that in the world of mathematics you have to complete things within a parenthesis first before proceeding with some other function?  Well, in the world of handicap there is some of that to do.  Now this formula isn’t too far removed from math read and studied in the books, in fact, what you learned in school is actually why you learned it in school in the first place.  You are about to use those lessons in a real life situation.

Here is the Math question:  Bears Butt is wanting to figure out his handicap for archery competition.  His lane captain says he must post up two scores that he has shot while actually in the competition.  So, Bears Butt goes to work and shoots his arrows at the target for his first weeks score (W1 = First weeks score).  The next day, Bears Butt returns to the shooting lanes and shoots his second weeks score (W2 = Second weeks score).

To begin to calculate a handicap, you must first add up the two scores and calculate the average of those scores.  To get an average of any number of line items, you must add up all the line items and divide by the total number of line items.  That sounds sort of crazy, but that is the way it is done.  So if you have two line items, you will divide by 2.  If you have three sets of numbers or 3 sets of line items, you will divide by 3 etc.

To further calculate the handicap, you will take the average you just calculated and subtract it from the total number possible for one score.  In this case the total number you could possibly shoot in one week is 300.  So the formula looks like this:  300 – (W1 + W2 / 2 ).  But!  That is not all true!  You only get 80 percent of that number as your handicap.  So we must further calculate our formula to include that 80 percent calculation.  300 – (W1 + W1/2) X .8 = Handicap.

Bears Butt shot a 114 on Week one and last night he posted up a WHOPPING 136!  Now that was shooting like he has never done before!  Not bad for an old guy with a recurve bow, no sights, new arrows and 5 lessons under his belt!

Let’s do the math:  [300 – (114 + 136/2)] X .8 = [300 – (250/2)] X .8 = [300- 125] X .8 = 175 X .8 = 140!  (Remember in math, you calculate what is inside the parenthesis ( ) first, and then concentrate on what is inside the brackets [ ] and then finish off the rest of the equation).

So, there you have Bears Butt’s first ever handicap in anything competitive he has ever done in his entire life.  A solid 140.

What happens now is that the league captain, will take Bears Butt’s two scores and add 140 to each of them and then total up his two weeks worth of scores.  Let’s look at those numbers.

116 = 140 = 256 and 136 + 140 = 276 for a grand total score of 532 out of a possible 600.

My fellow league members are jumping for joy about now to think they are still in the running for the gold!  I must improve or they will not want me to play on their team in the future!

Bears Butt

February 11, 2015

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

Yesterday was filled with videos of shooting recurve bows.  Tons of theories are out there about how best to practice and what method works fastest and best.  Shooting into a cup and stepping back after mastering 3 consecutive shots into the cup.  Shooting at a string suspended down range to get your “up and down” in order, forgetting about left and right shots for now.  Concentrating on a “spot” on the target and forgetting about everything else in the equation.  And the list goes on and on.

The bottom line comes back to “practice”.  Consistently doing the same thing over and over and over again and doing it lots and lots of times.

In the lessons I’ve had (5 so far), they have taught me to raise the bow, pull back the string, anchor my thumb under my jaw, touch the string to my nose and upon release, pull my releasing hand back and touch my shoulder.  The bow holding hand should be “resting” the bow and not gripping it, when the shot is made, the bow will tend to fall forward, at which time I am to keep the bow from hitting the ground by lightly clasping the bow with my index finger and my thumb.

All of this seems easy, and it really is, but in reality, there are a lot of things taking place all at the same time that have to be repeated each time you do it, or the arrows are hitting all over the place.  Last night was no different for me.  I would have two arrows firmly planted in the target right next to each other and then the third arrow would fly over and take out the center of the target next to mine.  Very frustrating.

BUT(T), not to be discouraged, I challenged Squirrel to a win or lose for a soda!  Best score wins.

Again, I must say his arrows are tuned to his bow, his sights are tuned to his eye and form and he is ready for competition much greater than to win a soda or not.  I, on the other hand, am still waiting for my coveted arrows and am shooting my self fletched arrows (see above), but I do have my new bow (30 pounds of pure furry) to fling them with.  Also, I am armed with my new found knowledge as discovered from the various You Tube videos I have consumed my day watching.  I’m ready!  Bring on the games!

The game is being shot at a single black and white bulls eye and we are competing with most (if not all) of the rules of engagement as ordered by the Field Archer Association….we shoot from the black line!  Ten Ends (sets, rounds, give-it-a-goes) of three shots per end (or other whatever you want to call them), 30 shots total.

I will list the ends as they proceeded:  S = Squirrel, B = Butt (all scores were witnessed by Conner, who also kept a score sheet on us for comparison, a proper field judging Judge)

End 1:  B 1,0,0 End score 1, Run score 1      S 2,2,2 End score 6, Run score 6

He only has me by 5 at this point, I can catch him with one good shot!

End 2:  B 2,0,0  E 2  R 3          S 3,1,1  E 5 R 11

Two well placed “5’s” and I’ve got him!

End 3:  B 1,0,0   E 1  R 4          S 5,3,2  E 10, R 21

Can you see Squirrel pulling ahead rapidly?

End 4:  B 4,0,0  E 4  R 8         S 3,2,0   E 5, R  26

Oh dear!  One more end to go to the mid point and I’ve got my work cut out for me!

End 5:  B 5,4,1  E 10  R 18     S 4,4,3   E 11, R 37

HMMMM.  One point more than double my score.  But we still have half a game to complete!  I can over take him!

End 6:  B 2,1,0  E 3,  R 21      S 4,2,1   E 7,  R 44

I must do better!

End 7:   B 5,3,0  E 8,  R 29     S 4,4,1   E 9,  R 53

Only 3 more ends and my pain will be over.

End 8:  B 3,3,0   E 6,  R 35     S 5,5,4   E 14,  R  67

I need a perfect game from here on out to even stay close to him.

End 9:  B 3,0,0   E 3,  R 38     S 2,2,1   E 5,  R 72

It’s over for me.  But one more end to complete.  I feel like the JAZZ Basketball team (every game), being paid well, just to show up.

End 10:  B 2,1,0  E 3,  R 41     S 5,3,2   E 10,  R 82

Well, he only beat me by twice my score.  I’d say I hung in there pretty good.  And as for “x’s”, I had none, he had 2.  So he would have won even if we had tied.

I offered up his 50 cents for the soda and also bought Conner one.  But I reminded him that the 50 cents could be “squirreled” away and used to help pay his entry fee into the competition coming up…..he tapped his chin in thought and then looked at his dad and said….NAH!  I’ll save it NEXT time!

Bears Butt

February 6, 2015

Watch this for fun:

Lately I have really been nothing but archery.  When you get your head wrapped around something like this it is hard to get away from it.  But, trapping is coming up soon.  It will be a rough start however.  The calendar is filling up with events that need taking care of and it just happens to coincide with trapping.  Add to that the archery stuff and days are filled and probably nights as well.

Tonight is lesson number 5 at the Brigham Bowmens Club.  And with it, I have been asked to help with the lessons.  I don’t know Jack about shooting a bow yet, but I can take money and maybe even blow the whistle.  Lynn will have to do the rest.  For you bowmen who have ventured South to play with the Las Vegas shooting event, rest assured, the place will still be here when you get back.

I’m really looking forward to tonights events and to be asked to help out is really an honor as well.  Lynn says there is nothing better to quicken the learning curve than to get involved!  I’ll do my best.

OK.  I ordered some more arrows yesterday and after I did, I was asking myself, “Why on earth can’t I just go to a place like Smith and Edwards or Sportsmens Wearhouse and buy some arrows”?  I was able to find some on line that are ready to shoot out of the box and why don’t these places carry them?  Oh, well, I guess the more I learn the more I’ll know.  I’ve said before the way these companies label their arrows is almost insane to try and figure out if they will work properly with my bow.  How hard can it be?

HARD!  Trust me with this one, I’ll explain by sharing with you a web site I have discovered that explains why an arrow does what it does.  Let’s learn this together.

The website is:http://www.meta-synthesis.com/archery/archery.html

So, last time I told you I have a bad habit of moving my bow to my right when I shoot and I said there must be some force that is causing this to occur.  I am not doing it just because, you know.  And now I think I have part of the answer.  Remember this?

An arrow has a centre of mass (centre of gravity or balance point) and a centre of drag:

The centre of drag MUST be behind the centre of mass, and the further behind the better, otherwise the arrow will be inherently unstable in flight. Indeed, if the centre of drag is in front of the centre of mass the arrow will have a tendency to turn round and fly “backwards”.

Ya, the flying backwards part.

Now add this to our learning:

During the shot, the arrow is pushed by the draw force of the bow applied to the nock end of the arrow. The high mass part of the arrow is at the front, and separated from the nock by the bendable shaft of the arrow. As a result, the arrow dynamically bends:

The term “dynamic bend” or “dynamic spine” is used because the degree of bending is difficult – if not impossible – to determine without high speed photography.

So, the arrow starts out bending around the handle of the bow.  I can see a problem with an arrow that is too weak for the bow and it might just break in half.  So, why not have an arrow with a shaft that can’t bend?  I makes perfect sense to me to have the arrow begin going straight and continuing to go straight, right off the get-go.  Why have one that bends at all, is my question.

There is a scientific thing called “Archers Paradox” which was observed by some quick eyed dude back in the early to mid 1920-30’s.  That theory (which is probably more of a law than a theory by now) said, the arrow will bend like you see above, fly around the handle of the bow and then bend back the other way after leaving the bow completely.  It will continue to “wiggle” as it flys down range, each wiggle becoming less movement each time until at some point it will either hit the ground or in the case of an archer desiring a certain result, will hit the target where desired.  You can see that in my picture at the beginning of this story.  A smiling faced archer is a very happy archer indeed.

Here is the explanation of Archers Paradox from the website:

Simplified Arrow Dynamics: The “One Bend” Archer’s Paradox

The term Archer’s Paradox was coined in the mid 1930s by Dr. Robert P. Elmer to ‘explain’ why an arrow would hit a target when, from all appearances, it should strike to the left.

The archer’s paradox is most clearly observed with traditional longbows that do not have a cut away in the riser for the arrow rest.

When shooting a traditional longbow, the arrow must point significantly to the left (for a right handed archer), yet a well shot arrow will shoot straight with respect to the centre shot line of the bow.

The “archer’s paradox” is that the arrow shoots straight, even though it starts off pointing outwards.

The diagram below shows a simplified “one bend” explanation of the archer’s paradox, and this is the explanation I give to beginners.

I say, “the string pushes the arrow which bends around the bow”:

TOP DOWN VIEW OF ARROW, STRING & BOW

The crucial point is that the arrow must be of the correct spine so that it dynamically bends around the bow, the fletchings/vanes do not touch the riser or arrow rest and the arrow flies cleanly to the target.

If an arrow of the wrong spine is shot, the fletchings, nock or arrow shaft will hit the bow. Indeed, consistently damaged fletchings/vanes are always an indication of poor arrow clearance.  Thus, the archer, bow and arrows must be matched with each other.

———–

AHHHH!  To be finally matched with my arrows and my bow….that day will come, but in the meantime, I must learn to be patient and to get my form in proper order.  I’ve been threatened with “electric shock” to stop my bow movement to the right.  But, look at the diagram above, it is the arrow that is kicking my bow, like the tail of a large fish!  I can show you my fletchings and how they are torn up!  They are hitting the bow in a very hard manner and to shock me will be causing nothing but pain to me, the bow will continue to move. (This is sounding a lot like when I was working and the boss would come up to us in a staff meeting and say, “THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES”!!!)

So, some of us are a bit hard headed with it comes to believing this “archers paradox” thing.  I did some more research on it and found a very short video in extremely slow motion and by dang there is something to it.  Watch the video.  There are no animals killed in the production of this video.

Alright then, we now believe in this Archers Paradox.  I still have a tough time thinking you wouldn’t want an arrow that was too stiff to bend, but what the heck.  For now I will trust that is has to bend and that I must choose the right arrow for the job.  Continuing with what the website says:

Arrow Selection

First decide upon a make and grade of arrow: Beman, Easton XX75, X7, ACE, etc. Choice will probably be influenced by price. My advice would be this:

If you are missing the target once a dozen, get cheaper arrows. If you are an 1100+ FITA archer, you will want the best, lightest, thinnest and fastest arrows possible. (For the indoor season a tournament archer will choose fat arrows.) If you are in between, then buy in between.

Think long and hard, then choose. You MUST have faith in your choice! Like any sport, archery is in large part about belief. You must know that you have the right arrows.

————————-

Price is definitely a consideration here.  I don’t want to spend, say $10 for one arrow, and then take it out and plaster it against a cement wall at full speed.  But then, I don’t want to spend $1 for a dozen arrows and have them break apart at my wrist when I shoot them.  So, I have made two purchases of arrows, but have yet to shoot any of them (they haven’t gotten here yet).  So, from the above, decide on a make and grade….here is where the confusion “begins”, make is one thing, grade is another.  And don’t ask me what a 1100 + FITA archer is.  The biggest thing I have gotten from this whole statement is this, “You must have faith in your choice”!  I have faith in my choice of bows so far and I have my three trusty self fletched arrows that are teaching me well about form and archers paradox.  They have a flex all their own.

Well, perhaps this is enough information for this time.  Once I get my arrows I can begin to “tune” my bow.  A quick read on this website show me there are still a whole lot of things to come before I can even expect to hit the target.  However, I have been managing to hit the “paper” the target is printed on, and that is close enough for me at this point.  I have faith!

Bears Butt

February 4, 2015

What a great day yesterday was!  I had a visit by the UPS guy who delivered my new bow!  YEAAA!  I have been mentored by a man named Lynn Heyes from Brigham and he is the go to guy for traditional archery information in the Brigham City Utah area.  A great and knowledgeable guy.  Anyway, he told me to come to his home when I got the bow and he would set it up for shooting.  I could hardly wait to head to his home.

Here is a look at the bow.  You have to understand first off the bow is 64 inches long and so to get all of it in a photo I would have to be too far away from it for you to see the beautiful wood that makes up the handle (riser in bow terms).

This baby is made by Samick, a company out of Korea.  It is their Journey model in 30 pound weight.  It is also a take down model, in which you can remove the limbs for storage and to make it even more unique, I can purchase new limbs in different weights if I want.  Say to increase the weight to meet Utahs bow hunting laws (40 pounds).  So why a Korean bow?  Lynn tells me that the Koreans are the world class act in bow making and shooting in the world.  They take their kids from the womb and put a bow in their hands…..well, not quite, but they teach them from a very young age.

So, Lynn recommended this bow for me.  One, for the quality and two for the price.  This bow was only $140!  Limbs cost $75 if I choose to buy some later on.  Ok, so it came with a string and that is it.  I rushed up to Lynns place and he quickly put the string on the bow.  Then he put a leather patch on the side where the arrow rests.  See the dark half moon looking patch right behind the red mark on the bow.  That patch is to protect the bow from the arrow shaft sliding along it.  He also added an arrow rest, and that is what looks like a red mark.  It is actually red feathers glued down to a plate that form an arc about 1/4 inch wide.  The arrow shaft rests on top of that.

Well, that was not all Lynn wanted to do, he made me a sling to be able to safely put the string on the bow.  By standing on the stringer, you can pull up on the bow and place the bow string around its end groove.

I have to say, Lynn is a remarkable guy and I’m sure glad he took me under his thumb to show me about this archery stuff.

Well, with the bow ready for action, Weasel called and wanted to hit the range.  He is scoring his targets for the upcoming archery contest and Squirrel and I need to shoot our new bows.

Squirrel was not up to a duel with Grandpa as yet and so it was a night to get the feel of my new bow.  Going from a weight of 10 pounds to 30 pounds is quite a change and it was very noticeable down range.  However, I never once missed the back stop and mostly hit the paper the target is printed on.  I really like the feel of this new bow.  Later in the evening, we moved a “bunk” up to the 10 yard mark and had ourselves a little contest.  Weasel spotted Squirrel and I 100 points and told us he would still kick our butts.  We took the challenge and in the end both of us beat his butt BAD!  He will never spot us 100 points again.  During this contest, I got to see exactly what my new bow is capable of:

All 3 arrows in the 10 ring!

Of course that was the only time that happened all night, but that doesn’t matter, I now know the bow is capable of doing some great stuff!

Bears Butt

January 31, 2015