The Crooked Stick

Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 08th January 2012

2012-01-08T23:00:00.000Z

Having not shot field or even much target archery since the Nationals I was looking forward to getting back out into the woods chasing down those 3Ds. So given that this was a friendly scoring was optional, quiet good for me, and all the pressure was off. So having decided to go around a couple of times it was a case of getting to Fleet for a 09:00 start and see who else had arrived.

Arriving at the same time as Fred and his crew we decided to tag onto their group and wander around as a large group of 7 (maybe a bit large) but with the easy going conversation it was going to be entertaining especially as we had a junior.

Having not been to Fleet for a while it was a bit of a shock to see how much tree felling had been going on and the woods looked quite bare and empty with lots of open space. This said the course layers did their job well finding all the bits of cover and tricky shots as I can attest when I reached the Skunk. Being a friendly there was only a single peg to shoot from which meant that John would be shooting exactly the same shots as me. The net result of this was to prove how much better John is at this archery lark than I am and it was rare for him to take a second shot let alone miss whilst I had a few misses and hence a few exploding arrows.

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Nationals Shoot Report 17th September 2011

2011-09-18T23:30:00.000+01:00

The 2011 Nationals had finally come around and after a disastrous pre-nationals shoot at South Wilts I was hoping that this weekend was going to be significantly better. This year the Nationals were being held at Eastnor Castle near Ledbury in Herefordshire and having looked at the website I was looking forward to shooting in the woods around the castle. Having spent Friday on a Westfield Experience day at the Millbrook Proving Ground it meant I would need to be up early to arrive in time to register and so it was.

I should have been shoot both days but as things turned out I could only make the Saturday and given the way that went maybe it was for the best. So after a 2 hour drive I finally arrive at the shoot and the first priority was to track down a cup of tea. So with tea in hand it was time to register and go and find out who else was around for the pre-shoot chat.

The weather in the morning was glorious with blue skies and the odd cloud but the crowd of archers was smaller this year than previous and to reflect this their would only be 3 courses rather than the traditional 4. The result of this was that the Longbow Archers would be shooting with Compounds and Crossbows on the Y course which was laid by Doverdale Bowmen for compounds.
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South Wilts Shoot Report 4th Semptember 2011

2011-09-04T23:59:00.000+01:00

With the Nationals fast approaching it was time for the South Wilts pre Nationals Shoot shooting faces for a full round. Now it has been some time since I shot faces and I was soon to remember why I prefer 3D shoots and if the round had of been 3Ds my score would have been half decent as it was; well the less said about that.

Anyway when I set off the sun was shining and the sky was blue but as I approached South Wilts it was obvious that Sam had been doing the rain dance and very successfully at that. The black clouds we rolling about the South Wilts course and I was getting wet just trying to put the waterproofs on. At this point I totally believed that their was some twisted competition going on and that South Wilts were trying to out do Avalon. If this was the case they failed because as it turned out the day was a day of two halves and by the afternoon we were basking in sunshine and blue skies.

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Excalibur Shoot Report 27th-28th August 2011

2011-08-29T10:19:00.009+01:00

Having never shot at Excalibur previously I was looking forward to a good weekends shooting, especially since shooting with Mark and Scott at Fleet and the description of the targets Mark builds, and so after a long drive we finally arrived in Clacton. Excalibur have a small section of woodland but they use it well fitting 20 custom targets into the small area and generally making it one of the most fun shoots on the calendar.

Mark from Excalibur tends to custom build / modify the targets to the highest quality and as I said we were looking forward to an entertaining weekends shooting even though the weather had been atrocious and the weekend promised rain but after Avalon what's a bit of rain.

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Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 14th August 2011

2011-08-14T23:32:00.005+01:00

Fleet is always a shoot I look forward to and as I mentioned in the last Fleet report the last thing I did was book myself in for this shoot. With the weather promising to be warm but humid at least it looked like I was not going to get soaked to my underwear like Avalon.

Yet again I would be shooting my Bamboo arrows, I'm really beginning to prefer these to wood, although I had not replaced the slightly washed out wraps but hey-ho you could still, just, read my name and that was all I needed after all who else shoots 36" bamboo shafts.

So it was time to grab the cards, a Bacon Roll for John and a cup of tea for me before we had the transitional pre shoot chat and then it was off to the first target. We were starting on Target 22 today which for those who know Fleet is out the back-end of the woods. Little did I know as we were walking out that we would be shooting with a celebrity today in the form of Mark Jones (front page of this months NFAS magazine and multiple other shots inside) and his son Scott from Excalibur.

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Avalon Shoot Report 16th & 17th July 2011

2011-07-17T23:32:00.008+01:00

With the hot spell over and a forecast of some showers this weekend was promising to be cooler and slightly damp and having just returned from a week in Istanbul I was looking forward to some cooler weather and was not going to be bothered by a bit of rain.

But as they say you should be careful what you wish for because on Saturday the it was not raining Cats and Dogs it was raining Elephants and Hippos as the heavens opened at the start of the shoot we we all soaked within a few targets. As a result many an, intelligent, archery packed up and left early and so all that remained were foolhardy and insane.

I'm not sure which of those two camps I fit in but having been soaked within a few targets and having no equipment that would be badly damaged by the rain I decided to work my way through all my waterproofs and stick it out for the day and then try and dry everything before returning on Sunday. Fortunately I do have multiples of some items so the wet and still dripping were left in the utility room to be replaced by new dry versions. The only thing I could not dry was the leather handle on my longbow. Sunday as it turned out was a total contrast to Saturday with only a single short deposit of Elephants and hence by the end of the day even my bow handle had dried.
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Raven Shoot Report 10th July 2011

2011-07-10T23:22:00.009+01:00

Having originally thought "I've not shot at Raven before" I was proved wrong when John looked at his gold medal and said we have shot at Raven before I have another on of these at home. So it was not to be the first time I'd shot at Raven but it had been 3 years (although I will not be waiting that long again).

So having had a few hot weekends it looked like we were in for a cooler days shooting with maybe a bit of rain but that was completely wrong because from the point we got out of the car the heat started rising and so did the humidity. We were in for another warm day that was going to be very humid in the morning.
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The Making Of Bamboo Arrows

2011-07-07T20:31:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned in my Wellington Bowmen report I was considering buying some of the Tonkin Bamboo arrow shafts and so I did. Now having never worked with Bamboo shafts before, well not strictly true because I remember using Bamboo garden canes for arrows as a child, I thought I would blog about what I found.

I've been making arrows for a number of years, given the amount I break on field shoots I'm quite good at it, and traditionally I use either Boyton Pine or Port Oxford Cedar (these smell good when the break) so Bamboo was going to be something new. The first thing you will notice is the beautiful red / brown colour of the heat treated smoothed lacquered Bamboo. The second thing you notice is that your shafts are not all identical or of a consistent machined diameter. Given that these shafts are simple cut Bamboo you will also notice that each of the shafts has a natural taper and hence my shafts were approximately 11/32 at one end (pile end) and 5/16 at the other (nock end) give or take and 39" in length.
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Jims Jungle Jaunt Shoot Report 3rd July 2011

2011-07-03T23:56:00.007+01:00

Well It was that time of year again as the Americans get ready for Independence Day we get ready for a much more important event Jim's Jungle Jaunt in the woodlands near Shacklford. Although Carol and co have not been hosting it quite as long as the US has celebrated the 4th July it is a much more prestigious and memorable event. There were a number of changes this year, for one I was only shooting Sunday, with a new course and only 40 targets it was going to be different.

With the weather forecast saying that we would have a generally sunny day and temperatures in the 20s it was going to be warm again and given the predication for the valley section to be hot and sticky, especially as I entering it mid afternoon, plenty of fluids were required. After a quick cup of tea and a target change it was off to target 5 to meet up with my fellow archers, for the day, and await the car horn to start.
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Wellington Bowmen Shoot Report 26th June 2011

2011-06-26T23:38:00.008+01:00

Having spotted a flyer for the first Wellington Bowhunters shoot that would take place around the corner it was an opportunity I was not going to miss a local shoot that would take me no more than 15 minutes to get to (not that I mind driving). The weather forecasters had promised a mini heatwave for Sunday and sure enough the day started with glorious sunshine little did I anticipate how hot it was going to get later in the day.

The Course was going to be the traditional 36 targets over undulating woodland that had plenty of branches and logs scattered across the ground (they had been logging recently) which made the going tough and finding arrows interesting. In addition the woodland provided a marshy area that the course layers had taken advantage of and this was definitely not an area where you wanted to miss the target because it was more that likely that you would never see the arrow again as it buried itself in the smelly mud around the target. At the end of the day I heard more than a few metal arrow archers complaining about lost arrows in this section but from my point of view it was fun if a bit smelly and wet.
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3D Nationals Shoot Report 28th & 29th May 2011

2011-05-30T20:22:00.007+01:00

May bank holiday weekend had finally arrived and hence it was time for the 2011 NFAS 3D Nationals and as was the way with English weather it was looking a bit grim. Not to worry though because we would be shoot at Osmaston Park near Ashbourne and a wonderful drive down the A515 from my parents.
This would be the first Nationals where John would be shooting as an U16 and he was looking forward to shooting from the Blue and in addition have more competition. Having not been given his trophy at previous Nationals (because it had not been returned) he was hoping he could win one this time and as it happens he did come first and receive his medal and trophy.

This year the traditional longbow archers would be shoot B course, laid by Pines Park, on the Saturday and A course, laid by Wasp, on the Sunday and as luck would have it the short walks to their part of the woods. Osmaston Park provides some wonderful woodland to shoot in and hence promised an excellent weekends shooting once I had found where to enter the park (missed the signs on the A52).

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Home Made Arrow Dipper

2011-05-24T22:34:00.002+01:00

For those of you who have read my shoot report entries you will know that I have been having a fairly disastrous time with broken arrows and hence needed to make some quickly. I have been considering dipping my arrows as an alternative method of varnishing my field arrows. Given that their are few archery shops in the UK that seem to sell these and given the obviously simple concept I decided to have a go at building one from the odds and ends in my garage. Given that I don't tend to throw anything away, much to my wife's consternation, I have a variety or weird and wonderful things in the garage and any time I can make something from them is proof that my "it will come in useful at some point" argument is correct.
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Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 22nd May 2011

2011-05-22T23:18:00.006+01:00

Well having had so much fun at Easter I was looking forward to returning to Fleet Ibex for the Pre-3D Nationals next week to get that final bit of practice in before bank holiday weekend. With changeable weather predicted it was still looking like a good day to shoot and as it happened the weather was great bar one rather heavy rain shower that lasted a couple of minutes the rest of the day, as the photo will show, was blue skies with the odd cloud. But enough of me waxing lyrical about the weather as always the most important thing about my blogs is the description of the shoot.

Well today I was joined by John for the first time since last September and hence the competition was going to be tough, given that he usually beats me, but maybe I'd have an advantage given he had not shot for nearly 9 months. But having had 9 months break it was like falling off a bicycle for him and at the end of the first 20 targets we would be neck and neck but more about that later.

Having learnt from my previous shoots that missing the bacon roll and mug of tea was a bad way to start the day we tucked into a a bacon roll (well two for John) before we wandered of to our first target and again we would be starting on 39. Having walked out to our designated starting target we introduced ourselves to Andy and Vicky our shooting partners for the day and exchanged the score card awaiting the sound of the horn.
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South Wilts Bluebell Shoot Report 30th April & 1st May 2011

2011-05-01T23:40:00.002+01:00

It was time for the South Wilts Bluebell Shoot and this year it was being run over two days, the Saturday and Sunday of the long weekend, and the weather was looking a bit dubious according to the Met Office but in Met Office tradition they were wrong and we were in for another 2 excellent days. This year the Bluebells had timed it right and as we were walking through the woods we were surrounded by the pale blue of there flowers.

I had been looking forward to the South Wilts shoot for a while as it is one of my favourite shoot locations having an excellent wood and exceptional course layers.

Having failed to start the day correctly at Fleet Ibex I decided that a Bacon Butty and a cup of tea was a must so after registering and making excuses for John it was off to grab the required sustenance before chatting to a few of the other Westcott archers and checking if Fred needed me to break any arrows. With the tea and bacon gone all that remained we to wait to be shown to our starting targets and find out who I would be shooting with. Today (Saturday) I would be starting on target 31, half way around the course, and hence a reasonable walk out.

Having reached the target and introduced myself to Mike and Alison all that remained was to await the long blast of the air horn and we could commence our days shooting.

Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 24th April 2011

2011-04-24T23:53:00.002+01:00

Given that Fleet was going to be my second shoot of the year I was hoping that I would improve on the Avalon score from last week but today was not going to be my finest hour(s). As the scores below, 4 broken arrows and 2 lost show I was slightly off form. Oh well at least Fred (from Westcott) has a few more arrows as he tend to shorten my broken ones.

I suspect, having thought about it, my problem started because I did not have the traditional Bacon Butty and a cup of tea (I'll remember that for South Wilts next week) but we live an learn but at least I did not break my bow like the FreeStyle archer who snapped his limbs whist shooting on the practice targets or whoever owned the broken longbow I spotted at lunch.

Having said all of that today's shoot at Fleet Ibex was an extremely enjoyable day out, as usual at Fleet, with another day of glorious sun and a course laid to Fleets usual, high, standards. Having missed the Bacon Butty, partly because John was sick again, it was off to Target 39 to start the day. Here I met my shoot partners for the day Simon and Matthew where we exchanged cards and decided who was scoring and who was searching.

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Avalon Shoot Report 10th April 2011

2011-04-10T23:56:00.004+01:00

Avalon was going to be my first field shoot of 2011 and I had been looking forward to it for sometime. Having not shot much over the winter and just arriving back from a trip the Washington it was also going to an entertaining day. As usual the Avalon guys had set an extremely entertaining course that combined fun and difficulty to make the one of the most enjoyable for a while. In addition to a well laid course we had exceptional weather for early April with clear blue skies, as seen below, and temperatures in the 20s (I'm glad we were under cover for most of it or the factor 30 would not have been enough).

As events would happen John was not feeling up to shooting today so it was going to be one of those odd days shooting without his banter but at least he would not out shoot me as he usually does. As it turned out I was going to be shooting Debbie, Wayne and Steve from Invicta HT archers so I had the honors of the Longbow Archers on my shoulders to prove we can score just the same as they can.

With a good chatty friendly group today's shooting was going to be fun but first a bacon butty and a cup of tea.

We we due to start on Target 6 "The Bees Nest" and following a warning by Clive we avoided the taped area near the Red peg and awaited the sound of the horn to start the shooting. The first target of the day was a Bedded Deer and it was with some trepidation that I took to the Red peg. The first field shot in, ooooooo, months. But as it was a 16 was on the cards and I was off to a good start and shooting coming back to me like falling off a bike.

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Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas 2010 Fun Shoot

2010-12-19T19:07:00.004Z

'Twas the week before Christmas and no one was stirring.
The snow was so thick, for Wokingham, that I was wondering how many of the club member would make it for the, now, annual "Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas Fun Shoot". Having scraped the car and cleared the 6" of snow off the windows it was time to head to the Emmbrook School and set up.

This year we would not have our Fairy Paramount because she was at home with a sick baby so it was down John, James and myself to run the shoot. As with last year we set up 6 targets at the traditional 10 yards and 20 yards distances. We were using the same targets as last year and I suspect next years we will be covering my dinning room with glitter again making some more.

NFAS Nationals September 2010 Shoot Report

2010-09-20T02:01:00.006+01:00

Having enjoyed last years Nationals I was looking forwards to this years which was being held at Gaddesden Estate near Hemel Hempstead. Although I do not particularly enjoy shooting faces the the Nationals are always an entertaining shoot and I suspect that is mainly due to the social aspect. As you may or may not know this would be only the second time out for my new Garry Evans longbow and I was still getting used to it and so I was not expecting too much from the weekend. On the other hand John was hoping to win the Cubs Longbow again and maybe receive the trophy this year but alas that was not to be the case.

Having postponed a trip to Dallas so that we could shoot at the Nationals and our planned camping which John had being looking forward to for quite a while. With the weather promising to cloudy but fine with cold nights we were looking forward to a good weekends shooting and so it proved to be. As usual the 4 courses were split into A,B,X and Y with the real bows shooting wooden arrows on the A and B courses. These courses would prove to be completely different and taxing in their own way and in my opinion B course was significantly better than A course and that was simply down to the fact that A course was laid for a Hobbit. I spent all of Saturday trying to avoid hitting the upper limb of my longbow on the overhanging trees. Now given that I'm 2m tall and have a bow of a similar size you may thing that it was simply because I was not a standard size but having spoken with a number of longbow archers they all had the same complaint. Now B course on the other hand was laid by a traditional longbow club (Celtic Harmony Longbow Archers) so although they did have some interesting and difficult shots I was not worried that I may destroy my bow in the processes.

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South Wilts Shoot Report 5th September 2010

2010-09-06T23:41:00.006+01:00

The South Wilts Pre-Champs shoot is a must for getting back into shooting paper face and there less than generous Wound lines. Now I've mentioned before that I prefer shooting 3Ds, but then again I suspect most Field Archers would, but the Nationals were only two weeks away and I needed some practise especially because this would be my first and only outing with my new Gary Evans bow. Having only shot a few dozen arrows on Saturday it was going to be an interesting and, yet again, educational day. As usual I was expecting a good days shooting on a well set course with a number of tricky shots.

Starting the day with the traditional Bacon Butties and registration we found that we would be shooting with George and Joe Spears again, just like last year, and it was off to our first target of the day number 31. This was not going to be too bad only 10 targets to the first break and an early lunch. Turning on the traditional phone app I recorded the root as a Google Earth File (next it will be a GPS enabled camera) we awaited the starting horn.

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Time for a new bow

2010-09-04T18:45:00.000+01:00

Well today was a good day having ordered a Gary Evans and Bob Powell from Wales Archery they had finally arrived. So it was off down to Crick to try out both the bows and make a decision which to have. Little did I know how difficult this was going to be to choose between them. Although both the bows were custom orders for 75# @ 30" Graham, at Wales Archery, was happy if I bought one, both or neither so I was under no pressure to buy.

Having finally arrived at Crick manor, the old M48 Severn Bridge was close West Bound, I set to testing both the bows. The Gary Evans bow was Bamboo and Rosewood whilst Bob Powells was Bamboo and Ipe. Both were beautifully constructed and looked very similar rosewood being similar in colour to ipe. I specifically did not ask the price of the bows because I was not going to let that influence my decision and would leave it to how I felt shooting the bow.

So it was time to get out my field Arrows and start shoot on the range at the back of Wales Archery. First up was Gary's bow it was slightly larger and thicker than Bobs and felt good in the hand and in fact it fitted perfectly. Two dozen arrows and I was getting the feel of the bow it was fast, sweet and easy to draw with a great straight trajectory. Next up was Bobs the ipe belly meant that it was slightly smaller bow with a correspondingly smaller hand hold. Again I shot 2 Dozen arrows to get the feel of the bow and again it was fast (slightly faster that Gary's bow), sweet and very easy to draw.

I literally had nothing to choose between the two bows so it was back to shooting arrows alternating between them trying to find some difference on which I could make a decision. After about 45 Minutes of trying the bows I finally made my choice and opted for the Gary Evans bow for no other reason that it was thicker around the middle and hence had a thicker handle which fitted more comfortably into my hands.

With the choice made and boy was it hard because both bows were of exceptional quality it was time to pay, and order a spare string, before heading home looking forward to tomorrows shoot down at South Wilts for their Pre-Nationals shoot. I almost bought both the bows but could not quite rationalise buy two 75# @ 30" bows so if anyone out there is interested Wales Archery have a Bob Powell 75# @ 30" bow for sale.

I will certainly be going back to Wales Archery with a similar request when I decide to order the 100# bow and who knows maybe this this the Bob Powell will be a better fit.

Crowthorne Nationals Shoot Report 25th July 2010

2010-07-26T00:23:00.005+01:00

It was that time of year again late July with the typical English weather and time for the Crowthorne Nationals. As usual it was to be held at Edgebarrow School in Crowthorne. As usual I would be shooting the New National, with my light longbow, but John would be shooting the Junior National this year. In addition to make up our longbow team, in the hope of retaining the cup, was Will shooting a Short Junior National.

With the weather fine but cloudy, nice to have a bit of cloud cover, as seems to be usual these days I have been doing more Field Shooting than target so it was going to be fun getting back into shooting at a target 100 yards away and I soon began to regret not brining the Warbow.

This year I would be shooting with Colin Young (same a last year), Martin Bale, Grant Ballentine (Junior after the free Junior New National record) and Phil Warnes who was shooting Barebow. With 4 longbow archers and a barebow we could all shoot all our arrows and have a cup of tea before the target next to us had finished their first 3.

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Avalon Shoot Report 17th & 18th July 2010

2010-07-20T20:30:00.007+01:00

When this shoot first appeared in the calendar it classed with Jim's Jungle Jaunt which was not great because I wanted to shoot both. Fortunately Avalon moved their shoot date and so I could shoot both. Having watched the weather with interest the week before I was not quite sure what we were going to be in for but as luck would have it the rain of the previous week (although I understand they had none in Sandy anyway) had disappeared for the weekend and it promised to be warm and pleasant and rather entertaining especially on the Sunday but more of that later.

As usual the course layers at Avalon did an exceptional job providing an entertaining and at time rather difficult course that was changed over night by the sadistic pixies. We only had one issue on the second day with the course which required target 40 to be removed.

To all those Archers who were complaining and swearing about the Cub that had a ricocheted off the back of the Leopard, that was target 40, narrowly missing the marshal taking photo on target 2. Just think if the course had not been layed the way it was it would never have happen. All he did was highlight a fault in the course.

But enough of whining archers back to the positives and as I have already said the course was well structured and very entertaining.

As this was going to be Ruth & James last shoot for a while, because of an impending sprog, Sam & Owen had requested to shoot with them so John and I would be shooting with Emma and Trevor, from Goshawk, both shooting Unlimited. An interesting combination 2 Unlimited and 2 Longbow archers. Two taking the time before the shot calculating distances for their guaranteed hit and 2 spending time after the shot hunting for stray arrows.

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Making a BLBS Standard Arrow (Well Almost)

2010-07-13T23:50:00.001+01:00

In a previous blog entry "Making Your Own Arrows In Four Easy Steps" I discussed how to make your own Longbow Arrows. This used standard off-the shelf (well off the web) materials and allowed you to quickly make your arrows. Since then I decided that I would start making some British Longbow Society (BLBS) Standard Arrows, well almost, with the exception that I wanted to use then for Indoor and very short distance so hence the "Well Almost". The key difference between my arrows and those specified as BLBS Standard Arrows is the Pile because I need to shoot at my GNAS club and a Brass 125 grains bullet point was more appropriate. Given this 1 minor deviation the details below are an accurate description of how to make a BLBS Standard Arrow.
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Making Your Own Arrows In Four Easy Steps

2010-07-12T21:50:00.001+01:00

This blog entry was originally published on my Sun blog back in 2008 but I have since decided to republish it here to provided consistency across my Archery Entries. In addition I will be linking back to this entry from a future entry on my experience make British Longbow Standard Arrows.
This article is aimed at those longbow archers, or those with an interest, who would like to starting making there own equipment. Personally I think their is a big difference in shooting equipment you have made rather than bought and simple act of working, in my case in the garage, on something associated with you chosen pass time is a pleasure in itself and a good way to relax after the working day. So less of the waffle and on with the article at hand, which I hope to be the first of many, covering the simple steps of making your own arrows and in truth the hardest part of this process is choosing your fletching colours.
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Jims Jungle Jaunt Shoot Report 3rd / 4th July 2010

2010-07-06T00:30:00.003+01:00

Every year the Americans celebrate the 4th of July and this year I also would be celebrating the 4th of July as well as the 3rd. This has nothing to do with American Independence and everything to do with what is, undoubtedly, one of the most entertaining shoots in the NFAS Calendar Jim's Jungle Jaunt and this year was the 25th Anniversary Shoot. Having seen the weather report this was going to be a glorious weekend and Saturday was looking at being particularly hot. So it was out with sun cream and plenty of bug repellent.
We mustered at 09:00, as usual, with the expectation of starting at 10:00 but if you have ever shot at Jim's you'll know this doesn't usually happen. So having spent a pleasant hours or so eating the beacon butty and catching up we were off to the pegs to start the shoot.

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Company of 60 Shoot Report 13th June 2010

2010-06-14T21:04:00.006+01:00

It's been a while since I have shot at the Company of 60 and on that occasion I broke a fair few arrows. Having just arrived back from a trip to San Francisco (on Saturday) I was expecting to be some what Jet Lagged to say the least so we arranged for James to drive. I was working on the theory that if the Jet Lag was a problem their was plenty of wood around to stop my arrows.
Although the weather the previous week had been slightly damp Sunday was expected to be a fine day and hence it was on with the t-shirts and off we went. On arriving it was time for a quick Bacon and Sausage butty and a quick chat with Carol whilst she was making them. For a change the shoot was not fully booked and their was plenty of spaces which was quite handy because our booking had been wrongly assigned to the previous shoot. Not a problem we booked in and Ruth, James, John and me were shooting together with the rest of the, attending, Westcott crew on the target behind ready to find our lost arrows not that their would be any as it turned out.

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Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 23rd May 2010

2010-05-24T21:00:00.003+01:00

Now the funny thing is you know whenever you shoot at Fleet Ibex you ARE going to get wet. It has never fails to rain when you shoot there but this Sunday was going to be a novel experience for all. With the Sun blazing through the trees throwing shadows all over the place we were praying for a bit of rain by the end of the day just to cool us down. But as always with British weather it does what it wants and we must have had the hottest day of the year, so far, so it was a case of factor 30 Sun Cream and plenty of bug spray.
With hot sunny weather like this their was a chance of seeing Adders but alas, for John, this was not to be the case. Quite fortunate in one way because he would have had me catching them to take home Hmmmm. John also decided he was going to be shooting the Junior pegs today, rather than the cub pegs, and this provided him with an extra challenge but given his new bow the distances were no problem.

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South Wilts Shoot Report 2nd May 2010

2010-05-03T15:16:00.001+01:00

The South Wilts Bluebell shoot was our first field shoot of 2010 (not sure why) and I was looking forward to getting back into the field. John had a new, Gary Evens, longbow and was looking forward to shooting in his preferred environment. Having just completed a new set of arrows for John he was ready with completely new equipment and give him his dues he quickly got used to them. In addition John had decided that he would be shooting the Junior pegs rather than his Cub pegs so that would give me a chance.
For a change we did not have our usual / traditional Bacon Butties before registration but instead John tucked into so leftover pizza from his party the day before. Today we were not shooting with Ruth and James but instead teamed up with Mike, Mike and Trev a longbow, true, archer and two Darksiders for what was forecast to be a very wet day but at least their would be the Bluebells and a mixture of 3Ds and paper faces. As usual the course layers did an exceptional job making this a great shoot regardless of the fact it cost me 3 smashed arrows ....trees.

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Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas 2009 Fun Shoot

2009-12-01T10:41:00.003Z

With Christmas rapidly approaching it was time for The Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas Fun Shoot. As with last years shoot the we would be shooting indoors at Embrook School and the day would be split into the morning and afternoon sessions.

Our Fairy Paramount for the day was going to be Ruth with her Rabid Reindeer husband scaring people into submission and resolving all disagreements.

This year we only had 6 targets because we had managed to miss-lay the turkeys but as long as we don't do that on Christmas day that's no great problem. This year we were also shooting mixed group with the Juniors and the Seniors shooting together and given that some of the targets were at 10 Yards this was often more difficult for the Seniors than the Juniors.

Each archer started on their designated target and shot 3 arrows and the scored. The catch was that no-one knew what the scoring was going to be until they reached the target but it was a good bet that the smaller the target the more it scored. Once they had shot the 3 arrows it was off to the next target and so on until they had shot on all six. This was then repeated and the scores totaled.

Whilst our Fairy Paramount was busy adding up the scores and sorting out the winners we set up our team shoot that was a variation on the 12 Days of Christmas and an Archery Darts target. The archers were split into two teams and they each had to go through the 12 days of Christmas without shooting the balloon (on hindsight we should have made the balloon bigger) and once the team had shot all the 12 days they needed to shoot the balloon.

Following the bang to signal the end of the team shoot it was off for the traditional prize giving and the end of a fun session shooting.

The session was repeated in the afternoon with more juniors and fancy dress, as can be seen from our Elf and Safety photo, and they finally finished off the targets. Well a good portion of the snow from the Snowmen was stuck in the bosses.

With this Christmas fun shoot finally over we have 12 months to prepare for the next one but I suspect it will all be done the week before.

Rabid Reindeer

Fun Targets

Santa's Little Helper

Elf and Safety

12 Days of Christmas

Severn Valley Yeoman Foresters October 2009 Shoot Report

2009-10-20T22:21:00.005+01:00

I was looking forward to the S.V.Y.F shoot following the course they laid at the Nationals and it had been 12 months since I was last at their Ombersley woods. Yet again they managed to organise a Sunday shoot in late October where the weather was perfect, slightly overcast but clear and dry. After an early start and a good trip it was time for registration, a Bacon Butty and a cup of tea. Today was going to different because it would be the first time I have shot a Field round without John by my side and surprisingly I was going to miss his, almost, constant banter. Having broken his arm he will not be shooting for some time but looking at it from and alternative point of view there was a positive side because he was not going to beat me.
At 10:30ish we were all ready to walk out to our peg and because I had been put on target 1 I did not have far to go and so starting my Sports Tracker application on the phone it was off to the first peg to meet the group I was going to spend the day. My group of five consisted of Trev, Mark, Mark, his Daughter Zoe and me all shooting varying styles so their was going to no long delays for sighted archers.
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Bowmen of Burleigh Junior Halloween Fun Shoot

2009-09-29T13:13:00.001+01:00

The Bowmen of Burleigh Junior club organised its end of the outdoor season Halloween fun shoot on the 28th September 2009. Ok I know it was not officially Halloween but it was close and as it was the last Monday evening the juniors would be shooting outside we decided a set of Halloween based fun targets would be a good way to end the season.
Fortunately the weather was with us and we were set for a fine evenings shooting. The juniors would be presented with six targets and would shoot on a rotation basis. Having shot all six they would then take a break for soup and brownies before shooting the round again before finally adding the scores and waiting for the prizes.

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NFAS Nationals September 2009 Shoot Report

2009-09-21T20:08:00.004+01:00

Following last years successful and enjoyable Nationals at the Heart Of England Conference and Events Centre this years were to be held at the same location taking advantage of their extensive woodlands. Summer had finally return and again we were going to be able to bask in the rays of a glorious English Summer.
As with last year we travelled up in the Friday to a local B&B (recommend by Fred and Terry our fellow Westcott Archers) and an excellent recommendation it was on arriving at the Bonnifinglas Guest House each guest was provided with a can of larger to settle us in for the night. Following a hearty full English breakfast on Saturday morning it was off to the Heart Of England for our first days shooting. As usual at the Nationals the course were split A & B for the traditional wooden arrows and X&Y for the sighted archers. So given that I am traditional I can only comment of the A & B courses and will leave the others to another blogger.
This year the A course was set by S.V.Y.F whilst the B course was laid by Excalibur both were going to be excellent courses but completely different. Where Excaliburs section of the woodland restricted them to short shots the S.V.Y.F portion of the wood provided ample room for the longer than it looks shots as I was to find out on the Sunday.
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South Wilts Shoot Report 6th September 2009

2009-09-07T14:10:00.006+01:00

The South Wilts shoot was going to be the last Faces practice shoot before the Nationals and I have some new arrows that I needed to try. Having been furiously working on then in the evening last week I finally finish them on Saturday just in time for the shoot. I new these arrows were going to shoot differently because I had switched from my normal 100 Grain Tophat piles to 125 Grain MedHeads and hence Sunday was going to be a "Learning Experience" Having shot the South Wilts 150th Anniversary Shoot I had a good idea of what to expect in the way of shots and was looking forward to a good days shooting.

As usual we started the day with the traditional Bacon Butties and registration, you have to get you priorities right, and then found we would not be shooting with the Ruth and James but instead found we would be shooting with George Spears and his son Joe. It was going to be one of those days where the Cubs showed the adults how field shooting should be done.

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Windrush Shoot Report 29th/30th August 2009

2009-08-31T23:59:00.001+01:00

August bank holiday and time for the Windrush two day shoot and because the Saturday night promised a Hog Roast and Real Ale I decided it was a good idea to camp for the weekend. So I decided that it was a good idea to travel up early afternoon on Friday and pitch the tent during daylight. This would have been a good plan if it had not been a typical English bank holiday weekend. Having arrived late afternoon at the Windrush camp site we started to pitch the tent only for it to start raining. Not to bad for me because with my tent you put the outside up first and then the inside. For Ruth, one of my fellow Westcott Archers, it was not so good because she had to pitch the inside before cover the tent.
Although I had not shot at Windrush previously it had been recommended and I was looking forward to a good weekend of shooting a combination of 3D's and paper faces although paper face are not my favourite. As usual I decided to run my Nokia Application to generate a Google Earth file of the course.

Google Earth File

As can be seen from the file the Windrush course covers a combination of typical woodland shot and more open field shots all based around the stream that runs through the middle of their woodland. Over the weekend we were to shoot two different rounds on the Saturday we would be shooting a Woodsman round whist on the Sunday it was going to be a standard Big Game round.
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Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 16th August 2009

2009-08-17T21:06:00.004+01:00

It was that time of year Fleet Ibex were running the "Ken Dendall Memorial Trophy" shoot, the last of the season, and the weather forecast looked like it was going to be a good day. The English summer had returned and the Fleet Ibex woods were going to provide another great days shooting. Having arrived early and registered, I remember my NFAS cards this time, it was time for the, you guessed it, traditional bacon butty and a chat with some of my fellow Westcott archers. Today John and I would not be shooting with James and Ruth, our usual partners, because of Ruth's hectic work schedule. Instead it appeared we would be spending the day with Fred and Terry our fellow Westcott archers.
I was looking forward to today because I was going to be able to shoot the course using my bow rather than a borrowed bow as I had during the 17th May Shoot and I was hoping for a better score (considering what I scored in May this was not going to be difficult). Also John had decided that he would shoot the 12 - 14 pegs which meant he would be shooting his first arrow from the blue peg rather than his tradition cub peg so there was also going to be the chance that I would score more than my 10 year old son and that would be a first.

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Crowthorne National Shoot Report 26th July 2009

2009-07-28T14:38:00.004+01:00

Having seen the weather reports for the weekend I was expecting to get slightly wet during the Crowthorne Nationals. I was shooting a Double New National which was an interesting choice given I could not use my Warbow and was restricted to my light longbow but such is life. My son and his friend Daniel we also shooting, the Short Junior National, and hence we had the Bowmen of Burleigh Longbow team. With the hope that we would retain the Team Longbow Cup from last year we were all prepared to do our best.

The morning session started at 10:00 with fine weather and a light breeze. Shooting a 100 Yards for only the second time this season (I have been doing more Field Shooting than Target) it took me 12 Arrows to find my mark and yes that meant the first 6 scoring arrows were not exactly up to scratch. Anyway with these out of the way my second 6 arrows were a storming success with a nice 25 scored (not bad for a longbow at 100 yards) and this instantly put me in the lead. Shooting continued in much the same way for the 4 dozen at 100 yards and then after a short break the targets were moved to 80 yards. At this point Roger, who had been shooting on the same target, found his mark and started scoring rather well. The net result was that by the end of the morning session Roger had more than recovered and lead Colin, Rene and myself.

With the morning concluded and lunch out of the way it was time to shoot the Second New National of the day. At this point there were only Roger, Colin and myself shooting with Rene having only shot half a day. Over lunch the weather had definitely changed with the air becoming thicker and heavier. This was to prove the undoing of all three of us we all scored lower than in the morning. Given that I had shot 4 Dozen arrows in the morning you would expect that I new where to aim for the afternoon. No the change in weather meant that I, and the others, were having difficulty hitting 100 yards. After a few brief showers the 4 dozen at 100 yards was over and we were down to 80. This did not seem to do any good for Colin and me because we continued to shoot badly whilst Roger managed to claw back some respect by improving his score.

After an excellent, if entertaining, it was time for the awards. Roger won the gold for the Gents Double New National whilst I managed Second but Burleigh won the Longbow team trophy and I suspect that this was due to the impressive score (680) that my son put in for the Double Short Junior National.

All the results for the day can be found on the Crowthorne Site.

South Wilts 150th Anniversary Shoot Report 19th July 2009

2009-07-19T23:00:00.004+01:00

This was my first trip to South Wilts and I was looking forward to a recommended shoot, although having seen the weather I was expecting to get damp if not wet, and as usual we travelled down in our usual Westcott group. On this their Anniversary shoot South Wilts had organised 40 3Ds set through their woods and into the opens fields surround it. This provided a variety of entertaining shots especially when the wind picked up.
The course layers at South Wilts placed a camouflaged back stop behind each of the targets that did not have a natural bank and the net result of this was that the shoot progressed rapidly. Having these backstop saved me, and I suspect other archers, a number of lost arrows and I would recommend them to more of the field layers especially with the camouflaged covering which meant they were not distracting. But the end of my comments on the pros of backstops and onto the a summary of another excellent days shooting; for those interested I have again been using my phone to track the course and the file can be found below.
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Longbow Heritage - Jim's Jungle Jaunt Shoot Report 4th & 5th July 2009

2009-07-06T15:25:00.005+01:00

After the excellent shooting last week I was looking forward to another entertaining weekend shooting Jim's Jungle Jaunt; near Shackleford. Carol always organises a good shoot but this year she managed to surpass herself not only because of the target layout and shooting lines but primarily because of her commitment to run the shoot even though one of her neighbours managed to burn down Carol's house along with the rest of the block. All credit to Carol for putting on the shoot and as usual a fun shoot it was.
Jim's Jungle Jaunt is a two day shoot in the woods around an organic farm near Shackleford which this meant that we had real live piglets roaming the woods. As such we we under strict orders not to shoot anything that moved apart from the eagle. Although the weather forecast warned of showers the weekend turned out to another glorious two days with sun cream a mandatory requirement for the shoot and a prolific amount of water a must.
Again for those interested I recorded a Google Earth GPS file that records our days travel around the 3 loops of the shoot.
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Avalon Archers 3Ds Shoot Report 27th & 28th June 2009

2009-06-29T12:25:00.009+01:00

Having finally recovered from my shoulder injury, thanks to time and my Osteopath (Marcus Vaz), I would finally be able to shoot my longbow again. So I was looking forward to a couple of good days shooting regardless of what the weather forecast had suggested. I had never shot Avalon before and had not realised what I had been missing and to say that the Avalon course is one of the best I have shot is putting it mildly this was on a par with the 3D Nationals course. I say this because I do like variety in a shoot and Avalon had a lot of that to say the least.
For those who have never shot Avalon their woods are based just outside Sandy in Bedfordshire and cover some rolling woodland providing a number of interesting and entertaining ups and downs. The varied trees and undergrowth allowed the course layers to devise some devilishly difficult shots for the average height freestylers never mind the tall longbow archers as you can see from the photos. Yet again I decided to records the Nokia Sports Tracker application a go and recorded the route, for posterity, as a Google Earth file below.
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3D Nationals 24th & 25th May 2009

2009-05-29T21:29:00.019+01:00

Following on from last weeks rather wet shoot at Fleet Ibex I was anticipating a wet weekends shooting but in fact it turned out to be one of the warmest / sunniest weekend of the year, so far, which meant the waterproof never made it out of the car. Osmaston Park provided enough woodland to allow for the laying of 3 courses of which we were due to shoot two. I think the choice of courses was based on luck of the draw because we were shooting in a mixed discipline group. My son and me were picked to shoot the B Course on the Saturday and the C Course on the Sunday (the advantage of this was that the A Course had a 20 minute walk before they could start). Both Courses were of 40 3Ds spread over a 12 Mile trek through some rather interesting woodland.
This was always going to be an interesting weekend, for the same reason last weeks Fleet Ibex was, because I would be shooting a borrowed 40lb Longbow with my arrows matched to my 65lb longbow. So knowing this I was not expecting to have an astounding score I just hoped I would not be too badly embarrassed by my 10 year old son.

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Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 17th May 2009

2009-05-18T12:35:00.005+01:00

Having watched the the weather forecasts from the previous week I was expecting to be shoot Fleet Ibex in wet conditions but waking up Sunday morning to bright sunshine I thought we were going to have a good day. After the 50 minute drive down to Fleet Ibex the weather had changed slightly and we were in fully wet weather gear. This was the start of one of those days and it was at registration that I realised I had forgotten my NFAS card and my son his shooting glove. Thanks to Carrol the glove problem was resolved and the missing cards could be worked around by joining NFAS again on the day. The weather looked as though it was in for the day but after a 45 minutes the sky brightened and we were ready to shoot. For those who don't know Fleet Ibex this was a classic 40 x 3D course spread across their rather substantial woods (you do a lot of walking at Fleet) mixing the large and small with the long and short shots.

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Arrow Making : Of Spine, Materials, Piles and Fletchings

2009-02-04T17:18:00.005Z

Following a few questions on my previous blog entry "Making Longbow Arrows" I have decided to put together a quick table covering my experience in choosing Arrow material, spine, pile and fletchings. It is based on the Longbow and Warbow I shoot / have shot and my sons bows. Therefore you can consider this as a rough guide but in reality the only sure way of getting your arrow correct is to suck it and see. Ultimately every individual will have the ideal Arrow for their bow but we all need a starting point; so here goes.
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Spining your Longbow Arrows

2009-01-27T21:05:00.008Z

Follow a comment on my previous blog entry "Making Your Own Arrows In Four Easy Steps" concerning the spining of arrows I have decided to produce a blog entry specifically to described how I spine rate my arrows to match my bows. This done I will look at further options around the correct (a rather loose term), for me, fletching size for the job at hand.

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Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas 2008 Fun Shoot

2009-01-18T15:57:00.014Z

The Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas fun shoot was originally planned for the 19th December 2008 but due to the fact Embrook School was closed on this date we decided to run it on the first available Sunday in January. So given this the date was rescheduled to 18th January 2009 and fortunately we were still in the Christmas mood. The day was split into a morning and afternoon session, as usual, and further subdivided into Senior and Junior classes. Rather than the traditional Portsmouth faces or even Archery Darts we put together a series of Season appropriate, well sort of, faces and allocated our own marking system. As you can see below these faces ranged from the traditional Christmas Turkey (yes we also field shoot) to the Grinch and Santas Sleigh with presents held on by Polos.
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Westcott Indoor 2009 Shoot report

2009-01-17T15:09:00.015Z

The Annual Westcott NFAS occurred over the weekend of the 18th / 19th January 2009 and based on the fun I had last year I was looking forward to a rather entertaining few hours of shoot. We were due to shoot in 13:30 session but due to the M40 managed to miss this because of an accident that closed it for while. Thanks to a bit of luck and Cass we managed to squeeze onto the later 18:30 session (fun because I did not bring a coat expecting to be out by 17:00).
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