Bowmen Of Burleigh Christmas 2010 Fun Shoot

'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

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.

South Wilts Shoot Report 5th September 2010

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.

Time for a new bow

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

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.

Avalon Shoot Report 17th & 18th July 2010

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.

Making a BLBS Standard Arrow (Well Almost)

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.

Making Your Own Arrows In Four Easy Steps

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.

Jims Jungle Jaunt Shoot Report 3rd / 4th July 2010

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.

Company of 60 Shoot Report 13th June 2010

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.

Fleet Ibex Shoot Report 23rd May 2010

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.

South Wilts Shoot Report 2nd May 2010

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.