The Crooked Stick: Raven Shoot Report 14th April 2013

So this being only my second shoot since last years Nationals it was off to Raven for a round of 36 3Ds in their rather hilly woodland. With the weather having been wet for the last few days I was expecting a rather stick and muddy shoot but at least it would be warm and no chance of frostbite unlike the Fleet Ibex shoot a couple of weeks ago. So with a nice early arrival it was close to the tea tent with 2 wheels on the track and 2 wheels in the mud at least that way I should get some traction when leaving. Having arrived early their was time for a quick bacon roll for John before setting off to our starting target (22) and finally find out who we would be shooting with. Today it was going to be Rob and James (a handy man to shoot with because he nearly always hits the 24).

Wolf

Following the exchange of cards and the sound of the air horn it was time to take the first shot of the day a rather easy short shot at a sitting wolf so with James leading the way with a 24 ad showing us where we needed to put our arrows it was a quick 20 for me. Having walked past 21 to get to our target we knew our last shot of the day was going to be a long one and probably the longest on the course so we also new the Wolf would not be the typical shot.

With the wolf out of the way it was off down hill to a Honey Badger through a smallish gap between two trees and then onto a Badger and a ricochet off it's back before reaching the tea truck. Given we had only shot 3 targets it was not time to stop so it was off up the back end of the woods for another loop around to the tea hut.

bear

First target on this loop was a bedded puma and to fool us was quite open but then it was on the some more of the classic Raven shots uphill through some, for a longbow, small holes and then the long downhill shots quickly followed by the uphill as we zig-zagged along the edge of the hill before heading up to the top again and then down the path to the tea hut for a 12:00 lunch and a well deserved Cheese Burger.

garlic

After a good burger and Eccles Cake feeling slightly heavier around the middle it was off to the bottom half of the woods and into the wild garlic with a mixture of up and down shot both long and short this section felt more difficult than the previous targets.

Having worked our way along the hill side it was time for a long downhill shot over the curve of the hill providing plenty of dead ground and a wonderful shot a deer.

deer

With the deer dead it was time to head across the bottom of the valley and shoot the White Goat, this was probably the second longest shot of the day and was one of the best laid targets I have seen for a long time. We shot from the open into the trees which darken but the deer was placed in a patch of sun light so it stood out in the distance.

White Goat

After a long shot at a large target it was time for a short shot at a small target and a pair of meercats and then back to the larger animals with a deer through the undergrowth where John skewered a rather thin branch before we headed back up the hill towards the tea hut. It was whilst doing this that one of my many head shots of the day managed to partially knock over the standing wolf giving Rob a slightly different perspective on the shot to the rest of us.

With only a leopard between us and a cup of tea it was a quick shot and then a break before we headed off for our last few targets slowly getting longer as we worked our way up the hill to our final target of the day, 21, a long long shot at a standing Deer.

Now all day James had been hitting 24s or 20s with only the odd one dropped to a 16 and essentially he was showing us where the kill was but for this shot it even stumped him requiring 3 shots and hence just missing his 800 target. For me it was a case of one short, one long and one 9 foot up a tree and hence an unfortunate blank on the last target but hey-ho it was a good shot even if I missed.

With James losing two bolts on this target and me having to stretch to retrieve my arrow it took us a short while before we headed back down to registration to hand in the cards.