Tuesday 8 January 2013

High Hopes For The New Year

Hello Everyone, how are you all? Hope you had a good holiday and a Happy New Year to you all. As it is the new year I have set myself two archery resolutions.
1) To try at least one clout shoot.
2) To try at least one field shoot.

There are so many different arts within archery and though I like target I would like to be able to experience different styles.

Seems I wasn't quick enough to catch December for an update, but as far as shooting goes very little has happened.

My club is still constructing its new range, so practise during the week is non-existent for me as I'm at work all day, and its too dark to shoot in the evening. But we can still shoot at the weekend, so Sunday morning barring the heaviest of rain (which has held off so far) I'm on the shooting line. I would do Saturdays as well but between family, and helping range construction and lack of others shooting on Saturday that's not happening either. True it can be annoying cause its difficult to keep an eye in and places us at a disadvantage for postal leagues, BUT its a small price to pay. Once the range is finished whether its the end of this month or beginning of the outdoor season it'll be ours to be used whenever we like. No turning up to shoots finding someone else is using it, no restriction on when we can shoot, something that we can do what we wish too.

I'd like to give a BIG thanks to all those members who have helped either the construction of the range so far, and those that have shown support by bringing hot food and drinks to those working, whatever the weather. One of the days I was down, when I got home I was literally soaked to the skin, just shows how water proof my water proofs were. Also BIG thanks to our chairman who is managing the whole project, and to his wife for letting him.

I must admit though shooting outside hasn't really bothered me that much, save for the occasional weather extreme that winder brings e.g. strong icy wind, but luckily to date, its not been that bad. Plus last week I even managed to set a new PB for Frostbite round, so nothing to be sneezed at there.

On another note, for Christmas I was gifted with a new phone, so hopefully I'll be able to upload a few more pictures as I never really have my camera with me to capture those interesting/impressive shots.

So in theory its all positives for this year, one project that I'm trying to get going is to run a longbow shoot at our club. Mainly an idea to bring in some extra (and needed) funds to the club, but also be one that you don't have to travel all the way to Yorkshire for. I do enjoy the shoots over there, but nothing wrong with wanting to stay closer to home, and meet new people.

I'm also looking at investing in a new bow upping the draw weight for two reasons
1) To make shooting longer ranges easier
2) Being the next step in my training to pull a warbow, though at some point I'm going to have to stop drawing to just past my chin right back to my ear. so I might sometime in the future invest in a 2nd hand longbow with a longer draw length so I can practise the technique and how to aim.

Though thanks to a certain few members on the archery forum I frequent I am also tempted to invest in a cheap horse bow. One of authentic materials would be nice but the price would be a little to high for something I just want to have as "fun" bow. I've also been making enquiries into an authentic crossbow but again price and the place to shoot it, as most archery clubs have a fear of crossbows. I think this is an ingrained thought (or least in the UK) from the medieval period where bows were more popular to crossbows. I could be wrong, as accuracy can't really be an issue esp compared to modern bows.

Anyway, I have to get going so I'll leave you with this quote:

Zen in the Art of Archery
“Don't think of what you have to do, don't consider how to carry it out!" he exclaimed. "The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise.”