Fluffed Up For Winter

Good grief November already, where did October go? Well I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween and bonfire night. if you had any special shoots I'd like to see the pictures.

Well with winter setting in, archery practise is beginning to dwindle. This isn't down to any lack of enthusiasm but mostly the fact that my club's indoor range is still being built, so though it is the indoor season, we are still shooting outside. It puts us as some disadvantages for the winter leagues, but its that or nothing. But as I said to another club member, shooting outside builds character, true if its absolutely pouring it down I'll stay home and dry but bit of drizzle won't put me off too much. I still need to find some waterproof top though, trousers are easy, but finding a coat or waterproof top that's comfortable to shoot in can be difficult.

I've also been recently looking for a suitable hat I can shoot in. Usually on sunny/wet days I will wear a baseball cap, now it works well whilst I'm not shooting, but when I go up to the line, I have to take it off as when I draw back the brim gets in the way of the string. So half the point of having the thing in the first place is wasted. So as I say I've been looking around and may have found a solution;
http://www.talltoad.net/Robin-Hood-Hats.php

Whilst not the height of modern fashion and if I do get one no doubt there will be some playful ribbing on the shooting line, but it might just do that job by allowing me to shoot without removing it, and providing some cover against rain and sun.

On the actual shooting front though, since my last update I went to two shoots, on was White Rose Archers Sherry Shoot, which I'm quite happy to add that not only did I beat my personal best by about 70 points, I won the "best gold award" at 60yds. Which meant not only did I get a lovely trophy (though it is staying in the box), a teaspoon with the white rose symbol, but as it was the sherry shoot I got a bottle of wine as well, plus a share of the gold sweep.

Photos to be added shortly

Plus the fact I managed to win a very nice box of biscuits in the raffle, so my other half was delighted when I returned and presented her with the wine and munched on the biscuits. The unusual thing about the shoot was that it was shot on a cricket ground so every time we shot we had to walk around the cricket strip rather than straight ahead. Another quirk that I quite liked was that every so often  a best colour award was presented, so the field captain would call out leave your best e.g. red and that person would win a box of sweets. Unfortunately the colours called out was the end I hadn't got any that end, the most original call was "closest arrow to the shooting line", this was a shock to nearly all the archers but a delight to the person who won it.

There was some interest with the junior award though being a longbow shoot awards generally go to "most hits" rather than score, but despite advertising this both junior and senior archers were awarded by score. So our young Miss Foster despite having the most number of hits, lost out on the trophy for having a lower score, as they didn't have the trophy on the day this was a small loss, but it caused a stir.

On a lighter note though, the following week was the Derbyshire & district target shoot which was a two way western. Unfortunately it was the last one too, because due to lack of interest D&D is disbanding, though the shoots will be kept going by the hosting clubs. Despite arriving a little late, Hugh and myself were allowed to catch up in the first sherry break. Despite not winning anything , though I might add I wasn't far off but because for some reason bringing the target closer made it harder for me to hit *shrugs*, I did manage to beat the PB I'd set at white rose. I could hardly believe it, it was only a few more points but it was the fact that I'd managed to do it again and on a two way shoot as well. By the way I don't really expect to win anything when I go to competitions, but its a nice surprise if I do.

At the moment I'm pondering whether to increase my bow weight or not. Its not really essential, it would make the longer distances easier but the main reason as to why I'm thinking of getting one is because I still want to build myself up to a warbow. Knowing me I probably will get a new bow, but first comes the research of bowyers.

So I'm going to finish this with a quote from,'Zen in the Art of Archery' so until next time, keep shooting:

In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but are one reality.