The Flight Of The Raven Isn't Always Straight

As February draws to a close I thought it was time for another update. This month has been a busy one to start with a new session of beginners has started so Tuesday's shooting has become more relaxed as the beginners shoot in three details with advice and coaching throughout. So to cut down on waiting time its normally filly up the quiver and loose at the target. Though being an instinctive longbow archer I can normally shoot 5/6 arrows in the same time some recurves shoot 3/4 so still have to wait for a while. The main problem I'm having now is that the 10 of my original ravens (arrows) I have left, one is currently awaiting to have its head re-glued, and the other 9 all have some curvature to them. So shooting is less concentrated than it was, though as these are the only ones I have at present they are the ones I have to use. I do plan on making more, but having to wait till I can get to the archery shop, so if anyone is going and doesn't mind giving me a lift then feel free to mention.

17th February saw the shoot for the Valentine's cup. This is a Portsmouth normally shot as close to Valentine's day as possible, hence the name. Despite some shooting that all I can say was erratic at best I managed to get the top score for the gents longbow with 357 56/5 (yes 4 misses on a Portsmouth I'm ashamed too), though overall longbow was won by Elsie who was shooting very well that day. One complaint about it though is that all of a sudden we've started having breaks halfway through shoots, which for me is rather tough as unlike other archers I have no sight or PoA to go back to. I don't mind breaks outside when the targets get moved and such but for a shoot of 5 dozen indoors its just annoying, esp on a Thursday evening after work. But I suppose I should get used to them incase I do anymore external competitions, though still don't see much point in them. Despite the misses though the score was better than previous so I'm am coming out of the rut I went into.

The 20th brought in this months Frostbite, and this was well named. Due to erm booking problems shall we say (politely) the frostbite took place at Knutsford Sports club. The temperature was not the best to shoot in, but it was the icy wind that really put a shiver down the spine. So next month if its like that the cloak and possibly furs (yes real fur, and seeing as its probably 50+years old I see no problem with wearing it) will be coming out. Shaun came top of the longbows, but seeing as his is a master bowman that's hardly surprising. But despite the wind and the curved arrows I managed to beat my PB for it, and only got 4 misses, which isn't bad seeing as its 30m (12m longer than inside).

Now comes to yesterday 24th, was the clubs monthly medal. This month it was a Vegas which I've never shot before, and all I can say is, its not the best round to shoot after a frustrating day at work, and longbow and with curved arrows isn't the best to shoot it with. For those unfamiliar this is a Vegas target, the 3 mini targets are the five inner rings of a Bray target and scored the same 6-10, so at a guess I'd say they are 20cm across. What you have to do is shoot 60 arrows in ends of 3 arrows into each one of the targets, but to make is slightly more difficult you have to nominate which arrow will go into which target before you shoot it and if it doesn't go in that target then its a miss. So not only do you have to say where each arrow is going you have to move where your aiming.

It was a good turn out with roughly 19 archers five of which were longbows. I managed a score of 184 24/3. Again curved arrows weren't helpful in this, esp my no.3 arrow who insisted that it didn't like its target and preferred the other two. This month it was Robert who won the scratch, and to his surprise we actually had the medal (he'd won it a few times and it had not turned up), Compound was by John Stubbs (no surprise there seeing he is a grand master bowman and a paralympic gold medalist), Shaun won the longbow medal (again no real surprise), but big congratulations to Doug for winning the handicap medal with his longbow, seems rubber ducks are he way forward in the sighting stands.

Wednesday saw the delivery of my new longbow (the right one this time), though I have to ease it in and allow the strong to stretch before I can really shoot with it, which is alright with me seeing as I got it to shoot outdoors with. Though its another reason why I have to go to the archery shop for supplies. This one is by Adrian Hayes, and is bamboo, ipe, and ipe, with a horn arrow pass, and 55lbs @26".

That's about it for now. Good shooting everyone.

On The Wings Of Victory

Hail and well met archery fans, its been an interesting few weeks, and if it all goes well I should have a treat for you all. Yes that's right I have finally managed to take some pictures. Took me long enough I know., problem is though I haven't been on here for 2-3 weeks so I might just spam photos.

Firstly the bad news, seemingly accord to the scores I've been putting in, my averages or at least in the Portsmouth has been going down, which was a rather large concern with the Chester County Shoot coming up and which is a Portsmouth.

But first was the club's annual dinner and award ceremony, which luckily for me was at Altrincham town hall. It was a pleasant evening nice food and ceremony, and to top it off a nice and unexpected pub quiz.

Angus cutting the clubs 61st anniversary cake. 

The award ceremony also brought my first (and hopefully not last) trophy and medal, or at least medal that I get to keep. It was for getting the best handicap score at the club handicap shoot in September. The trophy I get to hold for a year (or until I move which may happen due to out of club circumstances, personally I'd like to stay but we'll see).

  As February came, in preparations I've only really been shooting on a Portsmouth face and seemingly from the score I've put in, I got worse. But with the knowledge I can do better the Chester shoot came round and we set off.

The shoot was going well, the final 3 bosses were mostly longbow archers with the odd sprinkling of recurve and in my case compound archers. Not the best combination I might say. All in all I was not at my best performance at the shoot, and the mid break did seem to put me off. As it took me a while to get back to form, e.g last half dozen before the break 46, first half dozen after then break 25.........not good, but despite not shooting my best, I was keeping an Alsager longbow archer on his toes (which was good seeing as he had been shooting for 20 years) and I was beating a New Century longbow archer. Even despite my arrows staying away from the 10s and only on occasionally hitting 9s. I don't think they wanted to go near the compound archer's arrows/area.

At the end of the competition we were waiting for the results at the awards, congratulating other's shooting till at last the longbow scores were called. After 4 dozen we were 15pts down to Alsager, not bad seeing as they were the clubs main rivals so were were expecting to be in a close but solid second. But to the shock of at least 3 of our 4 longbow shooters NCB was called to be the winners. It had turned out that in the last dozen NCB longbows had made up 25 points and overtaken Alsager. I didn't get a real look at the results of the other teams, but congratulations to Shaun, and Elise for placing in the top 3, I was 8th out of 15 in the longbows which isn't bad seeing as this was my first competitive shoot outside of the club, and I've only been shooting for just over a year. Also congratulations to the other longbowers of the team Shaun, Elise & Steve. Also well done to all NCB archers and all other archers who took part, pleasure shooting with you all. Big thanks to all the judges, and personal thank you to Angus for taking me there and back and for supporting the team.

My medals........btw yes I know its a recurve bow on the longbow winners medal, but its a standard medal or so I'm told so its ok.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more soon.

Flying High In The Fog

With the start of this week the winter cold has returned to the area and the walk to archery is a cold one when starting off, but I have to admit it does wake me up after a dull day of work and going on five hours sleep. But its a good way to relieve tension built up throughout the day/week.

Tuesday was the full moon and it obviously had a great effect on my ravens as each flew straight to the target allowing me to set a new personal best for a Bray1 of 169 30/1. Yes you read it right that's thirty hits on a bray, so no misses. Still 35 off the current record but bit more practice might be able to reach it before the summer season starts. Took me two dozen to realise I had no misses and for the last three arrows of the bray one of my hands were shaking, so its actually a surprise that I achieved no misses. Once the scores were put in though they allowed me to relax by promptly missing with the next arrow.

Thursday did see a drop in performance though with two brays being shot and getting same number of hits and golds 26/2 but a difference of 18 on the score 126, 144. So definitely drop down since Tuesday but the second score isn't too bad, first one I'm a bit annoyed with but seeing as I do my best shooting on Tuesdays it must be related to how tired I am from previous nights. I've started plotting out my scores on excel to see how I am progressing throughout the seasons, and it seems I'm currently averaging just over 138, though it wasn't helped by two scores on a bad night last week of 102 and 103. Slightly off topic but still fun the weather on Thursday was a thick fog and seeing as on cold nights I wear my long black leather coat due to the thickness of the fog, I did make a few people jump as I appeared out of the dark fog with quiver on the back and bow (in bag) in hand. Now I have been stopped by the police before walking back from archery on a clear night just cause I looked suspicious one of their comments being, "Something from a computer game or horror film", so what people must've thought on Thursday would be interesting.

Congratulations to Doug Shaw for shooting enough to get a handicap with a longbow, scoring a high score of 98 (I think it was). Also well done to Steve Cox for shooting a bray with his longbow, all got to start somewhere.

With the new bow on its way, I shall be starting to work on some new arrows shortly, one problem is though the new arrow heads are being looked at with interest. After a brief talk with the equipments officer depending on what they do to bosses I may not be allowed to use them, which would be a shame as they are nice, no real shoulder, but we'll see how it goes. I may only be allowed to use them for club only/practice shoots but that would be better than nothing. Seeing as outdoors I don't really get mass grouping in one place I wouldn't think they'd hurt the boss that much. I have done a little test at home with a foam block looking at what hole it leaves compared to a field tip and doesn't seem that different. I do have some pictures which will be put on here shortly.......hopefully. So stay tuned.

The Winter Winds

Another week of shooting as flown by, but unfortunately its not been one of my best, but then again its only partly been one of my worse ones, or at least compared to recent shoots.

Tuesday's practicing went fairly well, most grouping together, but did see a pile getting stuck in the boss, no real problem getting it out with pliers, yes I'm aware I should have pushed it through rather than pull its out, but due to indoor bosses being tightly tied together rather than undoing and forcing it through it was just as easy to pull it out again using needle nose pliers. But apart from that went well.

Thursday was a Bray 1 day, being a new month best to put in a new score early and improve on it later, but my shooting was fairly erratic and I had a shocking amount of misses, out of a possible 30, in two Brays I only hit with 21 and 24 respectively, which recently is rather bad for me, as I normally have 2-4 misses. But as the scores weren't too far off my personal best (PB) despite the erratic shots the ones I hit were making up. For example one end of 6 arrows were scored as 10, 10, 7, 10, 1, M = 38 which for an end with 3 tens in is pretty bad, but can't be helped now. Suffice to say I've not made the longbow team this month (yet). After starting the first Bray with an end of 3 misses in a row, one archer quipped that it was very surprising because while practising, I'm normally consistently in the target, hovering around the centre.

So Sunday was a new start and was a Postal Portsmouth, which the past two I have done have been improvements, and up till then had no misses. But Sunday proved to be the fatal day where one arrow, for reasons known only to itself flew off above the target missing the paper completely favouring the saw colour. During the ends I was noticing that my shooting would be nicely grouped and then scatter shotgun style, so I'm obviously doing something wrong, bracing height has slipped a bit so might have to correct that, I'll figure it out when I get time. Though despite the miss I managed a score of 407 59/6 which, not being my best, is better than the first one I did, so despite being tired still shooting fairly well. Oh a congratulations to Shaun Allen for setting a new club longbow record of 524 for a Portsmouth, well done to you. Also well done to Doug Shaw for investing in a longbow, though you compound archers might moan a bit more.

Still think they should put a longbow archery event in the Olympics seeing as its one of the origins of archery, and has yet got no modern equivalent. Recurves stem from the old composite bows, compounds.......well dunno what they are based off but I'm guessing it was an American who came up with it (I'll have to look that up). But I'd also like to see more clubs to be friendly towards crossbows, ok people say the damage the bosses, but if you put limits on the heads do they damage them anymore than other types of modern bows?

Didn't help much that the pile I re-glued came loose and just pulled off again in my hand, think its time to invest in some new glue, and let it set for longer next time. I need new glue for making arrows for my heavier bow anyway so not put out too much.

Since I've not been sleeping much over this past week, this may account for the erratic shooting. With the Chester shoot looming, and being my first external shoot going to be practising as much as possible, might even try to straight some of my more banana shaped arrows, but a bit wary to doing this incase I make them worse, though I suppose never know until you try.

Till next time, happy shooting all.

Holiday Flights

Happy New Year readers, the holidays are over, or are close to being over and a whole new year full of possibilities. Plus a whole new year of shooting =D
Well the gifts of Christmas brought about some new arrowheads, short bodkins. But according the the rule book bodkins are not allowed, but seeing as they aren't like old fashioned bodkins I may be alright, I'll have to see. I may have to have a second set of arrows to shoot competitively with and just keep the bodkins for practice. Though I've not been told the weight so will have to see if the club has a scale for measuring the grain.
Since I last posted up here, the club has had the Christmas fun shoot. This involves team shooting in games like pontoon. For those who don't know how to play a suit of cards is strung up diagonally on the boss and your team shoots at it trying to get close to 21 without going over. If you go over your bust, picture cards count as 10 and Ace counts as 1 or 11. Plus just to make it a bit interesting some of the ends were timed so whole team have to shoot in 1minute, 45/30 seconds. But careful sometimes random rounds chosen by the judge are won by the lowest score (without going bust). But watch the other teams as a few inventive ways of scoring occur ed.
Next team game was a balloon popping race, of which your team went in turns to shoot a single arrow at a boss covered in balloons and the first to pop their balloons get lots of points, next fastest gets less and so on. This was fun and longbow archers were off the line almost as soon as they got on. A note goes to Steve Dunn for his amazement/frustration as he put an arrow through a balloon without bursting it, and just to prove nothing in archery is certain every compound archer managed at least one arrow where they didn't pop a balloon.
Sunday just gone was meant to be the January Frostbite, but fate obviously decided that I need more sleep and didn't let my alarm go off, so I woke up way after the shoot had finished, so missed. BUT this coming Sunday is the postal Portsmouth, so its gearing up and practicing for it.
Until next time happy shooting everyone.

Highs & Lows

Welcome back, or hello for those who haven't been here before. This weeks archery has been a mixture of good and bad results, more on the side of bad than good, but hopefully be able to fly out of the slump soon.
Tuesday there was a tragedy, another raven has fallen, knocked out of the sky by one of its own flock passing to close. I Robin Hooded (shot through my own arrow) on of my arrows splitting the nock and the wood down to the binding making it unshootable unless I strip it down and shorten it, but I'd need more than just the one so for the moment it is laid to rest with its brother who suffered a similar fatality previously. But that was not the only injury, another raven had its tail cut short (broke the nock), but luckily that one has been replaced and is eager to fly again.

Thursday was the December monthly medal, and despite doing well on Tuesday and the previous Thursday my shooting wasn't fairing to well. The monthly medal is a FITA 18, which is five dozen arrows on a Bray 1 target, so effectually two consecutive Bray 1 rounds. I managed 254 48/0, which to me isn't that good due to the amount of misses as it seemed that I was missing with almost every 3rd arrow, with an average Bray score of 127 24/0 which isn't bad, but isn't my best either. Suffice to say I didn't manage to retain the longbow medal but just means I have something to shoot for next month.

Today being Sunday saw the opening of the December frosbite shoot, but with the snow that fell on the Friday still lingering it being around 2-3" very few archers turned up. So few in fact it was just myself and Steve Dunn, a fellow longbow archer who had taken one for the team and brought out his recurve for this shoot, seeing it is technically a recurve postal round. So there were a brief passing comment of "we few, we crazy few" and a couple of odd looks by people come to the rugby club. Despite the snow it was a nice day sun was warm, there was no wind, and as long as you had decent boots and thick socks the cold didn't really reach you. The more interesting was when there were a few stray arrows and they left trails for you to follow in the snow, though digging them out did leave your fingers cold and numb. By the end of the shoot I walked away with 145 31/0 which is about the same as the last frostbite but still in my eye not overly that good, but just means more practice is needed.

With Christmas looming next week there is the Christmas fun shoot to be looking forward to and in two weeks is another Frostbite which hopefully will be better attended but we'll see. Till next time, stay warm and a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Portsmouth Postals

As the name suggests this week was the postal league Portsmouth round, which is five dozen arrows on a 60cm target. Despite the less than average turn out, I think the club managed to cobble together the four recurve teams (though this did include 4 longbowers) and at least 2 out of 3 people for the compound team. But the weather was mild and the rain had melted most of the ice on the road so was much less slippery, overall pleasant evening walk and shoot.
The Portsmouth target despite being the larger of the indoor targets was one I'd practiced less on, yes I practice on the smaller targets with a longbow, I did rather well. Only recording a Portsmouth round once before, my personal best was increased by 51 points, final score was 438,  60 hits, 11 Golds. Seeing as both my Portsmouth round score had no misses, it means I'm honing myself more into the centre, esp as I was enjoying being congratulated every so often by fellow longbowers for shooting good ends. Despite my last half dozen having a few arrows deciding they were bored of colours and prefered the white rings, it was still good enough to beat two other longbow archers only coming second (out of the longbows) to Shawn, who set a new club record, but I'm catching up so bit more practice and who knows.
The more interesting result is that I'm still beating recurve archers, which as said before for a longbower novice with no sight aids is pretty good. Yeah I might get better scores with recurves but longbows are or least to me, so much more relaxing and feels right in the hand. I read a series of books recently where one character (surprisingly called longbow) said he always felt his bow was just an extension of his arm, and though it might not have begun that way, it is getting more like that to me.
Quick change of topic before I go. While looking around on some archery shop websites, I noticed a type of fletching called "raven".......it looks like half an arrow head, so I might invest in some them out next time I make a new flock (12-arrows) see how they go. Still thinking of having the two black arrows, might have them with warheads on.....hmmm think about it a bit more see what conclusions I come to, they'd look nice.
Stay tuned for next week, it'll probably be a little later because there is a frostbite on Sunday, so if its not wet the cloak might be coming out. I'll try to get pictures.......so stay tuned.