Stretching The Wings

Hello everyone, I know it’s not the end of the month yet but seeing as it’s a busy month I thought I’d split into two posts. Save you reading mass amounts of text and gives you double the pleasure. Plus means I forget less, so everyone is a winner. So let’s kick off;

First shoot of this month was our friendly match with Rochdale, and this year was their turn to host. Well I can truly say they did a very good job of it, both clubs turned out in force from veterans to novices totalling in 35 archers altogether.  They day was a good day for archery, sunny but with a chill in the air, no rain and minor wind. Alas though we did not win, but we can claim a moral victory for we did beat their longbow archer with ours, but unfortunately they had no compound archers to compare our too. But a big thank you to the Rochdale archers, especially those who supplied the food it was welcomed and judging from what little remained it was well liked.

 

Our team against Rochdale

Though I was not in attendance myself, I'd like to give a shout out to those from the club that went to the church Fete at Toft Church to run a have-a-go session. If you went I hope you said hello, and tried your hand at archery, if not maybe next time.

 

The next Sunday saw a FITA 70 being shot. Not one of my favourite rounds as I tend to prefer imperial rather than metric. Whether this is because I am a longbow archer, or because there is less variety in the metric rounds….That is probably it really there are fewer metric rounds compared to imperial, so less variety. Again it was a lovely day for shooting with little to no wind and I took full advantage of it shooting not only a new PB but also to a handicap of 60, which if it is the Bowman classification handicap level. So just need to shoot that well at a York or FITA round, I better start practicing at the longer distances. Twice as well I came close to earning a 3-gold end badge but close was all I got, so the badge can wait for another day.

Our monthly medal I missed this monthL. This was due to my shoulder still not being fully recovered and with a competition on the Sunday I decided to bow out and rest it, which is just as well because we were invited out for a meal.

Sunday morning, I was up early prepping my gear for the trip down to Kedleston Hall’s grand lawn upon which myself and all of my club’s longbow archers would attend to shoot. Unfortunately two of our members were not able to attend, but it still left us with nine longbow archers shooting on the day, three of which won awards. Highest Score Gent, Most Golds Junior Girl and Best Gold overall, none of which were me, the gold ring at 60yds seemed to repel my arrows.  For the rest of us the raffle was where the prizes lay, and with a small tankard for me and a tub of chocolates for my good lady and daughter there were smiles all round in my family. What I would like to see for next year is a member of my club on every target there, 16 archers, it’s possible though a stretch.

 

We few, we happy few we band of brothers archers.

The sorrow of the day though was in the first 6 arrows, one of the archers on my target smashed one of my arrows nocks, so I had to shoot with a spare which has a mind of its own. So through the shoot I had one arrow that like to go low, and another that sometimes liked to go high, but would change its mind on occasion.



Not sure about that shot


It was a nice day overall, sunny and warm but not too hot, little wind to trouble the arrows though oddly enough the sheep in the next field were being disturbed by something. Usually one or two sheep bleat, fair enough but the entire field of sheep were calling throughout the day, I think they were trying to put people off for a laugh. The judge’s comment was, “If those sheep don’t shut up, I’m going to make you all do an Agincourt volley in that direction.” 

Ah last update I said I’d tell you what the surprise for the boar hunt at our longbow shoot is, well………I’m not going to, and you’ll have to wait for the next update. It was announced at Kedleston but if you weren’t there then I’ll keep you in suspense just a little longer. But I will tell you we had a test shoot to test the support for it (as it doesn’t come with any), and I shot 3 arrows at it, somewhere around 45yds. The first arrow is the one in the picture below, the other two (admittedly not my best arrows, because I was worried about damaging them) flew straight over the top. But with the first arrow being a kill it didn’t really matter, but it was odd shooting at the boar. With target archery where you want to hit is raised off the ground quite a way, so you’re aiming much lower than you would otherwise have done. Having never done field this is a new and interesting concept to me.

Bacon anyone??

I think this is the place to close this update, see I told you it would be a long one. Just image how long it would be if I had waited till the end of the month.

So until next time, good shooting everyone, I leave you with the words of Eugen Herrigel:

 

“The right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too wilful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.”

Soaring In The Sunshine

Hail and well met once more friends, time for another peek through the Raven's eyes.

Its been a good month this month, first saw a new PB at our Jubilee Cup Handicap shoot, wasn't good enough to win the cup. But still a good achievement for the day. I would also like to congratulate Shaun Allan for setting a new club record, almost double my PB so I have a bit of catching up to do.

Next weekend saw in our World record statue double FITA star shoot, the 1st at our new home in Knutsford. Though I was only able to help out on the first day, I'm happy to say it went very well despite the constant rain, but being archers, a bit of rain doesn't bother us too much. Coupled by the fact we're in England so we're used to it, just builds character. It was also nice to see so many of our members new and old braving the weather to help the event run smoothly. One of the biggest successes of the day was the food stall, with Wayne as our weekend chef, Tracy & Megan Shaw as our brew ladies and the masses of cakes brought by different members , including those from my good lady.

 

Our monthly medal shoot came next, and once more a new PB for a Warwick was set, but yet it wasn't good enough to win either the longbow medal or the handicap medal. So more practise is needed. It was a very nice evening though nice and warm, sunny and calm, the only downside was as it began to cool, out came the biting insects, wasn't long before I felt something on my arm to see one of the little buggers taking a drink, it was soon squashed.

 

Next was our Phoenix handicap, where I didn't shoot a PB, but wasn't far off. Again it was a lovely day, warm, sunny, little wind. But two more records were set one by Tracy Shaw, and one by Angus Reynolds, so well done the both of you.

 

Last shoot of this month was my first ever clout shoot. This was at Burton Bridge and was a great day out and a whole new experience. For those that don't know a clout (or least a gents) is shooting at a flag in the ground 180yds away, unfortunately none of my arrows were reaching that range, so slight disappointment, but it was nice to really arch and let arrows fly and see how far they would go. Also it inspires to make new set of arrows. I have a low profile fletching cutter, which I can try and this time not whip my fletchings on. So can try to build a tapering jig, which can lead to tapering and barrelling. Ah the joys of arrow making, I really need to set up a small workshop.

 

 



The phrase of the day, during the clout was,"I shot an arrow into the air, where it lands I do not care."

One thing I have noticed over the past year at these open shoots, is that clubs seem to have little bits of quirky kit, for example Chantry bowmen, have goblets for their lunch time drinks, Kettering bowmen have little shot sized tankards for a lunch time tipple. It would be good I think to introduce something like this, though I think we need to start organising some on mass shoots.

Next month sees our first (and hopefully annual) open longbow shoot, all depends how this one goes I suppose. Though we are planning a little surprise for the boar hunt, which I'll tell you about in the next post.

For now I shall leave you with a quote from Milan E. Elott,

"Archer does not get difficult or hard to understand until the arrow misses."

April Showers, and wind

The time has come for another look through the Raven's Eyes.

Firstly I am going to start off this month's update with a little moan. Its nothing serious and probably shouldn't bother me, because its something I like and its potentially dangerous.
Cosplay: For those unaware its basically dressing up as characters from cartoons, films, comics, etc. Recently I've been seeing alot of pictures dressing up with bows, mainly due to "Brave", "Archer", "Hunger games" and more. Honestly I quite like it, it looks good and people are enjoying themselves. But what is really bugging me is that they've gone out and bought/borrowed bows, or in some cases made bows, but have done zero research into how to use the thing. Ok I know its for photos, more than anything else, but they've spent along time making the costume quite detailed in some case and when it comes to the bow you get a mixture of having the arrow on the wrong side, holding the string wrong (which in Brave I don't know how you can do that as there is a close up in the film of the main character at full draw), holding the bow upside down, and worst of all, strung backwards, or a combination. The strung backwards concerns me as is can break a limb or the string can just slip of resulting in injuries. The arrow on the wrong side just bugs me, esp as nearly all do the look directly at the camera pointing the arrow at full draw at the camera (hoping this is a camera on timer and not some photographer right in front)
So little memo towards cosplayers, don't go to the extent of getting a great looking costume if you are just going to spoil it by getting the bow (potentially dangerously) wrong.

Ok back to normal, few things have been happening since last update;

Firstly I attended the longbow shoot at Abbeydale, where though I didn't win anything (no surprise), I managed to improve my score from last year, unfortunately we didn't have splat the rat this year, but there was a new game of an extra end at 60yds, but it was the lowest score that one the end. But there was a twist that any misses counted as 10, extra bit of a challenge.

Secondly it was our clubs AGM, which to those not in the club is probably not very interesting. But we have some new faces to the committee, the rules have had a revamp, and I'm once more fixtures sec. Which tbh is a position I like and like doing.

Another longbow shoot improved from last year. This was the St. Georges shoot at Morely, which is a fun shoot as period costume is encouraged. Unfortunately my shirt/tunic wasn't completed in time so I went in modern garb, though it was still fun to see the costumes, and because there are some re-enactment displays there were times we were shooting accompanied by cannon fire. and the smoke drifting over the field. Though have to say no cake and little sherry, tsk tsk. Again it was only raffle prizes that were awarded to me, with the main highlight of the ticket I drew from the bag was one of my own :D

Another highlight of the month was I was able to attend an open talk by Pip Bickerstaff, organised by The Longbow Shop. If you didn't know who he is, he's a well re known bowyer, and came away with interesting bits of knowledge I'd not yet heard and am interested to try, main one being,"With arrows you want 10 grains for every 1lb of draw weight". Though despite his cursing of shooting gloves I will continue to shoot with mine, I prefer it to a tab, and I'm not going to by different types of tabs just to see if they work. But I came away with some signed night time reading material. Downside was I had forgotten about this talk when setting up the clubs fixtures so there was a clash....ah well can't win them all. But it did give me the chance to pick up the boar for our open longbow shoot. If you are a longbow archer and are reading this why haven't you signed up for the shoot?? Entry forms can be found here:
http://www.northcheshirebowmen.freeserve.co.uk/downloads.htm

Well, this update is drawing to a close. Sorry no pictures this month I really must get on with taking some.

But I leave you with this archery saying, from an unknown archer (If you know who it was comment below):

"An archer's creativeness for excueses is only limited by the amount of arrows in their quiver."

Spring Is Here, Yet It's Still Snowing

Hello and well met once more, these months are going by quickly.

Well in the last month a few things of interest have happened. Firstly our new archery range has open this month. Huzzah! Just in time for the outdoor season, though as a said previously on the one had its a good thing so anything left in the piggy bank doesn't get spent on utilities. Also admittedly the range isn't entirely finished, in the sense that there isn't any heating as of yet, and there are a few holes that need to be plugged so as long as people don't mind shooting in the cold, which is one step up from the cold and wet so people are happy using it as is. In fact here is a picture of the first official shoot shot in the range, our monthly medal, and as fate would have it I was unable to attend.


See all those happy smiling faces.

 

As to why I was not able to attend is simple, due to me wanting to see my family at some point during the weekend I had gone off to shoot on Saturday at the Archers of Bridlington & Burton Agnes Abba Dabba Doo Longbow shoot. I mean who could resist going to a shoot with a name like that. Being the first time shooting outdoors at a range longer than 30m for about six months, it went as well as could be expected really. Though in honesty I'm not sure how I did as the scores for the first half of the shoot were whipped away before I could see what I got, and the final listings haven't been listed yet. The shoot was enjoyable, though the weather could have been better, a constant misty drizzle, mud and cold wind made for a less than perfect day. But the atmosphere was positive and the field party who at the end of each end would help find arrows sped up the day, plus the usual sherry and cake and a win on the raffle secured it as a good day.

Definitely need to invest in high shooting boots.

On a disappointing note, our friendly archery darts match with CCB had to be cancelled due to snow, though it was fine at our end  at theirs they had a lot of snow and more on the way, so archers may have got there, but they wouldn't have left that night.

 

But to bring us out of that disappointment, the following week we were scheduled to shoot a Vegas, but due to the whole range being built not everything had been moved in and the faces were no where to be found, so resigned to shooting a FITA 18m instead, which turned out to be a bonus as not only boosted my PB from 344 to 366 with a couple of misses, so need to work on them. One end saw me shooting this:

  This is one of my VERY few three gold ends (hence the photo), shame its not a three 10 end but that would be greedy wouldn't it. and still something to be proud of, esp since these arrows are about 2 years old and well shot in.

So with next Sunday being the last shoot of the outdoor season, its with some irony that its our Frostbite shoot so it has to be shot outside. The fates do like their games.

 

Oh one thing that I almost forgot, after being influenced by friends I bought a Chinese horse bow off eBay, though a bit apprehensive about whether it'll actually arrive I decided that the cheap price was worth the risk, and the reviews were positive. Though still waiting for it to arrive which in my mind should be sometime this week.

 

I end this update with a biblical quote, happy shooting everyone:

 

Psalms 127:4 As arrows [are] in the hand of a mighty man; so [are] children of the youth.

Spring Is Coming

With February coming to a close, its high time I wrote another verse to the raven song that is this blog.

As the winter starts to retreat and the days are becoming brighter, though recently winter is trying to stay a little longer and fighting back with cold days. Our range, though a little behind schedule should be ready to be used within a few weeks, just in time really for our outdoor season. Though to be fair that could be considered a good thing. For one it allows us to claw back some of our depleted funds and not have to spend them (or at least as much as we would do if we were entering winter) on utilities. Plus to be honest losing an indoor season doesn't really matter when the final result is going to be a place we can call home and won't have to fight for space over.

Also though we've been limited due to light shooting outdoors over winter hasn't been that bad, true its been chill, but then its winter and its England, when is it not chill. Generally we've been very lucky with the weather and have had most dry (perhaps very wet underfoot) days for shooting. we've even had shooting in the snow.

 

 

Though the picture looks blue it was brighter and warmer than you'd think. Bonus of shooting in the snow is that if you miss the target finding your arrow is easy, you just follow the trail till it stops and then go digging a few inches further. This only becomes a problem if you miss alot.....luckily at this range that doesn't happen generally.

 





Also a couple of our members decided that it would be fun to build snowmen, though only one was built infront of the shooting line, which ment after the finished round we had a little fun peppering it with arrows. Funnily enough those arrows in the picture had to be placed in, though most archers did his the snowman (which btw was about knee high if anyone is interested) they either bounced off, or passed straight through. But still fun was had by all and with it just being placed at a random range no one had any sight marks and just had to guess (even more fun for those of us that shoot instinctive).

 

We also had our annual dinner and award at our new home, with wonderful Thai food, and lovely cakes (provided by members). I managed to claim one trophy though this wasn't ment with complete satisfaction from my other half. Though pleased I won it, being a glass trophy it didn't sit too well as small children and glass generally don't mix, but stored up high out of her reach (for now) its safe. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening, though some grumbles over the quiz questions, but aside from that, couldn't make it too easy can we. :p My little one enjoyed it too, large space to run around, lots of people to pay her attention and a kitchen to try and get into without anyone catching her.

 

Despite not having an indoor range to practice, a merry band of our archers went to compete in the Chester indoor team shoot with: one recurve team, one compound team, and two longbow teams. They day went well and our archers shot well and by the end of the day we walked away with:

-1st Junior Gent Compound

-1st Longbow team award (5th year in a row)

-2nd Lady Longbow

-2nd Gent Longbow

-1st Junior Lady Longbow

 

Spot a theme? I did however miss out on getting a new Cheshire badge by 9 points, but there is always next year.

 

Despite saying I would, I still have not ordered a new longbow, and now its a bit late to have it ready for the outdoor season, I'm still pondering what bow I want. I know I want to raise the poundage but what I think I can handle is a different question., power is no good without control and sacrifice to form.

 

Already I have scanned the internet and found alot of open longbow shoots to keep me busy with this year and I'm quite looking forward to them, and seeing familiar faces again. Though I'm enjoying shooting outdoors, indoor rounds get quite boring, even when shooting them outdoors. I might in a couple of weeks put out a target a bit further away and shoot at that instead.  Also this year I'm arranging my clubs first open longbow shoot, and glad to say already I have people sending in application forms to take part in it, i'm hoping alot more will enter but there is plenty of time before it occurs, and plent more events to advertise it coming up as well.

 

Well I think it is time for me to finish this update so I leave you with a quote from an unknown archer (if you know who it was please write in the comments below). Good shooting everyone:

 

The day archery becomes nothing but work it is time to put away the bow

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.”

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.