Infinitely Pointless

After weeks struggling with the digital camera I bought while on holiday last year I decided it was time for an upgrade. My previous camera was an Olympus X-42, a low end model but an improvement over my 5 year old Kodak LS443….or so I thought when I bought it.

The LS443 was a good camera when I bought it, 4 megapixles, a distinct upgrade from my original Agfa camera at a mere 1mp. So I figured camera technology had moved on a lot in a few years and the x-42 was 12.2mp so I figured the photo quality would be much better. How wrong I was.

The x42 was perfectly fine outside in good light conditions, in lower light conditions and indoors however, it was terrible. It produced washed out images using the flash and colourless, dark images without the flash. After a few random attempts at changing some of the settings I had control over I figured it was about time I read the manual!

The X-42 doesn’t come with a printed manual of any description except a one sheet quick start guide. THe manual is actually on the CD supplied with the camera in .pdf format. After reading through the manual, and playing around with a few more settings I decided it was time to give up and get a decent camera. After all, I only paid £69 for the X-42 and as they say, you get what you pay for!

After doing some research and reading a few reviews, I decided to replace it with a Samsung IT100. So far, the image stabilisation and a better quality lense have cured the low light problems and I’m getting some decent results with it. It was double the price of the X42 but the performance is much better. So far I’m happy with it, but time will tell.

We weren’t exactly sure if we’d make it on to this shoot or not. When we booked in in October we were originally numbers 20 and 21 on the reserve list. We were planning on going to Doverdale with a couple of other members of Artemis if we didn’t mangage to get booked on to the Liberty shoot.The Tuesday evening before the shoot I decided to call Dawn at Liberty and find out how far up the list we were, we were 4th and 5th. After a chat with Dawn, it was suggested that we should turn up on the Sunday as they knew there would be cancellations and they would get us in somehow.

RAF Lakenheath is about 2 hours drive for us, so we aimed to set off at about 6:30am to try and give us time to stop for some coffee on the way. We actually got away at about 6:50 and when I put the address into the sat nav it gave me an arrival time of 9:30am, yeah right!

We arrived at 8:45 and headed down to get booked in. The shoot was quite busy and when we looked at the list most pegs had 6 people. Due to the lack of daylight available, it was only two arrows per target and the shoot would be stopped at 3:30pm regardless. As to be expected from Liberty, a lot of the targets were around the 40 yard mark with not much given between red and white pegs. The cub pegs were also very stretched and the cub in our group struggled a lot, although it was his first time out with a new flat bow.

The weather held out for us until roughly lunch time, at which point the heavens opened and for about 30 minutes we got absolutely soaked. Luckily we were close enough to the cars as the rain started so I swapped out my soft shell for a waterproof.

We got finished quite early and were ready for the presentations at about 3pm. As usual Kay came first in her class and I have no idea where I came. I was over 100 points off first place which I expected as I hadn’t shot particularly well for whatever reason, Kay seems to think I have a problem with my arrows but it could have been down to the cold or the clothing I was waering. I’m not used to shooting in that many layers of clothing. First thing I guess to try would be a new set of arrows then just more practice in more layers of clothing.

I enjoyed the Liberty shoot the first time I shot the course but now it seems to be the same distances all the time. We are booked back on to the spring shoot in April along with some other members of Artemis so I guess we’ll see what they have to offer for that shoot.

Right time to go get started on making some new arrows!

After a very wet and windy Friday and Saturday, Sunday started out dry and the wind had dropped considerably. We set off for Derby a little later than expected but with a little more weight in the right boot we still managed to get to Markeaton in time for a McDs breakfast. Just as we were finishing breakfast another Artemis member, Stan, turned up for breakfast.

We arrived at the shoot in Radbourne just after 9am and were told we were set for a 9:30am start. We got out on to the couse just before 10am. This was a 2 times 20 course, the first time I’d shot one of these. The morning started out with 20 paper face targets. After everyone had shot all 20 targets they would be changed and 20 3D targets were put out.

For me it was a day of two halves. I didn’t feel settled at all in the morning. I had asked to move pegs and ended up with a group of six which made for a slow start. For whatever reason I wasn’t shooting very well, nothing was connecting. After 20 targets I’d only scored 202 points, and average of 10.1 a target. Not good!

At lunchtime, myself and Kay were moved to another target which resulted in a group of five. The afternoon seemed to come together a little better. I’m not sure if it was the change in group or the change to 3D targets but what ever it was it was improving my shooting no end. I’d already passed my morning total for twenty targets after just twelve targets. I slowed down towards the end of the second twenty targets but I still finished with a respectable score of 314 for the afternoon. By no means good enough to make up for my abysmal performance in the morning but enough to make me feel better.

This was the first time I’d shot at Pride Park, and for a 2 times 20 course it was a very enjoyable day.

Having signed up to go to the European Bow Hunter Championships in Austria next year we needed to join the EFAA and get some experience of their shoots. Kings Forest bowmen were holding a two day shoot in memory of Dot Southgate so we signed up to go. Mark arranged our EFAA membership and our cards would be waiting for us when we arrived at the shoot.

Kings Forest Bowmen are located a few miles away from Bury St Edmunds, so we travelled down on the Friday evening and stayed over at a very nice camp site about twenty minutes away from the shoot. The campsite had the cleanest toilet block I’ve ever seen on a campsite and the facilities were first class! The campsite was called The Dell and I can highly recommend it.

We arrived at the shoot early on Saturday morning not quite sure what to expect. We got a great welcome from the guys at Kings Forest as well as from the President of the EFAA when we were given our membership cards. This was a two day shoot and we would be shooting a marked 3d preceision round and a marked 3d field round, marked meaning the distance to the target are marked. This is the main difference between EFAA and NFAS, although the EFAA do shoot some unmarked rounds. The second thing I noticed that is different is that everyone entering an EFAA shoot undergoes a bow inspection, another good idea and something that I agree with.

The courses are 28 targets and on the marked 3d precision round you take two arrows at every target. An inner kill scoring 10 points, a kill scoring 8 points and a wound scoring 5 points. The same course is shot from different pegs for the marked 3d field round and is similary in format to an NFAS big game round.

Since the distances were marked, I decided to have a play around with gap shooting. I was surprised at the results. Once I had my point of aim I could pretty much work out where I needed to be aiming, of course knowing the distance to the target helps with this immensly.

I had a really good weekend and a very good first impression of the EFAA. Both myself and Kay came away with second places which I was really happy with, and after my initial success with gap shooting I will be looking forward to my next marked distance shoot with the EFAA. I also want to spend some time on a marked practice range so I can get more precise gape for a wider range of distances.

I’ve  been messing around with my bow the last week or so, trying to fit a rest. Since buying my new bow back in May I’ve been shooting it off the shelf using a Martin traditional rug rest. The bow came with the traditional rest fitted and since I’ve only ever shot from a rest I thought I’d give the shelf a go. After a few months getting used to the bow I couldn’t get the same level of accuracy off the shelf that I used to get from my old bow using a rest. So I finally decided to try and fit a rest to my new bow.

My old bow was fitted with a Bear rest, but I couldn’t seem to find one of those anywhere in the UK. The closest I could find was a Cartel Hunter rest. I also wasn’t sure quite where to fit the rest on the bow. It’s a lot easier if your bow is designed to take a pressure button, most of the arrow rests available have holes designed to line up with the pressure button so it’s easy to put them in the correct place on the riser. My bow doesn’t have a fitting for a pressure button and neither has it ever had a rest fitted. Time for a bit of guess work and some trial and error.

My first go wasn’t all that successful. I fitted the Cartel rest toward the rear of the riser and proceeded to test it on the boss in the back garden, a distance of about 12 yards. The results were, shall we say….interesting. The arrows were hitting about a foot to the right of where I was aiming. Not only that but they were coming out of the bow heading left, then whipping round to the right very noticably. It started to get dark at this point, so I decided to put the bow away and give it a go another evening.

Saturday came, and I decided to pay a trip to a couple of Archery shops in the area and pick up some different types of rests, and ask a couple of people for some advice. From what I was told, I had fitted the rest too far back towards the face of the bow. Armed with this new information and a few Petron A76 rests I returned home to have another go at fitting the rest.

The Petron rest is a lot thinner than the Cartel, the result of which is it keeps the arrow closer to centre. I fitted it as close to the centre of the riser as I could and went out to test it in the garden. The difference was unbelievable, I could pretty much put the arrow in a 2″ square from 12 yards. I tried it out for a few dozen arrows and was very happy with the results.

The only downside is that the Petron rest is bright blue. It doesn’t really look quite right on an all wood, one piece bow so I’ve order a couple of Cartel rests from Quicks. I’m not sure if they are the same thickness, or if they’ll give the same results, but they are black and will look better attached to my bow. If they aren’t as good as the Petron rest I’ll just have to figure out some way of colouring the Petron to make it less conspicuous on my bow.

Pics to follow…

Just lately I’ve found that both myself and Kay have been making quite a few new arrows, well it’s mainly me to be honest

Up to now, we’ve only had the one fletching jig between us. When you both want to make arrows it gets a bit time consuming sharing the jig. On a recent trip down to Quicks archery I decided to get a new jig. The only jig I’ve used up to now has been the tollgate fletching jig. Unfortunately, Tollgate were bought out by a company called Arten who have stopped making the jig. I looked at several jigs and finally settled on a Cartel.

I made half a dozen arrows with the cartel jig, but I wasn’t overly impressed. I still preferred the Tollgate. I started to have a dig around ebay and see if there were any second hand Tollgates for sale. Luckily I found two currently on offer and proceeded to watch them. The prices weren’t bad, both of them were currently at about £12. I decided to stick a bid on one of them and find out if there were any auto bids on there. I got my bid accepted at £16.50.

I continued watching both items, but there was no further movement on the one I was bidding on. Having experienced ebay sniping before I made sure I was in front of the computer for the last hour of the auction. Nothing much happened, that is until some little bastard put a bid on there with 15 seconds to go. No when I’m sniping I leave it late, but 15 seconds is taking the piss. Thankfully I had an auto bid on up to the amount I was willing to pay and got the bid on just in time to piss the other bidder off. I eventually won the item with a bit of 19.50.

I figured the person that  I beat for this particular jig would then go off and bid on the other one that was up for auction. He’d managed to annoy me enough for me to go and bid on the other jig. I put an auto bid on this one up to £15 (it was currently at £10). The auction ended at roughly the same time the next day, so once again I made sure I was in front of the PC. Sure enough, with 20 seconds to go someone, I assume the same person, someone tried to outbid me. Yet again, I still had enough time to get my counter bid in and win the item. The ironic thing is I actually got the second one cheaper, the second one only cost me £18.10. I didn’t particularly need a second one, but now we have 3 in total. It does make making arrows a lot faster with 2 or 3 jigs on the go at the same time.

In my 3D champs post, I mentioned something that caught my eye whilst looking at the trade stands that were there. That item was a new bow!

Since I started archery in November last year, I’ve been shooting and old Howatt Archery Coronado. It’s a one piece wooden recurve, 32lbs at 28″. It’s a really nice, smooth bow and I love shooting it. For those of you that know me, you’ll know that I’m not the smallest guy in the world and my shoulders have become accustomed to the weight of this bow very quickly. I was stuggling to keep any back tension on the string while at full draw.

I’d been thinking about a new bow for a while and ever since I first got involved in archery I’d always like the look of the Martin Archery Dreamcatcher. I hadn’t shot one up to this point so I didn’t know if the bow would suit me or not.

When I walked into Carol Edwards tent at the 3Ds there were a couple of Dreamcatchers sat on a bow rack. As luck would have it  there was a right handed one at 40lbs, just the weight I was looking for! The price was also very good, much less than I’d see elsewhere on the internet. I decided to go back to the car and get kitted up so I could give the bow a try.

I took it out to the practice butts with my own arrows and tried at a target that was about 15 yards away. The first 6 arrows were all inside the kill zone, although it was quite a big zone on this particular target, but still pretty impressive considering this was the first time I’d shot from a shelf and the arrows weren’t really matched to the bow. The riser also had a really nice feel in the hand. All this combined lead me to the decision that this bow was for me.

The 3D Champs this year were held at Osmaston Park near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Fairly close to home for me and Kay so we decided to drive home in the evening and not camp over.

I was a bit more prepared for the 3Ds after doing the Scottish Champs earlier in the year, still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect though as there are 3 courses at the 3Ds. As expected, me and Kay wouldn’t be shooting together for this one…not even close…completely different courses. We arrived just after 8am on Saturday morning and got parked fairly close to the admin area. We wandered down to get booked in and grab some food before the queues became any longer. The rest of Artemis turned up while we were booking in and I took delivery of my artemis T-Shirt and fleece. Thankfully the weather was warm enough not to require a fleece and I decided to head out in my new orange t-shirt.

Day 1

After the usual morning briefing, we divided up into the different couse groups and headed out onto the courses. I was on the A course and Kay would be on the C course. The A course was walked out first, and there was a very good reason for this….A course was bloody miles away!

After arriving at the peg we didn’t have too long to wait before things got underway, mainly due to the long walk out we had compared to everyone else. The woodland was really nice and had a remarkable relaxed feel to it, despite the fact that there was no smoking allowed. The targets, while not long distances were remarkably well placed which made them very deceptive. I started out fairly well and did a lot better than I expected, although all I had to go on as far as a champs course was concerned was Scotland. The only downside to the A course was the amount of pigs as targets. Towards the end of the day things were getting a little boring and repetitive.

At the end of the day I finished with a score of 484 and only 2 blanks. Compared tomy first day in Scotland, this was an excellent performance and I was very happy with it. To find out how I compared with everyone else would have to wait till the next morning.

After we packed up we were invited for a meal with the rest of the Artemis Archers, the pub we stopped at was called the Rose and Crown and is located on the A52 in a litlle village called Brailsford. I wasn’t driving, so I enjoyed a few beers with my meal while dissecting the course and the days performance.

Day 2

We arrived nice and early for the second day. I was full of confidence, although still a little nervous and unsure of how I’d done the day before. We made our way down to the admin area to book in and check out the standings after day 1. It wasn’t until I tried to find my name on the results sheet that I realised how many people were shooting in my class. I normlly look for my name quite close to the bottom of the list and hope I’m not at the bottom. I was pleasantly surprised. while I still wasn’t in the top 10, and didn’t expect to be. I wasn’t in the bottom 10 either! Out of a total of 87 people shooting my style I was 65th. A dramatic improvement over the Scottish Champs.

As always, I had a look at the result to see how Kay had done. I never know whether or not to do this as she doesn’t really like to know how she’s doing. I was pleased to find her name at the top of the list in first place in her class. Now I just had to figure out if I should tell her or not. After several questions about how she’d done and if she’d done ok I decided to tell her and as usual she didn’t believe me! It was just as well I decided to tell her really, as everyone that she spoke to or that knew her were congratulating her, so she’d have found out in the end anyways.

Feeling a lot happier after seeing the result, we went for a wander around some of the trade stands that were there and I saw something that caught my eye. More about that in a later post!

For the second day, I would be shooting the B course and Kay would be shooting the A course that I’d shot the previous day. The B course was a lot closer than the A course so we had a lot shorter walk out which suited me fine! I was a little more prepared for this second day and a lot less nervous!

The group I was in on the second day wasn’t as good as Day 1. We also had 6 people on the peg which seemed a little odd to me as it’s usually 5 and 4 of them seemed to know each other and had shot together the previous day. They also decided to pick the shooting order on the first peg and stick to it all day. Something else I’m not fond of, especially as I was shooting last all day!

The B Course was slightly better than the A course, the targets were more varied and there were some longer distance shots. My only gripe would be the catering. Drinks and food were expensive and they ran out of water mid-afternoon. I performed about the same as day one. My scores had been pretty consistent over the 40 targets, averaging about 240 per 20 targets. I ended the second day with a score of 474, dropping only 10 points from day 1 on what I would consider a harder course. I await the full results to find out where I finished in relation to everyone else and to see if I kept my place overall.

Kay was a different story, although there was a slight scoring mix up and she didn’t figure in the results anywhere the first time they were announced. She had actually won her class.

I like the Castle Bowmen shoots, they have a really nice wood. The ground is mainly flat but they still manage to create a challenging and enjoyable course. We weren’t even sure we were booked on to this shoot and couldn’t get hold of anyone to confirm it, but we decided to make the journey anyway. There are always cancellations on the day of the shoot and we figured if we were there then we get a spot. Especially as the weather wasn’t particulary good and the sky threatened rain.

When we arrived and were walking through the parking area to book in, a lot of people were referring to me as thingie. I just put this down to people knowing who I am but not necessarily my name. When we went to book in, it became clearer. When Kay booked us on the shoot, she didn’t give names as most people know who Kay is. I had been booked in as Thingie. I guess Rachel doesn’t know my name either.

As we walked out in the morning it was raining which always makes the choice of clothing interesting. In the wood itself it isn’t too bad, the trees provide a good bit of shelter but out in the open it was raining enough to soak you quickly. This didn’t last though and the rain cleared up after an hour or so and the rest of the day was relatively dry.

I had no particular tagets for the shoot. I really just wanted to get out and have a good day. I shot ok in the morning, nothing spectacular but ok. I don’t know what happened in the afternoon but it seemed like I couldn’t miss anything. Not entirely true as I did miss one target but that’s how it felt. I scored 224 from the first 20 targets and on the second half I scored 302! This gave me a total for the day of 526 and 3 blanks. A personal best for me and the first time I broke 500. To make it even better, I actually managed to beat Kay for the first time! To be fair though, she was in a lot of pain with her back and not shooting particularly well. Bring on the 3Ds!

I really should write these things after the shoot rather than a couple of weeks later, as is the case with this entry!

I’m not particularly fond of the Centaura shoots, the wood is nice enough but the course is always pretty much the same with the same type of shots in the same places each time. Ok, the target might change and the distance will vary a little but it always feels to me like its the second time round the course.

Having said that, I haven’t done particularly well at Centaura and I’m told it’s a tough course. The last time I shot this course was back in December, although it was a charity shoot not an open competition. My score then was 288 (although it was only my second field shoot) so my target for today was 350.

I finished the course with 380 and only 6 blanks. After recent weeks I was hoping to keep my blanks under 5, but on this course 6 is still not too bad. Kay shot particularly well and managed to retain the Ladies AFB Trophy for another year. Needn’t have bothered taking it back there really but at least they had something to present her with