Tuesday 29th September 2009

@ St Pauls,

Warm day, slight odd breeze, not significant.

6x 6 arrow ends @ 30m, 122cm face, no scoring

1x 6 arrow end @ 70m, 122cm face, sight setting

6x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm face, scoring

6x 6 arrow ends @ 90m, 122cm face, scoring

6x 6 arrow ends @ 50m, 80cm face, scoring

6x 6 arrow ends @ 30m, 80cm face, scoring with fading light.

Total 31x 6 arrow ends = 186 arrows shot.

While I shot a FITA out of order, it was still good to attempt to shoot one.  It took me nearly 5 hours to shoot the whole thing, with a break in between while talking and investigating some strange riser phenomenon on a club bow.

The scores, in FITA order are:

90m: 45 39 39 44 46 42 = 255, average = 42.5, Rating of 78

70m: 41 47 49 49 47 47 = 280, average = 46.7, Rating of 74

50m: 51 48 47 35 44 49 = 274, average = 45.7, Rating of 71

30m: 57 52 56 54 53 55 = 327, average = 54.5, Rating of 75

Total FITA Score = 1136, Rating of 74, 1 point from 75 Rating.

The comments:

At 50m, I was starting to fade in the second half, evident by the terrible 35 point end.  I was struggling strength wise to complete the set of six, and was forcing the shots through, which cost points.  I stopped and slowed down, pulling up the scores in the remaining two ends for the distance.  At this point, I had already shot a FITA equivalent number of arrows, even if I considered warmup into it, thus the entirety of the 30m distance was also very challenging.

A 1136 is only 50 points lower than my competition Personal Best of 1186, so at this point of my shooting and progress, I am quite happy with it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how my 90m score went.  I was expecting more around my usual 210 range for the distance.  70m and 30m were on my expectations, but my 50m was slightly down (for obvious reasons).

I think I am making good progress.

Thursday 24th September 2009

@ Sefton
Bright sunny, slight breeze.

1x 12 arrow end @ 18m warmup, 40cm 7-ring spot.
5x 12 arrow ends @ 18m, 40cm 7-ring spot, scored.

Total 72 arrows.

Shot another Indoor round today, scored a 536. This puts in for a rating of 73, nearly 74 (537).
Last time I shot one I scored a 525 for a rating of a 69, so it shows minor improvement.

Needed to relax and keep head position still as movement forward meant difficulties in engaging the back and bringing the arrow through the clicker. The higher sight mark for the distance meant bow shoulder was having problems in staying down.

Tuesday 22nd September 2009

@ St Pauls
Hot, gusty winds, dark clouds late in the session.

12x 12 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm face no scoring.

Total 144.

Today, having not shot for a week, I did some 70m with some of the seniors in the club. It was a challenging environment because the wind was being quite gusty at times with no semblance of constant direction or strength.

While I had some poor shots, overall in shooting 12 arrow ends, I was quite satisfied with the results. I was finding that about 1/3-1/4 of the arrows were staying within the gold while the rest were in the red, with perhaps 1 or 2 in the blue. This is quite a good result I feel, especially since if I count that the furthermost outlying arrows were when I was tired at the end, then the better ones in the middle could be more repeatable.

I also found that I have to pay more attention to how I use my right and drawing shoulder when locking down at full draw before expanding, as it changes the quality of my alignment and release drastically.

Tuesday 15th September 2009

@ Sefton,

Very cloudy, slight breeze but not significant

FITA Indoor 18m 600: Total 525 score (60 arrows)

Rating tables equals 69, Rating of 70 is a 526.

Found it quite difficult to bring through the clicker when concentration was on holding on aim and steady, release also suffered considerably and conscious effort was required to keep the bow shoulder down, and bowarm out of the way. Required several let-downs.

Sunday 13th September 2009

@ Sefton

4x 18 arrow ends @ 8m, 60cm spot.

Total 72.

Noted that todays shooting was reasonable but arrows are grouping to the right. Indicates that my arrow spine may be going slightly weaker than the current tuning, which is possible if my release is cleaning up, giving more speed to the arrow. Bareshaft and poor shots are going slightly to the left of fletched shafts. Other than that, I was fairly happy with the shooting.

Thursday 10th September 2009

@ Sefton,

Morning session, cool but starting to warm in the last half of the last set
Afternoon session, also cool

4x 18 arrow ends @ 8m blank
2x 18 arrow ends @ 8m blank

Total 108

Nothing special to report. Shooting for conditioning. Moved clicker back to attempt to find ways of expanding through the clicker better, was able to still shoot with moved clicker. Afternoon session had extra weight on the longrod to compensate for shooting less, follow through bow movements were more controlled with the extra weight.

Wednesday 9th September 2009

@ Sefton,

Late afternoon, getting dark.

1x 6 arrows 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 pull SPT pumps

4x 18 arrow ends @ 8m

Total 72 arrows shot.

Just shooting to keep strength. Was trying to feel for a good bow hand position with control on follow through, noticed however that half the arrows shot were clipping the armguard considerably.

Tuesday 8th September 2009

@ Sefton, cool, in shade.

4x 18 arrow ends @ 8m, 60cm gold spots
1x 6 arrow end @ 8m, SPT Pumps, 6x pump/arrow before shooting through
1x 6 arrow end @ 8m, aiming relaxed
1x 6 arrow end @ 8m, no aiming, relaxed

Total 90 arrows

SPT Pumps are easier to do than SPT straight, but being able to shoot the arrow after the last pump is very hard. Four out of the six I had to rest briefly before bringing up the shot. Release was a bit flaky today, and I was hitting the arm guard a lot. The new string seems to be behaving okay however, and the fuzz isn't seeming to be a problem.

Sunday 6th September 2009

@ Sefton

2x 18 arrow ends @ 8m

Just shooting in my new string that I made last night.

It's been a while since I made a string, and this was the 2nd full string I completed. The first was too long unfortunately, this one is better but I may have nicked the string slightly because there is fuzz coming off it. Otherwise, it is a good length.

The only thing is my jig I made can't do tension because it is made of wood, otherwise it works.

The jig has wing-nuts that limit the movement of the rails along the jig with the two threaded bolts. As you can see, it isn't exactly a super duper jig, it does the job of length, but has issues with tension.

Tuesday 1st September 2009

@ St Pauls,

Clear skies, warm, sunny.

2x 18 arrow ends @ 5m, blank style shooting
12x 6 arrow ends @ 60m, 122cm face, no gold visible
6x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm face, insert added
1x 6 arrow end @ 5m, blank shooting

Total 150 arrows

I had also one shot with a Sebastian Flute 5.99 Fiberbow, with SB Carbon Stabilizers. Very light, well balanced, sounded like a compound bow in the "snap" of the string sound, quiet for a recurve definitely. Pity they are so expensive.

Shooting was varied, worked on having now a more relaxed release, very different to the prior deep hook I had. I'm finding that the release, when it happens is very clean and the arrows leave the bow extremely smoothly. In poor releases, it kicks and spins out quite badly, but thankfully having the X10 and Tungsten points help keep the flight path relatively well. Other than that, I should stop being so stubborn and let down to reset the cycle when I know the shot isn't happening, and or if my bow shoulder is creeping.