Target placement

[Bird_2112]

Hi all,

What are your thoughts on target placement at competitions allowing for misses ? This is only my 3rd year of shooting field in 30yrs of archery and I tend to be around 210-225 for a marked round so definateley haven't mastered the sport yet. Taking last weekends shoot at Pentref for example I had 1 arrow each day off the target itself and that happened to be the same target, number 13. Saturday it was just under and Sunday off to the left. Sunday I didnt find the arrow and spent some time looking after the shoot finished. The target was in front of a big patch of brambles and dead ferns and being a 60m steep uphill it was by no means easy. Looking at the target face at the end of the shoot there were 9 arrows listed as missing ... could have been a couple more not listed possibly. There were a number of other targets which were overgrown behind or were on a brow where missed arrows could easily be lost. I did comment to my group that I was glad a couple of other club members couldnt make it as they would probably lost a couple of arrows and I know that would have put them off shooting there again. Target 13 could have been placed 4 or 5 mtrs further down the slope and 60m could still have been shot at the same steepness but with some clearer ground at the side and behind for the stray arrows. There was a shoot at Pentref 2yrs ago where a club member lost an arrow at a target on the edge of the open area with ferns behind the target. The target could have been 4yds further left with the distance and steepness the same but grass behind. Even the best archers miss and that was certainly the case on the weekend. I know a rock face or brambles behind the target is supposed to make it more intimidating but the idea is to hit the spot rather than miss the rock. I'm not saying dont put a target in front of a rock outcrop or big patch of brambles but should that be a 50-60m target ? 25-40m is ok as most archers shouldn't miss at that distance. There are also the youngsters who opt for shooting from pegs above their age group and they can struggle at the longer distance. At Dinefwr a couple of weeks ago there was a 35m 4 face with the edge of the boss right on the edge of the river. I know one person shooting on the left face and had a flyer. The arrow is now somewhere between there and Carmarthen. He's 5 navs down from 2 shoots.

So any thoughts ??

G.

[Barebow]

Loosing arrows in the undergrowth is a pain.
I have shot Pentref myself and areas on the course "focus the mind" in terms of surrounding grounds.
Shooting in the field means brambles, ferns, leaves, long grass etc surround targets, if you don't like it then don't shoot it.

[Bird_2112]

As I said before it should be all about hitting the spot rather than hitting whats behind. Loosing/breaking arrows doesnt bother me that much but I think the right balance has to be struck so not too many arrows are lost or broken by an archer otherwise they will be put off. Put too many archers off due to the hidden expense on their first few shoots doesn't help to promote field archery and keep entries up. There are a couple of club members who are very reluctant to try field archery on our course because of tales of lost and broken arrows at the shoots some of us have attended. I've tried to layout our course as "miss friendly" as possible so as not to put members off entering field shoots.

Actually my highest damage talley in one day was 5 ace's at a Neath archers target comp many years ago.

G.

[bkupris]

Interesting topic

We thought long and hard about this one when we set up our unmarked 12. We decided that due to the fact field archery is new up in our area best to play it safe and not make the course too terribly daunting on the lost arrow front. We didn't want to scare everybody away so most of our overshoots catch arrows nicely. We also decided on full size target bosses all the way around. We may change some of the shorter shots to smaller bosses sometime but we don't want to create the situation you describe.

If we ever get ourselves organised to host a major comp we could easily make a few adjustments to make the course more demanding

[phil_r_58]

Originally Posted by bkupris

Interesting topic

We thought long and hard about this one when we set up our unmarked 12. We decided that due to the fact field archery is new up in our area best to play it safe and not make the course too terribly daunting on the lost arrow front. We didn't want to scare everybody away so most of our overshoots catch arrows nicely. We also decided on full size target bosses all the way around. We may change some of the shorter shots to smaller bosses sometime but we don't want to create the situation you describe.

If we ever get ourselves organised to host a major comp we could easily make a few adjustments to make the course more demanding

Yes, we do the same at our club. The course "designer", Derek, always makes sure that the area behind the target is good for finding arrows. The kids pegs are placed so as to allow for low bow weights, no trying to blast them through a mountain of brambles and ferns. But do not be mislead, Derek makes a lot of pegs testing. But that is different from laying out the course from hell, that only someone called Rambo, with a 60lb peak compound and scope can complete.

And as with posts on target archery, too many people run before they can walk. They have the problem of archers insisting on shooting 100 yards etc, and putting more arrows in the grass than the bale. That means they should stay on shorter distances till they can keep them on the bale, then increase distances.

If you are entering shoots and losing 5 or more arrows a day, perhaps you need to go back to your club, and practise on the shorter pegs until your distance estimation skills and skills with the bow are developed enough to get you in spitting distance of the kill/wound on most arrows. I often take newbies fresh from the beginners course under my wing, and take them round the course. And I will start them off on the cub pegs, and slowly introduce them to the longer pegs as they improve. They then learn thoroughly, without losing arrows by the dozen.