Target Archers have no sense of adventure?!!

[tel]

Originally Posted by Thunk

One thing that is missing from competitive archery is an archery equivalent of the triathlon - shoot a target round, then straight into the woods, and when you've done that, a clout round - or maybe flight...

If you won a tournament like that, you could really call yourself a champion archer!

Dunster Week has independent rounds each day, but has a trophy for those competing in the Fita, Field, Longbow, Clout and day 1 of the York/Hereford....

'part from that I'm with the 'different not better' camp.

[reckless]

FIELD ARCHERY = GOLF WITH ARROWS........
Only kidding, shoot mainly target but have started to shoot field as well.
enjoy both of them, neither is better than the other, just a bit different.
really hate all this my archery is better than yours and my type of bow is better than yours ie recurve v compound v trad v bare bow. its all such a waste of time, and small minded, archery is archery, and its the best..

[BobCat]

All this talk of Target and field with regard to a sense of adventure.

I am primarily an archer who usually shoots target but I have tried field and even Flight both with Recurve (usual bow), flatbow and Longbows enjoyed them all for various different reasons. I have yet to try compound (a 6 arrow test does not count) and one of the forms that no one yet has mentioned Popinjay.

To see if target archers have a real sense of adventure would be to question them on who has tried other forms of shooting other than target. I would suspect that we have all strayed from our primary form of archery at one time or another in a spirit of adventure to try things at least once in our lives.

[clickerati]

Originally Posted by Raedwald

Yes, my favourite round is big game (which I've shot under EFAA and NFAS rules, so both marked and unmarked). Yes, it's pictures of animals, but that doesn't mean I want to wander the woods shooting at real ones - far from it! Like you NoAngel the idea is abhorrent to me (and to most Field Archers in this country I'd think). I think it's fair to say that most field archers would NEVER hunt live game. That's not why we shoot field, nor is it what we're imagining when we do.

Political Correctness? A few years ago we had animal faces out at the local showground for a pay-and-shoot. Someone complained so we replaced them - and one of the replacements was a military-style "enemy soldier". There were NO complaints - seems pictures of people are OK to shoot at but pictures of animals are not.....

A target is a target, whether it's big game, 3D or a FITA face. Shoot it, enjoy it, yes have a crack at another discipline if you fancy it, but above all - enjoy!

I'm glad you said all that because I used to equate the big game targets, 3D animals, etc. to feeding a vegetarian textured vegetable protein that resembles a beef burger. If you don't like meat, why pretend you're eating it?

Anyway, it's nice to hear people's opinions about the discipline and style of shooting they prefer. One is not better than another. They're just different. Vive la difference!

[Haywain]

The most complaints I heard at a "Have a Go" was a parent berating the organiser for putting up a picture of Snoopy to shoot at!!!

The other targets on show, which had no complaints at all were a 3D Owl, picture of Robin Hood, a roundel and a photo of one of the organisers !!!

[Random_guy]

Originally Posted by clickerati

I'm glad you said all that because I used to equate the big game targets, 3D animals, etc. to feeding a vegetarian textured vegetable protein that resembles a beef burger. If you don't like meat, why pretend you're eating it?

I don't have a problem with the burger-a-like veggie stuff, afterall, a burger is just a circular mash of 'stuff' be it meat or vegetables or quorn or whatever. What I don't get is when they make things like vegetarian 'bacon', or vegetarian 'steaks'. But i get on fine with veggie burgers, sausages, mince extra. It's not about pretending to eat meat (i've never eaten meat). It's about nice food in an easy to cook format!

[robtattoo]

It does make me chuckle to read that GNAS archers are confused by field rounds!! How d'you think we feel, looking a Bristols, Herefords, Yorks, Americans, Westerns (long & short) plus the myriad of other reeeeeally comfusing distances & mix of distances!!! In field, the round is either marked or it isn't, either animal faces, roundels or 3D plus a few different combos of arrows to peg. That's it! It couldn't be simpler!!! And there's no dress regs. And you can have a laugh & a natter. And you get to see a bit of the countryside. So you might have to travel a bit to get to a course, so what!! What's an hour's drive really? When I played paintball I used to have to drive for 3 or 4 hours to get to a field (07:30 start as well!! :O)

[ben tarrow]

Comming from a target background, I have only ever shot one field round, so maybe I got a bad experience but:
the one thing that stunned me was the apparent difference in the consideration of safety.
The GNAS book has nice range layout diagrams giving minimum safety areas of 25yds on either end of the shooting line and minimum 150yds from shooting line to furthest point of the overshoot area.
Then I went to this field shoot where I was told to shoot from this peg 10yds from the previous target whilst people were shooting at it. The whole course seemed to involve only minimal distances between targets and subsequent pegs. For me the day started badly when I arrived in the carpark and was directed to the practise ground which was down a little lane. As I walked down this lane and round the corner, I found myself next to the practise area with a target on the edge of the lane and me looking over the top of it at the compound archer shooting at it .
The final straw was when i got seperated from my group and not knowing my way around these woods managed to stray across a shooting area. Fortunately no one was shooting at the target at that moment. There were no direction signs (I guess everyone else knew their way round) and no ropes or tapes to stop lost people (like me) from wandering into the path of an arrow.
I swore at that point to stick to the safety of the target range in future

[Haywain]

Seems like you managed to find the one club which showed the worst all in one day Ben?? I will admit I've been to some where the odd target was a tad close to a peg, but nothing along those lines. And if you think you're alone in moaning about course safety, you should hear NFAS archers moan when they find something wrong, even if it's a minor problem

My own club shoot marked and unmarked field, being NFAS and EFAA affiliated so we have plenty of woodland to play about in.

On an open shoot, the way round a course is clearly marked with numerous arrows, anything that could be considered ambiguous is taped off to prevent people walking behind a target and no target overshoots another, or is so close to a peg to worry anyone shooting the next target.

The car park is so far from the targets you would need a mortar to reach anything from the closest peg and the practice targets all point into empty scrub. You can walk round, safe in the knowledge that you will survive the day (provided you can handle the walk that is - lol).

Laying a safe NFAS course takes practice and we have a good number of experienced archers who can do that. I just hope you pointed out your fears to the hosting club? After all, some don't know they've done wrong unless you tell them.

[provins]

Ben Tarrow
This sounds very serious.
Could you please pm me of details of when and where.
These days safety is uppermost in the minds of course layers and shoot organisers.
All of the shoots that I've gone to in recent years have marshalls wandering around the grounds checking and asking people if everythings ok.
As a matter of interest did you inform any of the organisers at the earliest opportunity of your concerns about safety, say at the tea tent which is usually passed twice on a field course.
When it comes down to it, safety is everybodys responsibility,we must all look out for each other.
I'm so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience there but safety on field courses these days is absolutely paramount to all involved.