Unmarked distance judgement

[Field Archer]

Up till now, all the field competitions that I have taken part in have been under IFAA/EFAA and NFAS. Under these governing bodies, no aids for distance judgement are allowed, you have to use your own judgement/guess to determine the target distance.


I am about to take part in my first unmarked GNAS field shoot, where I believe what they call framing, or field craft can be used. This is where you draw up your bow and use a part of the bow to sight up the target, based on how much of the target is covered by the bow part, the distance can be calculated. This method is deemed as cheating by other societies, but encouraged by GNAS and FITA.


My question is, how much of a disadvantage will I have by not using this method, just using my normal best guess. I don’t really want to spend lots of time learning how to frame, when it’s something that I am not allowed to use in most of the shoots I attend.

[Shirt]

If you've got distance estimation down pat as is, concentrate more on shooting it. Work out whether framing would help more second time round...

[Marcus26]

If it is FITA Field faces then it is worth learning to frame.
If you have a scope it's quite easy

Find the distance in which an 80cm face goes out to the edge of the target on the edge of your scope when aimed at the centre (lets say 50m)
When you frame if you line the edge of the target with the the edge of your scope. If your dot is on the edge of the 4 ring then you are 20% closer. (40m)
If your dot is on the other side of the tarter then you are 20% further (60m)
That then scales down to all the other targets.

I had not shot unmarked fita field in 10 years, spent 30 minutes working this system out and shot 170/180 for a 12 target unmarked. Works brilliantly.

[timppa]

If you want to have fun, then guess the distance.
If you want to win the tournament, you have to use your sight, scope or whatever to get the distance right.

I am guessing, next year not, my best score in 24 target is only 338. In compound I have to be able to shoot 356, that is why I have to teach me to measure distance using my scope.

[Field Archer]

Thanks guys, I think you have helped me decide that I should learn to frame. Thanks Marcus for making it sound so easy, I’ll give it a try.

My distance judgement is not too bad on unmarked IFAA animal faces and 3D, about 530 out of 560 for freestyle recurve, but probably not good enough for FITA faces.

I notice that a FITA rule says that when you frame, you have to appear as if you are about to shoot, you can not just lift your bow without drawing. I was told recently that this is not strictly enforced and archers are allowed to lift their bows without drawing. Is this correct, I don’t want to draw up unnecessarily, but I don’t want to get disqualified either.

[timppa]

FITA rules says that you have to draw.

I was in World Field champs in Croatia 2004 and in European Field champs in Slovenia 2005, some of the archers didn´t draw, some of them did. Judges said nothing, they just watched.