fita 18- unfair for compounds?

[General_Lee]

last night i shot my first indoor round with a compound. a fita 18 with a score of 197 (embarrassing to call out scores 6,M,M!) i can understand completely why the three separate faces are needed having seen the guy next to me shooting out the x's but i would have scored alot better with a few more rings on the target. i got the hang of it towards the end of the round and a little coaching afterwards. is it just recurves punishing us for making the choice to go to the darkside? just wondering what anyone else thought the first time they faced the three targets.

[sky_high30]

The first time is always the hardest - it used to knock 20pts off my score but I can shoot equivalent scores now - if anything better because I don't get deflections.

There's no easy way around it, sadly. You could try changing your scope to a ring about the size of the target - works for me, with a dot in the middle. Shot a 548 FITA 18 first time out a few weeks back, which is at least all gold. One advantage of F18 compound is the difference in radius of the X-ring and 10-ring isn't much greater than the shaft of my arrows...

[moo-mop]

Doesn't matter what bow type you are - just use full size 40cm faces if you aren't yet up to scoring on the triple spots. They are legal for FITA 18, just not for the indoor match rounds. If your club is not letting you ask why not I guess, or buy your own faces. You will also find some (not very many though) FITA 18 comps with full size faces and more FITA 25 with them.

If it's a matter of having 3 spots rather than group size that's causing you to miss - ie you get within the six on a full size face then you'll get used to that with a bit more practice.

[MrM]

Originally Posted by General_Lee

is it just recurves punishing us for making the choice to go to the darkside? .

Recurves also use the 3-spot face! But as said you can use a 5-ring full 40cm face.

[bimble]

I hated the first one that I shot that I swore never to shoot one again. While I haven't in competition I have a couple of times in practice.

I believe that in competitions everyone (classification) has to shoot the same face. As that can be a bit expensive for the higher scoring archers three-spots have become almost standard for compounds. I shot a university league match FITA25 and there were three of us compounders. Two of us were experienced and did ok but the novice with us had twelve misses, all of which would have been fives. That's sixty points he dropped, which was a shame really.

[Erika]

3 spot rocks for compound and for recurve.... it's less expensive that way. Best solution is to just shoot Xs

It'll make you a better shot if you get used to it too. If you have varation between targets it shows your aiming/focus is dodge.

[Lividpig]

Look on the plus side, you may reach a level where a seperate gold for each arrow is a necessity rather than a hinderance. After all, depending on your choice of arrows there can be precious little space to squeeze them all into the inner 10.

I've often heard mutterings whilst scoring from both recurves and compound archers that that pesky 9 would have been a 10 but got deflected by the other pesky 10s!

Now the size of the 10 ring - well that another issue!

[WhitehartFB]

It just needs a bit of practice and time to get used to they look so small when you start out. I now prefer the 3 spots for 18m recurve makes a change indoors the only thing people don't like is not getting that clatter of arrows which tells everyone in the hall you have a good group. We have compound archers who shoot 40cm single faces just so they have good groups then but complain about damaging arrows (i'm sure they like it really)

[grimsby archer]

3 spot faces reduce wear and tear on the bosses. Three fat arrows packed in the compound ten ring chews lumps out of the bow and you quickly go through.

Why are you comparing compound scores with recurve? Seperate disciplines with different rules. So you got a smaller 10 ring and less rings, but you have a release aid, scope and peep sight. Hard done to?

[jules]

I shot my first fita 18 on three spot last weekend at Brixham. I found it really hard but it certainly concentrated the mind. So much so that to my complete suprise I actually won!!