Golden Fleece

Attended an event in the Interior of BC, about five hours from home. It's a fun, light-hearted event that I contended for and won last year and was very happy to return to this year, as something of an anniversary trip with my sweetheart.

One of the components was archery, so I brought my lightweight pretty horsebow, and the longbow I have been messing about with,  and all my arrows, in hopes to get in some extra practice and connect with the very nice archer-boss up that way, Markus Pheilsmid.

The competition was in the early afternoon of Saturday and it was a glorious day for shooting. The targets were set up at rough;y 20 yards, so it was not too difficult a distance. The backdrop was a wide open field with a lot of rocks in the clay base, so there were a few broken arrows on the day. The targets themselves were the commercial mesh foam blocks, which are not friendly to glued on tips: there were a few lost tips at the end of the day too. That said, they do live for ever!

The first phase was a graduated shoot: you had to get into target 1 before moving on to target 2, etc. Only six arrows, and the maximum. 1 point per arrow in the first round, 2 points in the second, for a max score of 9. I got a 7. Apparently when the marshal is feeling mean they do it timed.

Second phase was a graduated plus/minus: first target was only worth plus or minus 1 and 2, second 3 and 4, third 2 and 5, misses count for nothing, so it was possible to do better by missing than by hitting. I had two of six arrows scoring in the target for a score of 4, bringing my total to 11.

Last round was a Marco Polo sheep picture, (the theme of this year's Golden Fleece was the Travels of Marco Polo), and you just had to hit the body or head of the sheep for 1 pt per arrow. I managed to completely miss the sheep, even though I put 5 out of 6 arrows in the target face. So with a final total score of 11, I came in third, out of 14 shooters.

I then helped by running the line, and tested a friend's draw length so I could make him some custom arrows. I will be setting to work on those soon, likely while working on cooking day food for the next event on the calendar.

I also got some good tips n how to improve my performance with the longbow from Archos Markus. I wish I had some cash, because I would have loved to unload a bunch on him, as he has a LOT of stock at great prices! I highly recommend anyone in the Interior in need of traditional archery supplies or instruction, seek out Markus, (mka Jeff Betke) at his shop Bow Sinister Archery.

Thwack Addicts

One of the boarding clients at my work made the mistake of expressing an interest in mounted archery, so I took the time to give her the basics as it was a way to get me back to shooting regularly at work. For the last two months we have been trying to get together 2 or three mornings a week to pend a half hour or so just shooting, working on form and flow.

She commented that the sound of the arrow hitting the target was addictive, and she is not wrong. Thwack! = a rush of positive endorphins and excitement: it's an immediate reward for success.

So I coined the term Thwack Addict to describe us. It's pretty accurate. I am looking forward to shooting more regularly.

She has really come along, and even gotten her husband involved. He's had two sessions with me already, and soon, theywill be going to our local archery supply store to get their basics set up, as belated Valentine's gifts. It's appropriate: Cupid is an archer, after all!