Backyard archery!

Now that the weather is FINALLY getting nicer, and the backyard has been at least semi - cleared, I can finally take my new bow out for a spin.

My boy is turning into quite the little archer.  

After seeing how serious he was with just a simple toy bow, I may have to get him a proper youth set.

If I do, I'll post a review of the kit at a later date.

Lug05 Update - 2012 11 03

Well, its been a while, hmm?

Despite my lack of postings, my love of archery continues - so I haven't abandoned you all.

I've been fighting the good fight here, but the universe has been conspiring against me a bit.  My wife had to take an unexpected leave of absence from work recently, and my shooting had to take a back seat while I took care of her.  The good news is that she's doing a lot better, so I can get back to it!

I've been fighting with gremlins in my gear, namely in my SF Axiom Sight.  This sight has been pretty good to me, but of late I've noticed that the screws CONSTANTLY need to be checked for tightness.  Things came to a bit of a head last weekend after I took a shoot and heard an ominous *snap* immediately following my release.  I figured it was my rest, or perhaps a nock that had hit the riser.  No such luck:

Yeah, that's whats left of my aperture.  After spending a few minutes looking around, I was able to find the missing part.  I kept shooting, until the entire sight slid off the rail and hit the floor.  Frustration got the better of me, so I called it quits, and headed to South Nation Archery Supply:

Larry sold me a new aperture, and checked my bow over.  After he had exorcised a few demons from the setup, things definitely improved:

More to come!

Blargh, I am sick!

Ugh.

I am sick as a dog, and it is certainly making an impact on my archery practice time.  I haven't had the opportunity (or ability) to make it out to the range this week as a result of what may be Ebola or Honta (still waiting for the lab results to confirm/deny).

But, I picked up some new hardware that I thought I would show off a bit!

Easton Powerflight Arrows

I picked these up at That Hunting and Fishing Store in Richmond a few weeks ago.  I got them for a decent price, about $50 CAD for a half dozen made arrows.  I explained my need of target arrows to the sales person, and he recommended that I go with a slightly over-spined arrow, as I would likely be upgrading my ILF limbs in the next few months (going to a higher poundage).

The only issue I have had with them so far is that I managed to rip up the fletching on one of them to the point that I am unwilling to shoot it.  (See picture below).  I will have to try and repair the damage before I feel comfortable shooting this one again - should be fun, as I do not have a fletching jig....

High Density Foam Target

Now this was a steal.  I was surfing around Kijiji.ca, and found a local that was selling a few archery targets, including this high density foam number, which I picked up for $25 CAD.

The seller was a really nice older lady that used to shoot compound competitively in Texas, and has moved up to the Great White North to retire.  She even threw in a few free targets & target pins, just because she is awesome.

I think I am going to set up a short range target downstairs in the basement.  I'd shoot outdoors, but I live in a townhouse, and would likely incur the wrath of my neighbours or the condo association if I tried to practice in my backyard.  :-/

Chest Guard

Finally picked up one of these from South Nation Archery Supply last week.  When I first started back into archery, I never understood why the guys were wearing these things; back when I started shooting, only the girls wore chest protectors.

That all changed after I had my form corrected by Kathy Millar.  I was practicing at my usual range, when WHAM!!!  I nailed my right nipple on a string release.  Have you ever had something hurt so bad that you wanted to scream, but couldn't?  Yeah, it was like that.  So, I called SNAS and promptly ordered a new guard.  Save teh boobs!

Good archery YouTube feeds

Hey Archers!

I know there is a lot of information online concerning archery online, and it can sometimes be confusing for new archers to get into the sport.

About a year ago, when I started getting back into shooting, I decided to check around the web for useful information about my new hobby.  YouTube was a wealth of information for me;  Not only were there feeds to help new archers with their form and equipment, there were hunting and trick shot videos to watch as well.

Here are some of my favourite YouTube feeds (note: I am not affiliated with ANY of the producers of these videos):

ArcheryTV

For all of us FITA/World Archery fans, this is one stop shopping.  ArcheryTV is the official YouTube account that provides coverage of various archery tournaments around the world.  This one is good for both compound and recurve shooters.  I watch this if I ever want to be both inspired and depressed about my archery skill.  :-/

Performance Archery TV

This one is great for all us rookies.  Hosted by Alistair Whittingham, Performance Archery TV gives detailed videos explaining and demonstrating proper archery form and technique with Olympic-style ILF recurve bows as well as compounds.  There are other training videos out there, but I liked this one as I felt that it was approachable and well rounded (recurve & compound?  Awesome!).  Its a shame that this feed hasn't been updated in over a year.

Grey Archer

Ah, Grey Archer,  I love this guy.  A traditional shooter that likes to post video reviews of various bows, as well as document his adventures in the woods in Sweden, Grey Archer is fun to watch.  He is currently in a "What is?" series of videos, helping newer archers understand some of the terminology around archery.

Warning:  Grey Archer can occasionally get into "grumpy old guy mode" in his videos, and get a bit ramble-y.

The Field Archer

Okay.  I don't hunt, but if I did, I would hope that I could hunt half as well as this guy.  Field Archer is an absolutely fantastic shot with a crossbow or compound bow.  Just as a heads up, some of the videos can be a bit bloody - this is hunting after all - and as such, some viewer discretion should be exercised.

Tex Grebner Outdoors

Okay, this one is more for the comedic value.  I first learned of "Tex" after watching him shoot himself in the leg on Tosh.O (video here - Warning: Language/Violence).  Tex started putting up archery related videos a little over a year ago, and while his efforts tend to end poorly for him (see above), I can't help but like the guy for the amount of effort he puts into his videos.

Trick Shot videos:

Those crazy Russians sure love their archery.  These two videos (see below) are crazy.  The girl has to be one of the fastest shots I have ever seen (mind you, that bow looks like its about 20# draw), and the technique on the guy is apparently an old Mongol horseback trick.

Anyway, cool stuff!

Well, that's it for my favourites!  Anyone else have favourite archery videos that you like to watch online?

Online target options :-D

Hey archers!

Based on how popular my post on my zombie targets were, I thought it might be nice to locate some fun online targets that can be easily printed and used at the range!  After all, archery can occasionally get expensive, so anyway to save money is a good thing.

Free Archery Targets

This site is great.  They offer printouts of FITA (now World Archery) target faces in various sizes.  I've used these in the past if I forgot to pick up a pack of 40cm faces at Walmart before practice.

Dewclaw Archery

These are great options as well.  Dewclaw Archery lets you download the target in .pdf format (so you are going to need Adobe Acrobat or Foxit to view these images).  Some of these targets are designed so that you can put multiple standard sheets of paper together (8.5" x 11") to form larger targets.  Very nice for those of us that don't have fancy printers.

King Joffery Targets

How much fun is this!  If you're a fan of HBO's Game of Thrones (or the books by R.R. Martin), you are more than likely not a fan of King Joffery.  So, print out a target of everyone's least favourite boy king and let the arrows fly.  Bonus points if you listen to the "Rains of Castamere" while giving Joff his due.

Other target fun:

I know that I have already shared my hatred (and therefore love of shooting at) Zombies.  So, I have located additional zombie targets.  These aren't as nice as the Visicolor options that I shared a few weeks ago, but they offer the advantage of being free:

Zombie profile - These offer a simple silhouette of a zombie.  They also look great on standard paper.  (originally located at ZombieHunters.org)

Comic Zombie - This one is nice, as it offers no scoring lines.  (original available at: www.rem870.org)

District 9 Alien - Remember these guys?  Fire a few arrows at the "prawns" with these! (originals were found  in the Bayou shooter forums)


I hope all of you have as much fun with these as I have.  It's nice to have options to shoot at once and a while, especially on club nights or 4H/JOAD clubs.

Let me know if any of you have other options for fun targets!

Zombies!!!

I had a little bit of fun at the range today.

I went to "prepare" for the zombie apocalypse.  The targets I used are available here:  Visicolor targets are usually used by hunters.

These are really nice, as they mark the impact based on the viability of the "kill shot".  In the case of the Zombies, only a head shot will do, so the head shots are lined in a vibrant green, while the non fatal shots are lined in yellow.

I figure a shot in the Zombie's nose should slow him down.  Plus, I am quite proud of that grouping!  Now, if I could only translate that kind of consistency into my FITA rounds....

I'll get there, I am sure.  Anyone else ever done some Zombie apocalypse training with their archery equipment?

Having a good archery technician

So I went to range yesterday, and I discovered that not only did my form feel better, but my bow did too.

The reason for this is a simple one; South Nation Archery has a solid bowyer, right on site.  After my one hour lesson with Kathy Millar, her husband took a look at my equipment, and it turned out that I had some problems.

1) My Hoyt was in "reverse tiller" - I had no idea what this meant, and to be brutally honest, I still don't.  The tech explained it to me that the distance between the top and bottom of my riser (the Hoyt Horizon is a 25" riser) relative to my bowstring should be slightly further on top when compared to the bottom.  My bow has this reversed; the bottom tiller measurement was slightly further than the top tiller measurement - "reverse tiller".  The tech made a few adjustments to the ILF bolts on my riser, and the entire rig shot 100% better the next day at practice.

2) Nocking point - after a few shots, Kathy was able to tell that my nocking point was wrong.  Not only that, but she told me that I would need some kind of aid to make sure that I was bringing my anchor back to the same point each time.  Most people would recommend a "kisser button", but Kathy instead recommended that I have a nocking point set, that at full draw would just brush under the tip of my nose.  Kathy said that some archers defeat the advantages of the kisser button by puckering up their lips (see this poor individual).  The nock point under the nose is more consistent, and certainly helped my practice yesterday.

3) Bow square - I already had one of these, but I certainly wasn't using it to it's full advantage - a quick discussion with the tech, and I understood exactly what the settings for tiller, brace height and my nock point were for my particular rig.  The tech even made a couple of marks on my square so that I would be consistent when working with my rig in future.

All in all, it was a worthwhile hour at South Nation Archery.  I am looking forward to taking advanced courses with Kathy in the new year!

Equipment

Archery is a technical sport - the name of the game is to be absolutely consistent, and the largest part in that process is undoubtably the archer him or herself.  The myriad of equipment that target archery uses are designed to assist the archer in maintaining that level of consistency.

Some things however, cannot be overcome with mere equipment.  If you have bad form, or habits that are hindering your performance, all the equipment in the world will not help. 

So, I figure it is a good idea to post what kind of equipment I am shooting with. 

Here is a quick breakdown of the equipment that I am using in my setup:

Riser: 2011 Hoyt Horizon Riser
Limbs: KAP T-Rex (long) 28 lbs.
Stabilizer: Sebestian Flute Axiom long rod stabilizer, 26"
Rest: Sebestian Flute Premium Arrow rest
Plunger button: Sebestian Flute Axiom cushion plunger
Arrows: Easton Jazz Arrows - 1816 Lite, cut to 30", fletched with feathers
Tips: Field points, 100 Grain

 What do all of you shoot?  Any recommendations you can make for good combinations of equipment?