Mrs Rees, gun archer

We had our last visit to the range yesterday. From 10m Elf shot 6/6 in the bull, along with a lot fives. I started with 4 and then struggled. We moved back to 15m and Elf was still excelling. Emerson announced we were to start scoring. I was thrilled to get 10 with my first scoring shot, but things went badly after that. (The centre of the bull is 10, the outer bull is 9, inner red 8, outer red 7 etc). Elf scored 233 out of a possible 300, really very good shooting. I got 131 or something. On one "end" of 6 shots I got 2, 2, 0 (in the non scoring corner of the target butt) 0 (embedded in the wooden frame), and two more I had to retrieve from the paddock beyond. Turned out my sight had shifted itself, and I went on trusting it long after I should have checked. The wife is a dab hand with the old recurve bow and says she's considering taking it further. Don't think it hasn't occured to me that she also excelled at fencing and perhaps this proficiency with weapons should be setting off warning bells.

Archery progress

"I don't want to be disparaging, but you are doing everything wrong" said the instructor, not long into our second Archery for Beginners session. My feet, hips, forearm, elbows, shoulders, shoulder blades, neck, nose and chin were in the wrong place. I had my arrow above the nocking point, not below. I was using my wrong eye. It's really a wonder I hadn't shot somebody. He kept telling me to get my elbow up, up, UP, and I had to retort after a while that to my mind he had his elbow too high, compared to the diagrams in our Archery Australia Come N Try handbook. He grudgingly conceded the point.

After this free and frank exchange of views, my shooting did improve, but I am still not as consistent as Elf. We have been shooting from only 10 metres, which sounds ridiculously close, and looks it too, until you give it a try. My best result from 6 arrows was 5 in the gold bull. Elf only got 4 out of 6 but she got it again, and again, and again. It was great to see how everyone improved. To begin with we were tracking down arrows all over the paddock behind the targets. By midway through Saturday every arrow was densely packed into the gold, red and blue. Apparently the vast majority of injuries in archery are caused by the feathery end of the arrow, when people are crowding around a target pulling them out over-excitedly.

For the last half hour we retreated to 15 metres. Suddenly the arrows were all over the place again. Gravity come in to play at that distance, so we had to lower our sights. Something that seems counter-intuitive is that to adjust your sights you "follow your arrow". if your arrow is low and to the left, you move your sight down and left.

I finished the day with 2 out of 6 in the bull, from 15 metres. I am a million miles away from mastering archery, but the progress is heartwarming. And I am particularly happy with my elbow elevation.

Slotting in the nock, fletching etc

Elf and I enrolled in an adult ed course to get away and spend some time doing something together. Our criteria were it had to involve a) hours standing in a field, b) weapons and c) fletching. This narrowed it down to Organic Farming for Ninjas or Archery, so we chose Archery.


We both had a great time at the first class on Saturday. We were shooting with recurve bows like this one, from about 10 metres. It looked ridiculously close before we started shooting, when all of us sent arrows flying over, under and past the target, with a few thudding into the white low scoring bits.

An hour or so later we were getting our whole round of arrows (6) in the blue, red and gold. Elf and I probably shot about 10 or 12 bulls each out of about 60 shots.

While we were getting our safety briefing an unprepossessing person wandered past. One of the course lecturers asked if he was late for the adult ed course. The other lecturer said - "No - that's Clint!" Clint Freeman was 2003 World Target Champion, and in fact the first person in the world to beat 1400 points in competition - the 4 minute mile of archery.

Misc weekend pics

The boys on an after-breakfast dink around the deck.

Michael with his "bow" and "arrow". Since watching the Disney version of Robin Hood there has been a surge in archery related activity and swordfights around our place.