2012 Surrey Field Champs...and a nice surprise!

I had man flu, the weather was icy cold and windy at times, but I shot well and won the Surrey Field Champs (National Animal Round), with a respectable score of 615/640.

The points I dropped were on the simplest of targets, three wounds on one easy target alone. Strange, but overall very pleased. The Supra and my 305gn Carbon Ones did the business.

I found that estimating distance is easier if I try and find a halfway point and then ground walk up to the halfway point, double it and add a few metres for luck! The bow is pushing the arrows out at 293fps so there is plenty of speed to handle any small errors.

I also had a nice surprise in the form of a certificate from the EFAA saying that I had equalled the national record for the EFAA Marked Big Game round as the EFAA 3D Champs (max score of 560/560).

P.S. I shot a 30m Frostbite round a few weeks ago, my first "target" round for well over a year. Put in a 356, quite pleased with that considering!

2011 Surrey Field Champs

I attended my first ever National Animal round shoot at the Surrey Field Champs; no practice, no estimating system; and shot a respectable 575 out of 640.

It was the three misses in the morning session that stopped it being a far better score. I was fooled totally by the long range targets, all about 45m plus, and I was 5m out on all of them. The morning session finished on 280. The afternoon session was much better, no misses and I ended on 295 out of 320. If I had converted the misses to tens, I could have had 605 and joint 3rd.

The rest of the round was well shot. But, that is something I can sort out with practice and by developing a ranging system, rather than just ground walking by eye and guesswork. What I am really pleased with was my shot execution. It was a top notch performance in that respect, even with difficult slopes (well, the most difficult I have ever shot!), and my pre-shot sequence was good; ensuring the bubble was level, alignment, trigger placement and pressure etc.

I feel that with field I am far more relaxed than when shooting at a target competition, and as a result shoot my natural shot. With field, there are so many other variables to consider that shooing the shot is just one part of that. Target is much more focused on score and outcome.

So, having done this, I am more convinced than ever that field is something I want to not only do more of, but excel at as well. But I need to make a decision as to whether I still give target shooting priority as I chase GMB. I have been told that field will improve my target shooting and so could compliment it well, but I need to ensure I practice the 90m/70m targets every week to keep that skill level up. GMB is my ultimate goal in target, and having spent the last three years slogging away and getting ever closer, I cant afford to throw that work away now.

When I get to GMB, I will then switch completely to field and see how far I can get with it. But I do think that field archery will make me in the long run more relaxed generally, and this will transfer to target shooting. I know when I am on form I can put in GMB level scores no problem (I do it in practice, so that proves it to me!).