May 31
This was my first time to shoot in this tournament. The shoot was held May 30-31, 2009. There were three courses of fifteen target each; all 3-D. The courses were well set up and the distances reasonable. I ran across several archers that I’d met at the Clints Well tournament the weekend preceding this shoot. I shot compound bare bow, with 121 on course one, 111 on course two, and another 111 on course three for a total score of 343. I received a pin for second place. Interestingly, first place was something in the 440′s. I asked the man who got first place how he was able to shoot such a very high score. He said that is shot sight and release and used a range finder. I told him I was curious as to how he could shoot in the bare bow division (no sight or release). He told me that the “Outlaw Shoot” had no rules, so he entered the bare bow division, even that he shot sight, release, and used a range finder; interesting. At any rate, it was a lot of fun and it was good to visit with a few shooters that I met at Clints Well.
May 03
The Silver Arrow archery tournament is hosted each year by Granite Mountain Archers. This year it was held April 25-26. In the past it has been a target archers’ shoot, this year it was 45 3-D targets. This change certainly helped with the turn out; there were 118 archers. In the past the turn out has been in the 20′s.
The winds were terrible, with gusts well over 45 mph. I decided to shoot it bare bow, i.e. no sights and with fingers instead of a release. This meant I shot from the yellow stakes instead of the blue; the yellow stakes are closer to the target. I was very pleased with the first 15 targets; a score of 141 on Course #3. I scored 131 on Course #1, and 119 on Course #2, which I thought was substantially more difficult. My total was 391. I placed first in bare bow compound and got my first “Silver Arrow”. I was very pleased with how I shot, but found out I was the only one in my division : (
The shoot was very well organized and the courses were well set up. It was all a lot of fun in spite of the horrific winds.
