Turkey shoot

Last weekend saw my first archery shoot since the 3D tournaments I attended in the early summer. The "Turkey shoot" was a Christmas get together and a series of ten events that pretty much anyone could have a go at. There was a huge mix of people from small kids to retirees, and all manner of shooters, from traditional longbow and recurve to hugely technical compound with sights, stabilizers and release aids.

Rick lining up a calendar shot

The first event was pretty simple, a balloon wall with every archer firing one arrow to try to burst a balloon. It was difficult to select a target since there were so many but I was happy I hit the one I aimed at. There were allegedly prize tokens hidden in some of the balloons but despite most of the more experienced archers bursting some, and then the marshall letting the kids have at it until they were bored, only one token was recovered!

The second event was a small spot on a target that had been wrapped in Christmas

paper, closest arrow to the hidden mark won. The third event was a target marked with numbers, everyone fired one arrow and then the 'lucky number' was revealed. Canny shooters aimed their arrows to bisect numbers and double their chances :) The winning number was 10, and my arrow in the 7 was closest so I won a turkey.

Next came a calendar shoot, where all the dates on a one-month calendar were jumbled up and the calendar pinned in reverse on the target. Each archer was allowed three arrows and the highest total won. Although there could be no way of knowing how many you'd scored, the event really favoured compound/sighted bows since hitting a letter size sheet of paper at 18 metres with a longbow is an achievement in itself. Despite that a lot of kids with bare bows scored pretty well. I'd definitely have scored better if my third arrow had hit the paper :)

Bare bows were definitely better off in the next round, which consisted of shooting at part of a target. Traditional shooters got half a target, and the more shooting aids you had on your bow the less target you got :) The open class - compound bows with all the toys - got 1/16th. I managed to put my first two arrows exactly where the other half of the gold would have been, and the third arrow into the 10. I should have been happy with the tight grouping but it was frustrating to only score 10. The winner was a traditional shooter, which was cool.

When I saw the marshalls setting up the sixth round I laughed, the target was the flame of a candle. Hitting the candle wouldn't do, you had to snuff it with your arrow! Again I thought it was a little biased towards the sighted bows, but my friend and sometime mentor Rick pointed out the much larger fletching of traditional arrows gave us a reasonable chance. I got close, and was reasonably pleased with my shot. Some of the kids managed to put candles out, enough that there had to be a shoot-out to settle the winner!

Gary shooting at 80cm target - with mixed up scoring zones

After that came blindfold reindeer shooting, mixed number target shooting and a shot at a revolving drum through a narrow slot. The last event was the Turkey Shoot, a wooden block with a turkey on it was sent down a rope while archers took shots at it, all to a squawking turkey noise in the background. As I waited for my shot I contemplated just how redneck this would have seemed to me in London, in another life. Of course then my competitiveness took over and I forgot all that and tried to kill that wooden bird ;) My arrow found wood but I missed the scoring zone but a couple of inches, not bad for my first moving target.

Overall I was pretty happy with my shooting. I'd had a several-month lay off and was shooting a new set of arrows that Rick had made for me, and despite that I'd managed to mostly hit what I was aiming at. Added to that there always seems to be a little hard core of traditional shooters at local events and they are very easy to get along with, which makes for more fun.

More soon.

Frase.

Snowboating

Ok so it's hardly a new sport... but it seemed to generate some interest at the local hill. Take one bored kayaker, throw in a snow slope and you have a recipe for fun (or hospital, one or the other).

There is no learning curve to speak of - aside maybe from finding the right slope - you just sit in and go :) The first few slopes I tried were too shallow and the snow too sticky, a regular toboggan was far more fun. Finally I thought I'd try a steeper slope, so went over to the hill where all the local kids go sledding. Rather than start with some of the shallower runs I picked the biggest hill, trudged my way to the top, got in and then realised as the boat picked up more and more speed that I had absolutely no way to control it. Kind of like riding a small missile... and if anyone had been in the way I'd have mowed them down. So I think lesson learned, next time I'll take my paddle and at least then I might be able to steer a bit if not actually brake. I'll take a snow shovel too and make a little kicker for jumps and more stupidity.

I stuck some video of my last run down the hill on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMxD39P3hyM and yes it was as much fun as it looks.

Meantime it has been much warmer recently, a little below zero but probably warmer than the UK! The local river is iced over for several metres on either side but is flowing in the middle, and the large ice chunks that were floating in it have mostly disappeared, so a paddle may be possible if I can find a way onto the water. I'm also hoping to head south for a bit of paddling in the New Year, more on that soon.

Frase.