Wonky Arrows

I had been looking forward to shooting on Tuesday evening after the weekend's wash-out - Saturday was rained-off and a Palm Sunday scout church parade kept me busy on Sunday morning.  So when EA jnr came in from school and announced that he needed cakes for a school bake sale the next day, Mrs EA had to swing into action and magic-up three dozen chocolate cupcakes (or fairy cakes if you prefer the traditional, English name).  This left us a little short of time to eat and get changed (thermals and plenty of layers)  and out to the indoor range.  We also made the very brave decision to leave icing and decorating the cakes to EA jnr and his older sister while we were out - this does not make for a stress-free start to the evening!

We arrived just in time to set up and we shot two lots of three sighters.  I needed to adjust my sight a long way to the left before I was happy with it.  The round itself was fairly uneventful, and I managed to keep the scoring under control, with only a few minor errors.  I managed a total of 338 points, including two tens, which is three points lower than the previous Portsmouth using a club bow.  I know that quite a lot of my wayward shots were due to simple variations in anchoring point, or how I was using my back and shoulders, but I think that some of it is due to the arrows I am currently using.  No matter how I release, the arrows do not fly on a straight trajectory, but fishtail all the way down the range, which I am convinced is increasing the size of the grouping.

The arrows are on short-term loan until I get my own set and are Easton Platinum Plus XX75, size 1916.  They are a little on the long side for me but I don't think that matters too much.  What I believe matters most is the size, so I decided to investigate a bit further, having been pointed in the right direction by Martin, followed by some Googling.  There are a lot of very technical articles out on the web (who remembers when it was called the Information Superhighway?) and I have referenced one in an earlier post, but it all seems to boil down to getting the right arrows to match both the bow and yourself.

The parameters that are most important are draw length (your measurement) and draw weight (bow measurement) and from this you can use manufacturers' tables to find which of the arrows are most suitable for your bow.  My estimated draw length is around 27" and I am currently using a bow with a nominal draw weight of 22lbs at a draw length of 28".  To correct for a shorter draw length I need to subtract 2lb for every inch less than 28", giving an actual draw weight of 20lb (you add 2lb per inch over 28" if your draw length is longer).  The ideal arrow length is at least one inch longer than your draw length, so my ideal arrow length would be 28".

I downloaded the Easton Target Arrow Selection Chart and looked-up what arrows would suit my bow as it stands now.  Although the chart looks complicated, it is packed full of information and is actually fairly easy to use once you have your basic measurements:

1. Find the table headed Correct Arrow Length for Target - Field - 3D
2. Find the Recurve Bow column on the right-hand side
3. Move down the column until your draw weight is in the correct range (top row for my 20lb bow)
4. Move left along this row until you get to the figure under the arrow length (28" for me)
5. Read off the Group identifier - T2 in my example
6. In the lower part of the table, find the section headed with the Group identifier (T2 here).  This section lists the arrows that suit your measurements
7. Find the model of arrow using the code (key at bottom of table) and read off the size.  For  Easton Platinum Plus XX75 arrows (code 75), the ideal size for me would be 1716.

The four-figure Easton size codes are a bit odd.  The first figure is the outside diameter of the shaft in 64ths of an inch.  The second figure is the thickness of the tube material in thousands of an inch.  Note that there is a column labelled Spine, which is a measure of the stiffness of an arrow.  The lower the number, the stiffer the arrow and higher numbers mean more bendy arrows.  Why is this important?  With a recurve bow, an arrow must bend to allow it to pass around the riser after release, but is must not bend too much.  As draw weight increases, the forces on the arrow increase correspondingly, so a stiffer arrow is needed to resist these forces.  If you look at the arrows I am currently using, they are in the last row of Group 6 and, reversing the order we used above, you can see that they are better matched to a bow with a draw weight of between 41 and 45lbs.  This tallies with the ideal arrows being narrower than the loan set.  I won't be buying arrows until I have settled on a draw weight and bought suitable limbs, but I now know how to find the right match.

Oh, and guess what I found in the case at while putting away the bow?  My pressure button!  Its absence may have had something to do with my accuracy, but I'm not sure how much.  That's what you get for rushing!

Postscript
Although we had been expecting armageddon, the kitchen was fairly tidy when we got home. Only a slightly sticky floor required immediate attention.  And the cakes were yummy!

Update Sat 30 March
I urge you to read Martin's comment below. It explains a lot, not least why he is the coach and I am very much the novice....

The Perils of Scoring

OK, so it's fairly straightforward and well within the abilities of someone with basic numeracy skills, but why does filling-in an archery scoresheet seem so tricky?  Granted, I am fairly new to the game but I make some very basic errors that reduce my final score.  A good example was my recent Short Metric I round, where I had only one scoring end at 50m : 44MMMM giving 8 points.  What did I do? Only used the Hits column instead of the end total, robbing myself of 75% of the points at that range!

I can think of a few good reasons why this could have happened and I would be very surprised if more experienced archers reading this do not recognize at least one of them.  The first is that I took over scoring duties after the initial scorer retired through injury; the ends had not been totalled at that point so I filled them in.  Secondly, it was perishingly cold and intermittently raining.  It seems that my brain really doesn't work very well in inclement weather.  Thirdly, my scores for this distance were: MMMMMM; MMMMMM; MMMMMM; MMMMMM, 44MMMM; MMMMMM - I think the two hits somehow had a much larger significance than the actual scores, so I subconsciously used 2 instead of 8. Finally, I didn't have this much trouble before I picked up a bow myself, and did the scoring for Mrs EA and EA jnr, so I can only conclude that my 'men cannot multitask' genes are having an effect.

Joking aside (yes, that mutitasking comment WAS a joke!), it is very different scoring at the same time as shooting a round yourself; there are so many more things to think about: am I missing high or low? Where did those missed arrows go? What did I score? Does my sight need adjusting? Is 50m a step too far with an 18lb bow? Why did you not pick up the scoresheet from the waiting line? When will it be Spring? etc....

Scoresheets themselves seem to be set out to bamboozle you, too.  Who has not written the second end of a dozen underneath the first end instead of to the right of it?  Some scoresheets have a row per end, which confuses the poor beginner even more.  Not to mention columns for Hits, 10s, 10+X, X!  Sure, it will get easier over time, but it is perplexing at first.

I have also learned that accuracy is essential not only in recording and totalling scores, but also in providing details of the round, otherwise the club Records Officer is liable to be using a lot of red ink!  Recently I shot a Junior Warwick round and thought I had done reasonably well.  Unfortunately I had circled Short on the scoresheet, and added an annotation jnr so it was recorded as a Short Junior Warwick and I was given the appropriate handicap for that round. Why did I circle Short?  I first thought this round was a Short Warwick (so I circled Short) but was then corrected that it was a Junior Warwick, so I added the Jnr annotation but forgot to delete the circle round the Short.

Of course, all of this can be easily avoided by using a smartphone app and using that to record your scores.  Unfortunately, this can only be done in addition to paper scoring, not instead of paper scoring (at least at my club), so just introduces one more thing to do (see male mutitasking, above).  I did try it on one round when I was not scorer, but managed to delete the whole round when attempting to edit one end, so it is not infallible.

I guess I am resigned to the fact that this scoring business will become second nature over time and not to get too wound-up about it.  Any errors will get lost in the overall statistics over the years, and will certainly lose the significance they have now.

New Bow - New Challenges

Last Tuesday the postman delivered my riser.  It is a 25" Sebastian Flute* [SF] Premium model, which was offered for sale on eBay on a buy-it-now at £85 and had been on my short-list of possibles to buy new.  The description said it was bought in February and was in excellent condition so, with a £25 saving over a new riser as an incentive, I took the plunge.  In true Royal Mail style, it arrived with the end ripped off the carton, but a quick message to the seller confirmed that the contents were intact.  As the riser was used, the arrow rest (SF premium) was already attached, and the button (also SF Premium) was included, together with spare springs and the tools.  Apart from a couple of very small marks, it could easily pass as new, so I am very pleased with it.

I had already been in touch with Martin, one of the club coaches, to ask advice on buying kit, and he had offered to loan me a set of limbs that he keeps for training.  I have shied away from buying limbs too quickly as I have only ever used an 18lb training bow, and know that moving up in poundage is not altogether straightforward.   By borrowing this set of limbs (SF Premium) I can start to judge what draw weight limbs I should buy for myself.

Martin also offered to make me a string and loan me a set of arrows he had spare.  Mrs EA had already given me a spare sight (Cartel Q-sight) so I was in a position to start using my own (most of it!) bow. I pre-arranged with Martin to assist me with setting-up for the first time at the indoor club session on Tuesday evening.  I have seen this done before when Martin helped EA jnr set up his bow for the first time almost a year ago but, to be honest, I had forgotten a lot of it.

First Martin explained the various parts of the riser including the sight mounting holes, the position for the arrow rest (already fitted, of course), where the stablizer is mounted and the pockets for the limbs.  This riser takes standard International Limb Fitting (ILF) limbs, which allows you to mix and match risers and limbs from any manufacturer. (Although I have seen a couple of warnings about some manufacturers [HOYT] going slightly away from the standard on some of their equipment). Each limb is marked with the length (Short, medium, long) and the draw weights on each of 25" and 23" risers, as well as Top or Bottom.  This set of medium limbs has a draw weight of 22lb on my 25" riser giving a 68" bow, but a draw weight of 24lb on a 23" riser, giving a 66" bow.  The slots in the limbs fit under the large washer, and the locating pin in the riser slides into the dovetil at the end of the riser.  What I didn't realise at first was that the locating pin had a push-down pin in the centre, which must be pushed down to get the locater to slide into the dovetail.  When properly inserted, the limbs are a very loose fit in the riser but the spring-loaded pin prevents the limbs from just sliding out.

Next came the string, which Martin had made to order that afternoon out of blue and white strands - 10 of each colour - and he explained that less strands could be used to allow for nocks with narrower throats.  Using a bow stringer I attached the string and then we checked the bracing height, which I am told should be around 22.5cm to 23cm.  The bracing height is the distance between the centre of the arrow rest and the string when the bow is not drawn, and is most easily measured using a bracing height gauge, which clips onto the string.  We found that the bracing height was a little high, which is resolved by unstringing the bow, removing a few twists from the string and then measuring again after restringing the bow.  It took a few iterations, but we eventually got there!  The other important measurement is the location of the nocking point on the string, which should be 4mm above the point at which the arrow sits on the rest.  The bracing height gauge has this conveniently marked on it so that when the long arm of the gauge is sitting on the arrow rest, the nocking point can be read next to the string.  Thankfully Martin had already marked the nocking point on the string with pieces of dental floss & superglue and a quick check showed it was in exactly the right place.

Now it was time to check that the string and limbs were properly aligned. To do this, Martin clipped a string alignment gauge to each of the limbs, close to the riser. With the bow supported, stand back and see that the string passes through the centre marking on each of the gauges, and also through the hole in the middle of the riser. Thankfully this was fairly close and, as these limbs were only going to be used by me for a short time, we accepted the status quo. If there is any misalignment, it can be resolved by adjusting the limb attachment bolts on the riser.

The pressure button was next. This screws into the riser from the right (RH bow) so that the spring-loaded plunger protrudes by the arrow rest. A knurled nut allows you to adjust how far the plunger protrudes and the knob can be fixed into place with a grub screw. To adjust the button, clip an arrow on the string and place it n the rest with the bow supported vertically. It also helps if a stabiliser is fitted to the front of the riser. Once the arrow is loaded, stand slightly back and sight the string along the centre of the bow and see where the point of the arrow is. Ideally it should be about one arrow-width to the left of the string and if it is not, screw the button in to adjust it left, or out to move it right. Once in the right place, hold it still and turn the knurled nut so that it is tight against the riser and then tighten the grub screw with the supplied hex key. Ideally the button should be kept in the riser, but my case won't allow it, so it will have to be attached and removed each time I shoot.

I had already screwed the sight bracket onto the riser, so it was a simple matter of attaching the sight with the knurled screw and I was ready to go! I had a dozen or so test draws in front of a mirror without any arrows loaded to check that I was happy with the draw before joining the rest of the members on the line to shoot some arrows for the first time with my own bow.

Arrows 1 and 2 flew directly over the boss, so I adjusted the sight up a long way. The next arrows thankfully hit the boss, if not the target. Although this bow nominally has a draw weight of 4lbs more than the training bow, I found it very comfortable to draw and the action is certainly a lot smoother than the trainer. I suspect that the limbs are adjusted to the minimum weight, so it's possible that I was drawing a pound or two less than the rated 22. I will probably adjust this up over the next few sessions as I get used to drawing more weight.

Over the next 30 or 40 minutes, I shot alongside the other members, most of whom were scoring a Portsmouth round. At the other end of the range, EA jnr was shooting just to practice, and managed a cracking two arrows at one point - it was a shame about the third. After a while I was getting some reasonable groupings and everything felt very comfortable.

The only real problem was that the arrows tended to snake in the air, which Martin suggested was probably due to the arrows being the wrong stiffness for the bow, being more suited to a bow of a higher draw weight. Arrows are made from a number of different materials with a range of outside diameters and varying wall thicknesses, and these variables combine to define the stiffness of the shaft. The shaft stiffness must be matched to the length of the arrow (draw length of the archer) and the draw weight of the bow to achieve the optimum flight characteristics. The physics of this is quite complex, but you could try reading this article.  Thankfully arrow manufacturers supply cross reference tables that allow you to select suitable arrows based on draw length and draw weight. I know these arrows are not ideal, but they will suffice until I buy my own set, and they will perform better as my draw weight increases.

I am very grateful to Martin for loaning me his limbs and arrows, and for his guidance on equipment and taking me through the setup.  The other coaches and members have also given advice when asked and I have found this invaluable.  Buying your first equipment really is a minefield and you can easily make expensive mistakes or end up with unsuitable equipment that may hold you back.  I know that coaches are discouraged from recommending equipment to new starters, probably to preclude any possibility of financial gain, but I can see some new starters feeling cast adrift in the minefield of equipment after a beginners course.  I am lucky in having two archers already in the household so have someone to keep me on the right track, and I am confident enough to ask for advice from others, but this probably not a common situation.

Hoping for good weather this weekend so that I can get some practice in on Saturday.  Sunday is out this week - church parade with the scouts!

* When I see or hear Sebastien Flute, I can't help thinking of the character Sebastian Flight in the comedy series The High Life, and his catch-phrase 'oh deary me'.  A work colleague also pointed out that there is a Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited.  I suspect that the name of Alan Cumming's high-camp steward is no coincidence.

Short Metric - Pushing the Limits

Saturday 16 March

It was touch and go whether we would shoot at all on Saturday as it had rained hard through the night and right through to midday, when the clouds broke and there was a hint of blue sky.  On went the thermals and multiple layers, and in went the waterproofs.

The afternoon's round was a Short Metric, also known as a Metric I (metric one). This is three dozen at 50m followed by three dozen at 30m on an 80cm face.  I have to admit I had misgivings about even attempting 50m, given that I was using a club training bow with an 18lb draw weight, but decided to give it a go.  After all I had managed to hit the target at 40m a couple of weeks earlier, albeit with a not-very-good score!

So here is what happened in full technicolor:

50m Dozen 1 : 0
50m Dozen 2 : 0
50m Dozen 3 : 8

30m Dozen 1 : 22
30m Dozen 2 : 22
30m Dozen 3 : 35

Total : 87

As you can see, 50m was - erm - ambitious! With the 18lb bow, I had the sights reversed and at the lowest possible setting, and had to really exercise my back muscles to get the arrows to reach the target, but the majority landed either short or off-target.  30m was a whole lot better, but the average at this distance was still not as good as the average in the recent Frostbite round.  I think the experience at 50m had a detrimental effect on my performance at the shorter distance.  Lesson learned! At the time of writing, I have just shot my own bow for the first time (see next post), and I think I would be happy to attempt 50m again before long.

I am not looking for excuses, but I found the strong, gusty wind challenging and the arrow fell off the rest a number of times.

In conclusion, I can honestly say : I got a PB!

Thinking About Kit

I am rapidly approaching the point where I really need to consider buying my own kit.  It's not that I have outgrown the club equipment I am currently using, it is simply that I think I would benefit from the peace-of-mind that I know the equipment I am using and can get used to it.  At the moment I use a particular club bow, and there is no guarantee that nobody else has used it since my last session - my sight marks could be wrong or the string could have come off, losing twists and therefore changing the dynamics.  Any such problems with my own kit are my own fault!

As is often the case with a new sport or hobby, initial kitting-out can be expensive, but you need to be sure that opting for low-cost or second-hand equipment does not have a detrimental effect.  One thing is sure - I will be asking advice from other club members before parting with any of the hard-earned!  I will need to know some of basic facts before I can prepare a shopping list (such as the overall length of bow, what my initial draw weight should be, what type of arrows will match the bow), but I think I have a good idea of my priorities.  Coincidentally, while I was preparing this post, Martin sent me a copy of a document he wrote last year summarising the advice he has given to novices over the years, so I will be dipping-in to that, too.  I have decided that I need to buy a bow first, and leave buying my own set of arrows for a while afterwards.  This is so that I can get used to the bow and let my draw settle down.

The Essentials

The first decision is what type of bow - recurve, compound or longbow? Like most people, I am going to start out with a recurve bow, which I can also use without sights as a barebow, should I want to give that a go.  With a recurve bow, there are a minimum number of components required:

• Riser
• Limbs
• String
• Sight
• Arrow rest

Risers come in two lengths (23" and 25"), and limbs come in three lengths (Short, Medium and Long), and can be combined to give an overall bow length of between 64" and 70" (in 2" increments).  The official line on your ideal bow length is your draw length plus 40", but this can be generalised as follows:

64" : small juniors
66" : teenagers/small ladies
68" : taller ladies/average height men
70" : taller men (6' and above)

Although I am not especially tall, I figure that a 68" bow will probably suit me, made up of a 25" riser and a set of medium limbs.  But what draw weight?  Well, the advice I have had is that the maximum draw weight for novices should be around 24lbs (or 24#, if you prefer).  Limbs can be adjusted by about ±2lbs, so selecting a set of 26lb limbs, they can be adjusted down below this figure until I improve, then they can be adjusted back upwards towards 28lbs.  I have no real preference over the type of riser or limbs to get first, but the riser will probably be aluminium (not wood or carbon fibre) and the limbs a known brand (Hoyt, SF [Sebastien Flute], Cartel, etc).  One piece of information I have recently discovered is that SF equipment is manufactured by Win Archery, the owner of the Win&Win brand.

The other bow essentials are a string, arrow rest and sight.  I already have a basic Cartel sight which was Mrs EA's first sight before she upgraded.  Martin doesn't rate them in his advice document but Mrs EA seemed to do OK, and it is free! Some bow 'packages' offer riser, limbs, string and arrow rest at a slight discount to the component prices, so this may be worth considering if I buy new.  Other, more extensive, packages are also available, but they include the things I already have (tab, arm guard, quiver, arrow puller, etc).  Both Mrs EA and EA jnr upgraded from ABS cases to backpacks with integral arrow tubes, so we also have two cases and two arrow tubes it our loft!

Not Essential but Desirable

Whilst not absolutely essential, I will be buying a pressure button to allow the bow to be tuned to shoot arrows straight.  I will probably also buy a clicker.  Some advise that you should only start using a clicker after you have been shooting for a while, but a number of club members have said that using a clicker has vastly improved their repeatability and consistency.

Longer Term 

In due course I will probably buy some stabilizers, starting with a front stabilizing rod and then adding side rods at a later date.

Other Accessories

The only other accessories I need but do not yet have are:

• Bow stringer
• Bow stand
• Bracing height gauge

Where to Buy

Although I am likely to buy new equipment, I am also considering second-hand either from other club members or (carefully) on eBay. There are a number of online retailers (see Useful Links page) but am aware that they do not always carry stock of what they show on their websites, so I will be checking before ordering.  It is often not possible to get everything you want from one stockist, so you either have to compromise on the item or suffer multiple delivery charges.

Once I have my kit I will let you know in another post what it is and how I get on with it.

First Competition - Frostbite!

Last Saturday I took part in my first club competition, a Frostbite, which was the last of a series of outdoor competitions run by the club throughout the winter.  A Frostbite round is not an official GNAS or FITA round, but is used by UK clubs in a postal competition.  It consists of three dozen arrows shot at 30m at a 80cm face, with 10-zone scoring.  About 30 people turned up, so we shot in details, 3 arrows at a time.  Compound archers used a different target face, which looked like the the inner scoring zones only (5 to 10), probably due to their expected greater accuracy.

The last time I shot someone noticed that the arrows I was using were quite long, and suggested that I try some shorter ones.  This turned out to be a bad move, as the arrows were not really suited to the bow - they fishtailed all the way up the range.  A few times the arrow came off the rest at full draw so I suspect that they were actually a little too short, and this seemed to affect my confidence to anchor the draw properly.

I was really pleased with the first three half-dozen, scoring 16, 25 and 24, respectively. (OK, not brilliant, but this was the first time at this distance on an 80cm face).  Then it all went spectacularly pear-shaped, with the next three half-dozen scoring 7, 2 and 14 (no figures missing there).  There is not one thing I can put my finger on to explain this sudden drop-off of form, except perhaps the confidence to anchor my draw, as mentioned above.  The only saving grace is that a couple of the other novices who had been on the beginners course had chosen that day for their first outdoor round, and I did manage to exceed their scores (but not by much).

Next time I will move back to the arrows that I have been using throughout my beginners course and the early rounds, so that I can remove that variable.  This experience really does show that you need to match your arrows to your bow and the next time I change will be when I get my own set of equipment, after seeking advice from other members.

By far the best part of the day was some of the juniors shooting in their onesies!

Tuesday Night Portsmouth

Last night was my first proper indoor shoot, at the same location we used for the beginners' course.  This was a Portsmouth round, which is 5 dozen arrows at 20yds on 60cm faces, but with 10-zone scoring rather than the usual Imperial 5-zone scoring.  There were eight people on the line, so we shot in details - three arrows at a time.  This was my first time shooting at a 60cm target, and it did seem very small! It was also the first time that I had shot the same round as Mrs EA.

After a very encouraging start (second end of 51 points), things started to go downhill and at mid-way I had a very disappointing end scoring only 19 points.  Very often, arrows would consistently go too far left, and would end up in a low-scoring (or miss) zone.  At other times shots would hit approximately where I had aimed them.  I suspect that I have a problem with the consistency of my draw and release, and noticed that the good shots just 'felt right', whereas the other did not.  I will need to work on this in coming weeks and get the advice of the coaches and more experienced members.

This was by far the longest stretch of shooting so far, and I was getting recognisably tired towards the end of the round.  No doubt this will get easier as my technique improves.  My (unverified) score was 341, which I am actually quite pleased with.

Next weekend we have a Frostbite competition at the club, where the junior members have threatened to shoot in Onesies (it is Comic Relief weekend, after all).  However, some members are off to shoot a Stafford in Stafford, with the aim of rewriting a few club records.  Good luck to them.

Maintenance and More

Last Saturday was a scheduled club maintenance day and plenty of members turned up at midday to help out before the usual, scheduled, Saturday afternoon round. The job list included:

• repaint lines & colour markings (Imperial=Red; Metric=Yellow - I think!)
• drill legs on bosses
• repack bosses
• strimming under targets
• tidy storage containers
• tidy clubhouse
• repair arrows

Of course, the early arrivals got to choose their jobs, while those who arrived later got the remainder.  My first job was drilling the legs of the target frames so that they could be pegged down, reducing the risk of movement when arrows are being pulled.  Some of the bosses had already been drilled, but there were plenty that had not.  The next job was repacking the bosses that are constructed from layers of high-density foam, which tend to become mis-shapen due to the impact and pulling of arrows.  This was one of the more bizarre tasks, which involved lying the boss face down on the ground and then jumping up and down on it.  The last of my tasks was using a petrol brush-cutter to cut the grass under the targets and other places, where the lawnmower cannot easily reach.  The greater part of this task was getting the thing started!

I don't have any photos of me drilling, jumping up and down or strimming, but here is one of Alan repainting the white lines (which were mostly straight).

After a packed lunch we got down to a Warwick.  Most of the experienced archers shot a standard Warwick (60Yds/50yds), with some shooting a Short Warwick (50yds/40yds).  I pushed myself further than the previous week and moved up to a Junior Warwick (40yds/30yds).  The step-up in distance from 30yds to 40yds was similar to the move from 20yds to 30yds and I didn't find it too daunting, although I did have more misses.  I also seemed to make less stupid errors this time. I will start a separate page to record my scores, once I have had them verified by the club Records Officer.  However an online calculator suggests that my current handicap is around the 80 mark.  Of course, I will need to shoot a few more rounds to get an official handicap.

No Sunday shooting for me this time as I was out all day shadowing a group of scouts around Headley Common, making sure they didn't get too lost during a Challenge Hike competition. 

First Shoot

It was the afternoon of Saturday, 23rd February 2013.  I got home just before 1pm having completed the beginner's course that morning and Mrs EA reminded me that I had about 30 minutes to cram down some lunch if I wanted to go to the club and do my first proper archery.  Soup was consumed (carrot & coriander for the curious) and we made it to the field in plenty of time.  The novices had been advised to turn up a little earlier than normal so that we had time to get our loan equipment together, but I was the only one of the students who made it that day.

The bow I am using is one of the club's training bows - the same one I had been using on the indoor range during the course, so I am used to it now.  I used a different set of arrows this time, as the set I had been using had only six, whereas I wanted at least one spare. It's as well that I did as one of the nocks broke during the round.

The scheduled round for the afternoon was a Warwick, which is an Imperial round of four dozen arrows, two dozen at each of two distances.  The distances for experienced archers were 50yds and 40yds (a Short Warwick) but, after taking the advice of the club captain, I decided to start with a Short Junior Warwick (30yds and 20yds).  Now I know that I am not a Junior, but neither have I shot any arrows further than 20yds, never mind 50yds!  I am eager to move on to the 'adult' rounds, but I really need to get the feel of shooting outdoors and at longer distances before I extend myself.  Besides, all rounds count towards your handicap!  As the only person shooting at these distances, I had to move the boss so that I was shooting from the same line as those shooting the longer distances.

The start time soon arrived and the field captain gave a single blast to signify the start of the round, which is six 'sighters'.  These shots are used to ensure that your bow is correctly adjusted and for you to assess any factors that might need compensation (e.g. a cross-wind).  After the sighters, we were into the round proper and, as you might expect, I made a number of errors that will no doubt be familiar to the more experienced archers in my readership.  They included:

• Forgetting to attach the bow sling, resulting in a dropped bow
• Holding the bow upside-down
• Not putting the tab on before nocking an arrow
• Forgetting to write down my sight marks for each of the distances

Although I was the only one shooting at my target, two experienced archers were shooting longbow on the target next to me, and their comments were very encouraging. As this was my first true round, I had decided to see if I could complete it by assessing my own errors and without seeking any advice.  On the whole I think it worked, but I am sure there will be situations where such advice would be valuable.

The first two dozen arrows went quite quickly, but the cold weather was starting to play its part.  Mrs EA had given me some chemical handwarmers and these were a godsend!  After moving forward, shooting from the 20yd line seemed so much easier than it had been during the beginners course.  I am hoping that this will remain the case as I move up the distances.

The final end came round even quicker than the half-way point and it ended with the traditional three-cheers for the field captain.  After we had finished I had a try of Mrs EA's bow, which was almost fully-loaded with the extras that aid more experienced archers: pressure button, front and side stabilizer bars, heavier draw weight.  Her bow is significantly heavier than the training bow I have been using and I found this a little off-putting at first.  I managed to shoot a couple of dozen arrows with her bow before the cold got the better of my fingers!

One final error I made was that I managed to sign my scoresheet before checking that it had been totalled, and it was the club Captain that spotted it!  I didn't write down my final score before submitting the scoresheet (I will post an update when I get the scoresheet back), but I was pleased with my performance as a first-timer.  I think I missed the target a total of six times, which I don't think is too bad.  One vital piece of extra equipment I need very soon is an arrow-puller - there is no way I can manage without one!

Next week I think i will try a longer distance....