FAA FITA 2011

I didn't shoot particularly well this FITA overall, especially at 60 meters, but I broke state records in the following for adult female barebow: 70, 50, and 30 meters. I probably could've broken the overall record, but I took it really hard in the rear end at both 60 and 30 meters, which wasn't too surprising given that I didn't really practice much at those distances. I had a really hard time at 60 meters because I had some trouble with interpolation between 70 and 50 and swirly winds, but it was still an awesome shoot. I got to enjoy wonderful company, including a fellow barebow archer from the Villages, who is probably evenly matched with me when all's been said and done.

Barebow power!!!

Best group at 50 meters. It was quite the struggle to keep things where they belonged...

Un-challenged state champion, even if my fellow barebow was the one who shot the higher score today! Next time though, I'll get him. Of course, I *did* trounce him really, really hard at Sunshine State Games and at the Villages (his home turf) so it's my turn to get my butt handed to me on a plate!

Newberry archers and the parents who made it possible to shoot and a few of the local fixtures.

Indoor Personal Best

Still trying for a 25/25 but a 24/25 is still pretty darned impressive for me with a longbow!

The final distribution of shots at the end of the NFAA 300 round (12 ends of 5 at 20 yards) plus some calibration shots.

My final score: 261/300, 7X. My last personal best was somewhere in the low 240s with the shorty recurve and in the high 230s with the other longbows (probably the walnut bow). I even shot the high score of the night ... and everyone else was shooting either an Open Freestyle or an Olympic recurve setup.

Next goal on a 300 round... can I break 270/300?

Big Furry Visitor to my Stand

This fellow showed up to my stand about half an hour after I settled into it. Cute, but NOT what I want to be seeing until FL opens up a bear season.

Better View of New Longbow

70 meters... I love shooting at 70 meters for some reason. I'm jealous of my friends who get to shoot at various national and international events at this very distance. I have some friends who will be shooting at the Olympic tryouts at Texas A&M at College Junction, TX in about 2 weeks and I'll be rooting for them as best as I can. Who knows, maybe one day I'll finally get my paws on an Olympic recurve and try my luck on that...

Trying to Get Back to Sleep...

My large intestine has a mind of its own. It's decided to wake me up promptly at 2145 hrs... so here I am killing time before I can get back to sleep again.

I was mostly playing with the camera during some mental down-time and got a surprisingly good picture. I'm curling about 50 lbs on the bar and this is without any real pump. I'm still only about 11" around at my fullest with good pump but I'm getting better at optical illusions!

Another side-by-side comparison of longbow vs Olympic recurve. This was with Robert's latest creation, which is below...

Robert built me a new longbow, 46 lbs @ 28" and 66" long. It's the bow in the center and it is one sweet shooter! So far, it's the best of my two other longbows and shorty recurve: heavy riser and stable like the Chek-Mate Crusader, zippy like the walnut longbow, and pretty darned forgiving like the Chek-Mate Hunter 1. In fact, I think it may be a faster bow than even the Hunter 1, which I've clocked in at about 150 fps using GoldTip 1535 shafts and a spot-on distance of about 47-49 yards based on data from 900 rounds where my 50 yard mark was at the top of the gold ring. The same, identical arrow through this longbow is yielding an approximate spot-on distance 50-52 yards. How do I know? I'm just above spot-on at 55 meters with this bow.

In the Absence of the Gym...

See the target face? It's the inner 6 rings of an 80 cm target face at 70 meters.

One set of arrows belongs to an Olympic hopeful. The other belongs to a local traditional archer shooting a longbow...

Fall Coronation 2011

As always, click on the title or here for the full suite of pictures from Fall Coronation. I didn't do too much photography this time but I think I was having too much fun shooting, at least until some of my weight training and circuit training caught up to me. Apparently repeated stationary squats for 2+ minutes at a time does a real number to the legs, as do plie (sp?!) squats.

70 meters, Chek-Mate Hunter 1 recurve, GoldTip 1535 shafts.

Royal Round, 30 yards.

Given to me by Konrad Reinhard in recognition for having attained and maintained the ranking of Master Bowman (top 3 Royal Round average 80-99). Let's see who in Trimaris is going to reach Grandmaster Bowman ranking first... will it be Jochi, Aesa, Sir Erika, or Guenhwyvar?