Courtesy of the Range-Master

There may be a few more trickling in... still got a long way to go in shrinking the gut but things are looking a lot better than they were this time last year!

Sunshine State Games FITA

As usual, click the title for the rest of the pictures. Pictures from 900 will come later as I juggle around my online spaces.

I shot my personal best in both the FITA and the 900 round. I finished the FITA with an 853/1440 and the 900 with a 620/900. I was extremely impressed with the FITA, especially considering that my last FITA was a 515/1440 and I hadn't shot one since. The 900 was just as cool because I was pretty depleted after the FITA round and I felt nature calling to me towards the end of the shoot, especially in the final end. Apparently I am capable of holding my form and shooting reasonably well with a very full bladder!


Final round, 30 meters.

Me and the two older gentlemen in my group during the FITA round, 30 meters.

70 meters... doesn't look *too* bad!

Almost at full draw, ready to expand.

Also almost at full draw, just before expansion.

Courtesy of a Fellow Archer at the FAA Field

One of my fellow archers handed me a very nice photograph on the second day of the shoot that I forgot to post. I guess he caught me while I was in deep concentration on one of the shots.

Critters

Grey tree-frog that narrowly escaped being impaled by one of my arrows while calibrating at 70 meters.

Beautiful dragonfly at archery practice. Can you find it?

Truly beautiful dragonfly that really liked Aesa's longbow for some reason.

One of the many "black snakes" in the area at Fred Bear.

Ooh! Another one! They did get into a bit of a scuffle for a bit. I think it was two males fighting over territory and access to a nearby female... don't think they were fighting over the big bugs or small rodents they usually eat.

FAA Field Championship 2010

As always, click on the title for the full set of pictures. I shot an extremely solid round this weekend: 275 (2x) field, 180 animal, 297 (4x) hunter.

Rhinehart 100

As usual, click either the title or here for the rest of the Rhinehart 100.

I actually resisted the temptation to shoot him elsewhere *and* ranged correctly. I decided that having two gentlemen in the party didn't warrant my favorite shot on a standing bear.

Yes, we were supposed to shoot the tree stump as well as the little bear.

A giraffe and a demon of some sort. R insists it's a gargoyle of some sort. Whatever it was, I certainly don't want it alive around me!

This target absolutely made my day! And yes, we were supposed to shoot both the bear and the toilet. Except... where *would* be an appropriate kill on a toilet?

Did I mention that I really enjoyed this target? Toilets are just inherently cool!

Great Group at 40 Yards

Moments like these are truly rare. I shot this round at 40 yards onto a 60 cm target face with wood arrows. The odd 3-fletched arrow in the red belongs to a fellow archer who's still starting off and shows a lot of promise both as an archer and as a veterinary researcher. I shot my highest score of the season as well: 214 IKAC and a 94 Royal Round -- but the season is still early and there's still tons of room for improvement.

Will this year be the year I make Grandmaster Bowman (100+ average of top 3 Royal Rounds of the season, last year averaged around 94) or break 250 in IKAC? Stay tuned!

Forgot I Had These Too...

Caught at about 80% draw prior to full expansion, still need to tense the left arm muscles especially triceps and forearm and tighten up the scapulae.


Happened during a calibration round at 20 yards.

Mostly Sacrificial Weekend...

Sacrificing about half of the weekend to see if I can get a semester write-up out of the way but still got some good outdoor workouts in... plus the weekend sacrifice is going into either helping me train for the NFAA Southeastern Sectional field/hunter championship at the end of May or the Sunshine State Games in June. I don't know which event(s) I'll be entering for the Sunshine State Games but here's the breakdown: 60% FITA target, 40% 900 round. I think I'm a stronger contender for the 900 round and they're my favorite event but FITA target shoots are extremely hard to come by aside from the FAA state championships in August. I'll find out once I figure out the logistics behind the two events. There's also field and 3D but the opportunities for FITA and 900 are much more limited so I like to jump on any of those I can.

Die, Vile Pink Marshmallow!

Can you deep fry one of those Peeps marshmallow monstrosities? The answer is... yes. Was it edible? Well, click on the title and see!

Pic from Aesa's Camera

Courtesy of my fellow archer, Aesa while we were waiting our turn for the King's Hunt.

Spring Coronation and International Round

As always, click on the title or here for the link to the full suite of pictures.
Spring Coronation was on Saturday at Camp Ocala near Altoona in the southern part of the Ocala National Forest, International Round was on Sunday in Inglis.

The Royal Huntsman's Quiver and Trimaris sash. I get to design the Hunt for the Fall Coronation Event!

Eiszeit

Usually not a big video fan but I'm just very much amazed by this song... I'm looking forward to the rest of the album coming out.



I definitely like the powerful male vocals... still favor Rammstein but Eisbrecher has grown on me quite a bit and they have some pretty impressive songs, even if some people around me cringe in pain/terror!

Ooh Cool!

I just figured out how to embed stuff into my blog. I'm really looking forward to the next Eisbrecher album, which is called Eiszeit (Ice-Age). I think there seems to be a real fascination with ice and freezing things going on there.

Journey to the Dark Side...

Wrong anchor though... was supposed to anchor under the chin, not the corner of the mouth for the full Olympic effect but close enough for now.

Survived TBoF Spring 2010

I don't look too bad for having about 2-3 layers of clothing padding my gut area! It was beautiful but cold and I had to wear multiple layers in the morning before I had to run into the cabin to remove layers, although I still kept one extra layer as insect protection in case I had to get intimate with the local vegetation. More later on as my brain defrosts and recovers from too many changes in temperature.

Pre-TBoF Entertainment

I seem to have really gotten a bit too fascinated with Neue Deutsche Haerte (New German Hardness) music in general. It's great for screening out most noises that may emerge in/around a lab and I just really enjoy the sound of the (usually) powerful vocals.

Here's a couple of samples of what I've stumbled into:
Bis In Alle Ewigkeit (Into all Eternity)
Herz Aus Stahl (Heart of Steel)

Anyway, off to prepare for Traditional Bowhunters of FL! This time it'll be quite the experiment in whether or not the new shooting techniques I've been learning will actually work or if I need to make significant modifications for TBoF-style 3D. More on this new technique I've been working with later. Suffice to say, it has shrunk my groups quite a bit horizontally but I still have some trouble with my gaps and I have no idea how well it'll work under unknown distances.

New Longbow

64.5" reflex-deflex longbow, 42 lbs @ 28". Looks like a good performer. I shot a 405-410 grain Vapor 2000 carbon arrow (30", 145 grain tip) through the chronograph and got about 145-150 feet per second. These are the same arrows I put through the 48 lb @ 28" Chek-Mate Crusader and peak about 150-151 fps. I now need to find arrows properly spined for this low poundage bow because the Vapor 2000 shafts are too stiff (about 0.535). I'm guessing that I'll need at least a 0.600 spine or even a 0.700 spine and try to have the arrow weigh around 300 grains. Minimum arrow weight by my estimate is about 280 grains -- assuming I get 35 lbs at full draw and 8 grains per pound of draw minimum. I'd rather have a bit of extra fudge space, so 300 or so grains should do. Now to find a decent, affordable shaft that spines low enough! Thankfully, my arrows for IKAC / Royal Rounds are slightly weak for this bow, so until I can find some carbons or aluminums (preferably X7 alloy), I have some heavy logs to shoot and they do group pretty well out to about 25-30 yards!