Paint-it-Pink

Pip Bickerstaffe master bowyer.

We went away at the weekend to sunny Birkenhead, well the sun came out in the daytime, but mostly it was wet and windy. Not that this mattered much as we were indoors learning how to make a longbow.

Demonstration of how to shape the stave.

One might consider this course to be one-to-one scale wargaming, if making historical weapons of war to shoot arrows with is your thing.

There were three other people on the bow making course course with me and Susan. It wasn't all work, we had lunch too.

Ben Lamb, Susan, and Karen.

To be clear, when I say make, I mean Pip Bickerstaffe prepared staves for us to shape. He was helped by Ben Lamb who will be taking over the business when Pip retires. They both worked hard to help us make the best bow we could.

Pip demonstrating how to apply the leather grip; Rob, Karen, and Susan watch closely.

On the Sunday, after we'd finished making our bows, there was some coaching on how to draw them and loose arrows at targets. Pip is very much of the school that shooting a longbow is learning a martial art.

We both came away with lovely longbows, which due to the preparation by Pip and Ben look as good as anything one might buy. Now all we have to do is go shooting.
  

I'm currently not very well. When my rheumatoid arthritis nurse told me I was being too hard on myself I realised I was going around in circles beating myself up for not doing enough, when the truth be told if I were in a full-time job I'd be signed off sick.

So there will be a short hiatus while I let all the medication I'm taking do its job. In the meantime here's a shot of me shooting an arrow.

An observation from shooting longbow is that I learnt that "yards" back in the day when bows were a weapon of war, rather than a hobby a person can enjoy at ones leisure, was shorter than an imperial yard, which we all know is 36 inches. Cloth yards were shorter, 30 inches, and therefore when the range of a bow is listed as 240 yards the modern equivalent is 180 yards.

With my 32 pound bow I can shoot out to around 120 imperial yards, which is 140 cloth yards.

So now I'm wondering if all those ancient wargame rules took this change of measurement into account? And who says wargaming isn't a useful hobby, as clearly I've learnt something new.
   

Me with members of my club shooting at a competition together, and clearly we are the rabble because none of us are wearing club shirts (left-to-right, Reg, Tom, me, and Lazlo).

It has been a year since I did the last post here on archery, and it has been an interesting year of shooting that would probably bore you all to tears if I went into the finer details of how to shoot an arrow.

I have not only achieved my first class archery award, but also bowman, which is as high as I can go unless I start attending record status shoots.  Quite frankly I'm not sure I have the energy and commitment to do this.  For a start it would mean travelling around the country to get to enough events to be able to shoot three or more rounds, while getting enough points to qualify, and then having to do it all again the next year.

Also, I have had to change my arrows again because my draw length increased.  The nice arrows I had borrowed from my beloved had become too short for me, and as a consequence hazardous to use–accidents can happen if you pull the arrow off the rest and let it loose. The longer arrows we had to hand are too stiff for me, and as a result my scores have dropped precipitously because I've lost confidence in them.

After much deliberation and worry an order was placed with Merlin Archery, and in due course the package arrived with the parts to make up a  set of ten arrows.  My first ever set of brand new arrows that I've bought, which are not hand-me-downs or secondhand acquisitions.

Thirty inches long, they're like rails that go on forever.

  
Having now used them, and with help from Sailesh, my club coach, I've been able to tune my bow to match them and I'm hopeful I will be able to improve my scores.
   

  

I haven't talked about archery practice for a while, not wanting to bore people with my latest passion, but today was a day worth talking about.

Last Saturday I bagged some second hand Easton ACC 750 arrows, which are a better match for my poundage than my Easton Navigators 660s.  However the nocks were too big for my string and the fletchings were pretty ropey, so I spent time over the course of the week refurbishing them, with a little help from Susan.


These are Norway Industries 1.5 inch Fusion vanes on a 3 degree helix using a Bohning Tower Fletching Jig.  The red vanes looked a litttle pink to me, so as it's useful to have two sets of arrows with different colours, I used a permanent red marker on six of them.

Anyway, with new nocks fitted, which arrived in the post on Thursday, I was all set for Saturday.

Last week with the old arrows I shot 81, shooting at 60 & 50 metres, which is called a Long Metric 2 where one shoots three dozen arrows at each distance.  This week we changed to 60 & 50 yards, which is called a Western shooting four dozen arrows at each distance, to practice for the club handicap that's being held next month.


I scored 328, which is enough to get my archer first class badge, if I can repeat the success again on two more occasions.  Doing so well is stuffing my handicap score, but it looks like I'm in the running for most improved handicap of the year award.

NB: Me shooting a longbow for the first time here.
  

Left to right: Rowan, Richard, Kevin, Vicky, Susan and me.

On the Bank Holiday Monday I shot in my first one day event at my club's St George's Day Shoot.

On Saturday we had gone to practice as usual, and the weather was perfect.  I had a new set of limbs and arrow heads (heavier to make my arrows flex more the riser and then fly straighter).  I changed my sight settings to compensate for all the changes and was shooting really well during the morning's practice session.

I was optimistic that on Monday I would rock.

Admire my awesome carbon limbs.

On Sunday I lovingly hand waxed my new string for Monday's shoot. Monday the weather forecast was for rain later and the day was cloudy with lots of wind.

I'm shooting what is called a short Western, this is where one shoots three dozen at arrows at 50 yards, then move the target to 40 yards and repeat, and finally pulling it back to 30 yards for shooting the final three dozen arrows.


Before we began the competition we got to shoot six sighting arrows.  All mine fly over the target and I have to reset my sight based on nothing more than my best guess, which isn't much to go on.  The wind is making the arrows fly all over the place and my dream of rocking in the competition disappeared in a gust of wind.

Then the sun came out to play.


So I took layers off as I was getting hot and bothered.  Then the sun went back in and the wind chill cut in.  Just look at those grey clouds in the picture below.


I was shooting at one butt with Susan and Rowan, a new archery friend, and here's our arrows at the end of the tournament.


By this point the target was 30 yards.

My score sheet is below.


That poor first round killed my chances of coming anything but last.  I had fun, but I was a bit disappointed.

The following Saturday the day was glorious and I had to take my leggings and extra layers off because I was so hot.  If only the competition shoot could have been so nice.  However, I still didn't manage to match my shooting consistency with that of the first Saturday with the new limbs, partly down to having to reset the sight and the change from the new high performance string affecting everything.

Me trying out Susan's 24 lb bow, which I could barely manage to draw only a month or so ago.

What I learnt, and this is the RPG/wargaming relevant content part of the post, is that wind will bugger your chances of making a shot, and that even small changes to your bow and arrows can have a big impact on your shooting.
  

I'm still doing the archery and I'm now shooting at 50 yards, which was a big thing as when I first tried to shoot at 40 yards I could barely hit the butt, let alone get a decent group on the target.  Not that I'm doing much better with regards to getting groups, but I am getting my arrows mostly onto the butt, except when I don't – down to inconsistent form i.e. draw length, posture, and release.




As you can see the weather was fine, which was a first and I'm really looking forward to being outdoors in the nicer weather.  I also got to try out my partner's bow and hated it.  It felt wrong in my hands, which is not that surprising when comparing the pull weights.  Mine is 18 pounds, hers 24 pounds.  It makes a big difference, and in RPG if a character were to pick up a bow for example, I would make them role at a disadvantage to hit until they got used to it (mandatory wargaming content).




This week I had a total wobble moment when Sailesh, my coach, told me to set my sight arm out to the maximum length after we finished shooting four dozen arrows at 50 yards for the next round of shooting at 40 yards.  The reason being I couldn't for the life of me understand how I was now able to reach 40 yards with the arm so far forward and the answer of, it changes your sight picture just did my noodle in.

Susan and I discussed it later and went through how the length of the arm has less effect on the angle of the shot as compared to moving the sight post up and down.  That and the fact that after four months my form has improved but I hadn't realised it until I changed my sight.  Oh well, live and learn.
   

 

Look at the concentration, but my elbow is only just high enough and fingers are not under my jaw line.  So much to have to remember.

Back here I first talked about starting archery.  Having now finished my beginners course, I have advanced to the intermediate course, which is far more informal but still involves my coach Sailesh coming around and making comments about my form: as in my posture as I pull and release the bow.

Still, I know I've improved because I this week I was able to consistently hit the target at 40 yards.

We've also signed up for the May second St.Georges day shoot, so I need to practice my form and work towards upping my poundage.  When I started in November I was pulling 14 pounds.  I went up to 16 just after Xmas and this week I was pulling 18 pounds.  All done by adjusting the limbs on my bow by a process called tillering.

NB: You can see one end of six arrows I shot here.
  

I'm shooting 16lbs, which is way low, but I'm a beginner, hence the angle to reach the butt that was set at 40 yards.  I had to contend with resetting the sight twice, which changes the angle of the bow, and having to cope with four arrows with bad fletchings (including two where the fletches fell off as I fired), but my new GapFit wicking top kept me warm on the field (11 degrees C).  My hand needs to be under my chin, which is why I was having difficulty making the range.

No this is not me doing a new period as such, though I suppose at a stretch it could be considered 1:1 scale live action, but me noodling on about my archery lessons.

I've just completed week four, though I've been five times one of the classes was cancelled due to high winds, and I have another two training sessions to finish before I can become a member of the Greenwood Osterley Archers Club.  I still have a long way to go before I'm anything like competent, but hopefully, I will be classified as safe to practice when I finish my course, which will happen as long as I don't do anything egregious.

So, my observations on shooting arrows.

Wind is a thing.  Movement of the target would be even more of a thing, and if I ever do a wargame with archers I shall be taking a long, hard look at the assumptions of the rules, because while historical records are a great resources there's a practical difference between maximum range and maximum effective range.  In short archery is either mass fire for area effect or close in (under a hundred yards) direct fire shooting, and the two are not the same.