Stickbow Target Archery Forums

I shoot traditional longbow mostly and some traditional recurve but yesterday at Lancaster Archery Supply I saw a gentleman shooting a FITA bow and it rekindled my interest in pulling my Gold Medalist out of retirement for some winter indoor entertainment.

Thumbing through the LAS catalog I saw an adjustable aperature sight pin (in the 70's I had one on my Medalist made out of a camera lens leaf shutter that I used in PAA shoots) my question being, as the NAA site is vague in this area and I know some here shoot this style as well as traditional, are these legal now to use in NAA/FITA events?n
One other question is what are the senior age break downs in classes?n
Thanks in advance for the replies....Oh by the way I had to re-register today being as my E-mail addy has changed so please don't think this is my first post here

Jim, adjustable aperture sights are legal so long as there is no magnification or electronics involved. The age classes in NAA FITA are Senior, Masters 50+, Masters 60+, and Masters 70+. Anyone can shoot in a lower age class, i.e. a 70yrd old can shoot in the Senior class, but a Senior (age -50) cannot shoot in a Masters Class. The distances in Senior Class and Masters 50+ are the same: 30m, 50m, 70m, and 90m. For the Masters 60+ the distances are 30m, 50m, 60m, and 70m. For Masters 70+ the distances are 30m, 40m, 50m, 60m.

Jack, Thank you very much for the reply......it is greatly appreciated

Jim, I suspect what you saw was the Ambo adjustable aperature. Very well made, and very legal, with a very loyal following.

John.

While we are on this subject, is there a class for a 56 yr old that shoots a FITA barebow, no sights and no stabalizers? Thanks, John

Yes, there is a Masters 50+ Barebow Class. You typically see them in the Indoor Nationals more than at the Outdoor Nationals.

John, Yeah thats the one I saw........reminds me of the leaf shutter aperatures Darrell Dixon made back in the early 70's. I had one and it was great indoors and outdoors. Just center it around a target ring and let it rip.

One other point to mention....I just came inside from shooting my longbow after shooting the last 2 days with my gold medalist.....wow!!!!! Did my longbow shooting improve!!!!!n
I guess shooting through a clicker helped my longbow consistency.....I was drilling the bullseye from 15-45 yards.

Anyone else experience similar results?

"Yes, there is a Masters 50+ Barebow Class. You typically see them in the Indoor Nationals more than at the Outdoor Nationals."n
That's my class and Floxter is correct, there are very few of us shooting outdoors. I shot in an FITA 900 in December and won my class. Of course I was the only one in the class so I came in last too (LOL). Takes some of the fun out of it to have no competition.

Oh, and it wouldn't have helped for me to sign up for just Senior class. I was the only barebow shooter there, period. Sure wish there was more Bare Bow Recurve shooters, in my area and elsewhere.

Dave

Dave, I completely agree.

But unfortunately the only thing driving recurve target archery in the U.S. at the moment is the Olympics. If we lose archery in the Olympics (and we came close for the 2008 games), we would probably lose recurve target archery here as well.
If barebow were a dicipline in the Olympic archery competition, then we would have many more barebow target archers (esp. outdoor). I think there SHOULD be a barebow division in the Olympics. They could even keep the distance 70 meters. Most good barebow archers can easily keep their arrows on the target.

But I digress...

There is a small local contingent that shoots barebow 900 rounds. I wish I had more time to do this, but I have to spend most of my time with the Olympic rig these days...

John.

"They could even keep the distance 70 meters. Most good barebow archers can easily keep their arrows on the target."n
John, I'm not that good and I kept my 30 60 meter shots on the target at the FITA 900 I shot. There are some string walkers out there who would do a lot more than keep their shots on target at 70m.

I didn't realize the Olympic Committee was even thinking about pulling archery. Of course given the coverage it got I shouldn't be surprised.

Dave

Yea, I know Dave. Some good barebow archers would really open the eyes of more than a few Olympic recurve shooters. I think it would really make things more interesting at the Olympics. And I wish they would change up the distances. Some kind of risk/reward thing where you could go for the easy close target and get fewer sure points, or go for the longer target and risk losing it all, or getting a lot of points! Not sure how that would work, but it could be very exciting to watch!n
We get sucky coverage at the Olympics. They are too busy trying to make a damn soap opera out of it. They say archery isn't interesting enoug to watch, but I disagree. Almost every match comes down to the final arrow, often seperated by less than 2 or 3 points.

I mean, just how interesting is the 3rd mile of a marathon, or the 2nd lap of a long swim? But they get coverage!n
It's a serious image problem that the IOC is trying to address. At least in Athens, we had by far the best venue, and that brought in a lot of fans that really just wanted to see the original olympic stadium.
John.