Stickbow Target Archery Forums

I just looked at the scores -- it must have been an amazing week. After 5 days of shooting, only 4 points separated the top three traditional archers. All shooting very nice scores in the low to mid 400s. David Eatmon, Dan Croft, and Daniel Hickman. Since they typically group similar scores into a foursome, they probably shot together all week, and all had the best view in the house.

Wow! Senior Barebow winner shot Field and Hunter rounds in the 470s and 490s. Man oh man, do I have a long way to go. Probably a good thing I can't afford to travel to, or have the spinal cord to shoot one of these things. I would have come in a distant 4th in Barebow style.

Dave

I agree -- the top archers are impressive. In the case of traditional, I think all three are from Washington -- so they shoot against each other regularly. Shooting against each other makes them a 'league apart' from the rest, who, as you mention, come in a distance behind them.

Questions:
I looked at the designation for Traditional
Traditonal allows a plunger and magnetic rest?n
Also I gathered Barebow is the same as traditional except for stabilizers being allowed. The mens Barebow scores seem substantially higher than Traditional. Presuming the answer to my previous qusetion is "true", do stabilizers make that big a difference.

I volunteered to help my club fix up the field course. The Conneticut Archery Association was looking for an extra field course so they could run a series of tourneys at multiple locations. This is great for me since the furthest I'd have to travel is about 2 hours but Cos Cob Archers, my home club, is 1/2 hour for me.

Lookingn
Thanks
Steve

Sorry about not finishing my last post
Got a phone call from a user.

Looking at the Traditional scores, it seems that 7th place averaged about 9.5 per target in the Field and Hunter rounds. If I understand the scoring system, that would like getting 3 arrows into the target for 5 targets and 4 arrows in the 6th.

I know I have a long way to go, but averaging 4 arrows into the 3 ring for every target seems like a reachable goal.
Don't beat up on me too hard if I'm making an incorrect assumption...

Hi Steve,n
The one other difference between traditional and barebow is that traditional is required to use a single anchor point with fingers touching the arrow -- barebow can stringwalk.

I think stringwalking makes a bigger difference than stabilizers -- the archers I've seen that stringwalk anchor with the arrow right up under the eye so they can sight down it like a gunbarrel. They adjust for different ranges by different placement of their drawing fingers. The reason their scores are higher is that 'gunbarreling' is a more accurate sighting method than other styles of 'unsighted' shooting.

9.5 points/target comes out to about 266 -- and yes, that is doable.
Arc

Thanks, ArcCaster!n
Dave has been setting up some Field archery challenges on the TradTalk website. Since I've got a goal, I think I'll be joining the fun soon!

You should be aware that in the NFAA, as opposed to the IFAA, Barebow is primarily compounds, whereas in the IFAA they have specific barebow recurve and barebow compound classes. So those barebow scores that seem so high were probably shot by compounders who string/facewalk with long stabilizers, under the arrow clickers, and levels.

I'll try to add a little perspective as my club's range is set up for field archery and I shoot it nearly every day. The full field course is a 14 target field round, a 14 target hunter round and a 14 target animal round. For big championships they may shoot the hunter and field rounds twice and the animal round once, over two or three days. The animal round is shot less often and many clubs hereabouts just have the hunter and field rounds available for daily use. On a typical practice day most of us just shoot one or the other, a warm up and a 14 target round, and score about the same on either. At the monthly club shoots we often shoot both.

At the nationals the top three in Adult Male Traditional averaged 212 to 217 for these 14 target rounds. I presume they are using Olympic recurves with rests and plungers but no stabilizers, releases or clickers and a single side of the face anchor. What is traditional about this is less the tackle than the method- you shoot by hand and eye as has been done through the centuries.

Those scores are very good but within reach. I have done that well in practice though I don't use the Olympic recurve very often.

The top two archers in Senior Male Traditional averaged 198 and 183. I have shot in the 180s in practice with my longbow and wooden arrows. I considered going but was annoyed that they do not have a longbow class. I guess I should have as I am Senior and then some and could have done well with recurve.
I don't use a hunting recurve but a good take- down one, with the extra weight of the take down fittings, and with either a metal or wooden riser could surely compete in the Senior class, and might even hang close in the Adult class. Off course you need a range to practice on, which is the rub for many of you. Consider a spring or early summer vacation in Northern California and you could find many fine ranges to do it on.

I took the Oly recurve out today. I took a couple of 'sighters' at 50 and 80 yards to remind me of my gaps, not allowed in competition, and shot 210 on the field course. I had either 3 or 4 misses and a number of 5 spots out to 60 yards.

Incidentally, for those of you who don't have regular access to a field course, the American Round, 30 arrows each at 60, 50 and 40 yards is the next best practice. About half of the field targets fall within that spread so when you are comfortable at those distances you can easily learn the others, mainly by just adjusting your gaps a little.

Again, this is in the manner of the 'Traditional' style, with a single anchor. I use side of the face and three fingers under. With the split finger release you can reach the targets with as few as 33 pounds or so of draw weight. Instinctive, gapping and point on point aiming methods all can work well. I use a combination of the first two and sometimes the third to work out my gaps.

All of this adapts perfectly well to 3D events, especially as here on the left coast many of the open 3D events are shot at the full field archery distances to challenge and entertain the block and tackle boys and the various 'aimers'.