foamkiller is all over this one. I agree with everything he said.
The last 3D tourney I shot in, I felt pretty good about day one of a two day event. There were 20+ adult trad men keeping score. There were 50 targets and I rated the difficulty level at a tad over medium. My goal was to average all eights, which would have given me a 400, and have no zeros. I shot a 390 and had just one miss. I was fairly satisfied. At the end of the day, I was in third place. After finding out the leader's score of 487(or maybe 478, I forget which), I decided not to shoot the second day(it was also raining most of the second day anyway). This was my first 3D shoot this year. I bested my score last year at the same event (which was also my last 3D shoot) where I shot a 328 for 50 targets.
I'm not a great shot, but I can hold my own with most trad shooters. You get out of it what you put into it. If you want to win tournaments, you have to put some work into it. I like to win, but winning isn't at the very top of my list at the shoots. If I can come away with a decent score and not lose any arrows, I feel very good at the end of the day. The main thing is, I always have a great time shooting with other trad shooters. I find it very satisfying and relaxing. We as trad shooters/hunters are definitely a different breed of archers, especially when compared to the wheelie people!