World Filed champs in Germany

[zetabow]

Well I survived World Field champs, it was hardest five days walking shooting ever, many shots over 30degree angle, many shooting styles from more formal target style to 3D\\hunting style they all worked specially on some of the tricky angle shots, thanks to Rod for the Safari Tuff Bowquivers it only rained the once       :D      

     

48 yard downhill.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/stevemorley5/WFAC%20Dahn/Dahn099.jpg    
This is the View after we collected arrows and climbed out other side, shooting position to the left.

     
Ladies shooting 70y uphill, my Wife Katrin won for 3rd time setting new world record for Animal round.

       
Dana Chatoo USA team shooting tricky 48yarder from Castle wall and one of my favorite shots of the tourney.        

       
Myself shooting 11y bunny

       
6th Place Ular (2008 champ) and Christof 3rd place shooting tricky 30y shot, hard to shoot top face with rock face behind lol

[TexasTrad]

Very cool -- thanks for posting the pics.  It looks like a very challenging course.

[zetabow]

Thanks TexasTrad I had a blast, each of the 5 courses was around 5 miles walking, 3 local Germans got into top ten in Longbow all shooting more of a hunting style method than target style, it worked pretty well for them on that terrain.

One of them is a Bowyer with a stall at the tourney, some stunning looking bows and seemed to shoot pretty fast too. I really enjoyed shooting and talking with him through the week.
 http://www.bogenbau-tfk.de/

A good Longbow friend from South Africa Jacco wessels had accident day before the tourney, they had a stall where you could stamp tourney coins, he hit it so hard with hammer the hammer broke and pierced his stomach and had to have emergency surgery to remove the sharpnel, he was able to shoot for the week but I'm sure it affected his performance, he's a tough Bushman\\Bowhunter and admire his determination to continue shooting.

[Whump]

Whump Sez: Thanks for taking the pics. It is always a pleasure to see how it is done somewhere else. Congratulations to your wife  Katrin for her world record animal round.       Hunt Safe.

[champ38]

thanks for posting zetabow.Always enjoy your pics and videos. Shane

[TSP]

Very interesting/entertaining, thanks for sharing!  Love to watch the 'simpler' archery gear in action.  

Can you comment on the types/weights/general specs of bows and arrows used in the competition?  Looks like they are mostly D-bows and wood arrows...my favorite kind.

[zetabow]

TSP all Longbows in IFAA have to be 'D' shape (when strung), the R/D like 21st century Edge is accepted and everybody shoots wood arrows,

       
These POC's I made for the tourney, 28" long 125g points giving 450g total weight, 4" straight fletch, gives me 65y point on out of my 45# double Carbon Blackbrook Zeta. I was pleased to say considering the tough terrain I didn't break or lose a single arrow, most unexpected.        

Most serious IFAA Longbows shoot around 45-50# which is plenty for 80y shots but some of the local Germans were shooting 60-70# Longbows and you could see the advantage on the steep up/down shots but it's 5 days shooting 112 arrows each day and I noticed some guys struggle a little with 60# plus bow weights towards the end of the week.

My wife Katrin shoots a 37# Border Griffen and set a new WR on the Animal round 442 which would have been the 4th highest in Mens div, I shot highest Animal of 466 which was lucky for me or she would still be teasing me now                     To do this very tough tourney and to win only 3 months after having a baby is just amazing.
         
My fav pic of her, always very cool and relaxed in tourneys.


One German with 70# Longbow has some very fancy feathers and the arrows made a great sound on it's way to the target.                :cool:                

3D kinda killed off Field in the USA but it's still popular in Europe (3D also), it takes quite a lot of commitment to shoot Field well, the shot discipline I've gained has made me a very confident and consistent shot and I can see why the greats like Hill and Bear sharpened their skills on Field ranges.

Thanks for you interest

[TSP]

Zeta, nice arrows...and congratulations to you and your wife, you both certainly earned your good results.  That's a beautiful area as well, but it's a wonder that folks could handle 560 arrows (not counting warm-ups) over 25 miles in 5 days while climbing hither and yon.  Must not be many fat/out-of-shape  contestants, lol.

The equipment specs are about what I had guessed (except for the 60-70 #ers...my arm hurts just thinking about them, and the use of straight fletch), but you mentioned that some shooters shot 'hunting style' (I assume instinctive vs. gapping).  That has to be an incredible challenge under those ranges and conditions.  Just curious, did any of those shooters place high?  Also, what was the scoring scheme (pts./arrow)?

Thanks again, great footage!

[zetabow]

Originally posted by TSP:

 Just curious, did any of those shooters place high?  Also, what was the scoring scheme (pts./arrow)?
 

One of the video clips i posted earlier has Ular (08 champ)and Christof, a local German who placed 3rd, we had a nice battle last two days as only 4 points seperated us. He was shooting a 60# Longbow and his short range (under 30y) shooting was excellent and long range look pretty tidy at times also.

You have to shoot 4 arrows at each target (exept animal round) scoring 5,4,3 with 20 points max as the week progressed you could see the guys with heavy bows normally shoot 1st and 2nd arrow well then struggle on 3rd or 4th arrow.

The only person I didn't enjoy shooting with was the winner, a Finnish guy using a very complicated facewalking tecnique, the average longbow took one and half min to shoot 4 arrows the Finnish guy took the same time to shoot one arrow and drove just about everybody crazy including the Compound group behind us lol
I've shot with him a number of times so I was used to it and I'm able to shut it out to a degree but the others in my group found it quite frustrating to shoot with him.

[TSP]

Ha, it's ironic that the Finnish fellow was taking as much time as typical compounders do.  Would be interesting to see footage of his technique...at least for one shot.  Well maybe two.            

Thanks again for the posting, I enjoyed it.

[zetabow]

Originally posted by TSP:
Ha, it's ironic that the Finnish fellow was taking as much time as typical compounders do.  Would be interesting to see footage of his technique...at least for one shot.  Well maybe two.                    
 

Here you go, kinda amusing at first but that soon turns into frustration after few days shooting with him lol  
He also had some complicated chart, I assume with some kind of gap notes, he also seemed to be using certain arrows for particular distances I think different weighted arrows.
All seemed to me OTT considering it was marked distance shooting.
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXje9wu20m0&feature=related

[Eugene Slagle]

Sir, I aplaud both you & your wife for such great shooting, I hope one day to get my shots over 50 yards pinned down to be able to shoot a full field round near as well as you two..