okay guys, this was the first ever 3D shoot for me, and i made the drive down from just north of chicago by myself. I pulled up and set up my camp, and within a few hours, i had already met some real nice people. Ended up talking to an engineer about school and whatnot for a while... even though i came there expecting to talk about bowhunting. never know who you're going to find. I came down on Friday, stayed until Sunday today. I was lucky enough to pick up an old bear back quiver to replace my el-cheapo target quiver that i was planning on using for the weekend. that night, there were seven arrows in that quiver... silently unaware of their ultimate fate. Woke up the next morning, and registered for the shoot. Unfortunately, I didn't find the practice range before that time, so i went into the shoot stone cold, and it took a lot of warming up. the shots were all very well thought out, and the targets were all in good shape. shot number 19 of that morning's first 20 targets ended in my arrow missing the lynx, and connecting straight with the tree. Don't you just love the smell of port orford cedar? I sure do. six left. went back to camp, cooked up some lunch, and was ready to go back at it. the second set of 20 targets went swimmingly for me, it mostly followed a creekbed which was beautiful country, and led to very good scenery for the shots that were set up. the last ten targets of the course I shot with a group of three older guys, and one of them was one heck of a talker. Those ten targets were some of the most fun of the weekend. It's a shame that I can't remember their names... anyway, I went and looked around at the vendors some more, ended up finding some new port orford cedar shafting and feathers for them. Tried my hand at some aerial targets, and the extra-long shot at the moose. After missing both of those, I decided to go lick my wounds and shot the practice range. Talked with my tent neighbors for the rest of the night, with six arrows still in my quiver. Sunday morning, I woke up early and shot the practice range starting around seven, didn't run into another soul out there. A poor release on one shot, connecting to a tree and shattering the arrow dropped my count down to five. Another one glanced off a bear awkwardly, shattered it too. Four left. I decided to go for broke and see if I could finish the range again, so i shot a second time. I did much better the second time around; i was hitting roughly one half in the kill areas instead of roughly one quarter of my shots. Still, on the other half my arrows were feeling the heat. One drove its point in a log and broke off behind that. another one lost its life on a shot for a bear through a few saplings; a slightly wrong trajectory and it caught the side of a sapling, shattering the arrow completely. two left. I'm starting to feel the heat. Two more targets left, too. Another poor release, and it connects with a rock. one last arrow. I take the shot at the last elk, and it flies straight and true to where I was looking. The one last arrow; the straightest arrow.
Aaanyway, storytime over, here are some pictures:
Setup my camp on friday:
dried out my camp on saturday:
me shooting the course:
my favorite shot of the day; the arrow arced right through that bent over tree to the target:
and the result:
the other very fun shots were those from the stands on hills. me shooting from a stand:
the (poor) results of the first run through:
overall it was a very fun shoot, the people were nice, and i broke all but one arrow. It was a great shoot to attend as my first 3D shoot. Cloverdale did a great job setting up the range.
Topic: Back from Cloverdale! (picture heavy) (Read 699 times)
