The Think Tank

Things started out very well. We shot Deer course first which is a real bitch with all the steep uphill shots, but I did very well, dropping only a couple on the way up. Oddly I struggled with the close shots more than the long ones.

I was in front of my group by 2-3 after the first seven targets. I went on a little spree of 19’s at intermediate distances which was a bummer, but I finished with a 272, making it my best field round of the year and on a very hard course.

I ate lunch with mom and debbie then we set out on Elk course, again climbing he hill. I dropped a point on the first target, a 20 yard shot, and then again on a 25 yarder. I went on to drop a point on almost every target under 45 yards, which was disappointing, but I figured I would just have to pick it up on the long shots.

In the end I did pretty well on the last half but was sitting on a 270 heading into the last target, a 55 yard flat shot. I was feeling pretty good about myself because I figured I would break 540, but as it turned out that wasn’t to be. I forgot to set my sight And the first arrow skipped off the dirt 20 yards in front of the target. I shot two x’s and a five, for a 15 and a 537. That was very disappointing.

We shot cougar and bear for the Animal round, my first animal round using the new little bonus spots. Those things were not kind to me. In the end I only wound up shooting 6 of those things today, which out me at a very severe disadvantage. I was only off out group leader by 9 points and I was still in front of one guy, but he animals killed me. I also shot the wrong target once, only the 2nd or 3rd spot I’d gotten all day. I did shoot another spot, but that was a 17.

In the end I finished with a 561 which is pretty poor. By contrast Darren shot a 579. It was really too bad.

I was vey frustrated by he animal round and I wound up losing track of my form and in particular my new anchor point. I shot on the practice range for 30-40 mins and it felt like I’d gotten my form back together so I calls it quits.

I’m disappointed by the score, I really wanted to shoot in the 540s and hopefully in the high end at that. Its especially disappointing because of the miss. But then, I’ve shot quite a bit worse than thus with all my arrows on the target, so I didnt do that bad I guess. It’s just a bummer.

On the good end, I never lost my cool today. I stayed pretty calm and never acted out or anything, even when I was pretty frustrated by he animal round.

I feel fairly confident for tomorrow. In many respects I think that hunter courses are easier, so there’s that. But mainly I just need to pay special attention to my anchor point, watch my level closely ( I have been tending to tip the top limb right) and stay Focussed on my ending form. I did a good job of that for much of the day, but I let that slip in the second half and it showed on the scores.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Jun 18, 2011 9:06 AM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 537 59x

— Sent from my iPhone