The Think Tank

I shoot today at 10am.  I felt that I struggled most of the day, but I did manage to get at least one monkey off my back: last year I dropped my first arrow all three days.  Today, I shot 3 x’s on my first end.  I was proud of that because I was oddly nervous heading into it today, so that’s good.

Unfortunately that’s about where the good news ends.  I wound up shooting 298 with 21 X’s (out of a possible 300 with 30 X’s).  All in all that’s a disappointing score, but given the trouble I’ve had this year, I’m not terribly upset.  The arrows that I missed were poorly performed shots, so you can’t get too upset with those missing.  I just need to shoot better shots tomorrow and things should be fine.

I did feel like there was a little issue with my wheel timing today.  I had to put a new cable on my bow on Monday, the day before I left to head down here, and they always stretch a little bit when they are first put on.  I tried to shoot enough arrows to work that out, but apparently it wasn’t quite enough.  I saw that my wheels were a little bit out on Thursday during practice and made an adjustment, and then at the end of today I could see that they had stretched out again and wound up back where they had been before I adjusted them.  After I got done shooting, I went down to the practice area and made some changes, and shot pretty well down there.  I scored a 300 with 24 x’s in practice.  Granted, practice doesn’t really mean anything, but it is the first time that I’ve ever shot a 300 in Vegas, even in practice, so that’s a step in the right direction.

After practice, we went up and toured the “Fun Show” – the Archery Trade Show that always goes on during the shoot.  Most of the major archery companies are here, and many of them offer show specials with some decent discounts.  It’s also a great opportunity to see and test equipment that you can’t get at your local pro shop.

I spent a bunch of money as it turned out, exercising the “better archery through aggressive spending” idea.  My biggest purchase was a bow case that will hold both of my bows, at the same time!  My trusty case I’ve been using since the early 1990’s is a great case, but it will not hold both of my bows due to their shoot-through risers.  This new one not only holds both bows, but also has room for all my stabilizers, sight bars, arrows, and quiver, along with other pockets for essential equipment (like my handy dandy portable bow press), but it also has wheels to make lugging it around easier.  A new case has been on my list of needs for several years, and this was the first one that I found which met all of my requirements.  So I think that was a good deal.  I also got enough material to make 8-10 full sets of bowstrings and cables, for less than it would cost to buy a single set, so that also was a good deal.

After Teko finished shooting, around 6:30pm, we came back to the hotel and made a reservation for the steakhouse at the Riviera.  Part of the deal that Teko got with the free suite was a $150 dollar certificate to the steakhouse, which she very graciously shared with us.  That covered all three of our dinners, with enough room left to get us each a piece of cheesecake for the road.

It was a lovely dinner and lovely company, as always.

I got unlucky and drew the 7am line for tomorrow, so I need to go to bed now so I can get up at 4am and head to the South Point Casino in time for breakfast and a few practice arrows before we start shooting at 7.