Matt, can you describe the different types of indoor and outdoor competitions? Kind of like the rules, distances, targets... that kind of thing? That would be great!!! I know there are a lot of variations and I'm not entirely sure about all of them.
Dustin - Can't believe I missed this post until now. I'm buried at work right now, but will do my best to get an update on here tonight.
I think that's a great idea. I'm learning quite a bit from reading over on AT, but FITA events I'm still very uninformed on.
He's too busy making tons of money to pay for all of his toys So, I'll hijack the thread until he gets back. Dubbya, you shot one heck of a score in the indoor league. Do you have much target experience, or is this your first go around?
OK guys. It's going to take a while, because there are so many different venues out there. I'll start tonight with a quick rundown on FITA and Field Archery. I'll start with FITA first. FITA has several disciplines, however the most common is outdoor FITA. This is the style of archery that is currently shot in the Olympics. There are typically recurve and compound divisions, however the Olympics only recognize recurve styles. This is quite possibly the most difficult style of archery, due to both the extreme ranges that you shoot, as well as the fatigue that you typically experience. In a sanctioned FITA event, Mens classes will shoot 36 arrows at each distance, to include 90, 70, 50, and 30 meters. To give you an idea.......that is 98.42 yards, 76.55 yards, 54.68 yards, and 32.80 yards. This is also a total of 144 arrows, and would require you to walk a little over 2.5 miles just to score and pull your arrows. At 90 and 70 meters, you shoot 6 arrow ends at a 120cm target face. At 50 and 30 meters, you shoot 3 arrow ends at the 80cm face. The targets basically looks like a giant Vegas single spot target and is scored the same way. All 4 shooters on a target butt typically shoot at the same target face until 30 yards, where they put up seperate faces if the shooters desire. If you are among good shooters, you will destroy a LOT of arrows in a FITA event, I was among 2 other really good shooters in the last event I shot in, and I think I started with a dozen arrows and finished with something like 4. FITA events are actually a LOT of fun. I've shot quite a few practice rounds, but I've only shot one official sanctioned event, our State Championship event several years ago. No one has ever shot a perfect 1440, anything over 1400 is a VERY elite level shooter. To give you an idea, I'm a mid 1330ish shooter, may be a bit better now. You have to learn how to read the wind flags that are placed on top of each target, and compensate accordingly every arrow for the wind. Most shooters are shooting close to a 60lb bow (legal weight limit) with a VERY skinny shaft and low profile vanes to reduce wind drift. Below is a pic of me at full draw several years ago at a FITA event, if I remember correctly this is a 50m shot on the 80cm target face.
Field Archery - First, I've gotta say that field archery is probably tied with 3D as my favorite venue. I'd probably like it more if I had the same group of good buddies and following that 3D has today. Field archery can be sometimes used as a general term that is applied to the NFAA Field target face, Hunter target face, and Animal face rounds. Field archery events are shot on courses similar to 3D courses, with bad footing, extreme angles, poor lighting, etc. It's not a controlled environment such as indoors, very similar to 3D......with the exception that you are shooting at significantly longer distances and shooting significantly more arrows. You are also shooting at known yardage. Below is a pic of the field archery target face: On the field target face, you will shoot either two seperate 14 target courses, or the same course 2 seperate times for a total of 28 targets. You will also shoot 4 arrow ends at each target. Distances will vary from 20 feet to 240 feet (80 yards), and there are 4 different size targets that are used for different distances. Sometimes you shoot all 4 arrows from the same distance, sometimes they will be a "walk up" where you shoot one arrow at say 80 yards, and sometimes a target will be a "Fan" where you shoot one arrow, side step to another shooting stake at the same distance, shoot another arrow, etc for your 4 arrows. The center black spot on the target is scored as a 5, with a perfect end being a 20. X's are scored for tie breakers. It is VERY rare to see a perfect 560 round, however it has been done a few times in competition. To give you an idea, I've shot a personal best game of 552.
Haha, well thanks! So did you! I've shot 5-spot quite a bit but only one league of the Vegas face stuff. I've shot a lot of 3D and just casual shooting but not the indoor stuff. They closed the only indoor range in oklahoma city last march and so it's made it a little more difficult. RJ, thank you... that's exactly what I was lookin' for! I'd like to give the FITA stuff a whirl at some point too.
Thanks Matt! I knew FITA was longer distances, but wow! I would love to give that a try sometime. I know I would be TERRIBLE at it, but I know it would be so much fun. Field archery sounds pretty cool as well. It seems very much like 3D like you said, but with the regular paper target. I do like how it's staged. It would be neat if a traditional 3D was setup like that.
