Let's keep track of how we are doing this year. List your score and thoughts from your last shoot here. You can later reflect back on it. It can be our "3D Journal" per say. March 28, 2009
Today I got in my second shoot of the year... Again, I shot decent but struggled on my X's. I shot the last half better this week than last week though, so that was an improvement. I should have practiced this week but I haven't touched my bow since last Saturday. This was a 40 yard max course with most targets falling in the 28-37 yard range. No targets under 20. The only large target was a standing bear. First half I shot 4 11's, 9 10's and 2 8's for a 150. Second half I shot 3 11's, 11 10's and 1 8 for a 151. 301 with 7 11's. My buddy shot a 277 with 9 11's. I had a bad shot caused by excessive vane contact on my cable. My nock got rotated to far and put a hen solidly into my cable. It pushed me just into an 8 on a strutting turkey. Other than that shot I can't really complain. I need to get my longer pins fine tuned, they are really only ball parked still.
I just finished my first indoor 3D league of the year today. I feel like I should be in the top 3 but we'll have to see how the handicap works out. We shoot 20 targets, scoring 10, 8, 5. I maintained a 196 average for the 6 week league. The first week I shot my low score, a 194, and I shot my high score twice, 198. What frustrates me is the 2 weeks I shot 198's I should have cleaned them both. The max shot is 21 yards, but what makes it challenging is all of the obstacles playing with our heads. Some of the shots are really tight and if you don't have a well tuned bow shooting bullets, chances are you're going to hit something. But overall, I felt really good. It's difficult to explain maybe, and possibly sounds a little arrogant though I don't mean for it to be that way at all, but somehow I just KNEW I was going to shoot 10's. My bow is shooting really well, and I've made a slight change in my grip that has reduced bow torque, eliminating most of my left/right misses. With very little effort on my part, the arrow just.........goes where it's supposed to. Kinda fun. I'll be shooting my first outdoor 3D in 2 weeks, the R100. Yardage estimation will obviously come into play here, whereas with the indoor, not so much. The closest shot was 4 yards, farthest 21.
Today I met up with Josh/OH and OHBowhunter for a 3D at Lone Eagle Bowmen. This is 3D #3 for the year. It was a great course, the first time I ever shot it. Their course is nestled into the hills in East Central Ohio and they did an excellent job of mixing the shots up. A lot of up and down hill shots. They also did a very good job of mixing the yardage up. There were a lot of long shots but they also threw in a couple shorter shots on the smaller targets like a skunk. Over all I am very pleased with the course and it was well worth the 1 3/4 hour drive. I shot pretty well. I kept out of the 8's on all but one shot. A climbing bear got the best of me. I was hot and right on it. I feel I left a few 11's on the table though, but overall I am pleased. They had 3 10 target courses rather than a front 15 and back 15 like the norm in my area. First 10 targets I shot 5 11's and 5 10's for a 105. Second 10 targets I shot 1 11 and 9 10's for a 101. Last 10 targets I shot 4 11's, 5 10's and 1 8 for a 102. Total 308 with 10 11's.
My first shoot the year was with buckeye and OHbowhunter (as stated in Scott's post). I loved the course (Lone Eagle Bowman) and found it quite challenging As Scott said, the course was seperated into 3 groups of 10 targets, rather than front 15 and back 15. My pins were way right on the first 10, resulting in a lowly 59 (full of excuses, I know -lol) I made sight adjustments during the second 10 and managed a 70. I did a bit better on the final 10, scoring an 84. Front 10: 10x1 8x4 5x5 =59(ouch) Mid 10: 10x2 8x5 5x3 =70(little better) Back 10: 11x1 10x2 8x6 5x1 =84(typical for me) Total:213 I'll likely not be shooting for the next two or three weeks, due to a shoulder injury, but I absolutely love shooting 3D and plan on getting after it pretty good when I'm well enough :d My average score (without much experience) seems to be around 240 range. My goal is to be break 270 before September rolls around. That's an average increase of only 1 point per target. I think it's doable
Got to shoot some 3D targets today for the first time since early April. My local club finally (after 5 years of me hounding them :d ) decided to setup a short course and leave the targets outside all week long. They apparently are running a Tuesday night league on the course and I plan to start attending to get more practice. It's only a 15 target course. I shot the open stakes with my hunter class rig today. Shots averaged 30-37 yards (fairly short course for open class), with a couple that were less than 30. No particularly small targets, just a couple of javelinas, and lots of other medium to large sized targets. A few of them were quartering pretty hard, but other than that no terribly difficult shots, footing, or angles. I shot two 8's, and 4 X's. Everything else was a 10. I am shooting great shots, I actually managed to hit 13 of the black dots in a row on the Morrell Outdoor Range bags while warming up from 32 yards. With that said, my yardage isn't great right now, and I'm struggling with going back to a pin sight, I just don't have the pin splitting practice I need to drill the X ring. I'm doing well enough with my yardage to hit a lot of 10's, but am getting lots of high/lows. I need to work on my yardage if I want to be relevant at the bigger shoots later this summer, and I've gotta say I am already looking forward to putting the open class sight/scope/lens/stabilizer back on the bow after the GTG.......... Anyone else shooting 3D? Any updates? Going to a 28 target shoot tomorrow at one of the toughest courses around, lots of up/down hill and bad footing. It will be good practice.
I shot my second 3D course today. I shot the Hunter class and I had 4-10's, 8-8's, 8-5's and 1-miss. (21 targets but we drop our lowest one) Total score of 144. My goal next Saturday is to not miss any targets. This was just my second 3D shoot, on my first one 2 weeks ago I had 3 misses so I improved. :d
GA where are you shooting. I put the bow up before turkey, but I would love to get out and shoot one.
The first 2 I shot were in Cleveland, TN. This Saturday though I'll be at a shoot near Fort Mountain outside Chatsworth, GA. Theres also one in the Dalton/Rocky Face, GA that I may go to later this month.
RJ, if you want to shoot with your open setup put it back on. No one will mind. We had 2 open equipment shooters shoot the stakes with us at the first gtg. It's no big deal.
I've been thinking about doing this and just not turning my card in for score, it wouldn't really be fair for me to turn in a card with open equipment IMHO. Shot again today with the hunter class setup. Shot the open stakes for all but 2x of the targets, if I felt it was under 45 yards I would shoot from the open stake (my furthest pin now is 42 yards). My shots were spread out pretty good, anywhere from a 29ish yard turkey to several that were over 40. Terrain was tough with less than ideal footing and lots of sidehills, and up/down hill shots that forced you to cut yardage. I shot five 8's, and 11 X's. I still feel I left a lot of the X's on the table probably half from bad yardage and half from splitting pins instead of dialing for an exact number. I dropped one 8 due to a bad shot, the rest were simply bad yardage. I shot a 32 yard mule deer for 37 yards, and a 43ish yard ram for 38......both of these just barely caught 8's. I've gotta work more on yardage.
Best I remember you are in central GA. If I'm wrong correct me on that, but if you're interested in coming up towards Dalton/Rocky Face let me know I'll meet up with you and go. If you are looking for something close to where you are check out this link and see if you can find a club closer to you.
I've shot a 3D tournament every weekend since the beginning of February I believe and 3 ASA's. 17th in Gainesville ASA I believe (Not a grat shoot, didn't shoot well on Sunday) 4th in Mississipii ASA (Shot really well on Saturday and fell a little on Sunday) 21st in London ASA (Made some terrible shots on Saturday that handicaped me and shot REALLY well on Sunday) All of those are in Open A. I've only shot three of them, I had to miss Texas and Augusta. I couldn't get the money together for Texas and I had the stupid prom the weekend of Augusta. I'm over halfway won out of Open A which would put me into Semi Pro next year. It's a toss up as to whether or not I'll be able to do it. I'm shooting pretty well, but I have a few things to work on. My shot is slipping away from me a little. We'll see, I'm working hard at it, and I'm making progress. I've come a long way in 2 years, and I've still got a long way to go.
I shot my 3rd 3D yesterday and improved a little from my first 2. 12's-1 10's-7 8's-5 5's-6 0's-1 152 total Overall I was happy with my shoot. The missing right problem I had last time was gone. I'm pretty sure it was a form issue now. Also there were a couple of tough shots that I scored an 8 on that I was proud of one was a coon at about 30 yards and the other was a turkey not strutting downhill and facing right at me. There are 2 different shoots close to the house this coming weekend and I'm going to try and make it to both. I still have the goal of no misses on a 20 target course and I am also trying now to average 8's (160 total) on a shoot.
Shoot 1: 10's-7 8's-10 5's-3 165 total About an hour and a half later I shot a different shoot across town. Shoot 2: 12's-1 10's-6 8's-8 5'-4 0's-1 156 total On the second shoot all 4 5's and miss came on the last half. Just got tired I guess.
