Geelong Traditional Shoot Sept 2nd-3rd

[Mick Smith]

The Great Southern Archery Tournament (Geelong Traditional Shoot) is on this weekend at the Jarvis Oval Deakin University Waurn Ponds, if anyone is interested in dropping in and having a look.

I believe there will be lots of 3D targets (about 50?), plus heaps of other events such as clout shooting and night shooting. It's for traditional bows and wooden arrows only.

If you want to know more, have a look at http://www.ozbow.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3565

I'm sure it will be great fun for everyone. 8)

Mick

[Mick Smith]

Well the Geelong Traditional Shoot is all over. Everyone I spoke to agreed that it was a total success.

There was about 60 or 70 archers in attendance, some from as far away as Perth and Townsville. They travelled to Geelong expressly to attend the shoot.

The first event was a clout shoot, but with a difference. We shot at a castle made of hay bales and inside the castle were the king and his knights (hay bales with different coloured flags attached). We started shooting at extreme range and moved forward 10 yards after 3 x 6 arrows loosed. Being a hunter, I had never tried this type of shooting before and although it has very little to do with hunting, it was immense fun none the less.

The second event was simply a 3D course. The targets were very thoughtfully layed out with many extreme up hill and down hill shots. The course is very picturesque.

The third event was shooting at aerial targets. The targets were 2 foot diameter cardboard disks thrown into the air and shot at with flu-flu arrows. It looked easy, but it wasn't.

The fourth event was the night shoot. This consisted of various 3D targets placed near each other. As the shooters took their turns at shooting, only one target was illuminated by a torch and it was only illuminated for a short time. It was a great event for snap shooters.

The next day, the first event was the "herd shoot", whereby about a dozen 3D targets were placed fairly close together, but at extreme range. The targets had scores written on the off side and the scores differed depending on whether the deer was a buck or a doe and also whether or not the hit was in a vital area or not. There were also a pair of wolves and a hit on them scored the highest. We moved closer after 3 x 6 arrows by 10 yards until we were withing about 30 yards of them. Once again not at all similar to hunting, but fun none the less.

The last event was, once again a long range affair. We shot at standard Olympic targets, but at 60 yards in a very stiff cross wind. As before, we would move closer by 10 yards after each 3 x 6 arrows until we ended up within 20 yards of the targets. Initially at 60 yards, I had to aim about 6 feet upwind of the target to hit it, plus a "mile" in the air to allow for the arrow drop at that distance. It came as no surprise that I broke 3 arrows that hit the target supports in the first round.

Then we had the presentations.

All in all, it was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to the next one. I got to meet lots of interesting and friendly people. Maybe I'll see you at the next event. 8)

Mick