North Gauteng IFAA Field Championship

Well, it does seem that not all days are created equal, the North Gauteng field competition was something behold. The wind came in with something you would only see in the fair Cape. The winds were blowing in gusts of hard wind that Saturday that tended to be coming from the one side then the other of constant varying strength.

This made a back tension(TruBall BT Gold4) the wrong choice on the day, my first half I did okay, fighting and wrestling the wind, but it seems this is where the weight advantage did not really help much. On full draw wind from the one side would make getting the arrow to fly near impossible and the wind from the other side tended just to make the arrow fly. My second half I ended up doing 20 points less than my first.

The second day, I was convinced to rather switch to my thumb release (TruBall Fang4). The day went slightly better on my first half, but my second half on the thumb proved a bit better, giving me exactly the same score as my first half. Shooting 24 points better than the previous day.

This was our day's wind!

Overall after being quite despondent after my first day, the second day picked up and I am one step closer to my Gauteng colours. This is the one discipline that I am finding challenging but fun, watching some of the heavy weights shooting field really does get you quite eager to do it.

Ekurhuleni Field Championship

Our first field, our first time we have to shoot more than 100 scoring arrows per day and walk close to 10km per day!

This unlike other competitions we shoot was quite different, there are so many rules with field. The distances go up to 80 yards and you have no excuse for a bad shot, since everything is a perfect round target.

Our first day was quite an experience, thankfully I was on the range before but for some fun 3D shooting. So Archers Edge did not feel completely alien, but the field section that was setup felt brand new. 14 targets to done twice, 4 arrows per target. A chilly and cloudy morning, there were so many people we were two 4 man groups on most targets.

All distances marked, clearly.

The first day was quite an experience that I enjoyed way too much. I loved the technical aspect, the order to shoot in, the distances and the amount of arrows.

A beautiful morning with a massive amount of archers.

My wife getting ready for a near perfect shot.

This is what Carbon Core Blackbirds do outdoor!

So after my first time shooting field I know one thing for certain, I will be back for more!