The F-word and Archery

Certain individuals may choose to walk away, close their laptops or otherwise stick their fingers in their ears and mutter, "icanthearyouicanthearyou."

Archery can bring you to the point of throwing your bow and arrows into the hedge and swearing confidently you will never, ever do this again. And then you take up dominos or bridge or competitive scrapbooking instead. This summer has restored my lost confidence, and even with adding back the medieval torture device they call a clicker, I've been loving it lately.

Last week, I had a rare light-bulb moment when a tin-y change in bow hand alignment and a deeper hook suddenly had me in the middle of my bow. That's a confidence builder right there, I do declare. Even though the dark showed up way too early and the blood suckers were out for vengance, it was a seriously productive couple of hours that ended in the garage blank baling in front of the mirror. Certain things are starting to become automatic in my draw sequence (cue audible sigh of relief here).

This weekend I put out the call on FB to see if anyone else wanted to shoot with me. Grant raised his hand and so we made a plan to shoot the 40-50-60 range at our local range in the morning. One of those gorgeous fall mornings that still thinks it's summertime. Sunny, not too hot, just a little chill in the air. Between wrangling arrows out of the sparkling new targets, we admired Marcia's new paint pony, literally fresh off the horse van from Nebraska. A great blue heron did an illegal fly-by and gave us the hairy eyeball before taking off for undisturbed waters. It was a nice hour or so spent in some good shooting company. I'll think about that one in March when I am tired of 20 yards and the smell of snow.

Oh, yeah. For those of you still waiting for me to drop the f-bomb, here ya go. Fun. Don't be sending the hate mail now.

Jam On

No, I mean literally - Jam. This year was the first time I have done a jam swap, thanks to Steph Chows, our local foodie (and sometimes archer).

April from Abby Sweets sent me an awesome box with Dandelion Jelly (smells just like honey) and Apple Butter (all time fav) this week.

Not much archery this week, Monday had a fantastic practice and Friday was fabulously heinous due the fact that I was completely fried and punchy to boot. Hoping a 12 hour snooze and some yoga has me back on track today.

What do you guys do to get your archery mojo back?

Homemade Always Tastes Better

8 winds on the Thing-a-ma-Jig. Get it? Jig? Sigh.

Ok, show of hands – who here has actually made their own string from scratch? I know at least a few of you out there have. I’m not talking about bowstring mix-in-a-box here, I mean the whole naked spool to string on your bow and shooting arrows recipe.

This week, I got my first how-to in string making. Being the artsy-craftsy gal that I am, it was actually fun aside from the “has to be accurate” part which admittedly I am not so good at. Sort of like taking a test before you read the book. Plus, my technique was more like a cat batting a toy round and round, but hey, it got the job done.

BEFORE bow tuning and new string
- and this was a GOOD target

AFTER - withOUT clicker yet! Woot!

In addition, my bow got a proper tune up and a clicker (eep) this week along with a new 6-week assignment for me. Tested everything out last night at 18 m. Pin comes up to height without pushing it around now, need to check it at 50 m. New string feels great! It's a tad longer and feels more springy. Had the best groups in a very long time and actually kept my target for a change.

Clicker - needs some adjusting and shorter arrows, but I can see the potential of where this is going to be when everything is set up. I still have to stttrreetch to get it to go off. If I could just grow my draw length by a half inch, I'd be all set. But surprisingly better groups even when not using the clicker. Can't wait to get out and practice today. Heck, yeah!

DeepThought Friday

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
      -Gandhi

So, get to it and have a good weekend!

The Proof is in the Video

Old School - I can see my Grama V. doing this back in the day. 

 

 

 

This week was different in the fact that it was so humid and nasty out, Matt and I chose to go shoot indoors for the first time all summer.  Which was great, since I could still practice at 30 yards and needed to deal with the "new" distractions.

Had the chance to review a ton of video this week (thanks, Dan) comparing where things stood in April vs a couple weeks ago. Lots of side-by-side comparisons with shot timers and grids to see if I am holding properly and twisting anything unnecessarily. Huge (ok, maybe just big) difference can been seen, even with the untrained eye. Major relief felt in that I finally am getting somewhere and now have the proof to show.

Getting excited about the indoor season this time around. I actually broke one of my A/C arrows with a hit that cracked the carbon. My arrows are dwindling between breakage and losing them in the hedgerow. Time for some new indoor arrows, a string and a bow tune to get things ready.Time to also work on my mental game. Used to be sharper with my focus and that is such a major part of the game. More on that later.

On a completely separate note, I found this great site on outdoor lifestyles, the Outdoor Blogger Network.  Super cool if you are into fly fishing, camping, etc. Checking it out made me realize that we have not been camping all year. WTH? It's not too late for a chilly weekend off someplace. This needs to be remedied immediately (or after Labor Day, when everything quiets down). Been too much of head down, nose to the grindstone this summer. I am planning another quick trip to Boulder next month, so am hoping to get in some decent hiking in Rocky Mt Nat Park and maybe catch some elk in rut with the camera. Am grateful that I get the chance to travel for work out to this area.