Well yesterday my brother and I and a couple of friends went to a Traditional shoot. My dad was suppose to show up also but stuff came up with his job so he couldn't make it![:@] They had 3 different divisions. Recurve, Longbow, Selfbows. Men, women, youth each were in there own division as well. I'm guessing well over a 1000 shooters will be there this weekend.

The shoot was a blast! It was by far the most challenging Traditional shoot I've been to. 95% of the shots were makable, you just didn't dare miss by much or your arrows were catching hell with the tree's. They have 3 rounds of 20 targets. 20 points for the boiler room, 15 points for a marginal shot, 5 points for just hitting the target was the scoring system. 40 points for the one metal target if you were successful. Each round represents the animals in that region. Here are the 3 rounds.

Africa Round- The shot distance on the average was about 18 yards. Very realistic. I thought I did super on this round considering the longer yardages. Max score was 400, I shot a 265. I was happy with that.

Minnesota Round- Very challenging round!! The average distance on this round was closer (15 yard range) but the obsticals were something else. Branches every where, tiny little holes here and there to shoot through. Most of the shots were very doable but you couldn't be more then an inch or 2 off otherwise you were in the trees. I broke 2 arrows on this round but man was it fun and challenging! Max score here was a 400, I shot a 235. I was ok with how I shot but I think I could of done a little better. Like I said, this round was very challenging!

Western Round- This round kicked my ass!! I think the biggest reason was I just ran out of gas and got tired about 1/2 way through the round. I was starting to not hit my anchor point (short drawing) being the 73lbs I'm pulling back was starting to catch up with me. I was getting ticked off with myself being I knew exactly what I was doing wrong but just couldn't seem to get rid of it on a consistent basis. The average shot on this round was out there some. The average shot was about 20 yards, maybe a tad more. They had a barrel set up with a pipe going through it resting on a saw horse on each side of the barrel. The barrel was off the ground 6 inches so it moved when you sat on it and stratled it. It was suppose to be simulating a horse. It was worse then that, horses don't move that much!! I damn near fell off the thing when I went to release my arrow. I hit the target but It wasn't by any means a good shot. The very last target was a metal target with the vitals (lungs and heart) cut out on a bear. The shot was about 15 yards and if you made it through the hole you got 40 points and if you didn't you wrecked your arrow, it was 1/4 inch steel! I made it through perfectly but man was I shaking when I let that arrow go. The max score on this round was 420, I shot a 235 and wasn't to happy with my shooting but like I said I was running out of gas. This was the 1st time I've shot my bow since last October.

My final score was a 735. I'm guessing I placed some where in the top third in the recurve class. I could of shot better but I could of shot worse too I guess. My brother did finally beat me, he shot a 755 in the Longbow division! He should place well. He shot very well and boy did he rub it in on the way home being it was the 1st time he out did me. He loved it!! All in all it was a great day and we had a blast. The founder of Double Bull blind was there also shooting the coarse, I thought that was neat seeing him there. The Pope And Young Club also was there doing some great PR work. I talked with these guys for a while being I know the Secretary and chairman quite well. The P&Y club does allot of good things for the kids, I wish more people realized this! There were many bow makers and vendors there as well. It was a great time.