Sunday, April 26, 2009

3-D shoots.....



With Spring here and warmer weather making its comeback, the possibility of having 3-d shoots out at the archery range, treatment from the winter blues that have been upon us for the last 4 months, a fantasticly fun reality. Yes! This Sunday morning, Papa and I pulled up to the archery range with anticipation and excitement.

The parking lot was about quarter full. Usually the parking lot is about half full; maybe, the other archers were out hunting turkeys since turkey season is upon us.

As I told you in an earlier post, I'd show you some pictures of a 3-d shoot. What exactly is a 3-d shoot? Well, it's kind of like golf you have 2 sides. In golf there is the front 9 holes, then there is another 9 holes called the back nine and the object of the game is to get that tiny ball into a hole anywhere from 100 yards to 500 yards away, counting the strokes it takes you to get the ball in the hole.

Likewise, in 3-d shoots, there is a A side which has 20 shots at different three dimensional animals and a back side with 20 shots or what they call it out at the archery range, the B side. You try to get an arrow into a small circle about the size of a silver dollar coin. The distance you are shooting from is anywhere from approximately 20 yards up to 35 yards. The picture below gives you a better feel for how long and how precise you have to be.



IF you hit that small circle it's 11 points for that shot and target. (Notice on the picture below..this 11 point area is to the right of the black arrow approximately 4 inches so it was a good shot. Definitely would have harvested that animal. But in 3-d shoots it would only score an 8.)



However, if you miss slightly outside there is another circular ring about the size of a large grapefruit, or softball that is drawn on the animal that you'd receive 10 points for that shot. Can you see it on the above picture? Outside of that is a freeform shape, similar to a lung shape that you would receive 8 points for hitting that and any other shot outside that final ring that you hit the animal is 5 points. I hope you can see that. You might notice some of the point areas in the next few pictures.

DOUBLE CLICK ON THIS PICTURE BELOW>>IT SHOWS THE POINT AREAS WELL.



You can see the archery range has a diverse set of 3-d animals from gazelles, turkeys, raccoons, bears, deer, mountain lions, alligators, and more!



By the way, the maximum score you can get is 440 points, I shot a 287. Need more practice! I believe I missed 3 targets so there is 33 possible points I missed just in those 3 shots. So have I done a good job of telling you about 3-d targets? Do you understand a little more about 3-d shoots? Could you tell me how to score a shot? Let me know!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Everyone has to do some hunting!

Dancer and Hunter decided to give hunting a try. No- not the type you're thinking of, but rather kids hunting...Easter style...Here's some pictures of their first "hunting" trip together.






and they even had their picture taken with the Easter Bunny!