Being way behind on 3D practice is not a good place to be 10 days out from the ASA State Championship. In past years I had two bows: one for target archery the other for 3D. The fancy target bow seemed to occasional throw an arrow off the mark.
I mentioned to the techs where I’d purchased the bow that occasionally it seemed to fling an arrow some place other than where I was aiming. They said it was me. When I finally convinced the bow shop where I’d purchased the bow that is wasn’t right it was returned for the company to look for a problem.
The company found a problem, supposedly corrected it, and the bow was back in my hand yesterday after several months of being absent. In the absence of the target bow I’d been using my hunting/3D bow during tournaments. That bow I’d been using for targets (dots) was converted back to a hunter class rig for 3D a few days ago.
Certainly I could have used a target set up for 3D – long stabilizers and a scope. I’ve done that in the past. Maybe in the future I’ll shoot 3D with a target rig again. The thing is I prefer shooting 3D using a hunter class rig.
To make things a bit more challenging there is no hunter class at ASA in my age group. So, I’ve qualified for the tournament by dropping down into a younger division. I expect I’ll be competing against archers that aren’t much older than my children.
During a conversation with Reo Wilde I mentioned I’d like to get to a point where I can compete against the archers he shoots against. He mentioned, “All these young guys are so good.” He is right there are a lot of younger archers that are good. There are also a lot of younger archers that aren’t so good – he doesn’t need to shoot against them. Reo Wilde, also, doesn’t compete in 3D. On the other hand I did get my wish to compete against younger archers.
I’ve looked at 3D in the same way I considered mountain bike racing compared to road bike racing. The disciplines are different and each attracts it’s own breed of athlete. Switching over from one disciple to the other provides a nice break. And I figure, with archery, put the dot in the middle and shoot the dot. It isn’t as if I’m trying to race these younger guys through the woods on a mountain bike.