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One more for my honorably-dead parts pile. And this one's name is Circumstance.
Tournament report: 2008 Easton Cup
STAR FITA, round robin and elimination rounds
I was shooting this tournament almost on a whim, but I'm really, really glad I did. Otherwise, Westerns would have been my first tournament of the season, and then all this crap could have gone wrong sometime it matters more to me. Or maybe it could hvae gone wrong in practice, and I would have gotten the "what, again?" looks from the regulars. But here's the bottom line: I did particularly well, under the circumstances.
Practice day was a relief. I managed to get all my site settings, and dispel my notion that Melody has somehow less power than Vera had. Apparently the range where I'd been practicing either is distressingly mismeasured, or the targets being a few feet higher than the shooting line has much more effect than I'd expected. Either way, my sight marks are actually quite reasonable. However, once scoring started, problems developed.
Problem one. My primary string shrinks (or my nocks grow or something) when it gets warm. The difference is enough that it can no longer hold onto the arrows. I'd been correcting by twisting my locators so it squeezes the string wider in useful directions, but it stopped working. If there was an archery purity test, I would have lost a point, by calling equipment failure to step off the line to switch to my impromptu backup string. (This means I get what time I need to fix the problem, but have to shoot the arrows I missed while everyone watches. No pressure.)
Problem two. My backup string is much too short, robbing me of power and giving a horrble tune. I switch to it with twelve arrows left at 90m, miss the first two while trying to figure out where it's actually shooting, and at break need to devise a way to get my regular string back in action. The solution was to wrap another layer of serving thread, thin as I could find, around my string, giving me an overly tight nock grip but still manageable. String's back in action.
Problem three. I can't get a smooth wrap without knots, so the string is no longer cylindrical and nocks only go on it one way. This isn't really a huge problem; I can adjust the alignment of the knot by adding or removing half twists from the string. The problem appears when the end loop of the string bends over some odd corners on the tips of my limbs, one of those corners is a bit rougher than it ought to be, and I have to repeatedly reverse that bend. Halfway through the 50m arrows, I realize that I've successfully sliced through my end serving and have said rough corner rubbing right on the string itself. I've seen this before; it heralded dramatic string breakage. I start warning my neighbors of impending doom and asking around for a string I might borrow.
Not only did I find a string, the doomed one survived all the way through the distance -- and I cleaned up, scoring a personal best 308 at 50m. I secured an extra string, too, and swapped it on, despite the low strand count and high nock locator. I ended up clicking my arrows onto the string over the tied-on nock locator, again a tight fit but holding; the strand count was giving me tuning problems but I decided to let it be and compensate by sighting off. Thirty finished passably well and I closed out the FITA at 1165, a new personal best.
I was a bit worried about how the string would perform at 70m in ORs the next day, but it wasn't too bad. For round robin matches in the morning, I had good ends and bad ends, but good ones came at good times. My first two matches were against higher seeds and not overly straining; my third and forth were against much higher seeds and I got stomped. Fifth, though, was against the seed directly above me. For running score we were only three points apart; with the ten-point match victory bonus the winner would be ahead. First end we tied at 53. Second end as we walked down to score, it became apparent that we'd met each other arrow for arrow. For each of his arrows, there was one of mine not two inches away, with one exception: where he had a 6, I had a 10, and the match was mine.
There was then a three-hour break while the women had their round robins, and I must have crashed. First round into eliminations, I either couldn't keep an even anchor, or couldn't compensate for wind, and I was knocked by a whole twelve points. Go go gadget anticlimax.
So Tuesday, it's back to the string jig, this time with long enough and with thicker serving. With three weeks to westerns, I want to not have this many issues; I just want to walk in and take the division by storm. I'm feeling more and more like I can do it in spite of everything.
click
STAR FITA, round robin and elimination rounds
I was shooting this tournament almost on a whim, but I'm really, really glad I did. Otherwise, Westerns would have been my first tournament of the season, and then all this crap could have gone wrong sometime it matters more to me. Or maybe it could hvae gone wrong in practice, and I would have gotten the "what, again?" looks from the regulars. But here's the bottom line: I did particularly well, under the circumstances.
Practice day was a relief. I managed to get all my site settings, and dispel my notion that Melody has somehow less power than Vera had. Apparently the range where I'd been practicing either is distressingly mismeasured, or the targets being a few feet higher than the shooting line has much more effect than I'd expected. Either way, my sight marks are actually quite reasonable. However, once scoring started, problems developed.
Problem one. My primary string shrinks (or my nocks grow or something) when it gets warm. The difference is enough that it can no longer hold onto the arrows. I'd been correcting by twisting my locators so it squeezes the string wider in useful directions, but it stopped working. If there was an archery purity test, I would have lost a point, by calling equipment failure to step off the line to switch to my impromptu backup string. (This means I get what time I need to fix the problem, but have to shoot the arrows I missed while everyone watches. No pressure.)
Problem two. My backup string is much too short, robbing me of power and giving a horrble tune. I switch to it with twelve arrows left at 90m, miss the first two while trying to figure out where it's actually shooting, and at break need to devise a way to get my regular string back in action. The solution was to wrap another layer of serving thread, thin as I could find, around my string, giving me an overly tight nock grip but still manageable. String's back in action.
Problem three. I can't get a smooth wrap without knots, so the string is no longer cylindrical and nocks only go on it one way. This isn't really a huge problem; I can adjust the alignment of the knot by adding or removing half twists from the string. The problem appears when the end loop of the string bends over some odd corners on the tips of my limbs, one of those corners is a bit rougher than it ought to be, and I have to repeatedly reverse that bend. Halfway through the 50m arrows, I realize that I've successfully sliced through my end serving and have said rough corner rubbing right on the string itself. I've seen this before; it heralded dramatic string breakage. I start warning my neighbors of impending doom and asking around for a string I might borrow.
Not only did I find a string, the doomed one survived all the way through the distance -- and I cleaned up, scoring a personal best 308 at 50m. I secured an extra string, too, and swapped it on, despite the low strand count and high nock locator. I ended up clicking my arrows onto the string over the tied-on nock locator, again a tight fit but holding; the strand count was giving me tuning problems but I decided to let it be and compensate by sighting off. Thirty finished passably well and I closed out the FITA at 1165, a new personal best.
I was a bit worried about how the string would perform at 70m in ORs the next day, but it wasn't too bad. For round robin matches in the morning, I had good ends and bad ends, but good ones came at good times. My first two matches were against higher seeds and not overly straining; my third and forth were against much higher seeds and I got stomped. Fifth, though, was against the seed directly above me. For running score we were only three points apart; with the ten-point match victory bonus the winner would be ahead. First end we tied at 53. Second end as we walked down to score, it became apparent that we'd met each other arrow for arrow. For each of his arrows, there was one of mine not two inches away, with one exception: where he had a 6, I had a 10, and the match was mine.
There was then a three-hour break while the women had their round robins, and I must have crashed. First round into eliminations, I either couldn't keep an even anchor, or couldn't compensate for wind, and I was knocked by a whole twelve points. Go go gadget anticlimax.
So Tuesday, it's back to the string jig, this time with long enough and with thicker serving. With three weeks to westerns, I want to not have this many issues; I just want to walk in and take the division by storm. I'm feeling more and more like I can do it in spite of everything.
click