I enjoy practice about as much as shooting a tournament.
The problem with practice however, is you get to choose your yardage and sometimes, we slack a little bit and we'll shoot the shots in practice we know we can hit well.
Recently, my son came up with a neat idea and I kinda added to the idea. More on that shortly........
So admittedly, a few months ago, even though I practiced daily I was kinda stuck and seemed like I wasn't improving. But then I found an app for Android called: My Targets.
I'm sure they have something similar for iphone.
You can input your bow and gear. And choose from probably over 50 target faces for ASA, IBO, NFAA, indoor, field archery, 3D, etc.
Because I'm keeping score every time I shoot, it challenges me to beat my last score. So now I'm not randomly thwacking arrows, I'm thwacking arrows with a purpose. And my shooting has greatly improved.
I've shot in the men's pins 30 class all year but the next tournament I'm moving up to the known 40 class. So today I shot my first practice round using my Hinge release.
My shot placement pattern:
Tomorrow I'll use my thumb button release.
By the time my tournament comes around August 5th, I'll look at my average score for the hinge and for the thumb button release and whichever I have the best average with that's the one I'll use.
Yep, the app will give you the average score per arrow.
This is the average for the MP30 class with my hinge:
And this is the average score per arrow with my thumb button:
I simply print the ASA 10 ring with the 12 rings on a piece of paper to actual size. If it hits outside the 10 ring but still on the paper I score it an 8. Off the paper I score it a zero. But I haven't missed the paper in some time now.
So about that neat idea my son came up with:
These triangle dice are for some sort of a foreign game.
The stakes at an ASA course are yellow, blue, red and white for the farthest. So I colored each set of numbers per side (4 sides) with each color.
The dice are tiny. So you can simply shake one in your hand. If you're practicing with friends on the range each person shakes the dice and whatever color is on the bottom, that's the stake you shoot from. However, if you're not comfortable shooting that far, you can choose two of the numbers to be the yardage you want.
At home, when I practice ASA, I use two arrows. I shake the dice in my hand. Let's say the blue side is on the bottom, I'll use the largest and the smallest two numbers for my first arrow. 41. And for the second arrow I use the middle number, the 3 and add the other two numbers together 1+4=5 and shoot the second arrow at 35 yards.
Then the next time I'll shoot whatever the lowest two numbers are for the first arrow and then use the middle number and the other two added together for the second arrow. Let's say I get the yellow side, first arrow will be 12 yards, second arrow will be 24 yards.
That way I'm not making it easy for myself.
That's how I did my practice today and it's pretty fun.
So this morning was hinge day. So pitiful!!
I decided to shoot my fake tournament cold. Meaning, no practice shots, no breakfast, and just one cup of coffee. You ever arrive late to the tournament, or get up late for your hunt and not get a practice shot beforehand?
Normally for tournaments I shoot at the practice range until I get settled in.
Anyway, I didn't fair so well this morning. I even had two misfires with my hinge. The first one I blamed myself until the second one misfires at about 3/4 draw. Couldn't find any setscrews loose so the only thing I can think of is maybe dust or lint from my pocket.
So far my average with the thumb button is 257.
Average with the hinge is 248.
The 232 I got this morning really hurt the average. Which is why I normally use the thumb button for tournaments. In practice I've shot some of my best scores with the hinge but I've also shot some of the worst.
Practiced with the thumb button today. Punched it on the second shot and scored an 8 at 45 yards. Settled down after that.
No shooting a regular ASA practice round today.
Instead I focused on making sure all my yardage marks were dead on as I could get them on my slider. I now have them marked from 5-45 yards in 2.5 yard increments.
I especially made sure to mark a 5,7.5,10,12.5,15 and 17.5 yards.
I know my weakness will be past 25 yards because I can hardly see the 10 ring even with binoculars past 25 yards. And the small clubs throw in several targets below 20 yards so I hope to make up some points on those.
We shall find out in a couple weeks!
I thought I'd just use this post to share my progress,(or decline 😂) here.
I actually modified my numbers on my practice dice just using a sharpie to give a wider variety of yardages. The numbers I used were:
049
281
453
732
Those numbers will give the possibility of any of these yardages:
4-9-12-18-21-23-27-28-32-34-35-37-40-43-45-49-53-54-72-73-81-82-90-94
However, 45 yards is my maximum yardage here at home. Although today I didn't shoot past 43 yards.
I simply added the numbers to the dice with a sharpie. I actually contacted a guy to see if he could 3D print me some with my numbers engraved so I could add the ASA shooting stake colors like I did the factory engraved numbers.
So this morning I shot a practice round with my hinge release. I shot yardages from 4 to 43 yards choosing the majority from the choices given by rolling the dice when possible from 25-40 yards. I hit a couple 8s but overall I was pleased with my shooting.
Nice shooting! Love all the details.