This week went by quickly. I scrambled to get my hunting rig set up since I will be in Colorado chasing elk in less than three weeks. Amazingly, the tune went flawlessly, and my hunting arrows were grouping as good as my 3D arrows in a matter of minutes after changing my rest and arrows. I decided on ACC 339s this year. I've been using ACCs since the mid-90s, and I'll probably never stop using them as long as they're made. I've always gone back and forth between 349s, 339s and 328s. Due to a few different variables this year, I decided the 339 would be my best bet. According to the groups I shot the last few days with those arrows, I think I made the right choice. I'll know more if I get to launch one at an elk..........stay tuned. You can follow my hunting journal on my website if you want more information about my hunting adventures. I try to keep it updated throughout the hunting season.
I posted the picture above her for a particular reason, and that reason is related to the team shoot in Royalston, Mass., on Saturday. Going into the shoot, I felt really confident about my shot. Coming off a great performance at the IBO World last week, everything seemed to be clicking.
We drove through some nasty weather on the way to the shoot, and when we got there, we shot a few practice arrows and headed to the first target. We appeared to be the last group headed onto the course, and we had six people in the group. Since we were shooting marked yardage, it wouldn't be too bad. I thought my day was going to be a disaster when I shot eights on the first two targets. Instantly, I became a little agitated. How could I shoot two 8s in a row on marked yardage targets? My shot had been good all week, and I felt like I would shoot well at this event. The first two shots, I felt a little shaky and the shots definitely weren't some of the best shots I've ever executed. On the third target, I got my feet back under me and started doing what I do. Within a few targets, I was on a roll. Between Jacob and I, we struggled to hit the bonus rings. We weren't missing them by much, but we searched through our memories and realized that we started the exact same way last year.
We finally began rolling when we got out on the powerline last year, so we hoped for the same this year. This year there was a 70-yard antelope out there, and damn..............it looked like a fawn antelope.........a million miles away. When my shot broke, it felt really good, but when the arrow struck the target, we couldn't tell if it was a 10. We were pretty certain it was cutting the line on the bottom, but not sure enough to let Jacob shoot at the 14............so we held off and he shot for the center. When we got to the target to score the arrows, my arrow wasn't even close, it was a solid 10. I guess we needed better binoculars. After that target, we started picking up some steam and my shots began breaking perfectly. My pin sat nicely in the center of the kill zone, and my release fired with relative ease. And that's when we began digging our way out of the hole we had crawled into out of the gate. Neither one of us had any doubts, but we knew we had a ways to go. As I began shooting 11s, Jacob began shooting 14s. I felt at ease, which made it easy to shoot. I knew Jacob had my back, and I also knew he felt a little more relaxed when my arrows continually found their way into the 11s. Maybe, just maybe we would gain enough points back to stand a chance of besting our record score from last year.
The rain came down in buckets for about five minutes as we shot our last target of the first half. I centered it and Jacob followed it up with a 14. We both felt good about our first half. After all, I think we were six or seven targets in and were only three up. Things definitely weren't looking good at that point, but we had no doubts about our abilities.
As we marched across the field to start the second half, we sat down and waited for another group to get to the stake. Since we had six shooters and they had four shooters, we decided to let them shoot the target before us so we wouldn't hold them up.
As we conversed for a few minutes, Steve Santos and Jim McDevitt told us that Braden and Casey has finished at 67 up and Sean and Josh were at 37 up at the halfway point. Suddenly, we didn't feel so good about our first half. As we sat there dumbfounded, we began questioning if the wool was being pulled over our eyes. I've seen a lot of people talk smack, only to find out the smack was just put out there to troll other people. We questioned whether we were being trolled. That's when Jacob said, "We are going to do this, lets get everyone one of these on this half. If it's true, we have to give it everything we have." We both recalled last year when we shot that half and that's where we were able to get some separation.
When I Xd the first shot, Jacob followed it up with a 14...........and then it was game on. He reminded me on every target that we could do it. I was shooting well and he was shooting like he always does, phenomenally well. As we made our way through the course, I stayed in the 11 ring on almost every shot and Jacob pounded the 14s, which almost made my shots seem worthless. At the same time, I knew I was doing my part, because Jacob wasn't going to shoot at the 14s if I wasn't in the 10-ring. Moving along, he kept reminding me that I was making it easy for him, and he said there wasn't any pressure at all when he knew we already had 11 points, but at the same time, he knew we needed the 14s to have any chance whatsoever of catching the other guys.
When we got a little way down the trail, we ran into Sean, Josh, Shawn and Brandon. Jacob and I were a little feisty and had some fun with the guys when Sean was showing us a problem he was having with a limb. Hearing the feistiness, Shawn Couture said, "Wow, Jacob I've never heard you like that. Did those scores you heard fire you up?" Jacob laughed and didn't acknowledge it. After we walked away, Jacob went on autopilot and told us he was going to get as many of those 14s as possible. Meanwhile, I'm thinking that he must have a lot of confidence in me...........because he wouldn't be shooting at them if I didn't do my part.
When we came out into the field for the last four shots, Jacob told me he was going to get every one of them. Looking at the shots ahead of us, I saw that each of the targets had some serious yardage on them. On top of the yardage, there were a few spotting scopes pointing at the targets and a fair amount of noise under the outside platform. I led off the feeding doe in the field and smoked it. As I'm feeling good about my shot, Jacob calmly steps to the stake and drills the 14.......again.
Looking at the next target, I can see that it's the rising boar, and it has a little bit of an angle on it. When my shot broke, I said, "yup" in my head. I knew I had it, and the target was the judge of my performance. The judge held the 11 card up for Jacob to see. My performance had earned an 11. I was pretty stoked about it and sat in my chair to watch my partner's performance. When his arrow struck the target, we were unsure what the target was going to give him for a grade. His performance was really good, but the target didn't want to hold the card up. As we approached the target, we knew it was close. The paint has washed off the 14-ring. Luckily the arrow was touching the ring, and we had another 14 on our card. When we walked inside the baseball fence and strolled to the cinnamon bear, we felt pretty confident. I'm not sure if all eyes were on us, but it kind of felt like it.
When I was aiming at the bear, my pin drifted to the right, and the shot fired. I hit two inches to the right of the 11. Once again, Jacob settled in after me and stroked another 14. Unbelievably, he had done exactly what he told me he was going to do. He said he loved having all eyes on him, then he told me the was going to get the elk. As we walked to the first target earlier in the day, he told me he was going to get the elk because that's how he wanted to end his 3D year, smoking an elk's 14-ring.
As we got closer to the platform, there was a lot of background noise, with whispers amongst some of the people. Of course, I'm fairly certain, but I can't be sure, that nobody thought we had any type of chance of shooting 67 up. I'm pretty sure that everyone had already handed out the congratulatory remarks to the 67-up team, Braden and Casey, after all, could anyone every beat a score like that, especially a team that was only 23 up at the halfway point? Although it was enjoyable for all of them to watch the Jacob show as we progressed through the field toward the finish, I'm sure none of them knew where we stood on the score sheet.
Before I shot the last target, Wade took me to the side and said, "All you have to do is shoot an 8 on this target and you have that 67 up score beaten. I said, "Really?" He said, "Yup, you guys have win if one of the two of you just shoots an 8. Flabbergasted that we could have caught them, I didn't even know what to say. I'd be lying if i didn't tell you that it didn't distract me. Between everyone talking under the platform and Wade telling me that, the concentration that I had throughout the day was suddenly gone. When I hit full draw, I was thinking about a zillion things and none of them had anything to do with shooting my shot. I let down and decided to start again. When I hit full draw, I encountered the same problem again, but I muscle through it and shot an 8...........we had won, but Jacob didn't know. Wade didn't tell him, and I didn't let him in on it. He said, "What do I do?" I said, Go for it. We probably have no chance of catching them anyway." He said, "O.K. I got this one."
Then, Wade gave me the cards and I looked at them. As I glanced down the card, I quickly saw that Wade had not added it correctly. That 8 of mine did not win the shoot for us. We actually needed a 10. I wanted to shout at Jacob and tell him to let down. I was sure he could shoot a 10 for us for the win. I don't know why, but I chose to sit back and not say a word. If he missed the 14, we would lose my one point. Seconds later, the shot broke, and the arrow landed on the bottom of the 14-ring on the 70 yard elk. Simply amazing. We ended the day at 72 up. Here's the winning shot and almost losing shot (closest one to the 10 ring on the left).
When I asked Jacob to be my partner at this shoot last year, I figured we would have a good chance. I knew our shooting would complement each other. I'm a good shooter and he's a world-class shooter. This type of team shoot requires both teammates to shoot well. This shoot cannot be won if one shooter excels because there's no way that every 14 will be hit, it's just impossible, although Jacob did hit 18 of them, I think. The amazing part is that he barely missed three of them, and those three had the pink paint washed off the 14, so he was guessing where he had to hold. One of them was the white goat and the other was the bedded buck, both tough shots at long yardages. He missed both of them by about an inch total. Amazingly a few of the others he missed along the way were fairly close as compared to many of them. He shot just out the top of them, no more than an inch. Although the score we ended up with was insane, it was within an inch or two of being even more stupid, almost as stupid as Mike Tyson showing up in "The Hangover." I'm really glad I was a part of this because I actually did my part in our team. Jacob always picks me up when I'm struggling along and shows confidence in my shooting ability. I shoot well with him, and he shoots well with me. We just have good chemistry together. There's never any negative thoughts or talk that comes up when we are shooting. We always take the positive, even if it's hard at time. I'm sure there were many teams that were ahead of us after about 8 targets. We didn't give up though, and we never had any doubt. We were both breaking good shots, but the scoring wasn't following. If you keep breaking good shots, the score will find it's way to the card.
As far as my own day goes, I was very satisfied. My first two shots were 8s and my last one was an 8. The rest of the day was pretty clear sailing and I executed some of my best shots of the year. Once again, I need to work on the concentration factor. I let a small distraction keep me from ending the day with another 10, a 10 we almost could have needed to win. I'll work on staying focused until the end and on every shot. Overall, my day was awesome in every way imaginable. I made the best shots I've made all year, and the results proved it. I'll give all of my form changes an A for the day. I felt like I had accomplished everything I set out to do.
On our way home, we had a good time and shared many laughs. Wade, Jeff, Jacob and I talked about the shoot, the year and all sorts of other things. It was a fantastic way to end the year. Jeff and Wade both shot well, too. We even saw flashes of the Wade I used to shoot with all of the time about 15 years ago before he had to take some time off to raise his family. Jeff and Wade were really close to putting up a big score. Wade got his share of 14s, and the came really close to many more.
I'd just like to thank Shawn Couture for his hard work in setting up the course. I thought this one was the best one I've shot out of the three times I've been to the shoot. Many of the 14 were in play for most of us and there were also some shots that we just needed to stay in the 10. I think we have to remember that two of the best shooters in the world are in attendance and sometimes what they do makes it seem like it wasn't hard. This course was pretty tough for us normal Joes. If you look across the board, the judges (scorecards) showed it.
I'll try to give a recap of my year in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Oh, I just want to give Jacob a shout out. Congratulations on a great year. Take some time off now and go do your thing in the woods. Have a great time with your dad and enjoy yourself. Going into next year, remember what we talked about. Approach every shoot like the one we shot this weekend, just go have fun. You love shooting a bow, just like I love shooting mine, so just shoot your bow because you love to and have fun while you're doing it. Great job, partner. Thanks for taking my offer last year and letting me be a part of your ride. I'm glad I did my part at this shoot.
Oh, a shoutout to for my dad, too. He won the Maine Senior Games. He has struggled a little bit this summer, but she shot a couple scores in the 880s this week during practice. Although he didn't put up an 880, he came pretty close. I'm glad his hard work paid off.
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