First Leg of the IBO Northeast Triple Crown

7

   I got an early start on Saturday and headed to Connecticut to attend the first leg of the IBO Northeast Triple Crown. Although the forecast was calling for heavy rain, Jacob, Wade, Dad, and I made plans to attend, figuring it was no big deal if we encountered some nasty rain. After all, you can't control the weather at a national event, so you might just as well shoot in the rain at home to get used to it. I've always shot well in bad conditions, so I wasn't too terribly concerned about the forecast. 

  The trip to the shoot went well. There's no direct route to get there after leaving Albany, so we enjoyed our ride across the countryside. When we finally arrived, we got to see our friends John Freeman and Jay Spencer. We hadn't seen them in a bit, so it was good to catch up on things. Cole Bromley, John Vozzy and Jon Purdy were also warming up. We all got started about the same time in hopes of beating the rain, which was definitely going to hit with a vengeance when it finally arrived. 

  Walking to my first target,  I saw an elk in a dark hole. Barry and my father had solid 10s, so I had a good reference point. When I drew my bow, the pin settled nicely, and the shot fired after a longer than normal hold. The shot didn't feel 100% but it still felt good. I smoked the 11... off to a good start.

  Looking at the second target, I saw a grazing doe in a hole under a blowdown. I knew it was going to be a tough judge and a tough shot. I was standing in dark pines, and the target was across a very short opening at the end of a field. I couldn't see the head, the ass or the legs. I could see the midsection of the deer, which made it very difficult to judge the size of the target, and I'm a typical target judger. Although I had all of that working against me, I felt confident with my number when I set my sight and drew my bow. 

  When I hit anchor, I made sure I was tight on both ends, and I pushed my bow through the target. As I pushed the bow through the target, all of my doubts about the distance disappeared, and I got more aggressive. Seconds later, the shot broke and the arrow appeared in the 11. 

  Since I hadn't shot this bow one time at a 3D event, my confidence quickly grew. I knew it was driving tacks at home, and I set it up to shoot at the ASA in Kentucky next week. Although it's only going 291 fps, it hits behind the pin and seems forgiving. I wanted to shoot it on this IBO course because I knew there would be all sorts of terrain to contend with and plenty of yardage to test the slower speed. I find it tough to change between bows, even if the bows are the same model. I've never been able to get two bows to feel exactly the same, even if everything is set up the same. That's the case with this bow and the red bow I shot last week at the IBO. The red bow seems to allow me to break a better shot, but the black bow seems to group better, but I have to struggle to get my shot off. 

  Moving to the third target, a standing bear, I executed an average shot and had the right number. Unfortunately, the shot didn't have everything I had, and the arrow hit perfectly in line but under the 10-ring. I was not happy about it, as I've been having phantom lows this spring, and I can't fully identify what I'm doing to cause them or what in my set-up is leading to the misfortunes I have already encountered. 

  Over the next few targets, I shot a few more 11s and an 8 or two. I gained confidence with every shot, but the 8s with the right number followed me from the standing bear and made sure I knew they were quietly sitting in my quiver waiting for a turn. Although my shot didn't continue feeling like it did in the beginning, I still managed to stay in the 10-ring. However, when I came upon a long, downhill stone sheep that was between two big trees, the number didn't fool me. I knew it was max yardage, so I set my sight and made a great shot. However, the arrow landed just under the 10-ring. Since I led the target, I wasn't sure if I just aimed in the wrong spot or if I broke low and that's where the arrow hit. It bothered me a little bit, but I left it there when I walked to the next target. When we got to the fallow deer, the rain started coming down. You could hear it coming before it got to us, as it was pounding off the leaves on the trees back toward the clubhouse. We just waited, knowing we were going to take a soaking in a minute or two. When it came, it came with fury. I quickly put my raincoat on and slid my bow umbrella over the bow. 

  With a few targets left for the first half, we came upon a downhill javelina. It wasn't that far of a shot, but the target was leaning back quite a ways, and the rain had just soaked us. When it was my turn, I had a good aiming spot, as Jacob had centered the 11. The pin bounced around a bit before the shot fired, and I thought I got the bottom of the 10 when I saw the arrow hit. However, when we got closer to the target, we realized my arrow was actually on the 8-line, not the 10-line. The target was leaned back more than it had appeared, and this cut the size of the 10-ring in half. I finished off the course with a solid 10 on the bomb of a Corsican ram. I hit it an inch to the right of the 11. 

                                                            Second Half

  We quickly looked at the radar before starting the second half and realized we didn't have much time before the storm would make its presence known. When I looked at the mt. lion to start the second half, the number stuck out to me. I centered my pin on it and made a good shot. The arrow landed at the bottom of the 10-ring and a hair to the left, and I knew I had a good number.

  Moving along to the second target, a caribou, I felt good about my number. I executed another great shot and just missed the 11. Satisfied I moved along toward the Big 10 at the next station. I executed one of my best shots of the day and smoked the 11. Although the bow aimed well up to that point, my shot was difficult to replicate. I couldn't figure out if it was because I felt weak or if the set-up was a hair off somewhere. However, I was shooting 11s and barely missing many others. Over the course of the next three targets, a strutting turkey, bedded doe, and a coyote, I made some great shots and got one 11. The other two barely missed the 11. 

  After the coyote, the heavens screamed and beckoned us to get out of the woods but we continued through the darkness and waited for the pummeling rain to begin. This forced me to lose my train of thought and begin trying to rush things. This caused all sorts of issues because I could no longer hold the bow steady and I was trying to rush, which actually caused more issues with getting my shot to fire consistently. 

  When we came upon the leopard without spots, the rain began coming down in buckets and made it almost impossible to see the targets. Luckily, I 10d the leopard, but it hit at the bottom of the 10-ring and to the left, and I knew I had too much number. After we all shot the target, we basically ran to the next one, which was a polar bear. I think I made my best shot of the day on that long, uphill standing bear, but the arrow once again hit low and left of the 10-ring. I knew I had the right number on it, too.  When we got to the rubbing buck, I couldn't see anything out of my scope. There was so much water all over everything, and there was no escaping it. It had quickly turned into a monsoon. I aimed the best I could and thought the pin was in the middle but the arrow ended up low and left of the 10-ring. 

  When we finally arrived at the last target of the day, a bedded buck, the rain showed no mercy. Nobody could see the target, and our scopes and peeps were filled with water. Once again, I made a great shot, but the arrow found it's way to the low left of the 10-ring, but this time it dropped even farther below the ring and barely caught foam on the animal. I had even added yardage to that shot because of the previous three targets, but it wasn't enough. 

  I walked away from the last target and felt like my good day had washed away with the rain. I've never had much change on any bow in big rain, but after today, I can no longer say the same. The rain affected this setup drastically, and it did it quickly without warning. I'm thinking it may have happened because I have barely any miles on this bow or the strings and cables. I'm thinking they may not have been worked in well enough to handle the amount of water they absorbed. When I got home, I shot two groups of three arrows from 50 yards, and all of the arrows hit outside of the blue on a 5-spot. 

However, the third group of arrows found their way back too the white. I'm not sure what happened, but I need to learn from it and make the adjustments after the first shot gets away. Instead, I let the problem go and fed into it, which in turn made me lose nine points due to something that I couldn't control. Lesson of the day: trust yourself enough to adjust something after two shots in a row hit someplace they shouldn't hit while shooting in pouring rain. I ended up finishing at 10 down... 290 and nine of the points disappeared in the last three shots. 

                                                                    My Take on the Day

  

  Going into the day, I didn't know what to expect. I knew there would be a lot of tricky yardages, rough terrain, and shots that would test accuracy. Since national ASA and IBO events are different, I figured if I brought my ASA setup and it performed well, I would have a little more confidence going into the ASA Pro-Am in Kentucky next weekend. 

  Well, I got out of there with the confidence, but I need to figure out what's causing the random low shots this year. I do know I don't seem to get them when I shoot less holding weight, but I make better shots with the higher holding weight. I need to find something that is in the middle and works on both ends: aiming and execution. Considering the course had a lot of big yardage on it, with the blue stake averaging just shy of 42 yards, I think I held my own for having never shot this bow anywhere other than in the yard. I consider that a success. However, it's hard to walk off a course and feel good about the fact that I shot really well until the monsoon hit, and that is when I lost most of the points. I feel I'm better than to lose points due to those circumstances. I wish I could've shot the course on a nice day, but it wasn't possible. I did learn that this bow is one of the few that I've ever shot that had adverse reactions to getting drenched. I will now put that in my memory bank and remember it: I hit considerably low and left when the bow gets sopping wet. I'll have to add a few yards and give it a few clicks left if I encounter weather like that again. 

  I've had the pleasure of shooting with Jacob many times over the last handful of years, both indoors and outdoors, and his ability never ceases to amaze me, but I saw something on Saturday that made my smile and root for him even harder.   

  As we began, he started off well, and, as I always tell everyone, it only takes one to start a streak. Well, his streak started on target 1 and continued the rest of the day. His shot was effortless and his arrows found their way to the center on 2/3 of the shots, and this was not an easy course. In my time, I love shooting with him when his shot breaks and he says, "Yup." He knows he 11d it before the arrow is even half way to the target. 

  As we progressed through the range, he was clicking on all cylinders and it was incredible to watch. When you get to shoot with one of the best shooters in the world regularly, you become numb to it at times. However, there are some times when these people do things that are mind-boggling. Saturday was one of those days. It looked like he transported himself back to his youth and semi-pro days. I'm hoping the roll continues so we can all cheer him on along the way. 

  Some people think things come easy to shooters like Jacob. I can be the first to tell you that he encounters all the struggles that we all face every day, week, month and year. I've learned since the beginning of my time behind a bow that our struggles are what define us. They will either make us or break us. It's all up to us to decide what will happen in our own personal situations. 

  I choose to shoot with Jacob so often because he makes me better. He also makes me realize that nobody is perfect and nobody can be perfect. I've seen him shoot zeros, fives, eights, tens, elevens and twelves, but he always recovers and makes the changes necessary to be better the next time. I can only hope that in some small way I've made him better too, as my goal with archery is to make myself better, share my passion and help others get better too, even if it's just from a quick conversation or an inspiring quote. I'm never going to help Jacob shoot a better shot, and I'm not going to help him shoot more 11s. However, if I can give him a bit of advice from one of my past experiences, it might just help him somewhere in the future. He has given me plenty of shooting advice that has helped me along the way, and I'll be forever thankful for that.

  If you surround yourself with good people who are great shooters, it will improve your game and you won't even know it's happening. I challenge all of you to surround yourself with the best shooters you can find and shoot with them. Competition drives people to succeed. It will thin out the weak, and only the strong survive. 

  We are headed to London, Ky., this week to try our hand at the ASA Pro-Am. I'm going in with no expectations because the ranges aren't usually set up like all of the other other ASAs. London has horribly dark lanes and a lot of terrain if you get stuck on the wrong ranges. I have one goal for the tournament, and that is to get used to formulating a plan for the next two ASAs, so I have a place to start. I'm hoping to make Metropolis and the Classic providing I can do it. I'm not getting any younger, and I just want to shoot a few ASAs this year to see if I can hold my own. I used to be good at it back in the day and got on the podium a few times as a much younger man, so I'll take my chances again and see where it leads me. It's difficult to compete against people who solely shoot ASA, but I'm going to try my hand at it. After all, last week in Pipestem, many of the regular faces in the ASA shootoffs tried their hand at IBO and didn't fare too well, which is to be expected because the tournaments are not similar in any way, from aiming at lower 12s to the different types of targets. I'm hoping my transition this week will prove fruitful and give me something to build off from. Only time will tell, but I'll give it my best shot. 

  I encourage all of my Northeast friends to try to get to the two IBOs next weekend: Guan Ho Ha in New York or Catamount Bowhunters in Vermont. Show your support and help these clubs. Have fun out there and I'll see you at the next one.