Aurora Three Day Shoot

Aurora Three Day Shoot – 26th-28th August 2017

by Queen Bee

KLFA Roving Reporter and Crossbow Queen

As my family had descended on us on Friday morning I arrived at the grounds just before dark. After managing the majority of a bottle of wine with friends I enjoyed an undisturbed night to arise the following morning wide awake and perky. Because of the stress I’ve had with neighbours from hell, Martin very kindly put me with a group who jollied me along and made me laugh and for a few golden hours I forgot about the trauma at home.

There were about 100 archers all eager to shoot these challenging grounds for more than a day and we started on the dot of 10. Always an excellent shoot, Aurora didn’t let us down with this three day event. There were 40 targets, Big Game scoring, with two on each peg thus dividing each group of mainly six archers into two, shooting the first 20 targets on the left and then vice versa for the other 20. If you’ve never shot Aurora it looks straightforward as you set off into the woods but within a short time the banks and ditches with dead ground and muddy ponds all over the place prove a difficult challenge when judging distances.

The skirl of a set of bagpipes echoed eerily through the trees and was soon loud enough to enjoy properly. Being a quarter Scottish the sound filled me with pride and made my skin tingle. We shot the first 10 targets to the sound of the bagpipes and I shot 6 x 24s, 3 x 20s, and a 16. It was awesome.

I settled down to a pretty reasonable standard of shooting, only having three second arrows. The targets were up to about 40 or 50 yards, and great use had been made of the dead ground making them very tricky. There was a smattering of 50 yarders and I finished the day with my first 800+. However, one of the targets contained three little pigs and we had to nominate two of them, so even scoring two 24s if you took one of them off my total score I was still so close but not close enough, with actually 18 short of 800. But I’ll get there some time. It was a difficult shoot and I was very pleased with my total.

My body is a traitor. I have discovered that it is totally anti-archery and is trying its best to stop me picking up a bow. At the moment it has managed my shoulders and my knees and is now looking for other unsuspecting places. Some years ago I’d been in a rush shopping in Asda. I was wearing flip-flops and started rushing faster than the trolley. My foot crashed against the metal wheel and I broke a toe! I had to finish the shopping so carried on, hopping on one foot – so brave, so fearless. But now the toe is losing its shape and bending sideways and it is only painless if I’m bare-foot or wear sandals with no sides. Walking boots are a definite no-no and after a while I was struggling to walk even on the flat. It would be unsafe to wear sandals in the woods even though it was relatively dry, and bare-foot?!! No, I’d just have to be Well ‘ard Rickard for two days and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I hoped the lone piper would fire up my blood again.

Sunday – Start time was a little later today and the weather was slightly less humid than Saturday and there were about 120 archers, a few more than the previous day. We were all shooting the same system and with the same groups – which suited me – and we approached the first peg which was a lion that had been at 45 yards the day before.

I learnt a very valuable lesson, something that I should have learnt a long time ago – never listen to the opinions of another archer. I gauged that the lion was now 50 yards and set my sight accordingly. Another archer said the lion was in the same place, and because I’m still not totally confident in my distance judging I believed him, adjusted my aim and luckily caught the belly. Apparently it WAS in the same place but from the red peg not the wasp peg, which had been moved back, and as he was shooting a longbow he was gauging from the red. I was livid with myself because I would have scored at least a 20.

Putting it behind me, and missing the piper, I discovered that Aurora are extremely devious. They had tweaked most of the targets just enough for them to be harder but it wasn’t always obvious. We all struggled with the longer distances and harder dead-ground and only one of our group ended the day with a higher score than the day before. I was about 70 points lower and had far too many second arrows but it was a superb course and I saw very few archers moving anything but slowly and stiffly when they went up for their medals.

Monday – Unfortunately only about 60 archers turned up for the IBO round and the ones that stayed away missed a treat. International Bowhunter Organisation (I think) round is a two-arrow precision round. No point just aiming for the animal you have to try and hit the centre of the pro kill. Not easy. A wound is 5, a kill is 8, a pro-kill is 10, and if you’re lucky enough to hit the tiny yellow spot in the middle you are awarded 11. Sometimes, as on the mosquito, the yellow dot was smaller than the width of the arrow!!! I managed to hit the spot once. Wooden arrows are shot from the blue peg, carbon and allys from the white peg, and as usual sighted archers were ‘punished!!!’ from the furthest peg, red. Again it was double pegged and double targeted and the amazing course layers had done a magnificent job over-night of re-arranging most of the animals or pegs. For sighted archers the distances were still up to about 50 yards and the blue peg was sometimes very close, making it awkward for wooden arrows.

Those of us who had shot the two days already were a bit foot-weary and the day was a scorcher. Thankfully the woods were almost totally free of midges and mosquitos and it was the perfect temperature under the trees. No piper again today.

It was an incredibly enjoyable, and entertaining way to shoot – it focused the mind and it was amazing what was achieved. Tony Weston scored well over 800 and had 43 spots!!! Although I missed a few first arrows I managed 611 which I assume is mediocre to average BUT – I scored the next highest total of spots with 11!

If Aurora do it again next year – and I sincerely hope they do – don’t miss it.
Over the weekend, as I was struggling with my toe round the uneven course, a song sprang to mind that I thought I could call my own. All I needed was a headache and I could sing, “Head – and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. Head – and shoulders, knees and toes……”