Field Special: compound tips
Essentials for the darkside, outside
Now that a 2020 outdoor season is gradually coming into view, it's time to give some thought to the possibility of giving field a try if you haven't already. There are a few important points that will help compound target shooters transfer their skills to the slopes.even if you still expect to do more target tournaments than field in an average season, you may find that you absolutely love field and it could even lead to some of your greatest archery achievements.
Sight tapes.
Most target shooters get their three or four sight marks required for a given event, scribble them down on a piece of paper and that's it — done. This method will work fine for target, but for field it just won't do, and it will catch you out pretty quickly. In actual fact a proper sight tape will be faster to get than a full set of sight marks, and will be more accurate in the long run. This will need some investment as I would recommend getting a computer program to work out your sight tapes for you. 'Accurate Sights' and 'Archer's Advantage' are the traditional ones, but others are now available. Accurate Sights is really simple to use and very user friendly, while Archer's Advantage is a little more complicated, but has more detail, and can help with tuning and arrow selection as well. You will need to take a few simple measurements from your bow, get a 20-metre sight mark and a 70-metre sight mark, plug all this into the program, and it will produce a highly accurate sight tape. You may have to adjust the tape by one or two FPS to get it absolutely perfect but the first one is always pretty close.
Having a good sight tape will save you a lot of points out on the course, as it drastically reduces the chance of miss-setting your sight and the possibility of losing your little piece of paper. It also removes all the inaccuracies of five-metre increments, which most people get their marks in. For example: if you only have a 60 and 65 mark, and you want to cut one and a half metres off a 65-metre target, you might struggle to get it right.
Third axis levelling.
Third axis levelling is pretty important, especially if you are planning on shooting up and down slopes. It can be really tough making a good shot it far more than target and get a real sense on a 45-degree downhill slope so if you do of achievement from it It breaks the boredom manage to make a good shot and still get of just walking backwards and forwards all a four because of your third axis it's pretty day and depending on the course you're at frustrating. I use the popular Hamskea third axis levelling device for this. It comes with easy-to-follow instructions, and on a steep course will save lots of points. A third axis which is set incorrectly will give you extremely bad left and rights as you shoot up and down hills. (Bow's Duncan Busby gave details of how to set up levelling in Bow 126.)
French tune
A good centre shot will produce straight arrow flight whatever distance you shoot, so setting this correctly will not only help you shoot field well but you may even find that your target results also improve. A proper French tune will ensure that as you move up and down distance, your left and right sight adjustment will stay the same. It can be extremely tough if you're shooting dead centre at 30 metres and 30cm off to the right at 70 metres. There are a number of articles – and Youtube videos – that explain French tuning in more detail, but to simplify it; get your arrows hitting dead centre at 20 metres, then move back to 50 metres and see if your arrows move left or right. If the 50 metre arrows go left, then you need to move your rest position right. Likewise, if your 50 metre arrows go right you need to move your rest left. Keep repeating the process until your left/right stays identical between long and short distances.
"A BRIGHT ARROW IS A SIMPLE FIX. CERTAINLY COMPARED TO A SET OF £1,000 BINOCULARS, ANYWAY."
Fibre pin
I would recommend a 0.019" green fibre to use as your aiming device, as this will give you a very fine point to aim with which will be wellsuited to all face types at all distances. The fibre also brings in more light, so in dark woods it's much more visible than a dot. For IFAA rounds, you can also have a light for the fibre making visibility even better, but unfortunately you can't have one for FITA field, so if you know which discipline you'll be shooting most of, that's something to look into.
Keep it light
Compound archers don't have keep it trad, and are free to use brightly coloured nocks, wraps, and fletchings. Where possible, brightly-coloured arrows can really help you out, especially if you don't have the money to splash out on a top-end set of binoculars.
Sometimes it can be quite difficult to see where your arrows have gone if it's dark, so bright arrows will help you to spot them. Spotting your arrows is critical as you can adjust after your first shot should you need to. Even if it's in the middle, sometimes not knowing where it's landed can knock your confidence and ruin the next shots. A bright arrow is a simple fix. Certainly compared to a set of £1,000 binoculars, anyway.
get a Tour guide?
Where possible try and find someone from your club to go with you. There are some different rules in field concerning which peg to shoot off, and which face to shoot at, so going with an experienced friend or club member w ill help stop you from making any really silly mistakes. We were all new to this world once – don't be afraid of asking for help from someone more experienced.
The only thing we have to fear...
Don't be afraid to give it a try. It can appear to be quite intimidating at first but field archery is really enjoyable and can tie you a real sense of achievement. It breaks the boredom of walking backwards and forwards all day and depending on the course you can see some pretty amazing things. Archery tournaments have taken place at World War 1 forts, huge castles in Germany and hanging off a cliff in Brecon. Wherever you are, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.