Club
Tournaments, News, Target Information,
Teaching
Archery, and More
Club Events and News:
2012 VBA Indoor
Sectional
Championship
Hosted by
Augusta Archer, Belvoir
Bowhunters, Kingsboro Bowmen and Sherwood Archers
February 25th
& 26th, 2012
Directions to
Take I-81to exit 222, then take Rt.
250 East towards Waynesboro, go to 2nd stoplight and take a right on
Desper Hollow Road, go about 1 mile then take a right
on Archery Lane and follow the road straight up to the clubhouse. (East or
West) Take I-64 to I-81 North then follow directions above.
Registration
by Mail: Must be received by Monday. February 14th
Friday evening from
Send Pre-Registration forms to:
Contact
Information and make check(s) payable to
Lodging: Comfort Inn 540.886.5000 or Econo
Lodge 540.885.5158 or Sleep
Camping is available with limited
space.
Food and Refreshments will be
available Saturday and Sunday
Directions to
Exit
Registration: Pre-registration
is encouraged due to installation security.
Form & check(s) Must
be received by
Registration and Refreshments on Friday evening from
Opening
ceremony and reading of the rules:
Directions to Kingsboro Bowmen:
WILCOX INDOOR
Registration
Times:
Saturday
PRE-REGISTRATION APPRECIATED!
For
Additional Information & Directions to Wilcox
Website: www.kingsboro.bizland.com
Sherwood Archers:
Registration Times on Friday evening from
Make checks payable to
Sherwood Archers,
Contact Tournament
Chairman:
VBA Membership is required to receive an award
Archer may shoot two rounds on the same day, time and space
permitting
Fees: $20 per person or
$40 max per family
VBA
RULES WILL BE FOLLOWED
300
ROUND EACH DAY 60 Arrows
START TIMES
Saturday,
February 25th Sunday,
February 26th
1st
2nd
3rd
Please keep in mind the time and accuracy to
consolidate the final scores at these four sites are important!
Fill out this form completely.
Please print clearly and only one person per form.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
VBA
Indoor Sectional Championship Registration
NAME:
________________________________________________ PHONE: _______________________
ADDRESS:
____________________________________________________________________________
CITY:
VBA#:
_________________________ HOME CLUB: __________________________________________
Circle those that
apply:
Division: PeeWee Cub Youth Young
Adult Adult Senior Guests Gender: M F
Style: FS/R FS/F
BHFS/R BHFS/F BH BB TRAD
Class: Archers will be classed after the
first day’s score
Round
Preference: Saturday: 1st 2nd 3rd Sunday: Will be determined
after Saturday’s round.
The field and Hunter pin shoot on August 19, 2012
has been
cancelled due to a scheduling conflict
Crossbows - Should VBA Recognize Them?
Odds are that if you
want to start a heated discussion in any of your clubs these days, all you have
to say is one word: Crossbows. There are those that are passionate about
them in every club and want to allow their use; and also those that are equally
passionate about keeping them out. Both
sides have legitimate points, so most of the time there never is a clear
winner.
This isn’t anything
new to our sport. At the risk of giving away my age, let me say that compound
bows didn’t exist when I first took up archery and the sport of bowhunting; and I heard many of the same arguments that I’m
hearing with the crossbow controversy today. Compounds were dangerous; they were too
powerful for the target butts we were using and shouldn’t be permitted on the
ranges; they shouldn’t be allowed to be used during the regular archery season
(which was intended to be for primitive weapons) and would make it too easy to
harvest deer, reducing their numbers.
Nevertheless, compound bows didn’t go away and eventually became
accepted (albeit grudgingly). At that
time compound bows were only capable of 30% reduction in draw weight, so when
archery manufacturers introduced bows with 50% let off, the controversy started
again. When manufacturers pushed the
envelope to 80% let off, Pope and Young refused to allow animals taken with
bows that offered that much let off.
We’ve had arguments about mechanical releases, lighted sight pins,
expandable broadheads, and the list goes on. More often than not, when innovation comes to
our sport, there are those that love it, those that hate it, and a new round of
controversy starts anew.
So now we find
ourselves discussing the merits and evils of crossbows. Let me say upfront that I don’t own a
crossbow; in fact, I’ve never fired one, so I’m not a zealous advocate. However, it isn’t hard for a non-user like me
to see that crossbow users are quickly becoming the fastest growing segment of
new archers joining our ranks. This fact
hasn’t been lost on the
So, have your
debates, form your club positions, and send your representative to the January
VBA meeting with your club’s views. As
always, the Executive Board looks forward to using your views to shape your
Virginia Bowhunters Association.
Good Shooting! Bob Foster
Third time’s the
Charm
By Ben Mahmond
Belvoir Bowhunters
So the story goes.
Last year (2010) John Castaneda sees a
buck from his stand, a single brief encounter.
He said it appeared that the deer had a “drooping” brow tine or something
odd about it. The season ends with no
more encounters.
Skip ahead
a couple months. John goes into what was believed to be the bedding area. He finds the right side shed, several days
later I return with him and I find the left side, the side that had the odd brow. It did not droop, but rather had some knotty
junk on it. He nicknamed the deer “Droopy”
after his initial encounter.
Skip yet again to July 2011. Working in
the same vicinity, I would watch several bucks and does come into a
field to feed in the evenings. John and
I would watch these bucks and does many times throughout the late summer and we were relatively sure that
one was “Droopy”.
September comes and we are still seeing
him and a few others as time comes to put up our 2011 stands for the season. John installs his where he had the encounter
last year, and I place another 188 yards away. I placed a game cam in front of my stand and
left it for several days in “video” mode.
I capture “Droopy” and some other deer with in 24 yards of my
set-up, confirming he is in the area. After downing the does required earning a
buck tag on the property we are hunting, I see the buck several times.
Each time I see him I notice several
things: he seems to always travel with the wind at his back and is extremely
cautious. This is such a strong pattern
that I decide I can only hunt this stand and have a chance at him if the wind
is out of the North. I can get away with
a wind from the North East as well.
I started sitting this tree in late
Mid-Oct. before work at times, but only on the North wind.
One day I sit in the stand and have him
and another buck walk up within 34 yards while I watch another buck I wanted a
better look at. Bottom line: opportunity
blown.
After discussing this encounter with Mike Zrimm, he convinced me that people sometimes sit an entire
season for one opportunity at such a deer, and that I should not waste a single
opportunity at him. I went home and
reflected on my decision to let him walk that morning.
Sitting another stand roughly 150 yards
away one evening, I had three mature does come in behind me. I was ready and facing them when they started
acting very nervous. One was blowing as she left the area spooked. Thinking she had spooked all other deer in
the area, I focused on the remaining does.
They kept looking my way but past me. I turned my head slightly in the direction of
their stare and heard a deer walking. As
I caught an image from the corner of my eye, I realized it was Droopy. Trying to get turned around without the alert
does blowing my cover, he just passed through my third and last shooting
lane. Second
opportunity blown.
He skirted down below me at 20 yards in
the heavier cover and went on his way. The
only plus is he still was very unaware of my presence.
Thursday Nov. 3. John wants to hunt his stand; I try to
discourage this because the wind was from the south. He was determined and decided to hunt the area,
as did I. How could I not? I was off
this entire week to try to take him this deer.
As I expected, we saw nothing from either
stand location and hunted elsewhere that evening.
The evening ended and John decided to hunt
another area the following morning. I,
however, noticed the weather was to be mild and the wind out of the North. I
was to have the immediate area all to myself.
I got to my parking spot about 10 minutes
prior to legal shooting light, slipped into my stand and was set up about 5
minutes later.
After about 25 minutes the sun began to
peek over the horizon, directly in my face. I saw a doe running along an old fence line I
was set up on and where my camera had picked up Droopy well over a month prior.
She passed and another doe ran by as if
being chased.
Only a short moment later came another
running by. I got excited as we were
coming up on the “seeking/chasing” phase of the breeding season.
To my disappointment, a spike came next. I was thinking it was still early. Just a minute or maybe two later, I hear a
twig crack, and I look over my left shoulder to see Droopy walking right to me.
Using all cover available, he approached
the pine I was in, stayed under my tree for a few brief moments. He decided he would step out to the end of the
fence (where my camera had been) to “peek” around as if he wanted to make sure
it was clear to expose himself prior to going into the bedding area.
I thought it is now or never, third time’s
a charm.
I drew my
bow and bent over to place my pin on him, he was 8 yards away. I fired, watching my lighted nock bury into his back and
towards his opposite shoulder, He bound out into the opening and headed to the
bedding area. I reached down to grab my bingos,
and he stopped at the edge of the bedding momentarily. He started to run sideways as if to catch his
balance, fell over, and was dead 50 yards away.
I pumped my
fist, hung up my bow and looked for any movement in the tall weeds, nothing. He was mine!
I started to shake realizing what I had
just accomplished, knowing how many days I put in that set, knowing what I
learned from this deer, knowing how many days and evenings I spent away from home
watching him from afar every evening I could.
Shaking, I sat down to send out the “I did
it” text to all my hunting friends and family.
I don’t know that I will rely, in the
future, on the third time’s a charm method, but it worked this time. Droopy dressed out at 173 lbs. No official score as of yet.
Later, Ben
An Eagle Project
By
Sherwood Archers
My son, Hunter
Weikel, just completed his Eagle Scout project at Sherwood and it turned out so
well that I thought I would share it with the other clubs.
For his project, Hunter
coordinated the building of a closet to store donated archery equipment for
youth groups (e.g. scouts, 4H clubs and church organizations) to use when they
are at Sherwood. The picture shows
Hunter in the completed room with the bows hanging on hooks.
Sherwood had
talked for a long time about building such a room. They had several bows that could be used for
visiting groups, but someone had to go to people’s houses to get them. A more permanent solution was needed to
really leverage the club’s attempt to expose more individuals to archery.
Hunter started the
project last summer and finished in December.
He provided a key ingredient that Sherwood did not have – someone who
could take the time to design the room and lead a team though the various steps
required to complete the project.
Although leadership was a key ingredient, he had help from Sherwood
members throughout the project.
The design was
crafted in discussion with Sherwood members.
After that, a central element of the project was his work to get
supplies, have them delivered and then schedule work. To save the club money, he was able to get
donations of plywood, drywall, 2x4s and a door. Sherwood supplied the paint.
Hunter scheduled
the work and was also a member of the work parties. Jobs included building the frame, hanging the
drywall and door, mudding and sanding (yuk!), and
painting.
This was Hunter’s
final project en-route to becoming an Eagle Scout. He must become an Eagle
before
turning 18 and his 18th birthday
is August of this year. Now that he has
completed his final project and turned in the paperwork all that is left is to
appear before a board of review.
There are probably
a lot of scout troops – boy and girl – in your area and contacting them could
provide your club a way to get some projects completed at your clubhouse and/or
range and also would give the scouts a way to qualify for badges. Sounds like a
win-win to me!
Idea Corner
FLIGHT
is
always looking for useful ideas. Please
send yours (with photos if applicable!) to the FLIGHT editor so they
can shared with the other clubs. After all, imitation is the most sincere form
of flattery…….
Fairfax County Managed Hunts
by
Bob Foster, VBA NBEF/IBEP Director
A very good thing is happening in
The first fatal deer-vehicle collision in
predators, the local deer population had become overabundant. A Deer Management Program was subsequently
developed, but relied primarily on managed gun hunts and sharpshooting
operations using specially trained police officers to cull the herds.
Archery was first approved as a deer management tool by the
Fortunately a new
The primary objective of the
One aspect that I’ve particularly enjoyed as a participant in both
the pilot and this year’s hunts is the fact that our bowhunters
by and large have really gotten along with the numerous other groups that use
the parks. I’ve had several casual
conversations with cyclists, Frisbee golfers, hikers and dog walkers and have
yet to have any sense of hostility toward bowhunting. Most recognize that the deer populations are
too high in these parks and need to be managed in order not harm other wildlife
by over browsing
or injuring drivers on the highways adjacent to the parks with
potentially fatal collisions.
If you are interested in participating in next year’s hunts, more
information can be found at
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/living/animals/wildlife/archery/urban-archery-infairfaxcounty.htm.
Good Hunting!
Bob
WD - What about Taking Deer Carcasses
Out of
Now that
VBA Archery Pro Shop
Hoffman Archery
Phone: 540.349.1631
hoffmanarchery@comcast.net or www.hoffmanarchery.com
Archery
Organizations Events – 2012
February
10th – 12th – Vegas Shoots
February
24th – 26th - ASA
March 3rd
– 4th – NFAA Indoor Mids
March 9th
– 11th – USAA Indoors, JMU
March 20th
– IBO Indoors
March 23rd
– 25th – ASA
March 31st
– April 1st - NFAA Indoor Nationals, Louisville, KY
April 27th
– 29th - ASA
April 30th
– May 1st – ASA
May 5th
– Virginia Senior Games – Archery
May 18th
– 20th – IBO 1st Leg.
June 1st
– 3rd - ASA
June 16th
– 17th – NFAA Outdoor Mids
June 15th
– 17th – IBO 2nd Leg.
June 29th
– July 1st – ASA
July 7th
– 8th – NFAA 3-D Mids
July TBD
– IBO 3rd Leg.
June 27th
– 30th – USAA Target Nationals,
July 25th
– 29th – NFAA Outdoor Nationals,
August 3rd
– 5th – ASA
August 8th
– 11th - IBO
Archery Support:
B & B Archery in
Bow Tech Archery has donated 10 bows to
the Soldier Support at Walter Reed Army Medical center.