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 Augusta Archers:

 

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 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 7 a.m. - 8 a.m.

Send Pre-Registration forms to:  Augusta Archers, P. O. Box 336, Fishersville, VA 22939

Contact Information and make check(s) payable to William Arborgast 540.255.2705 or augustaarchers@yahoo.com

 

Lodging:  Comfort Inn 540.886.5000 or Econo Lodge 540.885.5158 or Sleep Inn 540.887.6500

Camping is available with limited space.

 

Food and Refreshments will be available Saturday and Sunday

 

 

Directions to Fort Belvoir Archery Center Tompkins Basin Indoor Range

 

Exit U.S. Route 1 (Richmond Highway) at traffic signal at Pohick Road. This intersection is the entrance to Fort Belvoir at Tulley Gate. Drive to the security control point and visitor center. Present your driver’s license and government issued identification card (driver’s license) for each passenger to the security guards. Proceed south on Pohick Road to the first traffic light at Theote Road and turn right. Proceed approximately one-half mile to a stop sign at Warren Road and turn right.  Proceed to Tompkins Basin, turning right at the intersection at the bottom of the hill. The Indoor Range is the long, white building (Bldg 778) on the right and set back from the road at the base of the hill. The Fort Belvoir Archery Center is located in the same building. Detailed map at:  http://www.belvoirbowhunters.com/

 

Registration:  Pre-registration is encouraged due to installation security.

Form & check(s) Must be received by February 19, 2012 to Kevin Brown, 6041 Bonnie Bern Court, Burke, VA 22015.  Make Check(s) Payable to Belvoir Bowhunters.

 

Registration and Refreshments on Friday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m

 

Opening ceremony and reading of the rules: 8 a.m., February 25.

 

 

Directions to Kingsboro Bowmen:

 

WILCOX INDOOR ARCHERY RANGE, 9501 Jefferson Avenue, Newport News, VA - 757-595-5537.

 

Registration Times:

Saturday 7:00 – 8:00 a.m.  For morning round, time will be extended to noon for the p.m. round.

PRE-REGISTRATION APPRECIATED!

 

For Additional Information & Directions to Wilcox

Ed Bickham 757.255.2294 or bick333@msn.com

Website:  www.kingsboro.bizland.com

 

 

Sherwood Archers:

 

Registration Times on Friday evening from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. and from Saturday 7:00 – 8:00 a.m.

 

Make checks payable to Sherwood Archers, P. O. Box 1272, Salem, Va. 24153

 

Contact Tournament Chairman:  Dean Weikel 540.520.8455 or Club: 540.366.3701

 

 

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     9 a.m. – 12 p.m.                                                               8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

                   2nd     12 p.m. – 3 p.m.                                                               11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

                   3rd     3 p.m. – 6 p.m.                                                                 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

 

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:  ___________________________________________  STATE:  ____________ZIP:  _____________

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.

 

 

Walton Park Shoot Cancellation

The field and Hunter pin shoot on August 19, 2012

has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict

Webb Babcock

 

 

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 Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, who have made crossbows legal equipment for use during archery season.  Neither has it been lost on the National Bowhunter Education Foundation, who has added teaching materials for crossbows to the International Bowhunter Education Program so that instructors can add them to the course curriculum.  Having lived through many other such controversies in our sport, my assessment is that new innovations like those mentioned above never go away.  It may take time, but eventually they do become accepted into our sport and life goes on.  So, like them or not, crossbows are here to stay and will continue to grow in popularity and use over the next several years.  This has led the Executive Board to open a dialog with our affiliated clubs - do you want the VBA to lead the way to accepting these new archers into our mist by creating shooting rules and styles for crossbows, so our clubs can welcome them as members?  This is certainly within our Constitution, which calls on the VBA to “....foster, expand and perpetuate the use of the bow in hunting all legal game.”  Moreover, if the VBA doesn’t accept this new generation of archers, will our rejection cause them to organize on their own, leading to a Virginia Crossbow Archers Association in the near future?  In an era when our numbers are declining, the last thing we need is to alienate fellow archers and drive them from our ranks.

 

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

Dean Weikel

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 Fairfax County:  Bowhunting is being recognized as an effective tool to help manage an ever growing deer herd.

 

The first fatal deer-vehicle collision in Fairfax County occurred in October 1997.  This tragic accident highlighted the concern of many residents that, without natural

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 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County Park Authority Board in October 2000, and has been re-approved each year.  A pilot archery program implemented in fiscal year 2002 and 2003 was not determined to be successful, and the outlook to use bowhunting to assist in the Deer Management Program was bleak.

 

Fortunately a new Fairfax County Wildlife Biologist, Ms. Vicky Monroe, brought new ideas and perspectives and developed a new Archery Program.  Ms. Monroe developed a program that was implemented in fiscal year 2010 with the superior skill of two archery groups:  one was made up primarily of archers from the Belvoir Bowhunters and the other was Suburban Whitetail Management of Northern Virginia (SWMNV).  Colvin Run Stream Valley (71 acres) and Laurel Hill (835 acres) was the two park sites selected for the new archery program.  The harvest rate was 75 deer from these sites.  The wounding rate was extremely low at 3.84% (3 of 78 deer).  As a result of an extremely successful first season, a total of 10 park sites were opened this season, with ten qualified Archery Groups participating in the Archery Program.

 

The primary objective of the Fairfax County Deer Management Program is deer population control on public parklands; therefore, emphasis is placed on harvesting anterless deer. Hunters use DPOP tags, and there is no bag limit.  Participating hunters are asked to ensure low wounding rates by restricting their shots to high percentage, humane kill shots. Hunters can “earn” an opportunity to take an antlered buck after they harvest three antlerless deer, but are required to use a state-issued either sex or antlered buck tag when they harvest an antlered buck.

 

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 Virginia?

 

Now that Virginia has detected CWD, deer hunters must follow carcass importation regulations in other states when they transport a deer carcass out of Virginia.  Hunters anywhere in Virginia going into Kentucky, North Carolina or West Virginia must bone-out or quarter their deer carcass so the brain and spinal cord is removed.  Maryland and Pennsylvania will accept whole deer carcasses from Virginia except those originating from Virginia's CWD Containment Area where carcasses must be boned-out or quartered so the brain and spinal cord is removed.  Tennessee will accept whole deer carcasses from Virginia except those originating from Frederick County and Shenandoah County where carcasses must be boned-out or quartered so the brain and spinal cord is removed.

 

 

VBA Archery Pro Shop

 

Hoffman Archery

Virginia’s @1 Mathews Retailer

5185 Lee Highway

Warrenton, Virginia 20187

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, Hamilton, OH

July 25th – 29th – NFAA Outdoor Nationals, Mechanicsburg, PA

August 3rd – 5th – ASA

August 8th – 11th - IBO

 

Archery Support:

 

B & B Archery in Manassas is collecting serviceable archery items (shafts, releases, arm guards, quivers, finger table, field points and other items) to BBH/WRAMC.  Also, a 10% discount on archery equipment to Military archers

 

Bow Tech Archery has donated 10 bows to the Soldier Support at Walter Reed Army Medical center.

 

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