Arrowhead Waterproof Faces

[kes2463]

Just thought I'd gives some observations on OB's new faces.

I assisted in setting up & then shot at the Chippenham Dbl FITA last weekend using these new waterproof faces. All seemed to like them, the colours were more vibrant & stood out well. The faces also seemed to recover a little after the arrows were pulled so we have plenty of good practice ones for the summer.

There were two comments; first was how they shone first thing on Saturday morning with a low sun on them but that soon changed & secondly that they heated up in the sun more so on the black thus wrinkling a bit. This was a comment by our chief judge but not a problem.

We only had to change one 80cm face all weekend & that was at 30m with 4 compounds on it, so they definately stood up better than hoped or expected.

There weren't any negative comments heard by us or the judges about them & we have already been approached by another club about our source so OB's details have been passed on.

Dave, a big thankyou for an excellant product.:cake::cake::cake::beer::beer::beer:

 

[clickerati]

Great news, Kes, as we're using them at the RRAC Pagoda Shoot (RS Albion/Windsor) on the 19th! :cake: :beer:

 

[bkupris]

Will there be Fita field faces?

 

[Little Miss Purple]

These faces really do take some hammer... but the glare seems to put some folk off :beer:

 

[Meddler]

These faces really do take some hammer... but the glare seems to put some folk off :beer:

Only a problem if you have sunshine... :cheerful:

 

[Old Bloke]

High guys, thanks for the comments. The faces sent out for testing (Aards) and those shot at Chippenham were the first out of the print room and as such a limited run and had a very thin and not so matt varnish over the inks. The first commercial run which we now hold in stock has much stronger matt varnish to help reduce the sun glare, and from the one I have outside it does just that...so I'm happy!
I am in talks with the material manufacturer and will be seeing them next wednesday concerning the possible glare issue as when we had the Tyvek faces made, I had a dimple roller run over the material to give it a golf ball surface. This stopped any glare whatsoever. This might be a little harder to achieve with the new material because of production process but if it can be done then it will be done.
I like it that they can take the hammer, it took nearly two years of testing to get the matrix of the plastic right!

 

[Old Bloke]

..and Brian, yes there will be FITA faces and IFAA faces in this material and a screen print test run will take place very soon..hopefully next week.

 

[clickerati]

...it took nearly two years of testing to get the matrix of the plastic right!

i remember the very first test "target" - purple hearts! that was a fun day and it's great to see yet another OB invention come to fruition. i'll let you know what the concensus is after the pagoda. are our lot of targets matt or not, just so i can put people straight on the day

 

[bkupris]

..and Brian, yes there will be FITA faces and IFAA faces in this material and a screen print test run will take place very soon..hopefully next week.

Great news OB :thumbsup:

 

[Little Miss Purple]

Keep up the good work OB :beer::cake::beer:

 

[Yeah I missed again :)]

These faces really do take some hammer... but the glare seems to put some folk off :beer:

which is great for barebows because all the recurves are like 'ahhh, I can't see the exact part of the gold which my extremely well developed site has to point at' and so they have problems and the barebows look better!!!
although the faces are a wierd texture, much like shooting at school swimming hats we decided!!!

 

[simon m]

Might have to buy a few to test at our club before the herts county weekend......it was proper wet last year

 

[Old Bloke]

Just gone through our stock and can see what some folk meant as to what might be a *wrinkle*. It would appear to be a slight gathering of the material within the sandwhich of plastic and gives rise to a look like a wrinkle..a bit like the effect of the polyester scrim with the reinforced paper faces...where every bit of the face is *wrinkled*. In any case you have to look hard to see any *wrinkles*. I'd never given this effect a second thought as it is part of the manufacturing process and as luck would have it, it can be seen on the black as opposed to any other colours even though it is there occasionaly if you look hard enough. If there is a *wrinkle* on the face, then the one's I looked at today, the *wrinkle* at best only covers about 1% of the total face area and as the print is on top of the *wrinkle* it won't make a blind bit of difference to anything.

 

[Ffish]

Waterproof target faces

Rather than continuing this theme on a thread that is ultimately about the Pagoda shoot, I thought I?d start afresh about these waterproof target faces.

Speaking from a strictly personal viewpoint, and being as objective as I can be about my personal experience of shooting these faces, I can?t say that I?m a great fan of the current version.

When we started shooting on Sunday the sun was directly behind us, and shining brightly onto the faces. At 80 yards this caused the red to blend into the gold and made the two colours almost indistinguishable from one another. Heaven knows what it would be like at 100 yards, when the gold is only the size of a pin-prick.

OK, I will accept that when one is aiming at the target, you?re aiming at the centre of anyway, so whether you hit the red or the gold, as long as you?re aiming at the middle it shouldn?t matter whether the centre is black, white, red, yellow or sky blue pink ? but in my opinion it DOES matter, and I?d like to be able to see my arrows and what colour they?re hitting. Then, when it came to spotting the arrows using a scope from behind the line, again it was hard to make out where the red ended and the gold began ? there was simply too much reflection to see.

As the sun began to move around, later in the day, it became less of an issue and although the colours were bright and vibrant they still kept reflecting a sheen, and this continued into the afternoon. I think the only time when I could say that they looked like ?normal? targets was when I was at a tangent to the entire target line and there was no reflection. Clearly not from a shooting position though.

My other comment on these faces is that as arrows are pulled from them, the arrow hole that is left behind seems to slightly invert itself as the arrow comes out, leaving a white stress ring of stretched plastic where the arrow once was. This wasn?t a problem on my target, (I was shooting with the person who came second in the gents recurve, and also the girl who broke the UK junior compound record) and the gold did get a severe beating, leaving many ?white holes? in the centre. I was also shooting with someone who was using the largest diameter ACC?s I?ve ever seen, and these really were leaving great mounds of inverted plastic on the surface of the face. I dare say that a swift once-over with a hot hair dryer would have them looking brand new again in no time.

Again, all this feedback is from a strictly personal viewpoint, having only shot on these faces for one day. But based upon what I experienced at the weekend, I would not recommend them to my club until the shininess is resolved.

 

[Old Bloke]

Strange as it may seem, I've had the target faces stood outside for nearly 12 months now and have not seen what you describe. If I had then I wouldn't have applied to the World Governing Body, FITA for licencing, which after they had tested the faces, was granted. However, I accept that the faces are brighter than that of the paper and henceforth would appear to be shiny as opposed to paper which is light absorbent and therefore dull in comparison.
Concerning the ink issue, the ink is waterbased and sits ON the plastic rather than in it, as in paper. If it sat in the plastic then the chances are it wouldn't be waterproof. The ink is vapourised off the plastic through the friction and to a degree a stretching of the plastic when the arrow breaks the skin. When the arrow is withdrawn you get a small ring of white where the ink used to be. To a degree you get this on a paper face when it tears all pulls away from the polyester mesh in the laminate. I guess as we have been shooting at the reinforced faces for nearly 40 years now..nobody notices it..it has become the acceptable norm. And as a U.K. compound record was shot at the Pagoda, things couldn't have been that bad as your post suggests.
And..as a footnote, would you as a tournamant organiser Ffsh, recommend the use of reinforced paper faces, when you learn of a wet and windy weather forcast knowing that there is/are waterproof faces available?

 

[its my party and]

Not sure if this photo will help as it was taken on my mobile low res at about 100 yds with no zoom but it does show to some degree the shineness and the angle of deflection when the shine is lost if you look closely at the other targets. I have tried to zoom in using photo shop but it just pixalates horribly. But on the mobile on zoom it is better and comes out as a shiny mirror with everything inside the black seemingly one silver colour. I have to say the sun would appear to have been at the right angle to do this but didnt disappear until you walked a good 4 targets to the left or right, showing that the sun would also have a fair degree of angle to climb to stop this from happening. I would say it started from 8.30 to maybe lunchtime. But having said that we moved the targets closer as well so that would have moved the angle of the dangle! Hope it helps OB. Maybe someone else had a better camera on the day.

 

[Old Bloke]

Well, I have just dragged a target around a sunny Devon field for about three hours and finally got what it is that has raised concerns! I can now see what folk are on about. It would appear that the angle of target boss to sun is incredibly critical, hence a problem on one target and not another, even though they are only a few feet apart. As I say, two years in the making and I haven't seen the issue that has been raised and that included a face out at Budleigh farm and at work for 9 months! I've even been shooting at one now for the last three months and everything is fine.
We are doing another print run shortly, but I will sort this out before printing..flippin' typical.

 

[not dead yet]

Well, I have just dragged a target around a sunny Devon field for about three hours and finally got what it is that has raised concerns! I can now see what folk are on about. It would appear that the angle of target boss to sun is incredibly critical, hence a problem on one target and not another, even though they are only a few feet apart. As I say, two years in the making and I haven't seen the issue that has been raised and that included a face out at Budleigh farm and at work for 9 months! I've even been shooting at one now for the last three months and everything is fine.
We are doing another print run shortly, but I will sort this out before printing..flippin' typical.

there will always be a complaint somewhere.
like the lighting on some indoor tournies.
british made at the right price
works for me

pete

 

[bimble]

I will admit, I didn't have any problems with the glare at the Pagoda shoot. Certainly once the sun was off them they were brill.

Honestly, how ofter do we see sun at a British shoot anyway??

 

[KevinH]

We have been using these new faces at my club for 3 weeks now. Last night I made a point of asking my fellow archers what they thought of them, and got nothing but positive comments. The general feeling was they were lasting longer than paper faces, and a number of people commented that with them being brighter, it made their arrows easier to see.

Our field is oriented towards the south and we have not seen even a hint of glare, even on the sunniest day. So for us the faces are most definitely a hit.:arc: