Incentive to shoot indoors

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
As a target archer, I only shoot ELB, without a band or ground marker. When shooting outdoors I enjoy it more and have been improving slowly over time, with the goals of badges & classifications to pursue. (Not chasing scores but it's something to look towards).

When moving indoors though, I'm finding it difficult to get excited about shooting. There are (in effect) about 3 rounds that are just shot over and over again indoors, and with only scores to be a drive my shooting is suffering. The indoor classifications are not helping classing ELB as recurve (I've been looking at the blaze badges for longbow classification), but again this is just score chasing.

For the past few years, if I'm the only one at our range, I will walk up and down the line forwards and back shooting into different bosses/targets whilst on the move. Even moving closer and further away.

So for the ELBs out there, what do you use as an incentive when the indoor season rolls around to help you keep up your shooting and try and improve?

Field Archers: I know you are going to suggest I try field and that you shoot outside all year round, but there is not a field course close enough, and as I rely on lifts to shoot at the weekend due to work schedules getting to and back a field course isn't as practical.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
I don't shoot ELB, but I know the feeling re indoor shooting.
You could try shooting indoors with a band for a while, see how you get on with it? It might highlight something else that you weren't aware of.
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
Oh... no not another duplicate post... maybe if the quick rely option was removed and it automatically went "advanced"...?
Del
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
Maybe shoot at novelty targets, paper cup, small scrap of foam or devise some sort game, say like a round of golf, 9 "holes" to be shot in order, vary the colour and size of the "holes", so a par 5 is a smaller hole than a par 3 :)
Not too expensive to print 'em off.... prob' get 3 holes on a sheet of A4 ?
Del
 

vivilanco

Member
Maybe shoot at novelty targets, paper cup, small scrap of foam or devise some sort game, say like a round of golf, 9 "holes" to be shot in order, vary the colour and size of the "holes", so a par 5 is a smaller hole than a par 3 :)
Not too expensive to print 'em off.... prob' get 3 holes on a sheet of A4 ?
Del
In a similar vane, this week I made some Blackjack (attached - scaled down for example. 4 pieces of A4 at 20 yards) blackjack target.jpg , tic tac toe and golf style (A4 at 15 yards) boards for the club. Turned out to be quite a hit! I need to make the cards bigger for distance but still fun!
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
I love the cards idea!
Would it save effort to use a marker pen and just to write big numbers on the cards and K Q J for the picture cards. Perhaps use four colours to replace the suits?
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
I love the cards idea!
Would it save effort to use a marker pen and just to write big numbers on the cards and K Q J for the picture cards. Perhaps use four colours to replace the suits?
 

vivilanco

Member
Going forward I may well just do some card outlines with numbers on them. It's not a full deck so suits are a little pointless. These were my first set to test on the club (sat at the lower half of the boss below the targets). In the next couple of weeks we may dedicate one boss to it (with bigger cards). No gambling though... :scratchch
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
I'm liking the cups idea, blackjack we've done as fun shoots and gets difficult not seeing what card you've hit.

Geoff, thing is I don't want to use a band. If I put one on I could get higher scores yes, but I don't want to use one, it's why I shoot ELB in the first place, just me and the bow.
 

Berk

New member
This is my first year with a longbow, so my first indoor season, I've not enjoyed it. Admittedly I've only shot indoors once, and I missed last weeks session, but after shooting outdoors all summer I find indoors restrictive and overly noisy. I'm still debating whether I'll go along tomorrow night or just hope for a dry day Sunday and head up the field. I'm not sure I'd be any happier with the recurve indoors, it's just not as much fun as being out on the field.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Geoff, thing is I don't want to use a band. If I put one on I could get higher scores yes, but I don't want to use one, it's why I shoot ELB in the first place, just me and the bow.
Hi I wasn't meaning to change over to a band. I was thinking more along the lines of see what happens when you use one. In the hopes that something might trigger something connected to shooting the bow your usual way. For example, I can shoot my compound with or without a sight at close range and see what happens. Why do they feel different? What can I learn from detecting the differences?




And back on track.... we used to hang up beer mats and they jump all over the place when you catch them right. Sometimes you get a hole through the beer mat if you shot close to its centre. After a while the beer mat may get a larger hole through as a few smaller holes join up. Then the trick is to shoot through the enlarged hole without disturbing the mat on its string. The canny ones find they can shoot through the hole every time...... though others call that a miss.
 

Corax67

Well-known member
One club I guest shoot indoors at keep the variety up with novelty faces too - dartboard, pool balls, playing cards, etc which I think are commercially available.

Not shot indoors for a couple of years - birth of son removed mid-week free time - but I don't miss it, it quickly became quite claustrophobic in the hall especially if the weekend was forecast poor and I found the noise levels genuinely uncomfortable as well as massively distracting.


I love Geoff's beer mat suggestion and fancy trying that outdoors too.



Karl
 

Brindleleaf

New member
I don't think the problem would be shooting indoors or not for me, it'd be do I have the freedom to move around, change distances etc. I won't be going back to my old archery club, I was recently talking to someone who has told me that there are no longer any archers with any bow except competition recurves there now. What a shame, there used to be a really good atmosphere...

We've just had our first snow of the winter, but looks like a friend has access to some land where we can shoot (I was saying in another thread how rare ELBs are in France, but this guy had tried mine and just mentioned that he has bought a 90lb ELB :)!! We'll be out and about traipsing through the snow and rain shooting outside no doubt...looking forward to shooting at a longer distance yah!
 
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