By Alexis Seibert
Apr 5, 2007
Sponsored by BowTech Archery
This is Alexis, here to tell you all about the first ASA shoot I shot last month! Let me just start off by saying they?re great and I?m having a great time shooting them! For those of you who haven?t heard of the ASA, it is the Archery Shooters Association and the ASA tour starts in Gainesville Florida and ends in Columbus Georgia. You can find out all of the exciting details at www.asaarchery.com.
It?s a lot like the local 3d shoots. You shoot the 3d animal targets that are set out at different distances. They have many different kinds of Mckenzie targets with all kinds of animals. The animals have rings in the kill zone that score from a 8 to a 12. Anywhere else outside of these rings is considered a 5 or if you miss the target a 0.
My Mother and Grandmother (Nonie) drove me down to Gainesville Florida. Something about being on the ASA tour is you have to stay at a lot of hotels.(I am always wanting one with an indoor pool). I was nervous and although I?ve heard plenty about it, I still didn?t know quite what to expect.
The shoot was pretty much in the middle of nowhere as usual, and it was packed with rows and row or cars. Past all the cars there was a huge white tent which was what many different dealers and archery companies sat under. The dealers that weren?t under the tent were in their trailers sitting all around the tent. It was actually even bigger than I?d ever thought it would be! Many people were already shooting on their ranges including my coach Dee Falks. Mamma, Nonie and I met up with Dee and his wife Marcia, by the long line of practice targets sitting out in a field by the tent. Dee and I walked around to see the show for a little while. It was huge, and there was a dealer for everything! From releases, to stabilizers, to sights, it was all there! There are great dealers at all these shoots like Sure-Loc, Classic Archery, Lancaster, Gold Tip, Aep stabilizers and Many more. One thing is for certain if you have a equipment failure, There are people there to help you out quick.
Alexis with brother Devin
I practiced one last time before my shoot the next day and Dee switched out my stabilizer for a longer one which steadied my bow when I drew back. I liked it a lot better! The new stabilizers that I shoot are from AEP. The owner Nuzio is a great guy and if you are looking for Stabilizers for Competition. Nuzio is the man.
The next day we had to be at a safety meeting at seven in the morning and the bow shoot would start at eight. This meant that we would have to get up at five o?clock! Now I?m not a morning person so I pretty much had to drag myself out of bed! I thought for sure if I made it to the first target I would pass out! My gosh! Could the shoot have been any earlier? Somehow I managed to get through the morning, and we got to the shoot at 6:30. The parking lot was just as packed as it had been the day before! We headed straight for the safety meeting sitting at the beginning of the trail leading to the shoot. A bunch of kids were already there to have their bows chronographer to make sure that the speed was less than 220 feet per second. There had to be over 20 kids there of all different ages waiting to shoot. I loved to see so many kids enjoying shooting but I was disappointed when I saw only one girl aside from myself that was actually shooting.
After going over all the rules we were led to the course which was beautiful! The trail was covered with sand, and brush palms grew along the sides of the trail. It was very nice! There were plenty of different ranges all over the trail for the other different classes. We were taken to our range and divided up into groups of three. I was put into a group with two other boys. One was Matthaus Ayers who told me he had been shooting for about 7 years now in the ASA. The other was Hunter Grant who like me was shooting his first year in the ASA. We were all put at different targets and made our way around the course. When we started shooting, I was a little nervous when I started out and got a few 8s, but by the fourth target I started shooting like I knew how. I did really well! And we noticed that on many of the targets me and Hunter seemed to get the same scores, good or bad! I knew for sure that our scores were going to be pretty close!
The look of determination…
YEAH, now that’s shooting.
Matthias was shooting very well from the start! With a few 10s and 12s along the way it was easy to tell he had been shooting for a while! We finally came to the last target. The shoot seemed to end quicker than I thought it would and I almost didn?t want to stop! Hunter and I ended the day with two tens but Matthaus decided to shoot for the 14 ring just for fun, and he hit it! We all had a lot of fun! Matthaus came in 1st. Hunter and I both tied for 7th! I was very happy with my score. It had been my best yet! I had a whole bunch of fun shooting with Hunter and Matthaus. I couldn?t wait until Hattiesburg to shoot and see them again.
Whew! I didn?t realize how tired I actually was until we stopped shooting! Mamma Nonie and I all hung around for a short time, but by around twelve o?clock we said our goodbyes and were on the road. I would like to encourage every kid reading this or parent reading this to try and get your children involved in shooting a bow. No matter what kind primitive or compound. There is nothing like walking trails and shooting targets. Even if you do not want to hunt it is fun and exciting. So get you a bow and meet me at the next ASA shoot! I will be there!! Thanks for reading my article this month and watch for my next article on my great shoot in Hattiesburg.
