Hi Ronald

Welcome to tradbow. I can’t answer that question. It’s been a long time since I shot any competition. I took a quick look at the rules ( haha more than I remember) but they allow what you mentioned —-if I went, I would just use my hunting equipment and not worry about it  – competition requires shooting under stress which of course is good practice for the excitement of the hunting shot — if you want to win that class, you might have to adjust your tackle.

Hopefully one of our members who shoots competition will post on the subject. Might know what that class is shifting to.

Scout aka Ray

I shoot a fair amount of Tournaments and plan on shooting more in the future. I enjoy the camaraderie, the competition, and the b.s. between shooting stakes.  Some clubs such as Conejo Valley Archers in Southern Calif. put a lot of thought & work into their shoots with some really interesting shooting situations.

What I do not enjoy is how the equipment & division rules have become absurd. Male / female / youth / cub, Self-bow, longbow, recurve seem like it should about cover everything but those who manage tend to micro-manage.  Case in point; I recently shot the First Annual Calif. Traditional Championship.  I’m an old fart so I would shoot Senior Class, yes ??  Nope, they had Senior, Silver Senior & Master Senior.  Recurve ; off of the shelf or elevated rest ?? Alum / Carbon or wood arrows?? They had a separate class for it all.  So many classes that the awards didn’t really mean all that much.  I have a buckle that proclaims “Calif. State Champion”.  So do a lot of other people.

This has been an on-going problem with the NFAA. The clubs can’t afford the awards to cover all of the classes.  Now, I see the governing bodies of 3-D are going down the same path in an effort to please everybody.  Madness !!!

Can’t really say what the answer is other than to suggest fit into what Division you can, enjoy the shoot and look forward to fall.