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Announcing the Safford Long & Short Rounds.
Ok ……….. These are a couple of fun rounds that emphasize form and distance using the standard issue white paper plate. Since I live in Safford Az. I named the rounds after my adopted home town. The paper plate is roughly the size of a big game animal kill and availble to anyone……. and the targets are cheap. I put a small square of brightly colored Duck Tape in the center and outline it with a black Jumbo Marker. Plus, you’re gonna need a handful of arrows , a decent backstop and yardages in 5 yard increments back to 30 or 70 yards.
Safford Short Round. Start at 10 yards. Shoot one arrow. I use a flu-flu. Move back 5 yards and shoot one arrow at 15 yards. Flu-flu or regular arrow, your choice. Continue moving back 5 yards at a time shooting one arrow at each distance to 30 yards. Shoot another arrow at 30 yards and move up 5 yards at a time back to 10 yards. At this point you’ll have shot 10 arrows at reasonable big game distances. The goal is to shoot 100% hits in the paper plate.
Safford Long Round. Start at 10 yards. One arrow. Same paper plate target. Same as the Short Round only continue moveing back 5 yards at a time to 70 yards. You’ll need 13 arrows. At some point you’ll learn where your point on distance is and that the only difference between 10 yards and 70 yards is elevation. The form is the same. This round builds confidence. Hit close at 50 yards and 25 yards seems really close. Six hits is minimum, seven is good and eight brings on the Happy Snoopy Dance.
Both of these rounds emphasize the importance of every single arrow.
Comments ????
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Good idea!
I have always liked the idea of “keeping them in a pie-pan”, or in this case, a paper-plate. If you can do that, you can expect to kill a deer (or maybe even a squirrel).
One of the stumbling blocks we all face when shooting game is remembering to pick a spot instead of shooting at the whole critter. With that in mind, I would suggest an amendment to the Safford Round rules – The paper plate should have no mark on it when the round is begun.
This forces the archer to pick their own spot.
Following this line of thought, instead of leaving the paper-plate white, spray paint it brown. Or just cut out paper-plate size disks from a paper grocery bag. Affix that to your backstop.
And just so there is no cheating… Don’t center the disk in your backstop. Put it off kilter some where else.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Stephen Graf.
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Thank you for the kind words. However, there’s actually method to my madness with the aiming spot on a white plate;
Instead of thinking of the white plate w/spot as a flat target, think on it as a white ball w/aiming spot. Now imagine the ‘ball’ in a broadside deer’s chest. Next, put one of the deer hunting videos on the tube and study the deer’s movements noting the position of the ‘ball’ and how the aiming spot moves in relation to the deer’s position. With me so far ??? ….. Good!!. Once you get comfortable ‘seeing’ the white ball w/aiming spot you can move on to the next hat trick which is the old ‘Red Light / Green Light game. Deer facing you ?? See the spot on the ball as hot pink. As the deer turns to the broadside, the spot turns to bright green and stays bright green as the deer quarters away. From shooting the Safford Long Round you have a pretty good idea what your max ‘in the plate distance’ is so a deer approaching would have the same ‘to far / red light, close enough / green light effect. It doesn’t take too long and this visualization becomes second nature. Next is shooting a 3D round aiming for your own green spot and keeping them in the ball. When it comes time to actually shoot at a critter you’ll be on familiar ground and this adds confidence.
At the very least, you’ll never watch a Jurassic Park movie the same way again.
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I like both versions and do similar events for my own training. Both styles give good practice in different veins . I normally don’t mark the tgts but pick a spot and shoot for center, I like the paper plate to shoot at ( vital area ) but unless you shoot only one arrow per round– if the first shot is center– one has an aiming point for the rest of the string …so, I like to put a bunch of plates up ( on the bale) and shoot one arrow at each , from different ranges. I normally run 5 in a string because that is my quiver load out.
Of course I mostly do above getting ready for the hunt . When I feel lazy I just shoot a bunch in the center ( and or practicing form)…😃
Scout aka Ray
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I suggest that, having a small aiming point on the paper plate is more “real” than just having the plate blank. When picking a spot on an animal, we look for a s-m-a-l-l one, not a 9″ paper plate. Training to shoot at the smaller aiming point and ignoring the rest of the plate helps keep us focused on where we want the arrow to hit; the plate just shows if we are in the kill zone.
~Kees~
- This reply was modified 3 years ago by Kees.
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The point of the exercise for me, is picking out the spot I want to hit , on whatever type or size of target I am engaging at the moment. Without the help of an artificial aiming point*. I find this gives for me the most realistic practice… imho..
* although I sometimes do that also
Scout aka Ray
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