Rcherz in UK

We were leaving from Budapest and even though it was already 7 o’clock in the evening, the thermometer showed us more than 30°C! The airport was full of people who were rushing to their holiday destinations – to places where the weather was even hotter but with refreshing feeling of sea.

We were also heading to the nice coast of the United Kingdom. But according to the website www.meteoinfo.sk, the weather forecast was not as convenient as for people who were going for their vacations. The weather forecast for our destinations was only 14°C with heavy showers and the weather was not supposed to change for the next week.  In Wirral (United Kingdom), it was reported temperature below 18 °C.

I thought that the forecast was mistaken as a Slovak meteorologist Dr. Ilko who is always wrong with upcoming weather and because of that I was only wearing a T-shirt with short sleeves, thin jeans and Crocs shoes. I also believed that the weather could not be bad because we would not have been able to train outside although Duncan mentioned that he also have indoor range.

Carrying out the formalities went without any problems and also our 3-hour flight went by pretty fast. I already started to be cold in the plane and after we had entered the baggage claim, I could not have waited any longer to put on my sweatshirt. We took our bows and went to rent a car. When we finally found our parking spot( it was on the 13th floor, on the roof of the airport), we found out that the forecast we were horrified of was real. It was raining.

The first problem popped out when we sat down in the car. I took my navigation system from home but I did not check before if my GPS includes also the map of the United Kingdom.  Unfortunately, it did not therefore we had to go back to the rental office to rent a new one.

The place where we stayed was approximately 40 minutes drive from the airport. It was raining outside, no visibility and I was driving on the opposite site as I am used to. I had also problems with the navigation because I did not know the roads, which was confusing.

Finally, we arrived without any further problems. Our house lady had already called us before and was waiting for us in front of the garden. Throughout the heavy shower, we suddenly noticed a house such as from the roman novel “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.  It was beautiful old English settlement from outside to inside.

After we had arrived, we went straight to bed because it was already 1 o’clock after midnight.  The next morning, we went to look for Duncan. It was still raining. According to the given address we were heading towards a strawberry farm. We only saw a store with local products (mostly strawberry jam) but there were no sign of archery. We were pretty desperate but we got lucky. We asked the locals if they knew Duncan and they surprisingly did. They showed us the right direction (we were supposed to go further and look for two gates opposite to a big house). We found the entrance gates and suddenly we found ourselves in a strawberry farm. On the left hand were two large greenhouses full of strawberries, while my colleague Julo mentioned that the indoor range is probably inside of them.  When we look on the other side, we found a sign of TargetTec! The target was hidden under huge oak trees, which apparently have started to grow since Robin Hood. Except the target sign we did not see anything. The rain was pouring inside my goratex jacket Trango world therefore we decided to come back to the house, connect to the internet and send Duncan a message.

As soon as we had parked, we received an email from Duncan.  We were supposed to meet him at 2 o’clock at the place we had found before.  I checked the weather again just to make sure if it is not going to be sunny, unfortunately not. We had 2 more hours until the beginning of our first training therefore we decided to take a look at sea. It was still raining but a gardener across the street was working. He was wearing a yellow waterproof hooded jacket which was the most common piece of clothing people wore there.  “We should buy it probably too,” I have mentioned to Julo.

We drove throughout English countryside close to Liverpool. The roads were quite interesting – exceedingly narrow streets, many curves, driving on the left side (for a while I was driving on the wrong side of the road but unfortunately nothing bad happened J ). People were driving pretty fast such as 95km/h, which I personally think was quite a speed for this kind of roads.

We parked next to a large grocery store and went to the sea.  Although it was raining, windsurfers were in the water. Unbelievable! Once I had also tried to windsurf in Miami and I must say it was not very pleasant to fall all the time in the water. I was wearing a sweater, waterproof jacket and I was still cold. I could not believe that their neoprene suits kept them warm.

The time of our first training was slowly approaching therefore we decided to leave the parking spot. We were exceedingly excited to see Duncan. As we arrived, Duncan was already there waiting for us. He took us to his target and we parked our car cca 90 m from it.  Duncan welcomed us, standing under his Mathews umbrella with a cup of coffee in his hand and a bow square. He looked the same, as we knew him from many competitions and pictures. According to www.rcherz.com, he currently takes 13th place in the world chart.

At first, he apologized for the weather and then we went straight to practice. We picked the distance we wanted to shoot and started to practice. Duncan also wanted to see our bows and technique.  He wanted to make sure that everything will work perfectly and we can shoot properly.

The first thing on the list was good adjusted nocking point. The principle was to shoot in groups at particular height of arrow rest to the nocking point and see what will happen after we will decrease the height of the arrow rest by 1mm. We wanted to check if the arrows will group better or worse.

Our three-hour training went by very fast and despite the rainy weather we stayed and continued shooting until 7 o’clock. On our way home, we stopped at the grocery store to buy a bottle of whiskey and went back to our house. We were unable to turn on cold water so we showered in hot water, which fell very good.  Later on that evening, we had whiskey next to the fireplace.

Day 2: Tuesday – still heavy showers all day long. I put on some warm clothes because it was necessary. Out practice started at 10 o’clock. We were still arranging the right position for the arrow rest. After a while we came to following conclusions: my arrows were too weak (Carbon Express Nano Pro 500) and Julo’s too stift (Easton X10 ProTour 380).  Duncan let us use his arrows which arrow spine was 400 and the grouping much better.  My last chance how to improve it was to decrease the weight of points.

We had lunch in nearby town and we continued shooting. Finally, it was not raining!!!! In the evening, I went to ask our house lady for following things: a candle and a small hammer. She surprisingly asked what it was for and after my explanation that I need to make my arrows a little harder she left. Of course, she did not understand but she brought at least a candle. Instead of a hammer I used a clip from bow press Bow master. Everything worked perfectly and I prepared 4 arrows with points, which were 100 grains instead of 120.

Day 3: Wednesday – still raining. I began to shoot with my arrows but with lighter points but it did not help at all. We tried to ease the draw weight but still no change. Apparently, I have to buy new arrows. Duncan brought for me his end of 450 but they were without points therefore we agreed that I will prepare it in the evening. Duncan raised our mood by telling us that the weather should get better on Thursday but rainy again on Friday.  Despite the weather we decided to practice all day long on Thursday and go straight to the airport on Friday. I could not imagine worse weather therefore we did not want to risk anything.

In the afternoon, we went to well known shops such as Merlin Archery and Bowsport. We hoped to buy new arrow ends, which we needed. At first, we visited Merlin. The shop looked like from the time of Robin Hood. We also found out that the famous Sherwood Forest was on our way to Merlin. Apparently, the store was named after the famous Celtic wizard from time of king Arthur.

Marlin archery center produces well-known bows such as Merlin Excalibur, scope TZone, Blackhawk and also releases Victory. We were wondering where they have their factories. We asked them if they can show us but our request was not fulfilled. At the end, Julo only bought arrows ( X10 ProTour 420).

On the way back , we stopped at Bowsport. Really nicely furnished archery store! They also had my Carbon Express 450 arrows!!!Yaaaaay!  We talked to Steve (salesman) and he surprisingly remembered our names because he executed many of our orders. 

We showed him the website www.rcherz.com and since his store (bowsport.com) was already entered, he was thrilled.

On our way back to the house, we had minor collision, when we wanted to avoid a car, which was going very fast against us. We hit curb but the damage was not big – front wheel and electron. Luckily we had one as reserve so we exchanged it pretty quick. Meantime, the weather got better and after many days we finally fell the warm feeling of sun. This little accident did not influence our good mood even though my hands were extremely dirty.  I washed them in plash of rainwater.

In the evening, I put together Duncan’s 7 arrows (I switch his points and nocks to mine). We finished the bottle of whiskey and went to sleep.

Day 4: We started from the beginning. We used 450 – arrows and we set the arrow rest.  The arrow grouping was better and we finally found the best position for the arrow rest.

Afterwards we were trying to set perfect draw weight that will tune arrow grouping. After the lunch break, we checked the centering of the arrow rest but everything fitted perfectly.

My colleague Julo went slowly through many changes. At first, Duncan shortened his draw length, then he decreased his draw weight and the result was very good. Julo’s arrow grouping was significantly smaller. At the beginning, his arrows were all over the entire target but at the end they ended up in the yellow zone.

It was sunny the whole day. We could not believe that the next day the floods were supposed to come.  We packed our bows and measured the distances Peep to Sight and Peep to Arrow, that we  needed for creating the  sight tape through www.rcherz.com. In the evening, we sat with the locals while drinking tasty red wine and eating nice cookies. After a while, we went to sleep.

Day 5: The weather forecast was fulfilled. It was raining. We had breakfast in the winter garden with a glass roof where the rain drummed consistently on it.  We hardly brought our luggage to the car without getting extremely wet.

Our departure went without any problems. We were excited to go home and concluded that this week was exceedingly beneficial. At the end, we found out that it is possible to shoot well even though it is raining.  Despite the weather, this week was amazing and I can only recommend this experience to everyone whose obsession is archery.