# R100 - thoughts after the shoot



## Yale (May 26, 2010)

A friend and I made the drive from Augusta, GA to Mt. Airy, NC for the R100. Most of the information I learned about the R100 in advance of the shoot was from this forum. We shot in the Bowhunter class. Here are my thoughts.

*Location:*
Sage Creek, the club that hosted the R100 I attended is a beautiful property. It is in the mountains with lots of hills and valleys, covered in hardwoods and mountain laurels.

*Registration:*
I was pre-registered, it was easy. At the registration tent, they handed me my scorecards and said "Go shoot."

*General setup:*
There were two 50-shot ranges, the African Range and the North American range. Each range was split into two 25 shot courses.

*Shots:*
All of the shots were "wide open", you don't have to thread your shot between trees. There were several "doubles" where you shoot two targets from one stake (Leopard jumping on gazelle, Buck with an apple on its head). The Apple buck was a 24-yd shot. The buck was scored normally. The apple was scored; 10 points for not shooting, 14 points if you try and miss, 24 points if your arrow STICKS in the apple. There was a foam backstop behind the apple, but this shot still created a lot of broken arrows.

*Distances:*
Each stake has a small sign, with the yardage, facing away from the shooter. You have the option of looking at the sign, shooting unknown distance or using your rangefinder. We read the sign and used this as an opportunity to test our visual ranging skills, especially on the big targets, I was off by 8 yards several times.

*Binoculars:*
They were allowed. I normally don't use them at a shoot, but they were extremely helpful here. I had no idea where the bullseye would be on a giraffe, bat, dragon and many others.

*Time:*
It took about 6 hours to shoot each 50-shot range. The ranges closed at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. We waited a lot.

Each of the double targets created a bottleneck and longer than normal wait. The longest wait we experienced was for the Apple buck, it was about 45 minutes. There were 20 shooters waiting when we got there. The big holdup there was that if a shooter hit the apple, it had to be reset for the next shooter.

We arrived and started shooting at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. On an out and back section of a course, we took an opportunity to shoot three of the targets out of sequence while we were waiting and the other target was open, so we could skip them on the way back. On another course we skipped 4 targets, where there were large groups of slow shooters, and returned later to shoot them. We turned in our score cards at 5:30.

On Sunday we started at 8:00 a.m. and shot everything in order. We were pretty worried that we were not going to be able to turn in our scorecard by the 2:30 p.m. deadline. By target 38 of the range, things opened up and we finished at 2:15 p.m..

*Tips:*
- When waiting, meet some new people and enjoy, otherwise the wait can get frustrating. 
- When you are waiting, put yourself in a position to view your next target. This is much easier if you have introduced yourself to the group ahead of you and you offer some positive comments on their good shots. Be ready when you get to the stake.
- Water, take water and a snack. Even if it is not hot, three hours without water can really have an effect on your shooting.
- Watch out for dry fires! Look out for your other shooters. One disaster was avoided when someone warned a shooter that they did not have an arrow. Two times, we heard the sick sound of a dry-fired bow, one of those destroyed a new Mathews.

*R1000 pin:*
If you shoot all 100 targets and score over 1000, you get a pin. There is a handicap (only if you shoot all 100) of 50 for Bowhunter Class and 150 for Youth class, that counts towards the pin.


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## Yale (May 26, 2010)

One more thing I forgot to mention. It was awesome and I can't wait to get another group together and do it again!


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## SLA3 (Mar 3, 2015)

I made the 6 hour drive with my fiance and another couple. This was our first R100 shoot. We all had a blast. The course and targets were in excellent shape. The food line was a bit long but we were told 2 food vendors didn't show up. I expected more vendors to be selling and showing products. I will definitely be going to another one next year.


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## jakeeib (Jan 8, 2008)

Yale, great review. You filled in a lot of the information gaps that were missing. 
Another piece of advice for any host club- enforce the group size rule!!!
The double targets do slow the flow of the range, but with some thought and strategic placing the waits can be minimized. 
Groups with 7-8 shooters absolutely bring the range to a crawl and is completely avoidable.


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## maskins (Jan 28, 2014)

jakeeib said:


> Yale, great review. You filled in a lot of the information gaps that were missing.
> Another piece of advice for any host club- enforce the group size rule!!!
> The double targets do slow the flow of the range, but with some thought and strategic placing the waits can be minimized.
> Groups with 7-8 shooters absolutely bring the range to a crawl and is completely avoidable.


I agree completely, we spent a lot of time behind a group with a dozen shooters in it. I was happy when we finished that 25 and we got ahead of them before the next 25.


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## Garceau (Sep 3, 2010)

jakeeib said:


> Yale, great review. You filled in a lot of the information gaps that were missing.
> Another piece of advice for any host club- enforce the group size rule!!!
> The double targets do slow the flow of the range, but with some thought and strategic placing the waits can be minimized.
> Groups with 7-8 shooters absolutely bring the range to a crawl and is completely avoidable.


The double targets should be set so they slow down the shoot at certain areas - the one I have been to at the start of each range (25 targets) they have a double target set. This creates a back up at this point, but from there on it goes smoothly. It is done like this on purpose, it puts the log jam in an area that allows there room for the jam up. Rather than people all tripping over each other on the range.


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## 3dbowmaster (Sep 16, 2005)

I think me and my wife started at roughly 7:45 and was back to the vehicle by 11:00. We shot the african range.


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## blade0851 (Dec 30, 2014)

Can you explain what you mean by sticks in the apple, does your group all shoot at it at the same time, because I was wondering how you could still wreck an arrow...


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## Yale (May 26, 2010)

Blade,

The apple is staked to the buck's nose with a wire/skewer. With each of the hits I saw to the apple, the apple with the arrow in it, was knocked off of the deer. I didn't see an arrow break. Maybe they were caused by a glancing blow or hitting the skewer??

The way I saw people shoot it was they shot at the deer first, then the apple. If they did not knock the apple off, the next person in their group took their turn. When the apple was hit, someone ran down and reset the apple for the next shooter.


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## blade0851 (Dec 30, 2014)

Ah so it is a double kind of shot, thanks I'm going to the r100 in Denton texas next month. First time


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## Yale (May 26, 2010)

You'll have a great time, blade! Shoot well and remember your binoculars.


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## knox_nate (Dec 27, 2009)

The backdrop was only put up Sunday morning. Most of the arrows you saw that were broken where shot on Saturday when there wasn't a backdrop to stop the arrows form hitting the huge rocks behind the target. 

Great shoot. Most fun I have ever had at a 3D shoot.


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## sagecreek (Jul 15, 2003)

Thanks for the write up. It was our first year. I think we put a lot of thought into it, but we have a lot to learn.

You guys have some great suggestions and we will try to do better next time to make it more enjoyable.


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## sagecreek (Jul 15, 2003)

Here is a link to some pics taken at the R100 this past weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1050659888284444.1073741827.365310793486027&type=3


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## cschwanz (Sep 10, 2012)

Nice write-up. mimics my thoughts from last year's R100 in Indiana almost perfectly. Didn't seem to have the waiting that a lot of people did. Short wait times on the apple buck but not bad. It was just myself and buddy last year so the two of use move pretty fast through the range. I do remember a double target as the first stake (2 bucks fighting). Makes sense now as a bottleneck/wait would form there but then as you get into the single targets, you would be finished well before the group behind you on the double. Good thinking on their part!


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## bowabuk (Jul 9, 2012)

I was at the r100 in mt airy and shot the African side on sunday and it was my first time ever shooting the r100 and wont be my last for sure...


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## Mike Pollan (Feb 6, 2015)

Ok...

When, Where, and How much is the next one? I need to do this!

NY or near by I hope...


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## Mike Pollan (Feb 6, 2015)

Batvia NY... 

Almost a 7 hour drive from me.. (I might seriously think of doing this..)


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## Isble (Mar 20, 2015)

Thanks for the write up. I'm planning on going to the Mass shoot in June. I want to take my two boys along but I'm unsure of the format. Do they have different stakes they can shoot from or do we all shoot from 1 distance? My oldest is shooting a compound but my youngest is only shooting a 20lb recurve and is only shooting 10 yd, 20 yd max at the moment.


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## maskins (Jan 28, 2014)

They had two stakes. 1 for youth and one for adults. For younger kids it said shoot where you are comfortable.


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## bonecollector66 (Mar 2, 2011)

you will love it


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## Isble (Mar 20, 2015)

maskins said:


> They had two stakes. 1 for youth and one for adults. For younger kids it said shoot where you are comfortable.


Nice! I didn't want to leave him home while I went with his brother. Looking forward to it.


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## acesbettor (Mar 19, 2009)

Mike Pollan said:


> Batvia NY...
> 
> Almost a 7 hour drive from me.. (I might seriously think of doing this..)


There is one in sturbridge ma, I think its going to be closer for you.


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