So… my stated objectives for my archery (which I estimated would take at least 1,000 shots) are:
Primary
70% hits (7 out of 10) at a target that is basically no more than 40cm wide and maybe 60cm tall (approximate human torso size) at 50 metres.
Secondary
40% hits at 20 metres of a 4” target and 60-70% of a 6” target.
Tertiary
40% hits at a human sized target out to 100 metres.
Specification: I wanted to use a recurve bow only (no compound bows) and if possible without any fancy attachments etc, beyond possibly (still thinking about it) some simple aiming sight.
I came up with these goals based on absolutely ZERO knowledge of anything related to archery, and based solely on what I imagined would be a decent level of ability for someone that is not going to have the time to become semi-pro at it or dedicate more than a causal hobbit amount of time to it.
Today, for the first time, I tried to find out how realistic or absurd my idea is and I discovered the following:
In order to qualify for the olympics men need to score a minimum of 630 out of a possible 720 points by firing 72 arrows at a FITA target at 70 metres.
The size of the target is below.
I’m not sure what the box on the right is, but that seems to me more a human sized target given it’s just under 40 cm wide and the height being 1.22 metres covers most of what you might hit of an average sized standing human if you include the head and neck (though they are smaller than a foot across) at the top, and upper part of the legs at the bottom.
Anyway, you will see that there are 10 rings from outermost to innermost, and starting out at value 1 for the outermost ring and 10 for the smallest circle in the middle (thick line, the thin inner line is just a demarcation, but you don’t get any more points as far as I can tell.
That inner circle (thick line) is 12.2 cm across, and worth 10 points. If you hit that 72 out of 72 times you get 720 points.
To qualify for the Olympics you need to hit on average mostly the 9 ring (9 x 72 = 648).
If you hit the 8 ring all the time, you only score 576, which is 54 points short.
Now, the 8 ring (inclusive of the 9 and ten rings within it) is only 36.6 cm across, which tallies rather well with the width of a human torso.
Hitting that 100% of the time, 72 times in a row, at 70 metres does not make you qualify for the olympics unless you also score some 9s and 10s. In fact even if you hit 48 number 8 rings, and 24 number 9 rings, you’re still only at 600 points which also means you don’t qualify. To qualify without hitting any 10 point ring you need to hit 54 times the 9 rings and 18 eight rings.
Since 18 is 33% of 54, this is close to a 70% hit rate of the 9 ring, which is only 24.4 cm across. But that’s at 70 metres.
And I didn’t know this but the recurve bow is the one used for the Olympics.
So… while a 70% hit rate at 50 metres for a target about 40cm across and 60 cm tall is definitely decent, it’s not Olympic level. Not by quite a long shot.
And getting 40% hits out to 100 metres is definitely a long term goal, especially outside of(wind and other things being a factor), and probably quite a bit more ambitious than the primary goal, but probably also doable, if more at the peak of what I could probably achieve without becoming obsessive.
Why didn’t I check this stuff before firing the bow 98 times you ask?
Well, mostly because I have found throughout my life that what people told me was near-impossible, was generally really quite possible. And while I agree it was near impossible for them, in all likelihood, we are not all built the same. There are plenty of things that might well be impossible for me that could be relatively easy for someone else, and I have trained myself from a very young age to believe that if one other human could do a skill to a certain degree, then it must be possible for me to do it at least to a decent level if I apply myself. And generally, I have never found that to be untrue.
So I shall continue on my archery quest and see how it goes.
This post was originally published on my Substack. Link here
