My latest acquisition!

So, got the tax return back and splurged on this!



Okay, so it's not a watch.......it's a Sure-Loc Quest-X bow sight!

Still the same cerimony is used.....open the outer box to show the inner box:



Then open the inner box to show the new toy:



Some assembly required (unlike most watches) so after a few minutes it's on the bow!



Close-up!



Unfortunately no wrist shot....maybe when I get a chance to shoot the bow with this on it.



Sorry, Imageshack is acting up again so one came out as a thumbnail.......

[Prince]

Very nice Sub... Errrr, I mean Sure-Loc!

Obviously, you enjoy archery. Excellent! I have always appreciated that, but never indulged. I had an archery set as a kid, but that was during the "Cowboys & Indians" '50s. How long have you been into archery?

[Launch Mini]

Do these need to be "sighted in" like on rifles??
If so, you better get out there and find that tree branch you nailed twice already

[Rockrolex]

That's a mean looking piece of equipment, Al. Now are you going to go back and try to qualify again for the Olympic team?

[JJ Irani]

Al,

You are our "Deliverance"!!

Superlative hardware, pal....very professional look to it!! I'm impressed!!

[padi56]

That looks like a serious bit of kit Al,and I would be interested if you have to calibrate it to the bow.

Originally Posted by Prince

Very nice Sub... Errrr, I mean Sure-Loc!

Obviously, you enjoy archery. Excellent! I have always appreciated that, but never indulged. I had an archery set as a kid, but that was during the "Cowboys & Indians" '50s. How long have you been into archery?

I've been shooting on and off for about 30 years now. Fortunately it's a sport that you can be good at after age 20.

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

That's a mean looking piece of equipment, Al. Now are you going to go back and try to qualify again for the Olympic team?

I've never really made it back to the level I was at before I had the shoulder surgery. And to put that in perspective I was ranked 193rd in the world, so I wasn't exactly poised to win the Olympic gold medal.

So for now I want to get in shape for a couple of tournaments this summer, and test the waters a bit. I'm not sure it is in my nature to do this sport on a "recreational" level - I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person in that regard. However, it remains to be seen if my body can keep up with my goals (my arthritis is not responding well to my attempts to increase my training levels).

Originally Posted by padi56

That looks like a serious bit of kit Al,and I would be interested if you have to calibrate it to the bow.

Yes, to a degree it has to be set to the bow (which in a round about way is setting it to my shooting style). The main concern is making sure it is vertically aligned so that when I move the sight up and down for different distances, it does not make any change left and right. So for instance if my sight was on a 45 degree angle (severe example to make the point), and I moved it down by an inch, it would also move left/right.

Originally Posted by Avalon

I've never really made it back to the level I was at before I had the shoulder surgery. And to put that in perspective I was ranked 193rd in the world, so I wasn't exactly poised to win the Olympic gold medal.

So for now I want to get in shape for a couple of tournaments this summer, and test the waters a bit. I'm not sure it is in my nature to do this sport on a "recreational" level - I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person in that regard. However, it remains to be seen if my body can keep up with my goals (my arthritis is not responding well to my attempts to increase my training levels).

Al and I are going to pick up pistol shooting and make the Olympic team together.

Since I'm in a sport that only the young can be competitive on a world-class level (by young, I mean up to about age 35)... I crossed that bridge years ago and man, it hurt. I was ranked in the top 30 for Canada for about a decade, but never cracked the top 15 and never got invited to any national team projects (more politics than performance in my day).

Regardless Al, being in the top 200 in the world is a helluvan accomplishment. But then again, I think there's only about 300 competitive archers in the world at any given time, right?

Good luck and keep at it. I'd love to see you on the podium somewhere down the line.

Originally Posted by Atomic

Regardless Al, being in the top 200 in the world is a helluvan accomplishment. But then again, I think there's only about 300 competitive archers in the world at any given time, right?

Good luck and keep at it. I'd love to see you on the podium somewhere down the line.

Ouch! That wasn't nice.......

I can tell you that just getting on the world ranking list is a very tough thing. You have to reach a certain level at a World Ranking Event (finish in the top 32), and you are awarded points for your placing, and for the quality of the event. So if there are just a bunch of hacks at your event, you won't get many points. There are only so many world ranking events each year, and there have only been two in Canada ever. One was in 1996 - I wasn't shooting then - and the other in 1997. The 1997 event is the year Canada hosted the World Championships event, so it was world ranking. I earned my world ranking points in the US and South America.

There are many kinds of archery, so it's hard to say how many archers are out there at any given time......however, in many european countries, it is a very popular sport. France has a national membership on the order of 70,000 people from what I'm told, and Italy has something like 50,000. The US has a large membership, but not sure of the numbers. The Canadian federation has something like 5,000 members. What proportion of those are "competitive" is hard to say.

The international archery federation (FITA) has 141 member countries, so even though not all of them have the huge numbers, there are plenty of archers out there I can assure you. I have been to competitions where in my division alone there have been 200 archers.

In North America the sport is huge in terms of hunting, but less so in terms of target archery. There are many factions of archery that compete for people to participate. The style that I shoot (and the only style allowed in the Olympics) takes a long time to get good at, and most people want instant gratification, so they choose the easier path.