Hello to you all. This is NUSensei and
today we have a viewer question.
This one is from Frank, and Frank writes
"Hello NUSensei. I really enjoy your
videos. I was wondering if you can make a
video of what is in your archery case
and what you take to a competition.
Thanks again, and keep up the good work."
Why thank you. This is a very good
request, and I'll take this from both a
personal point of view of what I myself
carry in my case, as well as things you should
generally bring to a competition.
Bring a pen.
No, I'm serious. While you usually get
pens in your scoring package, everybody
on the target should have a pen.
You need people to score, you need
people to double score, and you need people
to mark the target. So if you only have
one pen between four people, that can
really slow down the scoring process.
So bring a pen.
Now what I carry in my bow case is pretty ordinary stuff.
I've got my bow, limbs, riser, bowstring, quiver, arrows,
stabilizers, bow stand, sight, chestguard, arm guard.
And there are few things that I carry in my quiver itself, so,
my bow square, an arrow puller, finger tab, finger sling,
and bowstring wax, a screwdriver set, hex wrench set,
target pins, scissors or pocket knife,
pliers, hot-melt glue, and lighter.
Hang on, why do you need hot melt and a lighter?
I do most of my repair work at
home, but if I'm at a competition I want to be
sure that I can repair my arrows in the
field if I lose points.
I also like carrying spare thread. I've put a spool
of leftover serving thread and some
thicker sewing thread. The reason is I
use these threads for my nocking points,
and if my nocking points come loose or
need to be replaced, I can do it right away.
Some people carry stretching bands.
These are great warm-up tools, and people like
using them in between ends to keep their
muscles warmed up, their feeling right, their alignment
correct, so this is a pretty good idea to bring along.
I do carry a micro fiber towel.
This one came with my bow. I don't use this
for myself. I use it for my bow
obviously. In wet weather or even really hot weather,
when you're really sweaty, sometimes the bow grip
can be very slippery, so I like bringing a towel with me
in my quiver just to dry it off between shots.
I do have these Hoyt arm warmer
sleeves which I reviewed a while ago.
While I do normally wear compression wear, or thermal
underwear, having extra sleeves that I
can put on and take off, especially in
really cold, windy weather is nice so I
carry these in my bag.
A hat. Now bucket hats are the preferable choice for
most archers. The reason being is that the
soft peak allows you to bend it as you
need to, and it wont interfere with the string.
There are other things I could bring with my case as well, like
spare points and nocks, extra target faces, and so on,
but it really depends on whether you want to
carry it with you, leave it at home, or
whether you're shooting in a club that has
spare parts already. Now if you're
preparing for a competition there
probably are a few things you should pay
extra attention to and make sure you
bring. Probably the most important thing
to remember is having enough arrows.
Now in most target competitions, you will be
shooting 6 arrows at a time. I've got
7 fletched arrows. This actually
isn't enough to be safe to
prepare for a competition. Now I do have
two extra bare shafts. These I use for
tuning. I can fletch them if I need more
arrows, but I actually find 7 arrows to
be a little skinny. The reason is you will be losing arrows
you might break an arrow, you might lose an arrow,
you might lose a point, and unless you
have spares, or you can do repairs in the
field right away, then you might have to call an
equipment failure and then catch up at the end,
or you might be an arrow down every
single end. So make sure you have sufficient arrows
to cover you in case you go through extra arrows.
Speaking of spares, I also carry spare tabs.
Now these I carry in my quiver or my archery case.
These are older ones which I've used
before and I no longer actively use but I
keep them around just in case.
Not many things go wrong with tabs, but
you might find the leather will rip or a screw
falls out, and you have to use something
else, so having a spare tab doesn't hurt.
It's also a good idea to bring a spare
string. A lot of competitive shooters
will have two or three strings which
they use regularly. The same brace height,
same twists, same nock point, same tune.
While strings are very durable it's nice to
have an extra one that's already been used
just in case something happens.
If you watch the professional archers at world
events some of them carry an entire
second bow. Now I'm assuming you're not
sponsored, so you don't need to spend
thousands on two identical bows, but carrying
spare parts isn't a bad idea.
Hydration is a very good idea. You are
going to be shooting for hours, so make sure
that you have plenty of fluids with you.
If you're shooting long distance events
remember to bring a scope. These are allowed.
You can put them on a tripod on the
shooting line itself, assuming there's enough space,
otherwise most people put them behind the line.
They are really useful because at long
distance you cannot see where your arrow lands,
so this is vital if you want to adjust per shot.
This is very important,
you must know your sight settings.
Most people will carry it in a notepad, or on their phone.
Other people might stick a giant piece
of paper somewhere near their bag just to remind
them what their sight settings are.
It's very important because you only get a couple
sighting ends at the longest distance.
Every other distance assumes you know your sight settings.
So if you don't know your sight settings,
you've got to make sure you know what they are.
And write them down.
And that's more or less what I carry with me to archery
competitions. There probably are a few more
things which I've left out, and my archery case
is a little messy right now,
but, anyway, I hope that answers your
question Frank, and for everybody else,
I hope you found this helpful.
This is NUSensei, thanks for watching,
and I'll see you next time.