Summer Shooting Goals
Now we have escaped the confines of the hall and are settling into the great outdoors … its time to re-introduce GA’s favourite summer pastime … 252 Badge Hunting. The 252 round is a fantastic round for encouraging and challenging the newer archer. It encourages you with the reward of badges and challenges you gently to take a realistic step to the next level and the next badge. You even get to see how you are improving. All without feeling any real pressure and stress. However, it freaks out the veterans bigtime! :o)
… and away we go!
The concept is simple. Shoot 36 arrows at a target. The face is the huge 122cm one that fills the big bosses. You score by colour – gold = 9, red = 7, blue = 5, black = 3 and white =1. This is called the Imperial scoring system. The actual score you need depends on what sort of bow you are shooting but lets take Recurve as our example here. Starting at 20 yards/18m you need to shoot 252. This is an average of 7 per arrow on a huge face. After tiny indoor faces, this is easy! Now, its ok to shoot a blue (five points) IF you can also shoot a gold (nine points) and a red (seven points) because this round is all about averaging 21 points per three arrow end. If you can shoot 252 at that distance twice, you have beaten that challenge and are eligible for the green badge**. So we move your target back a bit – to 30yards/meters – and you start again. Its a little harder being further away and you have to shoot a bit better but you still need just 252 for the next badge (in this case white). And so it goes, badge by badge till you are shooting Olympic distances or even beyond. Simples!
We have scoring levels for all types of bow – Recurve, Barebow, Traditional and even Compound – as well as badges for all skill levels. Even our best archers haven’t cracked the top hardest (purple) badge yet but it is fun to watch them try. ;o) They get SO salty!
Mint, still in original packaging.
The rules can be found on our 252 Badge Awards page and most Scoring Apps have the 252 rounds tucked away in their coding. If you don’t have a scoring app yet, here is a custom scoresheet for you to print off. If you have any questions, just ask one of our lovely experienced archers (or if desperate, our Vice Chair) on how to get started.
252 Badges … Gotta catch them all!
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**Badges cost an extremely competitive £3.50 in todays inflationary economy. Our custom design is a good looking badge or so we’ve been told by visiting archers. They’ll make a nice start for that trophy cabinet you’re wanting to fill!
ps: Somehow the purple came out more hot pink … but as David Bowie almost sang in Rebel Rebel :- “hot pink I love you so”.
