It was quite the shooting experience for about 80 archers over the weekend.
The Willowbrook Archery Club was the site of a 3D shoot all day both days and featured some of the most realistic targets, meant to stimulate a real hunting experience.
Targets shot at covered two courses, each taking close to an hour to complete for many shooters. They included the setup of beavers, crocodiles, moose, elk, antelope, turkeys, boars, bears, javelinas, fallowed deer, rabbit, polar bears, grizzly bears, jackalopes, cougars, wood chucks, cats, fox and a badger.
Ron Hannant, Willowbrook archery club member, was out on both days and said the feedback received from the visiting shooters was quite good and they're looking to make a few improvements/additions to the course for next year's 3D shoot.
"Next year, we're looking for a couple dinosaurs, maybe. A lot of work goes into setting up the course."The targets, about 40 of them in total were put together with a foam sponge material and were made to look as close to real life as possible, he said.
They also needed enough land to set up which would not interfere with shooters' safety as well."The Willowbrook Wildlife Federation would like to pay special attention to Ron and Noreen Hardy for all their help and support of the club and for allowing us to hold our 3D shoot on their property. Without them our shoot would not be possible," explains Hannant via email to the paper.
"We would also like to thank Dennis Nagy and Derek Nagy for allowing our course to spill on to their property."
Hannant said the course required a good several days in order to get to the point where they were ready for the 80 or so shooters that came out for the event, some coming to Willowbrook from as far away as Calgary.
Hannant said they've held the 3D shoot each year now for the past seven and seemed to suggest that it keeps getting better.
"It's evolved into a sport of its own," he said of 3D archery. "Most (shooters) come back because they like what they see."
He said that it was going to take until about 8-9 p.m., that evening to take everything apart once the shoot was completed. The last shooter was scheduled to be done around 4 p.m.
It's an event that Hannant said they would really like to do more often than once a year and added there was a little redesigning to do this year due to all the water that's fallen in the area.
"There's a lot of planning that goes into this (including) a total redesigning this year (but) we would like to do it more than once."
By around 2:30 p.m., Sunday, he estimated that close to 80 people had made the trip to participate on the course; Hannant said that's not bad.
"You're always hoping for more, but it's average."
He said some of the competitors came from Regina, Grenfel, Moose Jaw, Invermay, Fort Qu'Appelle, Balcarres, and Yorkton.
Hannant wishes to thank all those volunteers who made the shoot possible, and a success.
"A special thank you to all our volunteers for all your hard work and planning, you all have done a wonderful job."
The club also wishes to thank their many sponsors for helping to put it on. They include:
TD Canada Trust, Grain Millers Canada Corp., Maple Farm Equipment, Canadian Tire, Ochs Motor Sports, Park's Jewellery, Barsi Trucking, Darryl Wallin, Critters Mobile, C&C Furnace Cleaning, In The Shadows Trucking, Cuss Creek Taxidermy, Bird Dog Archery, K-Line Construction.
Listed below are the winners of this year's 3D shoot, sorted by category, winner, hometown, score: Men's Open: 1st Demetry Procyk (Fort Qu'Appelle) 380, 2nd Corey Mohl (Edenwold) 374, 3rd Clyde Erhardt (Balcarres) 370. Men's Bowhunter Release: 1st Tyler Carles (Grenfell) 356, 2nd Adrian Manby (Indian Head) 334, 3rd Stan Grzech (Regina) 322. Men's Bowhunter Fingers: 1st Garth Erbach (Melville) 256, 2nd David Mann (Melville) 240. Lady Bowhunter Release: 1st Deb Wagner (Regina) 335, 2nd Junita Fawcett (Melville) 326, 3rd Pam Foster (Edenwold) 284. Men's 65 and older: Merle Bass (Yorkton) 267. Youth 12-17: 1st Nicholas Fawcett (Melville) 363, 2nd Zane Hannant (Yorkton) 323, 3rd Bowman Bryant (Broadveiw) 306. Youth 11 & Under: 1st Orrie Babichuk (Invermay) 359, 2nd Jean Garry (Calgary) 324, 3rd Madison Garry (Willowbrook) 323. Youth 11 & Under Traditional: 1st Lillianna Hannant (Yorkton) 174.
