WVTA Rendezvous '08

Wakarusa Valley Traditional Archers Annual Shoot

Quartering Away Deer on the 3-D Course

My trip to the Wakarusa Rendezvous was kind of a last minute thing... deciding on a Tuesday that I would drive down to Kansas on a Friday (Usually I plan a BIT further ahead than that). But despite that fact I managed to find the place and enjoy myself while I was there (with the help Mike Horton's directions on how to navigate around Topeka). The shoot is held in a rather secluded area, south of Topeka on Old Hwy 75 along the Wakarusa river. If you aren't familiar with the area (like me) directions to get there can be kind of confusing - so to help out folks in the future, here is a Google map of the location. Zoom out from there and you can see it in relation to Topeka. Map out directions from your address to those coordinates and you'll be able to find your way there. As a sidenote, the Google satellite image (at least at the time of this writing) gives you an idea of the terrain there: trees, hills, creeks and a river.

Camping is availble but it appeared to me the good spots filled up rather quickly so getting there on Friday night is not a bad idea. The shoot officially started on Saturday morning at 7 or 8 and ran until Sunday afternoon. Prizes for the top 3-D scores (and raffle prizes) were given away at 2pm each afternoon. There was an on-site lunch/snack/beverage vendor there this year, and a mobile BBQ vendor had food on Saturday evening to make sure everyone was good and full! If you want to get a jump start on meeting folks, I have been told that Friday night is the big social night of the event so don't hesitate to get there Friday evening if you can!

The Squirrel Targets

From what I could tell, the primary organizers of this event are Ed and Denise Ogle who live just south of the archery range. (As a quick sidenote, T.H.E. Archery Club is one of the few clubs that owns their own property - the Rendezvous is held on what is basically a campground surrounded by timber) Denise puts in an amazing amount of work preparing for this event and making sure it all goes smoothly. She works the registration booth and was one of the first people I spoke with after getting there Saturday morning. Ed found out that I was by myself and had come all the way down from NW Iowa so he took it upon himself to find a shooting party for me to join in. That leads into one thing you'll want to note... the folks at this shoot have to be about the friendliest people you'll ever meet. I ended up shooting with about 3 different groups of folks, none of whom I had ever met before, and it was like they had known you for years.

That leads us into the nitty gritty of any 3-D shoot... the course. This year the course was 40 targets total, split into 3 different sections: 10 targets, 10 targets, and 20 targets. They are all spread out over a large area, so even the 10 target sections take some time. Almost every one of the targets at Wakarusa is a Rinehart and they were all in very good condition. Each target has stakes for both children and adults so younger archers don't have to shoot through all of the trees and brush that the adults do.

Shot-Through-The-Tree

And when I say that adults have to shoot through trees and brush, I mean that you LITERALLY have to shoot through trees. One of the pictures I have shows one of the more challenging shots on the course. A mature tree with 5 foot high split in the middle (maybe 6 inches wide at most) stands between the archer and the target. Left or right and you smack the tree, up, down or ricochet and you run the risk of ending up in the creek beyond the target (in this case, a black panther). Other shots include through pine brush, through forks in trees, squirrel silhouettes on tree trunks, quartering-away deer, and at a carp target in the creek.

The Arrow-Eating Silo

All of these shots though pale in comparison to the most devious shot on the course though.... the silo. I only broke 2 arrows over the course of the weekend, and they were both shattered against the side of a silo that sits in the timber (how or why there is a silo in the trees I do not know). An uphill shot at a slightly-larger-than-a-woodchuck size bear gives very little margin for error. That in itself does not pose much of a problem though - it's the fact that it is a timed shot that really gets you. A sloped marble ramp is the timer, and the plunk of the marble into a metal bucket signals the time-up. Put the marble in the ramp, pull your arrow from the quiver, nock it, draw, aim and fire. A hit on the target is 10 points while misses or shots after time are all zeros. I'm horrible under pressure, and hate the risk of breaking arrows so of course I cracked both times and smacked my laminated birch arrows into the silo. One was salvageable while the other just plain shattered. I will say though it's the most fun I've had smashing an arrow to bits.

The Silo Timer - Ramp & Bucket

Historically this is not a huge shoot, with this year being the best attendance so far at ~160 shooters. But with the friendly folks and challenging 3-D course, it is well worth the trip. Despite the numbers though, there were at least 3 bowyers in attendance, a small arrowsmith or two, and one good size shop (Mike Horton of The Nocking Point).

I hate to cut things short, but I need to get going. I'll be adding a few more details and possibly adding more pics as well. Thanks again to the organizers at Wakarusa, especially Ed and Denise Ogle, for making their '08 Rendezvous such an enjoyable event!