It was a great weekend for the WBH Broadhead shoot. Sunny and warm with little wind made the conditions perfect for the 2009 Ultimate Broadhead Challenge. Thanks to Dan Ilkich (Serb) for supplying the materials and building the target and for coming early with Mark Summerfelt to help set up the novelty shoot on Friday afternoon. We set up the shoot on Friday so we would be ready for the Saturday morning opening of the Broadhead shoot but as soon as we had the challenge set up on Friday, we had requests to take the challenge by those that arrived early. The Father and Son team of Marvin and Jesse Joles had met the challenge last year and were eager to qualify for this years event. 14 year old Jesse made the first attempt of the year but it was his Father Marvin that was the first to put his Muzzy tipped broadhead through the 3 1/2 inch hole at 35 yards.
After a few tries, 14 year old Jesse (with a 70# Matthews Monster) made it through the hole and once again, the Joles were qualified for the Sunday shoot off.
On Saturday morning, the shooters filtered in to make an attempt on the wooden target. Some were successful while others were not. Here is a video of a young fellas attempt to qualify. The loud "thunk" lets you know that he was not successful because the ones that made it through the hole, stuck into a foam target behind the hole and made little if any noise.
Here is a close up view of what a miss looks like.
And another
The archers that clearly missed the hole lost nothing but a little pride and a broadhead. Those that were much closer lost a bit more. If they were close enough to ALMOST make it through the hole but caught just one blade on the edge of the hole, the outcome was bit more devastating. If a blade caught the hole, the arrow would whip sideways and most likely, the rear of the arrow would snap off. Here is a picture of the results of one such shot.
Here is a video of one of the shots that caught the edge. You can see the arrow hit the bottom edge of the wood at about the 6 O clock position. Most of the arrow made it through the hole.
While many attempts came up short, there were those that met the challenge. WBH Director Greg Prince was one such archer. Here's Greg making the attempt with his new Bowtech Admiral.
Here is the video of Greg making it through the hole.
While most of the archers making an attempt were men with compounds, we had a larger number of traditional archers this year than last year. Trad archers and those 12 and under made their attempts from 20 yards.
Last year, we only had one female archer try the shot. This year we had 3. Here is Forum member WBHgal giving it a try.
By the end of day one, we had 52 archers make an attempt with 9 being successful. The last person through the hole on Day one was Mark Summerfelt and he did it in some very low light conditions. Dan (Serb) was also one of the 9 that were able to make it through the hole on the first day. With the light fading, it was time to enjoy the campfire.
On day 2, we once again had archers trying to meet the challenge. One such archer was young Katie Makovec. Even though he was wearing a walking cast on her foot, she was eager to try the shot.
After Katie's attempt, her 9 year old brother Joseph wanted to give it a go but did not have a broadhead. I weighed his field tip and gave him one of the 100 grain heads I brought along for just such an occasion. Joseph was the youngest archer to try the shot.
Joseph showed up his big sister and made the shot!!!!
He was now entered into the shoot off round.
At 4:00 pm, we ended the qualifying so those that were successful had time to get sighted in for the shoot off distance of 45 yards (25 yards for young Joseph)
The 14 archers that met the challenge and advanced to the shoot off were:
Marvin Joles
Jesse Joles
Last year's challenge winner Corey Meske
Dan Ilkich (Serb)
Mark Summerfelt
Ron Beasley
Tom Christian
Jason Coleman
Robert Keather
Ron Kulas
Greg Prince
Dave Smith
Jeff Zeulsdorf
9 year old Joseph Makovec
While making some last minute adjustments for the shoot off, Dan (Serb) had an equipment malfunction and was without a bow. In the sprite of good sportsmanship, Mark Summerfelt let Dan use his bow.
Because young Joseph was shooting from the 25 yard distance, he was the first archer to attempt the shot. You could have heard a pin drop as he lined up the shot but the crowd erupted as his arrow made it through the hole. He had applied some pressure to the adults.
Joseph was kind enough to help pull the names out of a hat to determine the order of the shooters. The first name he pulled was Greg Prince.
Greg was unable to make it through at 45 yards. The next archer was Serb using a borrowed bow.
Serb was unable to make the shot. The next to try was Robert Kaether.
Robert made the shot which meant there would be another shoot off with at least him and young Joseph. The next to try was Jesse Joles
Jesses was not able to make it through the hole. Up next was Jason Coleman.
Jason was not able to make the shot. Up next was Ron Kulas. He too was not able to make the shot. (no picture available since I could not photograph myself and shoot at the same time)
Up next was Tom Christian. Tom also made it through the hole which meant we would have at least a 3 person shoot off.
The next archer was last year's champion, Corey Meske. Corey made it though the hole again and once again proved why he was last years champ. In two years and 5 attempts, Corey put his arrow through the hole meaning a 4 person shoot off round.
The next to try was Ron Beasley. Ron was not able to make it through the hole.
Up next was Marvin Joles. Marvin was not able to make it through the hole.
The last archer in the first shoot off round was Mark Summerfelt Mark was also unable to make it through the hole. 2 archers that qualified, failed to return for the final shoot off.
That meant that Joseph, Robert, Tom and Corey would have to do it again. Joseph (the crowd favorite) was the first to try. His shot was perfectly aligned but came up less than an inch high. Joseph received a large round of applause from the crowd.
Corey Meske was next and for the first time ever, Corey left a broadhead in the wood and was eliminated.
Up next was Tom Christian. Tom was the first to make it through the hole in the final shoot off.
The final archer was Robert Kaether but Robert was unable to make the shot meaning Tom Christian was this years Ultimate Broadhead Challenge winner. Because we had enough prizes for 2nd place, we kept track of where the other 3 archers had hit the target so we could determine who was 2nd based on who was closest to the hole. The 2nd place winner was Young Joseph Makovec. For the 2nd year in a row, we had more Mathews archers qualify but a Hoyt Bow won the event. The other bows to make it wer Bow-Tech, PSE and Full Force.
Congrats to Joseph and Tom for their outstanding archery ability and I hope they return next year to defend their position. Thanks to all that came out and supported the WBH and this event.
