4th WCSA WORLD CROSSBOW CHAMPIONSHIPS-Portugal

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Jim C
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Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:05 pm
Location: southern Ohio

4th WCSA WORLD CROSSBOW CHAMPIONSHIPS-Portugal

Post by Jim C »

The 4th WCSA worlds was held in Portugal last week. For those of you who do not follow xbow "field archery" (similar to FITA) there are two world bodies that sanction such competitions. The oldest and the biggest is the IAU. Our national governing body, THE NATIONAL CROSSBOWMEN is affiliated with the IAU. A few years ago, TNC as well as several other countries began the World Crossbow Shooters Association. While I am not versed in all the reasons, it appears that the IAU was not interested (Or as interested) in promoting the development of "Sport crossbow" shooting (the stock hunting crossbows familiar to most of us in the states) so a new organization was formed. TNC Is also affiliated with this group and their Fourth World event was held in Portugal

The US Team had 5 members. Our Sport Crossbow archer is Jeff Copley. Pat Copley was shooting in the senior ladies Open (target style crossbows). Our Open men's team included 2008 #1 ranked TNC shooter Terry Butler, 2007 World and National Junior Champion Brent Hankins, and Steven Pylypchuk of the well known New Jersey archery family that features Jerry -who served as a judge at our recent US Nationals and is a former USAT and national recurve Champion and Ellen who is the current national 50+ ladies compound target champion. The elder Pylypchucks served as managers and team leaders.

The tournament had several events. The main target event is a double 900 round. A WCSA 900 round is 30 arrows at each distance of 45, 55, and 65M on a 60CM FITA face. (The IAU shoots at 65 and 50 on the 60CM and at 35 on a 40 CM face).

Brent Hankins won the main open event by more than 100 points. Steven was second and Terry was third.

Patricia was the only senior lady and shot a strong score. Jeff finished 6th in the rapidly growing sport division (they don't shoot as many arrows in that division-600 is perfect)

The next event was an OR Round called Matchplay. Again the USA open men went 1-2-3 but this time Steven Upset Brent in the finals with Terry finishing third.

Jeff and Steven also participated in a Forest event and won their respective divisions. The men's open team won by default-strangely while the host country had several sport archers, the far more expensive target rigs apparently are not popular there and no other country fielded a full men's team.

The next event in 2 years Is in NZL which should attract the many xbow archers from Australia. With all our xbow hunters here in the states and with many of them having some competitive rifle backgrounds, sport crossbow could be a division where people would have a chance to represent the USA in world and international competition. I expect this division will become far more popular than the open event due to the cost

When I next see my student-Brent-I will try to find out what sort of crossbows were most popular in the sport division and what sort of sighting arrangements were being used. I was told that these bows are strictly stock
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B-Logger
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Post by B-Logger »

Thanks for the report Jim. Can you also tell us what bows they were shooting?
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Dennis
Jim C
Posts: 830
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 10:05 pm
Location: southern Ohio

Post by Jim C »

B-Logger wrote:Thanks for the report Jim. Can you also tell us what bows they were shooting?
Brent shoots an AUSBOW Contender with Dave Barnsdale 95 pound glass limbs, Mike Gough Made stock, and a LAS/Full Adjust aperture mounted on a sureloc challenger (we like the cheaper surelocs with the manual lock for crossbow). The rear side is an anschutz universal free rifle sight with an adjustable anschutz diopter (no lens) and sun shade tube. The bow has been modified to use stainless steel screws and bolts rather than the carbon steel that came with the bow from Australia. The bolts I make for him featuring approximately 12" X7 1714 shafts with estonian 38MM ( I believe) FALCO vanes and 200+ grain lathe turned brass points with teflon plastic drivers.

The Palm rest is also made by Mike Gough as is the mounting bracket. His brackets are far superior to the stock because they are offset and put the palm rest farther back (towards the trigger). A sand filled stabilizer TNC President Bill Pimm gave me is on the bow-the mount came from him as well.

The string is BCY Dacron-18 Strands-about 33.75 inches (going on memory-its marked on my "Dream Machine jig) end served with BCY 3D dyneema end serving and center served with .21 Angel Majesty.

My Contender can use 8125 strings due to the addition of those barnett limb tips but Brent's bow does not. He does not have a tube connecting the rear sight with the aperture-a common add on among some (and on my main bow now)


This bow is pretty "stock" for TNC field rigs. The big luxury in addition to Mike's stock is the anschutz. I have a basic turret on my main bow though I recently bought Bill's contender. He is now shooting an adjustable track British Spirit-the way these work is rather than moving the front sight up and down you move the entire launching track up and down do you maintain the same head position and sight position. I have never shot one but Bill claims they are really nice.

I believe Terry Shoots a contender. Most Americans shoot either Contenders (MIchelle O'Donnell, Joe Silvasi, me, Brent, Ron K and others) or the bows Stan Pennypacker makes (Stan, Hobart Murphy, Bill Croft, and I believe Carol Pelosi). The old Spirits (I have one) you see once in a while plus the new AT jobs. The trackless Hardy Ward style bows are pretty much obsolete though semi-trackless Pennypacker bows are around. I have never seen someone using one of Robin Allen's. I was hoping to get one from him but he's really booked up from what he told me.

Our JOAD Club takes a break this month-when I touch base with Brent I will find out what the SPORT division bows were.
TNC and ACF Member
NFAA and NAA Certified Coach
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