Rinehart R100

On Saturday, August 7th, the Rinehart R100 was in Saginaw Michigan. I thought this would be a fun day to take Mindy and let her have a good time shooting at different targets. I recently bought Mindy a new PSE Bow Madness XS and put some new Americas Best Bowstrings in her favorite color, purple and white, on it. The week before the R100, I finally got her drop away rest tuned in, her sight set, loop installed and served her G5 peep in. I know, a week to practice after not shooting for months…it was just a fun day. I had Mindy sight in and tune her groups for 20 yards and a few at 30 yards. Thinking about what distances she would need to shoot at for the R100, I had her take a couple shots at 40 yards (4 shots). Time would dictate that we would not get in any more practice before Saturday.

Well, Mindy had to get up at 5am (during her summer break! Oh my!) and we made our way up to Mike’s house. We loaded up his truck and headed north.

We arrived shortly after the course opened and it was already starting to fill up so we all got our bows out and sent a few arrows down the practice range before we started. The R100 offers two courses, the North American and the Exotics. They both have 50 targets (hence the R”100”) and if you’re planning on attending next year, plan for two days. We started around 9am and didn’t finish the North American course until almost 2pm. We chose the North American course because we knew the targets would be ranged more to practical shot distances for actual shots.

The biggest mistake I continuously made all day was in not trusting my gear! I recently installed a G5 Optix XR2 sight which is one fixed and one floating pin. I’ve never used a floating pin before and while I marked ranges for both elevated and ground level shots I continuously over corrected and my scores showed it. For some reason I just could not get used to the sight working the way it was designed and I was making high and low shots because of it. When I set the pin as marked and trusted it…boom! Spot on! That is why practice, practice, practice is so important, especially with new gear.

Now, on the other hand, Mindy with her new bow, with very little practice and 4 shots at 40 yards with none longer….was smoking ME! Everyone in our group ended up missing a target some time during the course. With targets ranged from 18 yards to 53 yards can you guess which on Mindy missed? …the 18 yard target! She was smoking the long range shots! PSE Bow Madness INDEED! I will add a little advice if you’re shooting one of these fast PSE bows…I’m shooting a PSE Omen with Carbon Express Aramid KVs…lubricate the arrows with a little bit of Scorpion Venom, otherwise they melt the targets and are extremely difficult to remove! Then again, if you miss like this I don't think Scorpion Venom is gonna help...

Here's Mike on his 50 yard shot that he missed... and here's his arrow!

It was a long morning with lots of shooting but boy was it fun! My arm was tired and we didn’t get lunch until after 2pm but I’d do it again in a heart beat! I think Mikey gave Mike a run for his money and I know that I could not be prouder of Mindy BEATING her dad’s score! Michigan’s deer heard had better watch out cause there’s a new Sheriff in town and she’s called Mindy!