On Safari with Ballyvally Archers

My favourite competition of the year! The Mulligan Hunting Trails!

Knee deep in ferns and thorns, the perils of inattentiveness, and missing a target isn’t the same as missing a target.

This year we were up against the best competition anyone can compete against – ourselves. As in the previous year, our scores became the bar, set as records. And to make sure we knew this, our score cards were personalised, in a manner of speaking, with last year’s score at the top.

Thankfully Paul Moore did the scoring in our group, so I didn’t have to keep looking at it, or run through some form of predictive mental mathematics, working out what I need in order to beat it – my mentality for shooting is simply, just shut up and shoot.

Obviously, it did not do our confidence any good when we learned, after the first trail, that we had already missed a target… And nor it do our self-esteem any favours when we found out it was a wolf… And naturally our self-worth suffered a bit when we found out it was right next to a target we had all seen and shot.

And it was not an easy year. I’ve been shooting at Loughbrickland for nearly as long as I’ve been doing archery and know the venue like I know my way around an open field. Yet! Every year, the trails and paths hewn into the natural forest have me walking through an alien environment.

There are always targets well hidden, but there are always targets well hidden in such a way as to embarrass you. For example, the large wolf mentioned earlier. And a tall bear is not so easy to spot as you might think, in a forest with shadows pouring through and over every surface. What about capercaillies? Large black grouse, with pitch black plumages? Even when you see something, perhaps an albino crocodile in the middle of the swamp, this hardly fills you with confidence. Not just because it’s a tricky shot, but because you can’t help but dwell upon that itchy feeling, that this target is only there to distract you from something else.

Like a wolf perhaps…

So well hidden was a badger, I missed it, and when it was seen by my father, I had to blind shoot it through a bush. It was not merely the misdirection of the still well-hidden pheasant that kept it concealed, but the murky shade of overhanging brushy bits.

A panther was lurking inside overhanging holly, for a scene that would have suited a Tarzan adventure, or even thrilled Teddy Roosevelt on one his expeditions.

Of course there was a crocodile in the swamp, but that did not mean it was so obvious, the shape and even texture of the target blending it into the environment. Despite being white, it was an off colour, closer in hue to wood. The boar on the other hand, with its darker colours was nearly invisible against the bank – no hedges, or brush, or shadow, just a clever placement.

This year delivered on the past experiences, and then some. With beautifully woven paths through a forest its peak of life, and forty-five 3Ds craftly hidden, its one of the best days shooting you can experience, and worth a trip up here for the day.

What a year, and I can’t wait for next August.

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