Target Archery

Types of Target Archery

Official FITA Archery Target

There are many forms of Target Archery and they are all challenging and a lot of fun. You can be a basic backyard shooter all the way up to a super advanced target shooter and be in the World Olympic games.

Shooting at Targets is the most popular form of and the one I prefer, because I no longer go hunting. My brother-in-law disagrees with me though as he loves bow hunting and therefore practices a lot with 3D targets. Basic target shooting is where you shoot at stationary circular targets from a variety of distances. All the different types of bow can be used and it is fun to try and master them all. Check out the longbow, barebow, recurve and compound bow. You need to be careful with crossbows as they are illegal in some places.

Archery competitions are held both indoors and outdoors. Indoor target shooting typically involves shooting from one set distance, while outdoor shooting includes several distances.

In the U.S., 3D Target Archery seems to be the most common for outdoors, but is followed closely by Indoor Target shooting.

The distances you are required to shoot from also varies a lot and can be different for different types of tournaments. As an example, Indoor 300 events have the targets set at 20 yards whereas Field tournaments require you to shoot from up to 80 yards out. Some World Archery Federation, abbreviated WA (formerly FITA) events require you to shoot from 90 meters.

For Indoor 300 the shooters stand next to each other at a distance of 20 yards and shoot at a paper target. Each shooter shoots five arrows at single target or one arrow at each of five targets.

There are two different types of targets that are most commonly used. A single spot that has one bulls eye and a 5 spot that has 5 targets with bulls eyes.

For 3D Archery you shoot foam 3 dimensional, usually full sized, animals at various distances. 3D Archery is most often outdoors but is seen increasingly at indoor ranges. The fun of 3D Archery is having to guess how far away a target is and then quickly know where to hit the target in order to obtain the highest possible score. 3D Archery simulates hunting the most.

In Field Tournaments your target is paper spots at distances from 12 yards up to 80 yards. WA tournaments are most often measured in meters and the distance of the shooting at a 3ft round paper target varies. In Vegas tournaments you shoot from 20 yards at a 3 spot paper target with one arrow for each target.

You may think that target shooting is real easy, but I have news for you. The archers that win these types events have been practicing for years, have had good coaches and can now shoot a lot of arrows into a bulls eye.

Think of how hard or competitive it is to bowl a 300 game in bowling. In an archery round of Indoor 300 it’s similar. It takes 60 arrows in a row to hit the bulls eye!! It’s possible but not easy.

Vegas Archery Target

5 spot archery target

3d archery target