It’s January 6th, it’s a little chilly, but 2019 is underway and so is the 3D archery season.
Most archery clubs won’t have their 3D season start until March or April, and most people are okay with that considering, ya know.. it’s winter.
However, in Franklin, PA it starts a little early at Rainbow Bowmen Archery Club. Their first 3D shoot is today, and Small Town Outdoors will be in attendance.
Now, this blog is being written the night before because we will be shooting most of the day, but nonetheless it will be a great time as always (let’s just say we shot really well and didn’t lose any arrows lol).
For anyone who has never been to one before, here is a little bit about them.
First off, they’re a blast if you enjoy shooting your bow, but want to shoot outside of practice and hunting. You go around a course set up of 3D animals and each target has a scoring system: 11, 10, 8, 5, and 0. An example is shown below, with a 0 being a missed target. Some clubs count 11’s, others count it as a 10X.
Most shoots will have 30 of these targets set up, and at every target there are different stakes that you shoot from. Each stake represents a “class” of an archer. There’s a youth stake for younger kids and teens, a traditional stake where traditional bowmen shoot from (longbow, recurve), a hunter class, and a “comp” or competitive class. The hunter class for compound shooters is sometimes split into two different stakes, where one is for fixed sights and others are for movable sights; it just depends what kind of equipment you are using and what the club’s standards are.
So if you have never been to a 3D event before and want to attend one, ask the people running the shoot what class you should be in and they will lead you in the right direction.
After shooting the 30 targets, or whatever the shoot has that day set up, you can either turn in your score cards for placement in your class (highest score wins), or if you weren’t shooting for score, you can just head out and enjoy the rest of your day!
If you enjoy archery and taking some time out of your day to hike through the woods and have some fun, we highly recommend you venture out to one of these shoots and get involved at your local archery club.
Small Town Outdoors will be getting video footage of this shoot as well, so hopefully we figure out how to compile a video together to put out some of our first video content out for your guys showing you what a 3D shoot is all about!
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