Competitive Shooting: How to Get Started

Perhaps you are the everyday bowhunter that pulls your bow out each fall in order to get ready for archery season.  During those off seasons of winter and summer, competitive archery provides a fantastic opportunity to keep your skills sharp!  3D shooting provides some friendly competition, keeps your skills up to par and can be a family affair. 

If you are just getting into the sport of bow shooting with some friends, your local archery club is a great place to start.  Most archery clubs hold shoots on a monthly basis to provide revenue for the club.  At an event like this, you can expect shooters of all ages and levels.  Typically a local archery club will have stakes that range from 15 yards to 50 yards to appease archers of all skill levels on their 3D courses.  Taking a rangefinder, like this one from Vortex Optics (and yes, if you buy from this link SLG2, Inc will receive a small commission), to the local club as a beginner is recommended.

Maybe you have been shooting at local clubs and are ready to take it to the next level.  The International Bowhunting Organization (IBO) and Archery Shooter’s Association (ASA) both provide season long national tournaments for competitive shooting. If you have never experienced the fun and excitement of a national tournament, don’t be intimidated.  They are true archery festivals, with competitive classes for the entire family.  Both organizations have amateur classes specifically designed for novices and bowhunters to come out and give it a try.  The ASA has classes with known yardage, where the IBO classes are unknown yardages.  Unknown yardage adds an element to the competitive archery world.

If you have a passion for bowhunting, you truly should try your hand at a competitive archery event..either locally or at a national level.  The family friendly atmosphere, like-minded friends that you will meet and memories that you will make will last a lifetime.  Not to mention, your bowhunting skills won’t need to be brushed up each fall. To read more articles about Archery you can check these out, Getting Started in Archery, Finding the Right Bow, and Five Confessions of a New Bow Hunter.