Archery

One of the most important skills throughout the timeframe that we recreate, archery was used for hunting, practice, and especially war. Archery played an important role in many a battle and many cultures depended upon their innovative and skilled archers for defense as well as a means of conquest.

In the Society, we offer options to participate in both target archery and combat archery!

In order to be as true to times as possible we try to use materials and methods available to period archers. This includes a focus on natural materials such as wood and feathers in our bows and arrows. Some modern types of equipment like compound bows, are not allowed in our archery activities to keep the playing field more level and medieval.

In addition to the traditional target archery competitions where points are scored by shooting at a bullseye, the competitions for target archery are often designed to mimic situations faced by medieval archers. These might include 3-D or 2-D animal targets set at unknown ranges to demonstrate hunting prowess. Alternatively, a set of targets might be made to represent the slots on a fortress, the objective being to try to shoot the “archers” within the walls of a fortification under siege. Novelty targets will sometimes be encountered; blow out a candle with an arrow without hitting the candle itself, hit your target paddle to trip a swinging bar to block your opponent’s paddle from falling before they can shoot it, or get the best poker hand by skill or luck.