Archery

Target Archery

Target archery activities in the SCA are open to participants of all ages. Archers 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. Archers use recurve bows, crossbows, and longbows. Certain types of modern equipment like compound bows, and accessories like stabilizers and sights are not allowed in our archery activities to keep the playing field more level and medieval.

Throughout the time period that we recreate, archery was used for hunting and in wartime. In addition to shooting at traditional archery “bullseye” targets to score points, SCA archery competitions are often designed to mimic situations faced by medieval archers. These might include shooting at painted targets of charging warriors, or shoots where archers must hit targets representing the small slotted windows on a fortress.