The SCA has many people who take part in Archery Tournaments and quite a few of them have their own bows and arrows.
Target archery is different in many ways to Combat archery. For a start there is no combat, just targets to shoot at and the arrows used have a different type of arrowhead on them.
1. Bow
2. Target arrow
3. Combat arrow
This type of archery is quite enjoyable but does require you to be somewhat fit - or you will feel the strain of the exercise across your back after a while!
For target archery all you need is a wide open space similar to the field used in combat archery. Then you need a target which is made out of 8 cardboard boxes folded flat and glued together on either side and a target taped to one side of it.
The target is then placed about 10 to 20 metres away from the archers and the chief archer checks the field for any unauthorised people or animals.
The head archer, when looking to see if the field is clear, is looking at a 450 degree angle to either side of the target and is looking for any moving 'live' in their line of sight between them and the farthest they can see behind the target.
Once they see that the field is clear, they will say loudly and clearly 'Clear to Shoot'. Only the head archer or the designated marshal for target archery is allowed to say this.
Target Archery Diagram
In the diagram above you can see the firing line that all the archers shoot from. The 450 degree angle of safe line is indicated as the read line extending out away from the archers on the firing line. This safety line extends out away from the farthest archers on the firing line. So if you have 4 archers on the firing line, the safety line would extend out from the two archers on the end of the firing line.
Should an animal or person stray onto the field while target archery is going, the head archer will shout or say 'Hold' and all archers will un-notch and put down their arrows and hold the bow at their side until the head archer says it is clear to shoot again.
Target archery is generally about shooting an arrow into the target and once you have finished shooting the arrows you have, calculating the score by the location of the arrow when it landed on or near the target.
Once you have shot at the target over a number of rounds, the archer with the highest score (the most arrows having hit near or on the centre of the target) is deemed the winner.
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