Field archery, despite what the name may imply, can be practice in more than just a field. This particular branch of archery can be conducted in a field, or if preferable in a forest or other wooded area. Courses often times will include both kinds of terrain and will nearly always feature terrain of various degrees of height and depth. Archers who practice field archery can use targets at marked distances or targets with unmarked distances. Targets are often somewhat obscured and can be either a standard foam target (typically with a yellow center and black outer rings) or a paper animal target. Field archery is a branch of archery in and of its own right, but it is often used by bow-hunters out of season to practice for the season in a more realistic setting than target archery would provide.
International competition formats for field archery can be practiced using barebow, recurve, or compound styles of archery and the World Games include official field archery competitions for both barebow and recurve bow styles. Field archers are tested in field archery not just on their raw accuracy, but also on range-finding, through the use of unmarked distance targets, on shot angling to adjust for shooting at targets either above or below the archer and on target finding through the use of shadow and obscuring obstacles. These extra skill sets are often referred to as “fieldcraft” by field archers.
Field archery competitions can be practiced by either individuals or teams comprised of 3 archers of the same gender (each practicing one of the three bow styles used in field archery).
For the World Archery Field Championships qualification round, archers shoot a total of 48 targets over the course of a two-day period, shooting 24 targets on both days. The first-day consist of 24 targets at marked distances and the second day consists of 24 more targets this time at unmarked distances. All archers shoot 3 arrows at each target with barebow shooters firing from positions marked with blue pegs (which are closer) and compound and recurve archers shooting from positions marked by red pegs (which are further away). The targets have a center ring in yellow worth 6 points, a second ring in yellow just around the center worth 5 points, and four additional rings in black worth 4, 3, 2, and 1 points respectively. Scoring for the qualifier is done cumulatively simply totaling the scores from all 48 targets. The 16 highest scorers advance to the first elimination round. Teams are usually chosen from the top scoring archers in each division, but coaches can opt for other archers if they prefer.
For individuals the first elimination round has each archer fire 3 arrows per target at 12 marked targets. The scores for each archer are totaled and the top 8 archers advance to the second elimination round. These archers shoot 3 arrows per target at only 8 marked targets. Scores are again totaled for each archer and the top four archers advance to the semi-finals. At this point the archers compete 1-on-1 with the victors of the two semi-finals matches going head-to-head in a gold medal match and the two losers of the semi-final matches competing head-to-head in a bronze medal match.
For individual competitions, tied matches are decided by a single arrow, single target shoot-off where the arrow closest to the center wins the match. If the first tie-breaker proves undecidable then the process is repeated until a victor emerges.
Teams work a little differently. 8 teams are chosen from the archers participating in the qualifier for the event. Once chosen teams compete head-to-head in quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finally a bronze medal and gold medal matchup.
The quarter-finals consist of each team shooting at 8 marked targets with each archer shooting 1 arrow at each target for a total of 3 arrows per target.
The semi-final and medal matches differ only in that just 4 targets are used instead of 8 as in the quarter-finals. All the head-to-head matches are scored cumulatively with the highest score winning.
For teams, ties are decided by a team shoot off with each archer shooting 1 arrow at the target for a total of three arrows per team. The team with the arrow closest to the center wins the tie. If closest arrows are too close to be called then the tie is decided by the second closest arrows. If this is still too close to decide then the third closest arrows break the tie. If all three arrows for both teams are equally close to the center as their counterparts from the other team then the process is repeated until a victor is determined.
So not only is field archery a fun way to relax and enjoy nature with family and friends, or even just a method to practice for hunting season, but it also offers organized competition for those still looking for the thrill that competing against one’s peers can bring.
Research for this article was conducted at the following sites:
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