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It’s a feeling of utmost excitement when you get to pull back a bowstring, feel the bow’s power, and unleash all that energy stored up inside of you by releasing the arrow, it’s amazing. I’m sure archery game lovers can testify to this thrill of excitement.
But in addition to that feeling of excitement is trying super fun archery games that level up your skills and keep you smiling all day long. It absolutely doesn’t matter if you’re brand new to archery and looking for fun games to try out or you’re just looking to make your practice sessions more fun and interesting, look no further.
Here are 12 Super fun Archery games to help improve your skills and perfect your accuracy.
- Archery Tag (aka Combat Archery)
- Field Archery
- Popping Balloons
- H.O.R.S.E
- Robin Hood
- Fruit Shoot
- 3-D Archery
- 1-on-1 Olympic Style Target Archery
- Night Archery
- Archery Golf
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- Ski Archery
1. Archery Tag (aka Combat Archery)
Think of dodgeball + paintball with spongey arrows. All the fun of paintball and dodgeball is combined with archery!
Archery Tag is literally just like dodgeball: two teams on opposite sides of a playing field try to fit each other with sponge-tipped arrows. Just like paintball, everyone gets face masks for protection.
Often there are obstacles to hide behind and it can even be played in knee-deep water!
If you get hit, you’re out. The team with the last player standing wins!
Skills improved: increases accuracy under pressure, hitting a moving target, increases balance and coordination.
2. Field Archery
Field archery is a combination of target archery and a hike in the woods. Sounds interesting, right? Yeah. Under this particular form of archery, archers are exposed to varying weather conditions and terrains. Archers shoot in various lighting conditions.
Field archers generally shoot in pairs of four. They hike a course to shoot at varying distances.
This form of archery game is played in the World Archery Field Tournament. In this competition, on the first day, the course is unmarked. Archers are required to judge the distance before taking their shots in three arrow ends.
This is an outdoor form of archery that helps individuals to build solid friendships, level up their skills and increase their enjoyment for archery games.
If you want to know more, check out this article that goes in depth into Field Archery.
3. Popping Balloons
This is by far the simplest of all archery games, as far as archery games are concerned. It is the most fun and easy archery game to set up. It has a way of inducing giggles by turning grown-ups into adults and it also keeps kids practicing all day long.
All you need to set up this archery game are balloons, target pins, glitter, cornstarch, baby powder or water-based paint. Blow up several balloons and then tape them to a target or similar backdrop. You can add visual elements to popping balloons by filling them with glitters, cornstarch, baby powder or water-based paint.
It is most fun when it involves about 5-10 per player. You have two options of either doing individual trial times or a live shoot. For time trials, each archer takes their turn shooting their archery bows.
The ultimate goal here is to make sure all of the balloons are shot within the shortest time period. You can either play this archery game as a competition with others or against yourself. The winner is determined by choosing the Archer who shot all balloons within the shortest time frame.
Few things beat the fulfilling sound of a breaking balloon. The fun and excitement experienced often turns grownups into kids. The satisfaction and challenge of popping balloons can also be boosted by creating a much longer distance.
Skills improved: develops intense focus and concentration which in turn leads to aiming under pressure.
4. H.O.R.S.E
This form of archery game can be linked to a basketball court. It is a great and interesting game to play at a 3D archery range provided that there are various types of targets and lots of opportunities to take great shots.
The idea is the same as with basketball: Each archer takes turns with the first player of the round determining what type of shot every archer must complete in order to continue.
For instance, an archer might conclude that each archer needs to shoot at 20 yards, with the target equaling away. If the archers are unable to put an arrow in the hole or circle, they are awarded the first letter ‘H’ and continue on this order until the word “HORSE’ has been spelt.
At this point, they lose the game. The fun of not getting to “H.O.R.S.E” first improves the player’s accuracy under tension.
5. Robin Hood
This archery game challenges an Archer’s distance ability. In as much as it is fun-filled, it helps an archer to level up his/her skills and perfect accuracy.
An archer can choose to start at 10-15 yards away from the target and take turns shooting. Every archer that retains their arrow in the designated area can move on to the next distance. In increments of 5 yards, each archer is required to move out away from the target.
The winner is chosen by whoever stays the longest in the competition. This form of archery game particularly focuses on levelling up your skill by extending your maximum effective distance under pressure which is a useful skill in hunting. This game can be played by all age ranges.
6. Fruit Shoot
This form of archery game requires shooting an arrow with fruit as the main target. You are required to aim at the fruit and successfully split it into two halves. The satisfaction from splitting an apple or thumping a pumpkin is just so thrilling. It’s an amazing form of archery that helps you improve on your accuracy and at the same time is a thrill of joy and excitement.
7. 3-D Archery
This form of archery is similar to the field archery which involves wooded ranges and challenging terrains. This form of archery also features a three-dimensional animal target on marked and unmarked courses.
Archers must estimate distances to animal target while archers hike to shooting stations. Most 3-D archery games, however, only allow one shot per target. We’ve got an awesome article that talks a whole lot more about 3-D archery.
The best part of 3-D archery games is that it allows you to take up a fun challenging test. Most coaches in this game believe that 3-D archery is exceptional because it enables you to shoot a course set in a natural environment.
It provides exercise, fresh air and an opportunity to meet and make new friends. This is due to its varied terrain which enables you to shoot with people you probably do not know.
3-D archery is also a form of family sport. A family can enjoy time together shooting in the same group.
8. 1-on-1 Olympic Style Target Archery
Now, here I’m talking about Olympic style archery (’cause let’s be real: ALL archery has a Target). It can be done both indoors and outdoors. It takes place over distances of up to 90 metres and uses the traditional five-colour, ten-ring target. The beauty is you don’t have to be competing formally; you can just compete against your firends!
Target archery is practiced in clubs of over 150 countries of the world and is rapidly growing. Outdoor and indoor target archery includes individual, team, and mixed team games at international competitions.
The Olympic and Paralympic games are most likely the best-known examples of target archery. Target archers face all sorts of challenges as regards to weather condition. Archers study the wind by feel and by watching indicator socks above targets and alongside the range.
Outdoor target archery is common among people who love being outside and enjoying nature. You want to increase your accuracy over a long distance?keep playing target archery!
9. Night Archery
Night archery involves archers going out on a short round course making use of flashlights in lighting their way through the course. This form of archery is more of a family event than a pure competition.
The course is laid out before the dark and ropped off in advance to ensure the safety of all participants. The distances to the targets are not always long but rather short.
In most cases, it is never more than 20 metres and the targets are mostly large in size. There can be two shooting distance markers in most cases. The short shooting distances are measured to prevent the loss of arrows through misses.
For night archery, there is no inherent practical purpose but to enjoy the archery game and have fun.
10. Archery Golf
This is a modern form of archery game that has adopted some of the rules of golf to play the archery game. Archery golf was first mentioned in the United States media since the year 1923. This form of archery game has been played in the tournaments ever since.
The game typically consists of completing players shooting arrows or projectiles into a number of holes, goals, or targets on a course. Their objective is to do so with taking the fewest number of shots. Archery golf is mostly linked to the clout archery and flight archery.
It is also related to the traditional form of competitive archery, roving marks. It is however unique in that it allows a player to shoot at a single target as many times as possible to complete that “hole”.
11. Tic-Tac-Toe
Tic-Tac-Toe is another fun Archery game that comes with a twist on the pen-and-paper version. Archery games like this turn outdated games into something fun again.
This form of archery particularly challenges your accuracy and helps you level up your skills when you have to pick a single square. It can be done by simply taping a piece of cardboard or paper to a target.
Then nine squares are drawn three high by three wide. You can take turns with your partner in the game shooting your arrows at the board. An archer claims a square for their own self when their arrow hits a particular square.
The main objective is to make sure that your arrow hits three squares in a row whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The arrows should have different coloured fletchings to make things easier.
12. Ski Archery
Ski archery is a form of archery game that exhibits similarities with the sport of biathlon. However, rather than use a gun used in biathlon, a recurve bow is used instead. The players ski round about a cross-country track.
There are two different stances in which the archer must shoot his target. It can be done by either kneeling or standing. Skis cannot be removed at any time during this form of archery game.
Archery games not only improve archery skills but it also helps soothes the mind serving as relaxation therapy.
One of Fred Bear’s popular quotes is, “Nothing clears a troubled mind better than shooting a bow.” This describes archery as a form of therapy for the soul which is much more than having fun.
This proves the importance and relevance of archery on a greater level. We couldn’t agree more or less with Fred Bear. We hope that you try out the various archery games listed above to make archery more fun, social and even more effective.
I live in Alberta, Canada where I enjoy indoor and 3D archery with traditional bows and compound bows. On this site, I share everything I’ve learned about archery along the way.