Types of Archery: Every Discipline, Its Distances and Where to Start

Archery splits into four main types you can compete in: target archery (indoor and outdoor), field archery, 3D archery and bowhunting. Around them sit smaller disciplines with their own rules: clout, flight, bowfishing, run and ski archery, and mounted archery. Inside most of them you'll pick a style, meaning a bow division: Olympic recurve, compound, barebow or traditional.

For most new archers the easiest start is indoor target at a club or shop league: fixed distance, no weather, and every shot scored. If you bowhunt, 3D is the natural first competition. The types differ less in the bow than in distance and target size, and that changes how hard each one is.

• 1.25 in
  the Olympic 70 m 10 ring, shrunk to the same angle at 20 yards
• 3.3 s
  a 40 lb recurve arrow's flight to a 165 m clout target, against 1.2 s to 70 m (modeled)
• 4 million+
  students who've shot in the school program NASP since 2002, per New York's DEC

The question usually arrives like it did on ArcheryTalk in 2025: an archer with years behind him who wanted to do both 3D and indoor spot shooting but didn't know where to start. One reply pointed to ASA in the South and IBO in the North and gave the advice I'd give too: for your first matches, shoot the bow and arrows you already have. What follows sorts the types by the rules that actually differ, with distances and target sizes taken from the rulebooks.

What Are the Main Types of Archery?

Here's every type you'll run into in the US, with the distances and targets from each organization's own rules.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

From World Archery's Book 2 round tables and Book 6 miscellaneous rounds, the NFAA's official rounds, the ASA federation class table and a state NASP tournament rulebook. Mounted (horseback) archery, ski archery and Japanese kyudo exist too, with very few venues in the US.

What Are the Different Archery Styles?

A style is the bow and gear you shoot with, and it decides your division in nearly every type above. The four you'll see on a US scorecard:

Each organization draws the lines differently: stabilizer length, sight type, arrow speed. A setup that's legal in one class can be scored zero in another, so check yours in the ASA, NFAA, IBO and USA Archery equipment checker before a sanctioned shoot.

Which Type of Archery Is the Hardest?

By the size of the bullseye, outdoor target. The fairest way to compare a 4 cm ring at 18 m with a 3 m zone at 165 m is the angle it covers from where you stand. I worked that out for each type's top-scoring zone and drew each one as the circle that covers the same angle at 20 yards.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Angle = zone diameter ÷ distance. NFAA indoor counts the 4 cm X only for ties; World Archery compound counts its 4 cm inner 10 for ties. All rows are in the types of archery data (CSV).

The angle isn't the whole story. A clout zone is huge, but you're dropping an arrow onto it from 15° up, and a 3D target has no rings you can see at all at unknown distance. Field archery adds slope; run archery adds a racing heart rate. Still, if you want one number for how unforgiving a type is, this is it: the two outdoor target divisions ask the most of your form.

What Is Target Archery?

Shooting at round faces from a fixed, known distance, indoors or out. It's the Olympic type, and it's where most clubs start new archers because everything except your form is held constant. World Archery's round table lists the standard rounds: 72 arrows at 70 m on a 122 cm face for recurve, 72 at 50 m on an 80 cm face for compound, and 60 arrows at 18 m on a 40 cm face indoors.

US indoor leagues mostly shoot the NFAA's version: 60 arrows at 20 yards on a 40 cm face scored 5-4-3-2-1, often on a five-spot or the Vegas three-spot. Indoors, arrow diameter matters; my types of arrows guide models how many points a fat shaft adds.

What Is Field Archery?

Target archery taken for a walk. You shoot round faces set along a course, uphill and downhill, at distances that change every target. World Archery sets the faces by distance and peg color:

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

From World Archery Book 2, Art. 4.5.2.2. Yellow pegs (longbow, barebow U18) are shorter again.

In the US the NFAA runs most field shoots. Its Field Round is 14 targets from 20 feet on a 20 cm face out to 80 yards on a 65 cm face, shot twice around for a 28-target round. Slopes are the hard part: an uphill or downhill shot doesn't land where the level pin says, and my angled shot compensator shows by how much.

What Is 3D Archery?

A walk-through course of life-size foam animals, each scored by rings over the vitals. It's the US's big competition format for hunters, run mainly by ASA and IBO.

Each class has a maximum yardage and an arrow speed cap. A few rows from the ASA federation class table:

ASA federation rules as published October 2026; clubs may add a 50-yard stake for 50-yard classes. IBO publishes its own class rules.

Some classes shoot known yardage, others unknown, where judging distance is the whole game. A misjudged yard costs more than it sounds: when I run a 280 fps arrow through my trajectory model, guessing 39 yards on a 40-yard target puts it about an inch low. That's also why rangefinder accuracy specs matter in known-yardage practice. World Archery's own 3D rounds stop at 45 m for compound and 30 m for barebow, longbow and traditional.

What Are Clout and Flight Archery?

The two long-distance types, and the only ones where the arrow arcs high enough to watch. Clout puts a small flag in the ground and scores where arrows land around it. World Archery sets the distances at 165 m for men's recurve, 125 m for women's recurve, 185 m and 165 m for compound, on a 15 m circle split into five 1.5 m zones.

Modeled with the same flight engine as my overshoot planner. Clout rows land on the ground from a 1.5 m release.

Flight archery drops the target entirely. World Archery defines it as shooting to determine the furthest distance that can be shot with certain equipment, in divisions from target recurve to foot bow. It needs an enormous, empty field, which is why both clout and flight are rare at US clubs. Before you try either anywhere, read how far a high arrow really travels in where to practice archery.

What About Bowhunting and Bowfishing?

They're archery with a license instead of a scorecard. Bowhunting runs on state seasons, minimum draw weights and broadhead rules; my minimum draw weight by state table and the bowhunting checklist cover the rules and the gear. 3D is how most bowhunters keep their yardage judgment sharp in the off-season. Bowfishing uses heavy fish arrows tied to a reel, usually from a boat at short range; the arrow side is in types of arrows.

How Do Kids Get Into Archery?

Most often through school. NASP, the National Archery in the Schools Program, reports that since 2002 more than 4 million students at over 8,500 schools in 47 states and 5 countries have participated. Its tournaments use one approved bow and arrow for everyone: the stock Genesis bow and Easton 1820 aluminum arrows, 15 scoring arrows at 10 m and 15 at 15 m on an 80 cm face. USA Archery's youth programs and local JOAD clubs are the next step for kids who want more.

Shoot a type I left out, or run a club that hosts one? Tell me through the contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions