Archery in the SCA
Archery takes two forms within the SCA: Target and Combat archery:
Target Archery
Target archery is shot at a variety of ranges and targets from 20-yard target shoots to 100-yard ‘clout’ shoots into a melee unit sized area. Bows can reach upwards of 100 pounds of draw pressure, but even a modest 30 pound bow is sufficient for most shoots. Target shoots can take many forms and common SCA competitions are the Royal round, a clout over an Oak tree, at various 3D targets, and shoot a Popinjay, which is a bird target and a very traditional shoot.
Almost anyone can take part in archery as long as they pay heed to the safety issues and follow the direction of the marshal. There are various regional, Kingdom-level and inter-Kingdom competitions that are held annually. The senior officer overseeing Archery is the Captain General of Archers.
Loaner archery equipment is available from the shire so if you’d like to try just contact the Captain of Archers and we’ll make it as easy as possible for you.
Combat Archery
Combat archery is allowed against properly armoured opponents as part of the Armoured Combat rules, and is under experimentation for inclusion in Rapier tournaments. It is purely for use in battle and melee combat scenarios. The difference compared to Target Archery is in the arrows used. The arrows blunts used are of a type designed to be very safe and the bows are low power. This allows archers to take part in battles while lowering the risk of injury to any opponents. Archers are clearly distinguished form armoured fighters and do not in general fight in hand to hand combat. Any arrow that hits a combatant headfirst is considered a killing blow. An archer is killed by a heavy fighter coming close to one and declaring the archer dead. Archers in general, are never to be struck. Thus they have lighter armour requirements than the heavy fighters. There is a type of ‘Heavy Archer’ that can both fight and shoot but to be one you need to be trained as both a combat archer and a heavy fighter.
Combat archers undergo rigorous training to ensure their safety. Siege engines may also be used for combat archery but there are many safety rules required for this practice.
For the rules on-line please go to the Drachenwald Website.