Field archery

Being a traditional field sport as well as a widely recognized competitive sport in its own right, field archery can be used to improve the techniques and fitness required for bowhunting in a realistic wilderness setting.

Archers sometimes refer to the additional skills required to deal with challenging terrain, lighting and weather conditions as "fieldcraft".

Scoring is similar to a field round, the target has an all-black face with a white bullseye.

It is most common to see unmarked distances in 3D archery, as the goal is to accurately recreate a hunting environment for competition, albeit a more loosely organized form of competition than other types of field archery.

Normal target or field tips, of the same weight as the intended broadhead, are used instead.

[6] The World Archery Federation, commonly known as WA and formerly as FITA (Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc), defines a suite of rounds based on a 24-target course.

For each target face size there are upper and lower distance limits for the various divisions of archer.

Target faces have four black outer rings and a yellow spot, each with an equal width.

Before April 2008, the innermost yellow ring counted as an X (the number of Xs was used for tie-breaks) but only scored 5 points.

Shooting positions are marked by coloured pegs set at a distance from each target.

WA rules state that the lanes between the shooting positions and the targets must not be obstructed by branches or tree trunks.

According to the NFAS Rules of Shooting:[7][8] The most common NFAS rounds have a "walk-up" format, where the archer starts at the furthest peg from the target; if the archer fails to score, they proceed to the next closest peg.

[8] The inner kill zone is only used on some targets, and only for the first arrow shot from the furthest peg.

[8] There are multiple classes including American flatbow, barebow, bowhunter, compound limited, freestyle, hunting tackle, longbow, primitive, traditional bowhunter, unlimited, and crossbow.

Shooters in "open" classes may use any compound or recurve bow, with associated equipment, unless specifically prohibited by other rules.

[10] ASA-affiliated clubs also conduct their own competitions with most if not all of the same classes, and ASA state federations have their own championship events.