What the heck is 3D archery?
Please note: we only run club days as listed on our shoot calendar. Beginners are welcome to come on club days - we encourage you to reach out so we have equipment set aside - but as we’re a club of archers and not a business, we don’t provide private sessions during the week or on non-club days.
In a nutshell, 3D archery combines gentle hiking in the great outdoors with shooting a bow at realistic foam animal targets, placed at an unknown distance. But outside of that nutshell, 3D archery is . . .
Different
If you haven’t picked up a bow before or you’ve only done it at school, archery might make you think of standing in a field, shooting at a big round target. For some people, that gets boring pretty fast! 3D archery is dynamic - shooting at different targets, set at different distances, in different places. You never know what’s going to come up next!
3D archery may have initially been a way for bowhunters to keep in practice during the off season, but you don’t need to be interested in hunting to enjoy 3D archery. Many people enjoy archery as a sport for the whole family - even people who choose not to eat meat!
Inclusive
Archery is a sport for everyone - male or female, young or old. Heck, Matt Stutzman could outshoot us any day! You don’t need to be super fit or strong to shoot a bow or participate in 3D archery. You don’t even need to have shot a bow before - we love to meet new people and introduce them to our sport. Reach out and we can get you set up and having a shot with our club equipment at our next shoot.
Safe
While flinging arrows might sound risky, archery is an extremely safe sport. We’re also fully insured through our affiliation with 3DAAA (our parent organisation), so visitors and members are covered in case of any injuries. We’ve never had an injury, though, and don’t plan for that to change!
We have a big focus on being safe and practicing proper shooting discipline - very necessary when you have kids under 8 shooting. We have multiple people with experience coaching anyone to shoot safely, from kids to adults. Our range setters are also qualified and able to set a high-quality and safe shooting course.
How do I get started?
If you’re interested in archery or shooting at Port Stephens Archers, simply reach out to us via this website, email or Facebook. We’re run by a small group of volunteers, but we’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
We cater from people who haven’t shot before (even those without their own equipment - we have a limited supply of club gear) to people who have been shooting for decades.
Newcomers can participate in a maximum of three club shoots before they must join our parent organisation, 3DAAA - this is a condition of our insurance. Membership with 3DAAA allows you to attend shoots at any 3DAAA club, 3DAAA sanctioned events and even shoots held by other archery organisations who are members of the Archery Alliance of Australia.
We also strongly encourage people to join our club if they want to shoot regularly - this helps to support our club (as a not-for-profit run by volunteers, all money goes directly back into the club) and pays for itself over time with discounted shoot fees.
Even more info
Lets take a deeper look at how 3D Archery works, with what equipment is used, how a 3D range or course works, 3D scoring and the different divisions.