Practice, practice, practice . . . Archery practice is the single most important part of making the shot. Consistent target practice sharpens an archers reflexes and brings confidence to the skill that pays out a game harvest in open season.
This time of year offers more to archers than they realize. Off season archery practice can hone any reasonable shooting distance with an edge of accuracy to boot. One on one at the target is a necessary part of the trade, but one area competition lets archers compete for easy money.
In the heart of Columbia Missouri, a pulsing city of more than 85,000 thriving people, an unlikely setting is laid out repitiously and arrows take flight toward high scoring competition. Occasional tourists, out of town competitors, Columbia natives, men and women of all ages vie for the distinct top two places in each archery division. Eleven targets are placed in designated shooting lanes each Thursday afternoon on the acreage located behind the Bass Pro Shop on the southwest corner of the building. Trip Moynihan, Promotions Manager of Columbia’s Bass Pro, says of the weekly 3-D Archery program, "It is designed to give archers something to do and just maybe earn a bit of money. It is a fun event and brings a lot of people out to compete for the winner's purse."
“We are in our second year here with the weekly archery event. It has grown quite popular with the locals and as the season progresses more new faces come out to join the fun. This is a great place to develop interest in archery and the outdoors.”
Archers compete in three classes, youths which is ages 13- 17; bowhunter, which includes bows with all kinds of sights and extras, or open class, which is for those with a more basic bow setup and anyone can enter the open class.
Target positions are set up and changed slightly from week to week except for an occasional day of inclement weather. The truck required to transport the targets for setup on the shooting range would more than likely tear up the lanes after a rain. Remaining dates of the Columbia Bass Pro Weekly 3D archery event will be each Thursday running thru the month of September.
Participants can begin at 5:00 p.m. by paying their $5 dollar entry fee and registering for their score cards. The rules are simple, each archer will shoot two arrows at 11 different 3D targets for points. Trip said, “One shooting lane may hold a deer down by the lake and the next could be a coyote perched atop a hill. This is where we have had a couple people lose their arrows. A miss or a dropped arrow counts as a shot with no points. There is more of a challenge to some of the realistic shots and every target is different or unique for a true archery hunt and shoot setting. Archers score both of their shots before moving through the next target station on the range.”
“Groups of five to nine archers make up a class. Classes with more than 10 per class will see two positions pay out. If there are say only four youth shooters they will automatically be moved into the next archery class, i.e., the bowhunter class. Individuals, on their honor, score their own cards and at the end of the range all score cards are turned into a professional scorer. In each class first place winners are awarded 50% of the purse and all second place winners take 20% of the purse.”
“We pay out 70% and the rest of the kitty goes to a fund to improve our range. Rain out days we lose money and targets will eventually need to be replaced. We started out with five targets a year ago and now we have a place for 12 but currently have 11 3D targets. My hope is to eventually get to our goal of replacing all these 3D targets with pop up stations. The new target would need something to hold it and to lower it back down. The hydraulic stands that raise and lower the pop up targets are expensive.” When asked how long it might take to make those improvements based on the cost and retaining 20% of the weekly entry fees, Trip suggested, "Probably a year or so but that depends on how many archers show up for the weekly event, how short the program season is due to rain outs and the amount of natural shooting light in the evenings thru the end of their program season.”
Interest, in the proposed 3D pop up targets, is likely be even more popular with archers than the current 3D range at Columbia’s Bass Pro.
The last weekend of August, Columbia’s Bass Pro Shops Fall Outdoor Classic hosts 3D Bowmasters from Arkansas to set up their mechanical pop up targets for a 3-day archery shoot. Archers from all over the state follow after the hydraulic 3D mechanical targets wherever they open an event.
For more information call Columbia Bass Pro at 573-886-7100.
