Indoor vs Outdoor Target Archery: Gear, Distances & Scoring
Indoor and outdoor target archery are close to separate sports — different distances, different faces, different scoring, and arrows you might swap entirely between seasons. Here's what changes.
By the Archery Care Editorial Team
Target archery runs on a split year: indoor season through the winter, outdoor through the summer. Each has its own distances, its own target faces, its own gear quirks. Plenty of archers treat them as two different hobbies. They're not far wrong.
How far, and at what
- Indoor: 18m, typically, at a small single or multi-spot face.
- Outdoor: the range stretches to 70m for recurve and 50m for compound, shot at the much larger 122cm/80cm faces.
The gear changes more than you'd think
Indoor archers love fat arrows. Larger-diameter 'line-cutter' shafts do one job — catch the edge of a higher scoring ring — and indoors there's no wind to argue with. You'll also be resetting your sight marks for the short distance.
Come spring, the fat shafts go back in the tube. Outdoors favours skinny, wind-beating arrows. And yes, a fresh set of sight marks again.
Formats worth knowing
At the top end, the Indoor World Series and the outdoor Hyundai Archery World Cup are the flagship circuits. You won't be shooting either next month. But your club shoots a format of its own, and knowing which one means turning up with the right setup — and the right expectations.