Shooting Categories

Target Archery

Internationally there are only 2 bow categories:

- Recurve and Compund

Recurve
    - Shooting of a recurve bow with attachments such as sights (no scopes) and stabilizers. The bow must be shot with fingers. Sometime referred to 'Olympic' style as this the only equipment allowed for Olympic comptetion.
    - Recurve bows shot without sights are shot in the 'Barebow' category

Compound
    - Shooting of a compond bow with all attachments (such as sights, stabilizers, scopes), The bow may be shot with a release aid. Internationally compound bows shot with fingers would still be in this category. A recurve bow shot with a release would shoot in this category. There is no Barebow competiton for compounds internationally. Compound bows must not be over 60#

In Canada and most other countries a greater variety is allowed, however when shooting tournaments registered with World Archery the above categories are all that are contested. In World Archery competitions arrows may be no more than 9.3mm in diameter.

Canadian Categories:

Canada allows for much more flexibility in categories, which means significantly more categories in most touraments.

Recurve archers, for the most part shoot World Archery (Olympic Style)

Compound Archers are usually broken into groups based on shooting with fingers or releases. As these categories do not fall under World Archery rules, there are no restrictions on arrow size, optics, electronics or bow weight.

Categories are:

- Bowhunter Unlimited (release)
- Bowhunter Limited (fingers)
- Bowhunter Unsighted (no sights, fingers)

Traditional Archery is the use of a longbow and fingers, there are no equipment restrictions, a longbow is usually defined as a bow where the string does not touch the limbs until the nock.

3D Archery

In Canada 3D categories vary by Province and area, listed here are the Canadian 3D CategoriesA:

- Traditional
- Compound Unaided
- Bowhunter Fingers (sight allowed)
- Bowhunter Release (non adjustable sight)
- Bowhunter Open
- Recurve (Un-Aided) (Barebow) World Archery recurve rules apply
- Instictive

 this page is only intended as a guide, for complete rules consult the Archery Canada website (judging tab).