Does every hit count the same? No. Bow classes, peg colors and the scoring rings on the 3D course – here's how to read what actually ends up on your card.
"Does a hit in the belly count the same as one dead center in the kill?" No — and that's exactly what makes 3D archery its own game with its own rules. Your bow determines which peg you shoot from, and where your arrow lands decides how many points end up on your card.
Start with your bow class: recurve and compound (freestyle, with sight) shoot from the red peg, barebow, longbow and instinctive bows (no sight) from the blue one — already covered in the intro guide, but here it gets concrete, because this split shapes your entire tournament career. Within the classes there are further subdivisions like Bowhunter (compound with a restricted sight, built close to hunting gear), which have their own scoring classes and sometimes their own tournaments.
And then there's the scoring itself: many German clubs shooting under the rules of the German Shooting Federation use the so-called double-hunter scoring. Two arrows per target, and each lands in one of four zones: spot (11 points), kill zone (10), body zone (8) or outer zone (5) — a complete miss scores 0. That's theoretically 22 points per target if both arrows hit the spot — about as realistic as rolling two bullseyes in a row at darts.
Freestyle/recurve and compound shoot with a sight, usually with a stabilizer and a mechanical or finger release. Barebow skips the sight and stabilizer entirely — pure instinctive shooting with a bare bow. Traditional/longbow goes a step further: no arrow rest, often natural materials. Bowhunter is a compound subclass with a restricted, usually fixed sight that can't be adjusted during the tournament — closer to hunting gear than a pure competition bow.
Red shoots farther (10–45 m), blue closer (5–30 m) — that balances out the fact that barebow and longbow, without a sight, are barely hittable at long range. Shooting from the wrong peg color for your class disqualifies you at scored tournaments.
Double-hunter scoring is the most common variant on German club grounds: spot (11 points, the center of the kill zone), kill zone (10), body zone (8, the rest of the hit area) and outer zone (5, edges like the leg or back). A complete miss — arrow in the dirt or nowhere near — scores 0. Internationally, for example at US federations, you'll often see similar logic with 12/10/8/5 points — the principle stays: smaller ring, more risk, more points.
An arrow tip that only touches the ring line already counts the higher score — benefit of the doubt goes to the archer. Hits on horn, antler or hoof, on the other hand, don't count at all, no matter how centered they look — those parts aren't part of the scoring area.
Switching classes often dilutes both your progress and your club stats. Feel free to try different bows in your first months, but once you tournament regularly, sticking with one class pays off — technique and distance feel build up class-specifically.
Clear rules are also safety rules: whoever knows which peg they stand at and how the group order works shoots more in control and doesn't impatiently wait for their turn. If your class or peg is unclear, ask the judge once too often rather than shoot the wrong distance — that can endanger others in tight terrain.
After every tournament, note which zones your arrows actually landed in — not just the final score. After a few tournaments a pattern shows up: do you shoot too low, too high, too far to one side? That zone log tells you more about your technique than the raw point total at the end of the day.
Most start with recurve or compound with a sight — the aiming aid makes the entry easier. Barebow and traditional are appealing but demand more raw feel and a longer learning curve, because every distance change has to be calibrated entirely by eye.
You shoot two arrows per target, each landing in one of four zones: spot (11), kill zone (10), body (8) or edge (5), for a maximum of 22 points per target. This variant is the most common on German club grounds, though there are also three-arrow variants where points drop with each arrow.
Yes, at the higher score. If the arrow tip touches the line between two rings, you get the better value by default — that's a deliberate rule in the archer's favor.
Technically yes, competitively not advisable. Frequent switching slows your progress because your sight picture and distance feel build up differently per class. Commit to one for a season and stick with it.
3D Archery: How to Judge Distance Right