Outdoor Faces

[no_hover]Outdoors there are only two target face diameters that are normally shot: 122cm and 80cm. There are however two different scoring systems: metric and Imperial.

Metric Rounds

Outdoor Metric rounds are shot on both 122cm and 80cm faces. Distances to the targets are in metres, the longest distance being 90 metres and the shortest distance being 10 metres.

Metric scoring counts each band of the target as a different score, from ten to one.

The innermost thin ring, inside the ten ring is called the X-ring. It is written on the score sheet as an X but counted as a ten. The number of Xs can be used in a tie breaker.

This scoring system is called ten-zone scoring or metric scoring.

FITA Six Zone

This is an outdoor target comprising only the inner six zones of a normal 80cm metric target face. It’s described as an 80cm target face even though it’s little more than half that in diameter.

It can be used to save space because you can fit two targets on a boss. FITA rules say it may be shot at 30m and 50m, but you should only attempt this if you’re confident of staying inside the blue.

There is also an outdoor FITA five zone face, (zones 10 to 6) which is identical to the indoor Vegas face (see below) other than being based on an 80cm full face. However recent documents indicate that the FITA five zone outdoor face will be withdrawn in 2015.

Imperial Rounds

Outdoor Imperial rounds are only ever shot on 122cm target faces. Distances to the targets are in yards, the longest distance being 100 yards and the shortest distance being 10 yards.

Scores are by colour, odd numbers only, the gold counting as a nine and the white as a one.

This is variously called Imperial scoring, colour scoring or five-zone scoring.

Indoor Faces

Indoors you will find that the target faces are smaller to compensate for the closer distances. Recurve target faces indoors are usually 60cm or 40cm in diameter otherwise being identical to outdoor targets, and the scoring system is usually metric. However because of the close range, many indoor faces only include the inner five zones.

Vegas

The Vegas and similar targets can be confusing because they are described as 60cm or 40cm while in fact they are only half that diameter. The idea is that they are 60cm or 40cm targets of which only the inner five zones are actually printed.

In a Vegas, all archers shoot at three of these targets (three spot), arranged in a triangle. In a Portsmouth, recurve archers typically shoot a single full 60 cm target while compound archers usually shoot a three spot arranged in a vertical column.

Since this is a metric target, the rule about the X ring applies, but not for compound, see below.

Vegas Inner Ten

For compound archers only, and indoors only, they must hit the X ring to score a ten, anything else in the gold counts as a nine.

The image to the right shows the recent compound-only style of target. Prior to this compound archers would shoot the standard Vegas face in a Portsmouth.

Worcester

One other face you may run into indoors is the very unusual Worcester face. Sixteen inches in diameter, the inner white scores five, and the outer rings four to one.

A Note About the Portsmouth

While for most rounds the face you will shoot is decided for you, in the Portsmouth you can often choose to shoot either a single or a triple face. You should be aware however, that regardless of which face you actually shoot, in a Portsmouth you will be classified and handicapped as if you had shot the single full-sized face. This is actually quite reasonable. if you’re worried about robin-hooding arrows (hitting the back of one arrow with another) on a single face, then you can’t really be worried about missing altogther on a three spot. Because of this, members scorecards on this website for a Portsmouth do not record whether a triple or a single face was shot. There is no separate Portsmouth Triple round.

Novelty Faces

For fun shoots outdoors and indoors there are a multitude of  novelty targets of various sorts: christmas trees, turkeys, dinosaurs, darts boards, card games etc. Obviously none of them can have any  handicap or classification possible, but they can be fun.