Welcome

South Wilts Archery Club is based in Salisbury and covers South Wiltshire and the surrounding area. It is one of the oldest clubs in the country having been founded in 

1859 and offers target, field, clout and wand archery. We have approximately 200 members shooting a range of bow styles from the high-tech Compound to the traditional English Longbow.


SWAC members can find current scores for the season, club records, classified adverts and further info on news and events on the members pages.

Check your membership pack or email the webmaster for access details. 


Target Archery

Target Archery

South Wilts Archery Club (SWAC) have their outdoor target archery facility at Trafalgar School, Downton and shoot on Wednesday evenings (summer time) and Sunday mornings (all year).

Target Archery is what most people think of when archery is mentioned. It involves shooting at a target with concentric coloured rings; the closer to centre the arrows are, the more points you score. SWAC offers both outdoor and indoor (winter only) target archery and cater for different bow styles. 

In target archery you can choose different rounds to shoot which vary the number of arrows and distance shot. Outdoors archers shoots distances between 30yards and 100yards, where as indoors the distance is limited to 20 yards. Women shoot slightly shorter distance than those of the men and juniors shoot the shortest distances which their lighter bows can reach. To make sure things aren't too easy, the closer the distance, the smaller the target is that the archer shoots at.

Archery styles: 
 • Longbow, 
 • Barebow (without sights), 
 • Olympic Recurve (with sights), 
 • Compound.

Please note that all-carbon arrows are not allowed at our outdoor target sessions at Trafalgar School. If in doubt please contact swactargetofficer@yahoo.com

Target Archery Committee Members


Andrew Bruce-Burgess -  (Target Officer) - Contact here


Thomas (Tom) Godson - (Target Tournament Organiser) - Contact here

SWAC Award Target Competitions


The club run a number of competitions throughout the year which are open to all SWAC members giving an introduction to competitive archery to those new to the sport whilst providing good practice for experienced archers when preparing for regional or national competitions.


Details of events can be found on the members page.


Summer Target Champs


Four rounds held throughout the summer with the two highest scores counting towards the season’s ranking.




Details of events can be found on the members page.


Summer Outdoors (Warwick 50 Round)


48 arrows shot on a 122cm face using 5 zone scoring, with 24 arrows at each of two distances. See the Target Champs link in the members section for categories and distances. Your two highest scores are added together to form a ranking.

Winter Outdoors (Frostbite Round)


3 dozen arrows shot at 30m on an 80cm face, using 10 zone scoring. Your two highest scores for the season are added together to form a ranking.

Winter Indoors (Portsmouth Round)


60 arrows shot at 20 yards on a 60cm face using 10 zone scoring. Your two highest scores for the season are added together to form a ranking.

Deutgen Arrow (American Round - March) 


90 arrows shot in total on a 122cm face using 5 zone scoring, with 30 arrows at each of three distances (60y,50y and 40y). Awards presented on the day.
Open Competitions

"Archery GB" is the trading name of The Grand National Archery Society (GNAS), which is the governing body for the sport of archery in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. If you want to shoot in target archery competitions outside of SWAC, you will need to become an Archery GB Member in order to be insured. Speak to the Membership Secretary for details.

There are plenty of open competitions in the local area which SWAC archers regularly attend. It's not only for those wanting to shoot competitively, many join to shoot just for fun. It's a great way of travelling to competitions all over the country and meeting archers from other clubs.

A listing of competitions can be found on the Archery GB Site
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