Archery Silhouettes
It's a Whole New Sport!

Reddiex Action Archery Silhouette Targets

Silhouette shooting has been the rage of rifle shooters for some time now, so internationally acclaimed knife maker, Bill Reddiex and his mates at the Archery Division of the Palmerston North Rifle, Rod and Gun Club decided that it was time that archery enthusiasts started to enjoy the same sort of action.

Traditionally, silhouette shooting involves knocking over life-like cutout representations of popular game animals. Participants compete to knock over the highest number of targets in the shortest time with the least number of shots. The appeal of hearing the solid smack of a hit followed by the satisfaction of watching your target go flying through the air is as infectious as the measles and once you try it, you won't want to stop.

Silhouette Shooting for Archery
It's About Time!

In rifle shooting, silhouette targets are cut from plate steel or iron, which would be great for the NZAP arrow business but would make for expensive shooting for most archers. So Bill and his mates experimented with a variety of materials, including plywood, mdf, Pinex, and just about everything else you could shoot an arrow at. Some of these materials, such as plywood, proved to be too hard on the arrows, and others, such as Pinex, were too soft. Others were just too dear.

In the end they settled on a tough and resilient closed-cell rubberised-foam plastic that lasts just about forever when used with blunts, and with the larger targets, it stands up fairly well to repeated hits with field points. Each target fits into a slot cut into a sturdy timber base so that when a target is hit, it will fly from the base in a very dramatic and satisfying manner.

As with any type of target used in archery, the durability and life of the target will decrease as the power of the bow goes up. After extensive testing, Bill and his mates discovered that with traditional bows up to 40 pounds, shooting arrows with HTM blunts, or any other rubber blunt with a smooth face, the targets will last for thousands of hits without suffering terminal damage. As the draw weight of the bows goes up, so does the damage to the targets, and a 70-pound compound shooting from the minimum recommended distance of 36 meters, will destroy even the large targets after a few hundred shots. This actually compares favourably with small 3D targets that are shot with field points especially when the cost of each is considered.

The Reddiex Silhouette Set

Currently, Riddiex Silhouette Sets are being produced with five targets representing the five most obnoxious feral animals in New Zealand; the Captain-Cooker pig, the pesky possum, the rambunctious rabbit, the raucous magpie, and the dirty rat (so called because the little bugger is so hard to hit). After more experimentation, the Reddiex team have also come up with a game plan, scoring sheets, and a set of rules for what is destined to become known as the Reddiex Round.

Since the Pesky Possum is a protected species in Australia and shooting at one is likely to get you some jail time, an Australian version of the set will be available soon with a feral fox in place of the possum.

The Reddiex Round

The recommended starting distance for shooting the Reddiex Round is 18 meters with traditional bows (recurves or longbows) and 36 meters for compound bows. A junior round for 14 and under is set at 10 meters for recurves and 20 meters for compounds. The archer with the top score for each end gets to set the distance for the next end with a minimum of 16 meters for traditional, 32 meters for compound, and 8 meters for junior.