For bowhunters preparing for the upcoming season, foam 3-D animal targets offer much more realistic training than paper targets.

And for those who do not hunt but still enjoy shooting with a bow and arrow, 3-D archery opens up a new world. Archers in Central Oregon say they have seen more women and kids enter the sport through 4-H Club youth development programs and a host of outdoor 3-D archery tournaments held throughout the region each summer.

Jason Gillette, tournament director for the Bend Bowmen Archery Club, says young archers often become bored when taking aim at indoor paper targets. But 3-D archery is more dynamic.

“You’re shooting at animal targets at unknown distances in different scenarios and so it really brings in the kids and their imagination gets piqued,” Gillette says. “It’s different than just sitting inside of a room and shooting at the same paper target over and over. The target that you shoot is a new scenario, a new animal, a new presentation.”

The club held their 3-D Super Shoot at the Ogden Group Camp near La Pine over Memorial Day weekend; Redmond’s High Desert Archers are hosting a 3-D Trail Shoot Saturday and Sunday and the weekend of July 13-14, both to be held in Camp Sherman. All shoots are open to the public and include competitive and noncompetitive archery.

Trail shoots usually consist of courses along which the participants walk as they shoot up to 40 lifelike foam animal targets.

Steve Eakins, president of the High Desert Archers, says their Camp Sherman course was once longer than three miles. Adding hiking and the outdoors to archery has helped it evolve into more of a family sport, says Eakins, who has been involved with archery for more than 40 years.

“It started out as a men’s thing … very few women,” Eakins says. “Bow manufacturers started making them for women, it got pretty popular and now it’s a complete family sport. It can be very competitive, but it’s also family oriented.”

Eakins adds that 3-D archery is becoming popular in 4-H clubs throughout Central Oregon, and that kids are even introducing the sport to their parents.

“Their parents are buying bows so they can be out there with their kids,” he says. “They’re picking it up from their kids.”

Last month, 17-year-old Anna Winkler and her mother, Beth Winkler, both of Terrebonne, were busy shooting targets at the Top Pin Archery Pro Shop in Redmond. Anna’s parents got her started in the sport when she was a little girl, but she started competing in 3-D events last year.

“I love that you can hang out with friends and go shooting together, and that it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner,” Anna said. “You can learn and it’s quite easy to pick up, and a ton of fun. I like that you get to be outside. You get to judge yardage and figure out stuff.”

Nationally, 3-D archery is on an upswing, according to Gillette, who runs a 3-D archery league for youth at the Bend Bowmen Club. Target shooting with a bow can be done indoors or outdoors, but outdoor courses offer more opportunity for longer trails and longer shots.

“It’s approachable to anyone,” Gillette says. “There’s not a lot of rules and understanding. You step up and you shoot the target.”

He adds that “3-D (archery) really progressed when foam technology got better and people were actually able to mold life-sized, realistic targets. Originally it was hay bales, then it was hay bales with cardboard cutouts or silhouettes.”

The modern 3-D targets, according to Gillette, can be used over and over again.

Beginning archers have a wide array of bows from which to choose. Traditional bows are simpler, with a single string, but require more strength when pulling back to shoot. Compound-class bows are more high-tech and more expensive, often including sights to line up the target and a trigger to release the arrow. Some bows even come equipped with magnifying scopes.

“Most people shoot a compound bow, although in Central Oregon, there is a large community of traditional archers,” says Justin Reader, manager of Top Pin.

Reader says that compound bows range from about $200 for some kids’ bows to $300 to $500 for adult bows. Bow companies have developed adjustable bows that children can use for several years as they grow.

“It just doesn’t make sense for a kid to buy a new one every two or three years,” Reader says.

Bowhunting season starts in late August in Central and Eastern Oregon. As the season draws closer, 3-D archery shoots take on more of the feel of an actual hunt. But Eakins is quick to point out that archers need not be hunters to enjoy their sport — a sport that is still somewhat of a mystery to the masses but is truly loved by those devoted to it.

“We’ve been doing this for years, but there’s still people in Central Oregon who don’t have a clue what it is,” Eakins says. “Once they get out there, they’re there all the time.”