My neighbours kids are pretty good at archery and travel around the country competing in tournaments often away for weekends etc.

Their mother has just put a target up for them to practice in the back garden which is surrounded on three sides with houses.

The kids are great and the last thing I want to do is stop them pursuing a sport which they are obviously good at but is it okay for them to shoot arrows in a suburban garden.

I’m not sure if I asked this question before but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks dave.

Unless the gardens are long and wide I’m going to say ‘no’. I doubt it’s illegal but the potential repercussions were an arrow to go astray don’t bear thinking about.

Yeah, absolutely fine. All perfectly legal.

I have shot a traditional horsebow in my back garden for years with the understanding that it was legal to do so, the garden is long and narrow surrounded by a 6ft wall and a block of flats… Never had an issue with stray arrows 🙂

Thanks for the replies  I think I will have a word with the mother just to let us know when they are shooting as my wife spends loads of time in the garden.

Cheers.

Are bow and arrows even legal to keep at home without any sort of licence or checks?

I would not be overly happy with a neighbour practicing in a normal residential garden, too much potential for an accident. Even with a good backstop its easy to shoot slightly high.

Are bow and arrows even legal to keep at home without any sort of licence or checks?

Just need to be over 18 to purchase, no energy limit like air rifles. Crossbow with a scope is a rather dangerous legal weapon also.

Illegal to hunt with bows in the uk, they can be classed as offensive weapons in public.

I assume as there are not a huge number of bow deaths there is not much legislation.

Crossbow with a scope is a rather dangerous legal weapon also.

Time to go shopping!

Archery is a sport, so it’s not illegal. However…

If the overshoot is into other gardens it’s unwise. Stray arrows happen, if they shoot compound with a release the d loop can fail and the arrow go anywhere, they can just miss, if sighted the sights can move etc etc

If my garden was the overshoot idIhave a word.

Whatever the association, they won’t have support for an over shoot into someone’s garden

Illegal to hunt with bows in the uk

Why? Unless I was just culling vermin, a bow is the only thing I would want to use to hunt. I missed my opportunity, but I was invited to go bear hunting with my bow in Canada. I would guess that bows make up a strong minority of hunting weapons in Canada.

I remember as a very young child asking my Dad what he wanted to do when he grew up (obviously a question I was often asked at that age).

He said he was going to kill all the bad people.

I asked him if he was going to use a gun to shoot them all and he replied that instead he would use a bow as it would leave less ballistic evidence.

Sorting out his funeral arrangements well in advance he found a company that will very cheaply chuck your corpse in a hole and plant a tree on top, in light of which I have chosen yew as it is traditionally used for making bows.

I own a bow. Make of that what you will. 🙂

Legal as long as the arrow doesn’t leave you property. If they are shooting towards another house without an adequate backstop or overshoot it would pretty irresponsible. What counts as adequate might depend on the power and type of bow being used.

Get them to shoot towards their own house – great fun when you clip the target and the arrow sails through the kitchen window……….

Ask me how I know…….

My Mom went bat-s**t when I did that in my teens – she nearly dropped the Sunday roast! I had to pay for the window too…

On a serious note, as<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> long as they have a decent/adequate back-stop or netting should be ok.</span>

Yeah ^^ my question here would be “in which direction are they shooting?”  I’d happily do it in the yard of my terraced house, but I’d be shooting towards my own house.

The rules for target archers now say:

“When drawing back the string of the bow an archer shall not use any technique which, in the
opinion of the judges, could, if accidentally loosed, allow the arrow to fly beyond a safety zone
or safety arrangements (overshoot area, net, wall, etc). If an archer persists in using such a
technique, he will, in the interest of safety, be immediately asked by the Judge to stop shooting
and to leave the area”

At one time it was very common to raise the bow quite high as you drew back with the obvious consequences if you hand slips on the release aid fails etc.

Its good to get into safe habits while you re practising at home as well – helps to build muscle memory.

The rules for target archers now say:

Yeah.  That’s a GNAS rule, target archery and field archery are different things (as I’m sure you know).  Still good advice (though I doubt even a particularly high high-draw would put someone at risk of clearing their roof…!)