Top Pin Archery continues to put on solid competitions

KELLOGG — Earlier this month Silver Mountain played host to a one of a kind archery shooting competition courtesy of Top Pin Archery.

The event was held over the Fourth of July weekend, but despite being on a busy weekend, the shoot went off without a hitch and was a huge success.

The growing popularity of 3-D archery competitions has grown substantially over the years and local archery enthusiast Brad Petersen took notice of it and over the last few years has created a competition that has both local flavor and national appeal.

Along with the help of friend and fellow archery lover Adam Furlin, the shoot has grown from a few targets on Petersen’s property into an event on Silver Mountain that gets bookmarked by some of the top bowmasters in the country.

Roughly 180 shooters took to the mountain to participate in multiple courses with varying skill levels, from youth all the way to professional.

“We get a good blend of shooters in our competition,” Furlin said. “Some of the top level guys like one of our winners Tim Gillingham, use our shoot as a good warm-up for other bigger OPA shoots. We want it to be something that can be friendly to shooters of all ages and skill levels.”

Using Organization of Professional Archery scoring rules is important for the competition as it has become the standard for these types of events.

Basically OPA-style scoring is where shooters shoot at 40 total 3D targets (20 on day one and 20 on day two).

Archers shoot one arrow at each target where scores on each 3D animal are 14, 12, 10, 8, 5 and 0 points.

Scores of 14 and 12 are existing rings on the 3D target and are colored differently than other scores.

The shooter must call if he or she is shooting for the 14 ring and if they miss, the shooter cannot score outside it.

After the 40 shots are tallied, the top five shooters go on to a shootout.

Overall, the event was a success and Furlin and Petersen are excited to watch it grow and to continue their partnership with Silver Mountain.

“The event went really well for us this year,” Furlin said. “It’s great to have it at Silver Mountain because they offer stuff for everyone. Guys can bring their families and if they aren’t shooters themselves, then there is a ton of stuff for them to do at the base.”

Top Pin Archery began five years ago and after two large shoots on founder Brad Petersen’s property, the event was moved to Silver Mountain, so that they could facilitate their constantly growing numbers.

For more information on Top Pin Archery or results from their recent competition, visit toppinarchery.net or visit their Facebook page.