Northwoods Experience: Bemidji Archery Club Hosts Regional Indoor Qualifiers

Historically, archery has been used for mainly hunting and combat, but over the years it’s developed into a recreational activity as well as a competitive sport. Lately, the Bemidji Archery Club has been prepping for the Minnesota State Archery Association 2025 Indoor Tournament and hosted their regional state qualifier.

“What you do is you shoot a score here, that’ll translate to which line or which group you’re placed in at the state tournament coming up in April,” said Dustin Puffe, Bemidji Archery Club President.

“You have four minutes to shoot five arrows,” explained Noel McMahon, Bemidji Archery Club Vice President. “Your five arrows count as one end, four ends is a game, and three games is your full round.”

There’s a variety of different classes, or types of bows, that can be used.

“I shoot a traditional bow hunter setup, where my mom uses a scope and has a longer stabilizer; it’s almost three feet long,” added McMahon.

“The sky’s the limit,” said Puffe. “As you can see, there’s multiple different configurations and stuff out there. Guys shooting finger releases, thumb releases, grabbing the string with their fingers, different sized arrows. There’s a wide range of rules and classes that we are able to shoot.”

There’s a multitude of reasons why these archers are part of this club, but a big reason is to maintain the skills necessary for outdoor archery while the winter season is in effect.

“It’s just a way to keep your your skills honed in, and it’s a way to keep your archery form in check and continue to shoot well,” added Puffe.

“For me, it’s kind of like a release,” said club member Jamie Jensen. “Like most people go to the gym or other people read or walk or whatever. It just gives me something to focus on and better myself. It’s a mental game, it really is.”

The big reason for remaining with the Bemidji Archery Club, though, has more to do with the people involved.

“Our oldest son wanted to [join] and then it was kind of like a domino effect where now we have five shooters [in the family],” explained club member Brett Carsella.

“Originally I was from Fosston, and we didn’t have an archery club there,” added Jensen. “It was like an hour drive here so we just kind of put it off, but the more and more we got into it, the more we realized, maybe we should. We’re like a big family here.”

“During the wintertime, we shoot a 13-week league, so this group of people gets together one day a week, and it’s a great group of people,” said Puffe. “We have great camaraderie here. We all get along, we all goof off, we all giggle with each other. It’s a great time – I mean, we all have fun and I love it. It’s a blast hanging out with these guys.”