Archery in British Columbia: The Province Where Drop-In Costs $2

British Columbia has 57 active archery listings. Twenty-six of them are rod and gun clubs, fish and game clubs, or sportsmen's associations with an archery section inside them.

That is not a trivia point, because it shows up in the prices. These are member-owned community clubs, many of them decades old, shooting on land the club already owns and running on volunteer labour. Twenty of the 57 publish a drop-in fee, more than any other province we have measured, and those fees start at $2.

Here is what the province actually charges to put a bow in your hands.

The two to six dollar tier

Squamish Valley Rod & Gun Club in the Sea-to-Sky corridor charges $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for juniors 17 and under. Indoor sessions Wednesday 7:30 to 9 PM and Friday 7 to 9 PM, outdoor range open 9 AM to 9 PM daily for members, with a Junior Olympic Program run by certified instructors. Annual membership is $125 for an adult resident, $165 non-resident, $190 family.

Campbell River Fish and Wildlife Club on Vancouver Island charges $2 for members and $10 for non-members, and that fee includes equipment and instruction. The archery facilities border Elk Falls Provincial Park and include a 3D course with life-size foam animal targets. Beginner instruction runs Monday 6 to 7 PM, archery access is 7 AM to 10 PM daily, club membership is $70 a year with a $125 annual archery access fee on top.

Semiahmoo Fish & Game Club in Surrey runs $4.00 for junior members, $5.00 for adult members and $10.00 for non-members. Indoor Monday and Thursday 7:30 to 9:30 PM, outdoor dawn to dusk with targets from 20 to 70 yards, adult classes and a JOP program. Membership is $120 individual, $150 family, $50 junior, $60 senior.

Lake Windermere District Rod & Gun Club at Invermere charges members $4 a day and non-members $10 a day, with equipment rental at $10 a day. The club has a hundred-year history in the Columbia Valley, a static range from 15 to 60 yards, and a 15-target 3D course set up seasonally from early May. Memberships start at $35.00 a year.

SOSA Archers at Oliver in the south Okanagan is $6.00 for youth to age 18, $6.00 for adult SOSA members, $7.00 for BC Archery members and $10.00 for guests, with bow rental at $5.00. Outdoor range open 365 days a year 8 AM to 9 PM, indoor at the Air Cadet Building Monday and Thursday evenings, broadhead pits and crossbow butts on site.

North Shore Archers in North Vancouver is $5 per session for members with their own equipment and $10 using club equipment, at a pop-up indoor range in the Brockton School gym, Tuesday 7 to 9 PM and Saturday 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM. A beginner intro lesson with equipment provided is $35. Membership $75 adult, $45 junior, $130 family, plus the separate BC Archery Association fee.

Burke Mountain Archers in Coquitlam runs an 18-metre indoor range plus outdoor facilities, drop-in nights, a Junior Olympian Program, and charges $5 cash for non-members. Crossbows under 350 fps are permitted.

Your first session is free

Arrowsmith Archers, the Parksville-Qualicum Fish & Game archery group on central Vancouver Island, gives you your first drop-in session free. After that it is a membership or a drop-in fee.

They run year-round across three settings: indoor at the Nanoose Pentecostal Camp from September to May, Monday and Wednesday 6 to 8 PM; the outdoor Henry Range at 10 to 70 yards; and the Dorman Range with a field course and 3D targets, open 9 AM to 8 PM in summer. Membership is $130 regular, $50 junior, plus a $35 key fee. There is a JOP program.

If you have never drawn a bow and you are anywhere near Parksville, that is the lowest-risk introduction to the sport in the province.

Memberships under a hundred dollars

The same structure shows up in annual dues. Gum Ying Richmond Archery Club is $35 a year. Bulkley Valley Bowmen in Smithers is $57.80 for an individual adult, $85.50 family, with a $10 indoor session fee and a Junior Indoor Archery Program that is free for members' kids. Fernie Rod and Gun Club in the Kootenays is $60 a year regular, $40 senior, with a $40 indoor range add-on. UBC Archers is $60 a semester for students and staff and $65 for alumni and community members, with equipment provided and beginner lessons included.

Those are figures that would not cover a single month at a commercial range in most cities.

Vancouver and the Lower Mainland

The city is where BC's small commercial layer sits. Only three listings in the province have a pro shop, which is the exact inverse of Alberta.

Boorman Archery on East Columbia Street in New Westminster has been family owned and operated since 1964. It sells equipment and offers private one-on-one and group lessons in recurve, and compound on request, by appointment Tuesday through Friday.

Lykopis Archery on Main Street in Vancouver is a boutique indoor range specialising in longbow, recurve and historical shooting styles. Open Range is Friday 6:30 to 8:30 PM at $25 with your own equipment or $35 with rental, tax included. An intro class is $140.

Gum Ying Richmond Archery Club describes itself as one of the largest indoor ranges in BC: an 18-metre range with 24 shooting spots and capacity for 70 people, open Tuesday to Friday 3:30 to 8:15 PM, Saturday 9:30 AM to 6:15 PM, Sunday 1:30 to 6:15 PM and Monday 3:30 to 6 PM. A non-member intro session is $35 and a member open shoot session is $20.

Beyond those, the Lower Mainland has UBC Archers at the Osborne Building on Thunderbird Boulevard, Richmond Rod and Gun Club, Langley Archers at HD Stafford, Langley Rod & Gun Club, Maple Ridge Archery Club, Chilliwack Fish and Game, Ridgedale Rod and Gun Club in Abbotsford with a 70-yard range, and Starr Archery in Mission running a 20-yard indoor range in winter and a 70-yard outdoor range with a 3D trail in summer.

3D, field and the interior

Twenty-five of the 57 listings run a 3D course and 11 list a field course, second only to Ontario on both counts.

The interior and the north is where those live: Big Horn Archery Club at 100 Mile House, Cariboo Archers at Williams Lake, Quesnel River Archers, Silvertip Archers in Prince George running separate indoor and outdoor sites, New Totem Archery with an indoor range at Fort St John and an outdoor range at Charlie Lake, Terrace Whiskey-Jack Archers, Bulkley Valley Bowmen, Vanderhoof Fish & Game, West Kootenay Archers at Trail, Salmon Arm Fish & Game with an 82-yard range, Chase and District, CNT Rod and Gun at Clearwater, Armstrong District Fish & Game serving its community since 1953, and Vernon Fish and Game.

On the coast and the islands: Courtenay & District Fish & Game, Cowichan Bowmen at Duncan, Nanaimo Fish and Game, Victoria Bowmen, UVic Archery Club, Pacific Archery Academy at Saanichton, Sunshine Coast Rod and Gun Club at Sechelt with Saturday morning drop-in 9:30 to 11:30 AM and a youth program after it, and Eagle Eye Archers at Prince Rupert.

Kamloops Target Sports Association runs a dual-facility setup, a 10-lane 18-metre indoor range downtown on Lansdowne Street and a hillside outdoor range open dawn to dusk, with membership at $185.40 single and $226.60 family plus a $51.50 orientation fee for new members.

One club in the province, Okanagan Khanate Mounted Archery in Kelowna, does horseback archery.

The numbers

Across the 57 listings: 42 list lessons, 32 list rental equipment, 25 list a 3D course, 11 list a field course, three list a pro shop, and 48 require membership. Twenty clubs publish a drop-in price and 24 publish a membership price, which is unusually transparent for a province.

Blank amenity fields generally mean nobody has verified them yet rather than that a club lacks the feature, so treat the positives above as confirmed and the gaps as unknown.

How to start here

Vancouver Island, never shot before: Arrowsmith Archers at Parksville, first session free.

Vancouver proper: Lykopis on Main Street for the Friday Open Range, or UBC Archers at $15 with equipment provided.

Richmond: Gum Ying, $35 intro session, $35 a year after that.

North Shore: North Shore Archers' $35 beginner lesson at the Brockton School gym.

Sea-to-Sky: Squamish Valley Rod & Gun, $5 adult and $2 junior.

Okanagan: SOSA at Oliver, $6 to $10 with $5 bow rental.

Kootenays: Lake Windermere at Invermere, $10 as a non-member with $10 rental, and a 15-target 3D course from May.

Find your range

All 57 British Columbia archery listings are on Archery Ranges Canada with locations, bow types and what each range is set up for. If you run a club here and something is out of date, or you are missing entirely, tell us and we will fix it.