Archery in New Brunswick: Clubs, Ranges and Where to Start

New Brunswick has 26 active archery clubs and ranges, more than Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island combined. Twenty of the 26 list a 3D course. One of them is a mounted archery club. Exactly one is a walk-in commercial facility where you can turn up, rent a bow and shoot without joining anything.

That ratio tells you everything about how archery works in this province. New Brunswick is a 3D province. If your picture of archery is a paper target under fluorescent lights, you have the wrong province in mind — here it is a course through the woods, a foam deer at an unmarked distance, and a club membership that costs less than a month of most gym plans.

The one place you can just walk in

Archery Center Atlantic on Dorcas Street in Fredericton is the exception that makes the rest of the list make sense. Sixteen indoor lanes at 20 yards, a stocked pro shop with a repair bench, rentals, lessons, and no membership required. It has been serving Maritime archers for over 30 years and describes itself as the only all-in-one archery facility in Atlantic Canada.

If you have never drawn a bow and you live anywhere within driving distance of Fredericton, start here. It is the only listing in the province with a pro shop, and one of only a handful with rental equipment. Everywhere else in New Brunswick assumes you already own a bow, or that you know someone who will lend you one.

Greater Moncton and the southeast

Moncton Archery Club on Route 134 in Lakeville is the primary club for the Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview area, with both a 3D course and a field course outdoors. Having both is rare — only four clubs in the province list a field course alongside 3D.

Moncton Gun Club on Elsie Road in Lower Coverdale takes a different approach: archery alongside clay shooting fields at one of Atlantic Canada's older multi-discipline shooting clubs, ten minutes from downtown Moncton. Annual membership is listed at $195, which is the highest published membership figure in the province and buys access to considerably more than archery.

Memramcook Archery Club on Chemin Mountain sits between Moncton and Sackville in the Memramcook Valley, and Split Arrow Archery Club on Route 515 at Bouctouche Cove covers Kent County up the eastern shore. Tir À L'Arc Saint-Louis on Bellvue Street is the francophone club for southeastern New Brunswick, listed on the Archery NB club directory. Full Draw Archery NB runs programming around Shediac and the Northumberland Strait coastline.

Sackville Rod & Gun Club added a dedicated outdoor archery range on Walker Road in 2021-2022, open year-round during daylight hours, seven days a week, to members. Recurve, compound and crossbow.

The Kennebecasis Valley and Kings County

This corner of the province has the most interesting cluster of traditional archery in New Brunswick.

Woodland Traditional Archers was established in 1997 in Quispamsis and carries over 65 members. Indoor shooting runs Friday evenings from January through May at Kennebecasis Valley High School; summer moves outdoors to 3D and field courses at Elmhurst Outdoors in Erbs Cove. Traditional bows only. Membership is $60 a year with a $2 nightly fee, and they offer rentals and youth programs — which makes this, alongside Fredericton, one of the genuinely accessible entry points in the province.

River Valley Archery Club also shoots out of Quispamsis, indoors at Lakefield Elementary School on Wednesday evenings through the winter, then outdoors in summer on a 3D range that runs targets from squirrel up to buffalo.

Mountaineers Archery Club on Guthrie Road in Midland is traditional-only and specific about it: no compounds with sights. Outdoor 3D and field course, Monday evenings 7 to 9 PM. Glades Traditional Archery Club on Sanatorium Road in The Glades is the other traditional specialist with both 3D and field shooting, in the Petitcodiac River valley. Sussex Golden Arrows on Markhamville Road covers the Sussex area with a 3D course.

The Saint John River valley

10 Point Archery Club on Robertson Point Road in Jemseg and Washademoak Lake Archery Club on Lower Cambridge Road in Cambridge Narrows both run 3D courses in Queens County, a few minutes apart along the river.

Gagetown Archery Club on Erica Circle in Oromocto serves CFB Gagetown and the surrounding military community with a 3D course. Twin Rivers Archery on Tinker Road covers Carleton County and the Woodstock, Hartland and Florenceville-Bristol area.

Woodstock Archery Club on Charles Street is one of the few clubs in the province with both indoor and outdoor facilities of its own: four indoor lanes at 20 yards plus a 3D course, open Monday to Friday, with rentals and lessons. Membership is listed at $200 a year single or $300 family.

Northern New Brunswick: Chaleur, Restigouche and Madawaska

The north is entirely club archery and almost entirely 3D.

Arcadie Chaleur 3D Club on Adelard Street in Nigadoo and Bathurst Archery Club on Rio Grande Road both serve the Chaleur Bay region and Gloucester County. Restigouche Archery Club on Notre Dame in Atholville covers Campbellton, Dalhousie and Charlo along the Restigouche River. Archers Route 17 on Route 180 in St. Quintin serves the Restigouche and Madawaska communities inland.

Edmunston Archery Club on De La Capitale Boulevard is the northwest's year-round option, with both indoor shooting and an outdoor 3D course, serving archers near the Quebec and Maine borders.

Miramichi Archery Club on Ironmen Road runs 3D in the Miramichi River region and is one of the few clubs outside Fredericton to list lessons. Esgenoopetitj Archery Club offers community archery with no membership required — one of only two listings in the province that does not require you to join.

The one that is nothing like the others

Wolastoq Valley Centaurs Mounted Archery Club on Frog Lake Road in Harvey is New Brunswick's mounted archery club: shooting from horseback, outdoors, with a field course, and they list both lessons and rental equipment. Between this and the horseback club in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, the Maritimes have more mounted archery than most of the country.

How to actually start in New Brunswick

Five of the 26 list lessons and four list rental equipment. That shortlist is Archery Center Atlantic in Fredericton, Woodland Traditional Archers in Quispamsis, Woodstock Archery Club, Miramichi Archery Club, and the Wolastoq Valley Centaurs in Harvey.

If you are starting from zero, go to one of those first. Then join the club nearest you — because with 20 of 26 clubs running 3D courses, the actual archery in this province happens in the woods on a weekend, and that requires membership at a club you can reach.

On price: where clubs publish their fees to us, they range from $60 a year at Woodland Traditional to $200 at Woodstock. Most do not publish a number, because it is set at an annual meeting and changes. Call and ask rather than assume — a club membership in New Brunswick is one of the cheaper ways into a sport in this country.

Find your club

All 26 New Brunswick clubs and ranges are listed on Archery Ranges Canada with addresses, contact details and what each one is set up for. If you run a club here and something is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.