Archery in Quebec: The Province That Teaches You

Quebec has 41 active archery listings. Twenty-five of them list lessons.

That is roughly three in five, and it is the highest proportion of any province in our directory. For comparison, most provinces sit closer to one in five. Thirteen Quebec listings also offer equipment rental.

This is a structural thing, not a coincidence. Quebec archery runs through a network of federation-affiliated community clubs, most of them shooting out of a school gymnasium from September to May, and the standard way in is a structured beginner course rather than an hour on a walk-in lane. If you have been putting off starting because you do not own a bow and do not know what you are doing, this is the best-organised province in the country to be a beginner in.

The school gym season

Look at where Quebec clubs actually shoot and a pattern appears immediately.

Club Trois-Plumes shoots at Ecole Daniel Johnson in Pointe-aux-Trembles. Club de Tir a l'Arc Cupidon de Montreal-Nord shoots at Ecole Gerald McShane. Club Les Archers de St-Hubert shoots at Ecole Andre-Laurendeau on the South Shore. Les Archers de Rawdon shoots at Ecole des Chutes.

Four clubs, four school gymnasiums, and that list is not exhaustive. The consequence is a season: St-Hubert operates September to May, Rawdon runs Tuesday and Friday evenings from 7 to 9 PM, Laval's indoor range runs September through May. Quebec indoor archery has a school year, and if you go looking in July you will find the doors locked and the club shooting outside somewhere else.

Plan around it. Join in September.

Where a beginner actually starts

Les Archers de Rawdon in Lanaudiere has been an FTAQ member since 1990 and lists an introductory course at $35 with equipment provided. Adult memberships run $95 to $123 a year. That is the cheapest documented path into the sport we have found anywhere in Quebec, and one of the cheapest in the country.

Les Archers de Rimouski, established in 1981 and the main club for the Bas-Saint-Laurent, lists basic instruction at $60, drop-in shooting at $10, equipment rental at $10, and adult membership at $160. Indoor on Boulevard Arthur-Buies Ouest, outdoor on Rue Des Voiliers. It is the only listing in the province with both a field course and rental equipment.

Club Trois-Plumes, an FTAQ member since 1984, teaches from age 7 and provides equipment for beginners, on an 18-metre indoor range in Montreal's east end.

Club de Tir a l'Arc Le Gardeur in Repentigny runs initiation lessons for ages 7 and up and takes non-members for $20, indoor or outdoor, with Wednesday evening 3D competitions at $15. Year-round, indoor and outdoor, all bow types. For a family on Montreal's east shore wanting to try archery this weekend, this is the answer.

Club de Tir a l'Arc Cupidon de Montreal-Nord runs sessions Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 PM plus Saturday mornings, at 18, 25 and 30 metres, with equipment available for new archers and lessons for beginners. Four evenings a week is unusually generous access for a club range.

Montreal

Montreal has five listings and they are strikingly different from one another.

Club de Tir a l'Arc de Montreal (CTAM), established in 1974, shoots in the basement of the Centre Sportif Claude Robillard and offers lanes from 5 to 70 metres. That distance span is the widest in the province and it matters: 70 metres is the Olympic outdoor distance, and being able to train it indoors through a Montreal winter is a genuine competitive advantage. Drop-in is listed at $15 an evening session, or $120 plus tax for a session block. Rental available.

Les Archers du Sud-Ouest de Montreal is a volunteer-run non-profit at the Gadbois Recreational Centre with 22 lanes, membership listed at $150, a 3D course, rentals and lessons. Their own description makes a specific claim worth repeating: they consider themselves home to the best barebow archers in the province. Traditional, Olympic recurve and compound all shoot there.

Sports de Combats on Avenue Casgrain in Mile End is the commercial option and the only listing in the entire province with a pro shop. Forty yards of shooting distance, open seven days a week, lessons in compound, Olympic recurve and traditional, with equipment rental available after you complete lessons. Note the sequence: lessons first, then rentals. Even the commercial range here teaches you before it turns you loose.

Kyudo Quebec on Sherbrooke Street East is something else entirely. Established in 1991, it is a dojo for traditional Japanese archery, where the emphasis falls on mindfulness, form and discipline rather than the score. It is the only dedicated Kyudo club in Quebec, and there is nothing comparable in the rest of our Canadian listings. If western target archery has never appealed to you, this is a different door into the same sport.

Club Trois-Plumes in the east end rounds out the five.

Outside Montreal

Les Archers Perrotdamois, founded in 1988 on Ile-Perrot west of Montreal, has over 100 members, concentric targets plus a 3D animal course on Boulevard Don-Quichotte, and has been affiliated with the Pro-3D Circuit since 2013. Traditional, compound and crossbow. Membership is $155, or $125 on early renewal before December 31, with indoor drop-in at $10.

Les Archers de la Vallee near Chelsea in the Gatineau Hills, established in 1989, runs an outdoor course from 15 to 70 metres with a 3D hunting simulation set along the Gatineau River, plus a two-story mirador. Wednesday evening indoor sessions through the winter. It is one of only two listings in the province with a field course. For Ottawa-Gatineau archers, this is the scenic option and it is right across the river.

Les Archers Laval, established in 1986, shoots indoors at Centre ACCES September through May, Tuesday to Friday evenings plus Sunday afternoons, and moves outdoors to Parc Levis-Paquette on Rue de Valognes for the summer. Nearly four decades on Montreal's north shore.

Club Les Archers de St-Hubert, established in 1975, runs Tuesday and Thursday evenings plus Saturday afternoons, September to May, with adult membership at $210 and rental available for newcomers. One of Longueuil's longest-running clubs.

Club de Tir de Lanaudiere in Joliette has a dedicated 30-metre indoor range with 8 shooting positions and lessons for beginners.

Club de Tir Beausejour in Saint-Jean-Chrysostome, on the south shore of Quebec City, is a multi-discipline facility offering 50-metre and 100-metre distances, six days a week including evenings, with annual membership at $215. It serves Levis, Saint-Nicolas and the wider Chaudiere-Appalaches region.

The province stretches a long way past those. There are clubs in Chicoutimi, Jonquiere, Roberval, St-Felicien, Sept-Iles, Rimouski, Amos, Rouyn-Noranda, Val-d'Or, Sherbrooke, Drummondville, St-Hyacinthe, Boucherville, Brossard, Deux-Montagnes, LaSalle, L'Assomption, Donnacona, Trois-Rivieres, Beauport, Quebec City and Gatineau. Forty-one listings covering most of the populated province.

The numbers

Across the 41 listings: 25 list lessons, 13 list rental equipment, 14 list a 3D course, two list a field course, one lists a pro shop, and 39 require membership.

Two things to read from that. First, the teaching-and-rental figures are the highest in the country, which is the whole argument of this guide. Second, 39 of 41 requiring membership tells you that Quebec's clubs are clubs in the real sense, not drop-in businesses, and that the commercial layer other provinces rely on barely exists here. One pro shop in the entire province.

Amenity fields that read blank usually mean nobody has verified them yet rather than that a club lacks them, so treat the positives above as confirmed and the gaps as unknown.

How to start here

Montreal, no gear, no experience: Sports de Combats for the commercial route with lessons built in, or CTAM and Les Archers du Sud-Ouest for the club route with rentals.

A family with kids: Le Gardeur in Repentigny or Trois-Plumes in the east end, both teaching from age 7 with equipment provided.

Cheapest way in anywhere in the province: the $35 introductory course at Rawdon.

Anywhere else: find your regional club below and email them in August, before the September season starts. Ask about the initiation course, not about drop-in. In Quebec, the course is the door.

Find your range

All 41 Quebec archery listings are on Archery Ranges Canada with locations, bow types and what each club is set up for. If you run a club here and something is out of date, or your club is missing, tell us and we will fix it.