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I would like to play with a bow, mostly for the discipline and relaxation that is demanded (from what I heard). Problem is there is no range around. I have a 13 x 11 m backyard, and including a corridor I can have about 20 meter of total lenght.

Is that enough for getting some practice? How much distance is needed for hobbish archery?

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    I'd be a lot more concerned about making sure you've got a means of controlling overshot and errant arrows, before you make sure you've got enough distance.
    – wax eagle
    Commented Nov 14, 2013 at 18:31
  • I have 2,5 meter high brick wall around the backyard, I thought that it was enough? Am I mistaken?
    – Luiz Borges
    Commented Nov 14, 2013 at 20:56
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    Taking the long dimension and assuming you have a decent pull strength on your bow, if you were standing 13m away from your target, your backstop would not catch any arrows fired more than about 11 degrees too high. It might be okay once you got your eye in, but 10 degrees in archery is not all that much to miss by when you're not familiar with the distance or the bow. I foresee this resulting in an arrow sailing over the fence into someone else's backyard.
    – KeithS
    Commented Nov 14, 2013 at 22:35

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I would advise not using a back garden because it is really easy to miss and it doesn't take much to distract an archer, especially if you have not had practice at a range.

To answer your question, a standard archery range is between 12 and 16m. When I last taught it (this summer) I had kids shooting at targets between 8 and 20, and even the best archers amongst staff and students would not hit it 3 times out of 5 (Its classed as a fluke if any less in my eyes)

When I was learning to shoot I went out to a farmers field near me and asked the owner if I could shoot at his hay bails. Always shooting away from animals and any roads I learnt quickly enough and knew I wanted to stick with it.

If you are in the city, colleges(university's) tend to have archery clubs. You will have to contact them and maybe even get insurance for it, but that is the way I train at the moment.

Whatever you do, just be safe about it. You only need 1 arrow to go wrong.

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You can always shoot from the backyard into the corridor... as long as you don't have anything and anyone in it and you put a good light close to the target.

Just be ready to have some holes on the door at the end of the corridor...

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