Liam and I stepped out of our local 3D shoots and went all in for a trip over to Vermont to hit up the Total Archery Challenge at Killington/Pico Mountain. Weather was less than ideal but we still made the best of the trip and had a great time and cannot wait to hit this event next time it fits into our schedule. While the schedule lists Killington/Pico as the location, all shooting and the Mountain Fest occurs at Pico Mountain.
Planning stages: We decided to do this later than we should have, so there were limited nock times available for us to sign up for. We ended up getting a 7:30am nock time for Sunday the 25th as it was all that was available when we were booking.
We had planned to camp overnight (for free) at Killington Mountain because they keep a lot open for Mountain bikers with access to water and a bathroom. However, because of the cold wet start to 2025, Killington was not able to open by this weekend for Mountain bikers and were not allowing overnight camping. We decided to car camp at the base of Pico Mountain and while it was not ideal because of the rain and cold, it was still a great time.
Arrival Day: We arrived Saturday afternoon to get a feel for the area and the event and to register so that we did not have to waste time doing that on Sunday morning before our early nock time. Upon arriving to the mountain we parked and walked up to the Festival/Vendor area and enountered one of the muddiest holes I have ever seen. We did our best to stay dry and registered where we received our bow tag for our time on Sunday, our tshirts and our event swag (sample vanes, stickers, scorecards, etc…). We then walked around and looked at all the vendor booths, looking at all the new bows and accessories. There was a full on shop area where you could use the provided tools and presses to fix/modify your bow if needed. There were bows to demo at most of the manufacturers tents and was overall a great atmosphere with some of the friendliest people I have ever met. There was a stage setup that was there for concerts and other events throughout the day constantly rotating with images and such.
Beyond the vendor area was a large practice range with 40-50 3d targets at various distances to warm up with out to about 80 yards uphill. There was also a smaller version of the range for kids to shoot out to 20 yards. Both had safety officers controlling shooting times and arrow collection times. Side Note: If you go to TAC, do not use off the shelf arrows if you can help it, at least change up the vane colors or label your arrows somehow. There was some confusion when people were shooting the same targets as to what arrows belonged to who.
We left the area after about an hour and a half and went to get dinner and some dry socks for myself. After spending some time in town, visiting a few stores and eating dinner at 5 Guys, we made our way back to the mountain. It was a cold and genuinely uncomfortable night in the car, but we were able to get a few hours of sleep before waking up to a pop-tart breakfast. There were some campers set up where the TAC staff was staying and they had a fire and I am sure it would have been a much more fun experience tent camping @ Killington or even just hanging around the parking lot at Pico if it was a nicer night.
The actual event: We got to the vendor/fair area and then went over to the practice ranges to shoot some arrows before we jumped in line for the chairlift to get to the top of our course. Practice range was nice and it was not overly busy because of how early it was. When we got up to the chairlift, they checked the tag on our bows to allow us in. We jumped on the chairlift and started the ride up the mountain. We went through some clouds and could see some of the shooting lines and paths down the mountain. After getting to the top, we followed the signs to the Leupold course, which was the one we were shooting. Everything was well marked as far as where you shoot from and trails/paths were marked with landscaping tape to indicate the path to walk to and from targets. The way it works, is you take the chair all the way to the top of the course, then hike down the moutain, looking for cones 1-25 and then find the associated targets with that cone. Most of the targets were really easy to find, some were harder to find, and some took a while to find. Some were in open fields, some were along a tree line, but most were in the woods with parts of the target covered by trees and or rocks. You need a good set of binoculars to find some of the targets and see the obstacles that are between you and the targets. A few targets were shot across the water and some were in front of a pond, and if you missed, you would not be getting an arrow back. For me, targets ranged from 25 to 80 yards on this course and for Liam, we just went up to 15-20 yards for him to shoot each target. My favorite target was a 75 yard shot at a bedded Elk across a pond. There were a bunch of steep angle shots, including what felt like an almost vertical downhill 60 yard shot on a black bear on one of their black trails. It was a fun hike down the mountain, and even though it was muddy and wet, we had pretty good footing going around, even in the steepest areas.
Liam didn’t end up losing any arrows (we found the one miss on the practice range). I lost one arrow after a bad bounce on a practice target I hit high, and I broke 2 on trees in front of targets and broke another on a rock.
The course was really easy to follow and it was a great time. We cannot wait until we get another chance to shoot one of these.
Post event notes:
- You will need appropriate clothing and footwear as you are legitimately hiking down a mountain and ski slopes. We opted for bright colored clothing after hearing about a previous accident at a TAC event where someone behind a target was hit by a stray arrrow. Liam wore a rain jacket over his, but I had on a brightly colored long sleeve sun shirt over a sweatshirt, so that I was warm enough and we were visible. Liam wore winter boots to keep his feet dry and warm. I wore a pair of Keen Targhee IV Mid boots, which are waterproof and gave excellent support. They kept my feet dry and I had great support and traction the whole day.
- We used our arrow quivers that we use for indoor and outdoor 3D. These worked well, however they were not ideal for the climb down the mountain as they hang belong a certain level that get in the way while climbing through the woods and trails, and especailly while coming down steep slopes. They also did not do great having to take them off while we loaded onto the chair lift so we could sit without dropping everything while riding up. We both have hydration packs and we will be adding some arrow tubes to these for our next event.
- You will need a good set of binoculars for this event. One, to help find the target and two, to help see any potential obstacles in the way of the scoring area of the target.
- You will definitely want at least one good rangefinder in your group. Preferably one that calculates distances with slope, to give more accurate yardages. Outside of one arrow off the back of a practice target, I was only able to hit targets at the distances I was shooting because of the distance calculation in the rangefinder with the slope angle factored in.
- Expect to lose some arrows. Half of the fun of this event is getting to take shots you would not typically take at your local 3d courses. The angles of some of the shots and the length of some of these shots, not to mention the obstacles between you and the target will cause some misses or deflections, or hell some explosions as you hit things around the target.
- Bring a good arrow puller. I use the Double D Magnum Arrow Puller. Without this I would not have been able to get 2 arrows out of branches I hit, and I would not have been able to get an arrow or two out of a target because of how solid they were in some areas of the course due to the cold.
- They provide a scorecard, but Liam and I did not keep score as it was more about the fun than having to keep track of points.
- You gather your broken arrows, and any other broken arrows you might find as you come down the course, and add them to the arrow pot at the Mountain Fest. This is usually a very fun unique structure by the end of the event, and Liam had fun adding the ones we collected after our round was over.
- We opted to shoot the Leupold Course, which listed targets ranging from 15-75 yards. There are multiple other courses at each event ranging from 25 to 100+ yards. You book a nock time for your first course of the day, but you are able to shoot as many courses as you want after that. Because it was cold and rainy, and we had a long drive home, we only shot the one course for the day, which was plenty for our first TAC event.
- You do not need to shoot the full distance. They told us that as long as we maintained the same approximate uphill or downhill angle on a target, we could shoot at any distance to the target. We were easily able to find a 10-25 yard shot for Liam on all targets. There were shooters around us as young as 5 years old shooting at 5-10 yards on each target.
- We just went with the 2 of us because of how late we planned this trip. They allow up to 6 people per nock time, but they allowed us to shoot as a group of 2 separate from the other 4 that were at our nock time, because they were going through with 4 others in the nock time after them. We never had to wait for a target and never held up the shooters behind us. This would be so much fun with a group of 6 people that all knew eachother.
All in all, this event was the highlight of our shooting so far in our archery lives and we cannot wait to go back, hopefully next year if our calendar and locations work out.
Below is all the pictures from the event in no particular order.
