Fall Backyard Archery Games for Kids: 6 Weekend Games to Play Now That It's Finally Cooler Outside
Here in Florida, "fall" mostly means the afternoon highs finally drop out of the 90s. Wherever you are, September is when the backyard becomes usable again after dinner, and that is the best time of year for backyard archery games for kids. The light is softer, the mosquitoes are thinning out, and kids who spent August indoors on screens are ready to run. Below are six archery games for kids designed for fall weekends: short setup, foam-tip safe, and playable with two kids or ten.
Every game here uses foam-tip arrows and an inflatable or soft target, so there is no license, no range, and no waiver. If you can set up a cornhole board, you can set up any of these.
Why Fall Is the Best Season for Backyard Archery
Summer archery is a heat-management exercise. Fall fixes the three things that make backyard play hard: temperature, daylight timing, and attention span. Cooler evenings mean a 5:30 p.m. game after homework instead of a 7:30 a.m. sprint before it gets hot. And with school back in session, kids arrive at the weekend wanting to move.
Fall also brings free props. Leaf piles, pumpkins, hay bales, and cardboard from back-to-school shipments all make excellent targets and obstacles. Most of the games below use at least one of them.
6 Fall Backyard Archery Games for Kids
1. Leaf Pile Bullseye
Rake a leaf pile (or use a tarp with towels under it if you have no leaves yet) and set an inflatable target on top so it sits at a slight angle. Arrows that hit the target score; arrows that vanish into the pile are "lost" and cost a point. Kids shoot five arrows each, then dig for arrows together. The retrieval is half the fun.
2. Pumpkin Ring Toss, Archery Edition
Line up three pumpkins of different sizes at 8, 12, and 16 feet. Small pumpkin is 3 points, medium is 2, large is 1. Foam tips bounce off the rind without marking it, so the pumpkins survive for the porch later. First to 15 wins.
3. Twilight Rounds
This one only works in fall because the sun sets at a reasonable hour. Clip a cheap headlamp or bike light to the inflatable target and play three-arrow rounds as dusk falls. Scoring gets harder as the light drops, which levels the field between older and younger kids. Stop when you can no longer see arrows on the ground.
4. Hay Bale Fort Defense
Stack two or three hay bales (or cardboard boxes) as a low wall. One kid defends a target behind the wall; the other kids try to hit it from a shooting line 15 feet out. The defender can block with a foam pool noodle but cannot touch the target. Rotate defenders every two minutes.
5. Cousin Cup
Built for Thanksgiving weekend, when a mix of ages shows up at once. Split into two teams, mixing older and younger kids. Each round, one shooter per team fires three arrows at the same target from the same line. Team totals carry over across rounds. The aim-assisted bow matters here: a 7-year-old can score on the same target as a 13-year-old, so nobody sits out.
6. Backyard Combat Archery Lite
Once kids are comfortable, set two sides of the yard with a center line, give each side a target and a few cardboard "bunkers," and play a simple version of archery dodgeball: hit the other team's target three times to win. Keep it to 10-minute rounds and keep glasses or the mesh masks on for anyone near the center line. This is the game kids will ask for again.
Safety and Setup in Five Minutes
Foam-tip archery is gentle, but a few habits keep it that way. Set one shooting line and one rule: nobody crosses it until everyone has shot. Aim only at targets, never at people, except in the clearly marked combat game with masks on. Keep the target with the fence or a shed behind it so missed arrows stop within the yard. Check arrow tips for wear at the start of each weekend; a foam tip that has split gets retired.
Store the bows inside between sessions. Fall dew and cooler nights are fine for the gear, but a bow left on the lawn for a week is not.
Perfect For
These games are built for families with kids ages 7 to 14 who want the backyard to be the after-homework destination this fall. They also work for grandparents hosting weekend visits, neighborhood cul-de-sac gatherings, homeschool co-op PE afternoons, and church small groups meeting in a member's yard. If you run a fall festival booth or an aftercare program, Games 1, 2, and 5 scale to 20 or more kids with a couple of extra targets.
Get Set Up Before the Weekend
An ArrowSoft foam-tip bow and arrow set with an inflatable target covers every game on this list. The aim-assisted bow gets young kids hitting the target on their first afternoon, and the sets are priced so a family can own two bows instead of one. Browse kits at arrowsoftarchery.com, or email Sales@ArrowSoftArchery.com if you are outfitting a group and want a recommendation on how many bows and targets you actually need.
The cool evenings do not last forever. Go use them.
— Steve, ArrowSoft Archery
