Archery Merit Badge

The Genesis note is the most important sentence on this badge

Requirement 5 ends with this:

"Note: When using a Genesis bow, apply the requirements in Option A."

A Genesis is a compound bow. Option B is headed Compound Bow. Option A is headed Recurve Bow or Longbow. Every instinct says a Genesis belongs in Option B, and the note says it does not.

This matters because the Genesis is the bow most Scout camps issue. It has no let-off and no draw stop, which is why it suits archers of any draw length. So the default case at summer camp is: shooting a compound bow, working Option A.

The two options are not interchangeable. Option A asks you to string the bow (5(A)(4)) and to use a bow square for the nocking point (5(A)(5)); Option B asks neither, and instead asks why a compound's string or cable must be replaced at a shop (5(B)(4)). And every qualifying score is different: Option B's are ten points higher across the board.

Requirement 5 is three levels deep

Twenty routes end at the same badge. The scores are not the same down any two of them:

Answer the three questions on this page and only your own numbers stay on the plan.

The fixed-distance route needs no organised round

5(A)(6)(b) and 5(B)(6)(b) are not rounds. They are a total struck over a set number of arrows at a set distance on an 80-centimetre five-colour target, using the 10 scoring regions. That can be shot on any range that has the target: no field course, no indoor league, no event to attend.

The four rounds under (a) are recognised competition formats. If one is available to you, it is one afternoon; if none is, the (b) route removes the problem entirely. The compound version of (b) is shot from two distances, 15 arrows at 10 yards and 15 at 15 yards, which the recurve version is not.

Requirements 1 to 4 do not need a range

Everything except requirement 5 is explanation and identification. Requirement 5 alone must be done

"working under the supervision of a certified USA Archery Level 1 Instructor or a certified long-term camp staff member"

and the requirement names precisely which camp roles count: a National Camping School Range Activities Director, or a Rangemaster over age 18 trained by one of those or by a USA Archery Level 1 Instructor.

That is the scarce resource on this badge. Do 1 to 4 before you get to the range, so the supervised time is spent shooting. Nothing on the badge states that order. It is advice, and it is the reason this page draws requirement 5 last and warns on it.

Requirement 2(d): make one, or repair three

A small fork with a large difference in what you need.

• 2(d)(1). Make a complete arrow from a bare shaft, using whatever equipment is available to you. Needs a shaft, components and a fletching jig.
• 2(d)(2): inspect shafts and replace **at least three vanes, one point and one nock**, across as many arrows as it takes. Wood, fibreglass or aluminium. The repair route is the one a club or camp can usually support out of its own broken-arrow bin.

If you are working from the printed book

The 2025 Scouts BSA Requirements book (No. 33216-25) lists four ways to meet the shooting test, not two: as well as the round and the fixed score, it accepts JOAD indoor or outdoor green, purple and grey achievement pins, or an NFAA Junior Division Cub or Youth 100-score Progression Patch. The current requirements do not. The badge page governs, and those two routes are gone from it.

What this page is

The Archery merit badge, drawn so the three-level choice inside requirement 5 and the Genesis note are visible before a Scout picks a bow. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.