Bierwagen the face of competitive archery

In Thompson Falls, Tony Bierwagen is the face of competitive archery shooting.

The long-time president of the Thompson Falls Archery Club and the current tournament director for the Montana Archery Association, Bierwagen doesn’t just talk the talk about competitive target archery, he continues to walk the walk as well, maintaining his edge by continuing to participate in shoots across Montana and elsewhere.

Bierwagen has had a couple of busy months shooting already this year, between tournaments and practicing regularly in Thompson Falls, first indoors at the junior high gym this past winter and more recently, outdoors at the TFAC practice range.

In the past several months, Bierwagen has attended the Montana State Indoor Target Championships in Lewistown (early March), shot at the Marked 3-D National Championships in Redding, California (May 4-5), competed at the Montana State Outdoor Target Championships in Townsend (May 18-19), and participated unofficially in a tournament in Coeur d’Alene (during the first weekend of this month).

The State Outdoor Target Championships, an event Bierwagen was able to bring to Thompson Falls in 2017 and 2018, was held in very poor weather in the Townsend area, prompting several other archers to approach Bierwagen requesting that it be moved back to Thompson Falls.

“Everybody loves having the shoot here, the weather is just so much milder here at this time of year than in other parts of the state,” he said. “People really enjoyed having it in Thompson Falls the last few years and we enjoyed putting it on. We will try to get it back as soon as we can.”

It was downright bitter weather in Townsend this year, and only 48 archers attended at least partially as a result. In contrast, over 70 shooters tested their aim in the same event in sunny Thompson Falls in 2018.

Bierwagen and his most recent archery protégé Madison Toyias, also of Thompson Falls, braved the elements and shot in Townsend in spite of what Bierwagen called “windy, 30 degree, miserable weather.”

Toyias made the misery worthwhile by collecting first place and the state title in the Youth Female Bowhunter Freestyle competition, and Bierwagen shot down second place in the Senior Bowhunter Freestyle division.

Shooting solo representing TFAC in the other events, Bierwagen won second place in the same class at the State Indoor Shoot in Lewistown. He said there were over 125 archers at the meet and that the male professional shooters ended up having an exciting three-way shootout to decide the title in that class.

At the Marked 3-D National Championships (“marked” means the distance to the target is provided to archers as opposed to other events where it is not), Bierwagen thoroughly enjoyed himself, in spite of seeing a slightly different shooting grounds than what he saw at Redding in 2018.

“Half the course burned up in the Camp Fire last year, it was almost like a desert we were shooting in,” he said. “But I had a great time, there were over 1,600 competitors and that is a world class course, despite what the fire did to it.”

Bierwagen also participated unofficially in a shoot at Coeur d’Alene early this month, mostly in an attempt to stay sharp with his aim for future events, and then officially went at it in the Bear 3-D Shoot at Clearwater Junction June 14-15. The Bear Shoot is conducted annually by the Five Valleys Archery Club.

Bierwagen said there were over 500 archers in the Bear Shoot, which he called “the biggest 3-D shoot of any year in Montana.”

“They do an excellent job of course layout, and had two courses of 50 targets each, one to shoot each day,” he said. “The weather was spectacular, it was another great weekend of archery.”

The only thing that was not great was the fact that Bierwagen just lost out in the race for the Senior Bowhunter Freestyle championship, falling to rival Mike Dellwo of Seeley Lake, whom he had dethroned for the title the previous year. “He shot really well,” Bierwagen offered, “better than I did this year.”

Next up for the intrepid Bierwagen is the Montana State Field Championships in Butte June 29-30. The meet will also serve as the National Field Archery Association’s Northwest Outdoor Sectionals tournament.

A veteran of these State Field shoots, Bierwagen said archers from Northwest Sectional states Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana are also expected to attend and that the Silverbow Archery Club out of Butte always does an outstanding job in running the event.

“It’s one of the nicest field courses in the nation,” he said, “with paper targets placed at distances varying from six to 80 yards set up in hunting-type situations.”