More room on the range at Diamond Archery (+video)

Diamond Archery has nearly doubled its square feet to a building of 12,000 square feet. But owner Ryan Barkdull plans on offering far more than twice the amount of service to local archers from the new location at 10502 E. 26th North Circle. That’s a few blocks northwest of K-96 and Greenwich.

“It’s almost limitless what we can do at this new place,” said Barkdull, who initially opened his archery business in 2009, in a storage building he originally purchased for his artificial-turf business near Harry and Seneca. “We really have some great plans, and I think they’ll come together.”

Those plans include expanded opportunities for local target leagues and eventually attracting some of the nation’s best archers to national-level tournaments. But he said that won’t happen at the expense of beginners.

“We grew so fast at the other building that it got crowded,” he said. “I think someone new would come in, and if we’d be packed with a bunch of league shooters, they’d see all of those (fancy) bows, and all of those people, and a lot of those people felt just turned around and left. There were also times when we just didn’t have room for anyone else to shoot, too. Now we should always have places for people to shoot.”

The new building can comfortably allow 64 target shooters at a time. Forty-eight targets are together, like in an area for sizable archery leagues. Off to the side, out of sight from most other areas, are lanes for 16 more shooters.

The space will also make it easier to expand the business’ kids program. Meeting Thursday evening and Saturday mornings for a month, staff members work with kids wanting to explore the sport of target archery. Children 8 and older can bring their own equipment or use some furnished by the store.

“If a kid comes, and likes archery, the parents can buy what they need, and what the kid learned on,” said Barkdull. “If the kid tries archery for a few weeks, and doesn’t really care for it, the parents aren’t out all that money they’d have spent on equipment.”

With so much added indoor space, Barkdull hopes Diamond Archery can become a larger supporter of Kansas’ Archery in the Schools Program. The program trains school teachers how to introduce archery to students. It’s normally done through the physical education curriculum, on portable ranges set up in gymnasiums.

Last year that the program worked with more than 10,000 Kansas students at about 100 schools. Barkdull hopes to host some local NASP tournaments, and work with kids in the program in a variety of ways.

“We have all of these kids in the program who are really getting into archery, and it ends,” said Barkdull. “We want to show these kids that there is (archery) after NASP and that they can easily keep shooting archery.”

And, according to Barkdull, there’s literally no limit to how far such kids can go into archery.

The new facility makes it easier for staff members, including Mike Holland, a national target archery champion, to give lessons. Barkdull said Diamond Archery has already scheduled some national-level indoor target shoots. It may be able to do the same with some outdoors forms of archery, too.

At the end of a half-mile long street, and butting up against Jabara Airport, the location’s three acres should eventually hold 30 animal-like 3D targets. There will also be a range where archers can test their skills to 100 yards. Weather permitting, Barkdull hopes the outdoors ranges are completed by a grand opening this spring.

Bowhunting will continue to be a large part of the business, Barkdull said. As well as the usual bows, arrows and broadheads, the larger location allows the store to stock things such as treestands, feeders and other equipment. Some will be sold assembled.

The business can now support two kinds of archery games that could attract target archers and bowhunters. Inside, people can put special tips on their arrows and shoot at animals in videoed hunting scenes. Barkdull said the ever-changing technology within the TechnoHunt systems now offers more that 800 themes, including “anything from bullfrogs to elephants.”

An Archery Tag range, one of the sport’s newest games, is also in the works. Barkdull said it’s like paintball, complete with all of the protective gear, where participants shoot arrows at each other from low-poundage bows.

Barkdull insists there will always be plenty of elbow room.

“We grew so big, so fast at the other store it was like everybody was on top of each other,” he said. “Here we have more parking, and just a lot more space, in general.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 5:31 PM with the headline "More room on the range at Diamond Archery (+video)."