AAR: Bad Axe Throwing

A group of Revere’s Riders volunteers and instructors spent a recent Sunday evening at Bad Axe Throwing in Indianapolis, IN. This was the first in what will hopefully be a semi-regular series of casual meetups of Revere’s Riders volunteers/instructors. Many of us only see each other at Revere’s Riders events or at meetings in preparation for an event. Getting a group together for a few hours such as this is a classic “team building” exercise where everyone gets to know each other a little better outside of the usual surroundings.

Axe throwing is available either as a scheduled group event or as a walk-in during selected hours. We chose to book a “Bad Axe Package” which includes two throwing lanes and a coach for 2½ hours.

Our coach demonstrated the proper technique for both two-handed and one-handed axe throwing as well as a couple of trick axe throws. I don’t believe any of us were very successful to start, but after some practice nearly everyone was proficient at getting their axe to hit the target and stick. After some practice, our coach divided us into two teams for some friendly competition.

In the above video, Dan had the throw of the evening hitting a bullseye from “long range” (about 20 feet). Normally, we were throwing from about 10-12 feet.

Overall, everyone seemed to have a really good time. There are two definite negatives to Bad Axe Throwing:

• it is relatively expensive at $39.25/person for groups and $20/person/hour for walk-ins; that said, I don’t know of any other axe throwing businesses to which rates could be compared.
• perhaps the biggest negative is that Bad Axe Throwing (in Indianapolis at least) has a no firearms policy.

Given these negatives, my conclusion is that the overall experience is a positive one. I suspect that Revere’s Riders will be back in the future.