The 2026 NFAA Rushmore Rumble made history. For the first time in the tournament's five-year history, the National Field Archery Association's premier indoor money shoot packed its gear and left home, relocating from its traditional base at NFAA Headquarters in Yankton, South Dakota, to downtown Indianapolis as part of the landmark new partnership with the Archery Trade Association. It paid off: the 5th Annual Rushmore Rumble delivered record-breaking participation, elite-level competition, and an electric atmosphere that neither the NFAA nor the ATA are likely to forget.
Held January 9–11 at the Indiana Convention Center — immediately following the 2026 ATA Trade Show and running alongside the first-ever Archery & Bowhunting Supershow — the tournament drew archers from across the United States, Canada, and beyond. Competitors who registered for the Rumble received complimentary access to the Supershow floor, making Indianapolis the rare destination where you could compete on the shooting line in the morning and demo the newest bows from every major manufacturer in the afternoon.
"There's 2,500 people here that all have a connection to the outdoors and archery, so hopefully it works out well for the vendors and the manufacturers," said Bruce Cull, Executive Director of the NFAA, reflecting on the collaborative energy between the two organisations that made the week possible.
Competition Format
- Day 1 (Saturday, Jan. 10): NFAA Classic 5-Spot 600 Round — archers shoot 60 arrows on the iconic blue and white five-spot target face, for a maximum score of 600.
- Day 2 (Sunday, Jan. 11): Vegas-Style 3-Spot 300 Round — 30 arrows on the single-spot 40 cm Vegas face, for a maximum of 300.
- Total: Combined two-day aggregate of 900 points maximum. The weekend culminated in a 900 Shoot-Off, showcasing the top archers across divisions in a live finale.
- Divisions: Championship (Open, Female, Senior, Senior Female), Flight (multiple sub-groups), and Junior (Cub 11 & under, Youth 12–14, Young Adult 15–17) — across Compound, Recurve, Barebow, and Bowhunter styles. Collegiate archers competed in their primary division with scores also counting toward collegiate placement and scholarship eligibility.
- Prize Money & Scholarships: Cash prizes distributed across Championship and Flight divisions. NFAA Foundation scholarships awarded to the top three finishers in each Junior division, based on participation.
The Move to Indianapolis
The decision to relocate the Rushmore Rumble from Yankton to Indianapolis for 2026 was a deliberate and calculated gamble — and it worked. NFAA Executive Director Bruce Cull and ATA President and CEO Jeff Poole collaborated closely on how to combine their respective membership bases into something that delivered real value for trade members, tournament archers, and the general public simultaneously.
The Indiana Convention Center's downtown location offered world-class shooting facilities with ample room for competition lanes, practice areas, vendor booths, and secure gear storage — a significant upgrade on logistics from a rural South Dakota setting. Importantly, proximity to the ATA Trade Show floor attracted a new audience to the Rushmore Rumble: archers who might never have made the drive to Yankton but were already in Indianapolis for industry business or the Supershow.
Wyatt Emmerich, competing in the Rumble for the first time, summed up the appeal: he had been shooting archery for years but chose to enter in Indianapolis because the venue was significantly closer than Yankton — and the bonus of walking the Supershow floor between sessions sealed the deal.
Competition Highlights
Across two days of indoor shooting, the competition delivered consistently high scores and fierce divisional battles. The Championship Compound Open division was among the most competitive, with leaders in the qualification sessions holding scores within fractions of perfection across their combined 114-arrow journey through the rounds. The Championship Compound Female, Young Adult, Senior, and Senior Female divisions produced equally compelling action, with tight margins defining the podium placings in nearly every bracket.
International athletes competed alongside domestic contenders, giving the tournament a genuinely global feel befitting the ATA Show Week setting. A delegation from Archery Manitoba, Canada, represented the province with distinction — Laganjot Sandhu in the Compound Cub Male division finished second overall with a combined two-day score of 859 out of 900, finishing just seven points behind first place. Chris Waterman competed in the Compound Male Flights division, completing the weekend in the 15th flight group with a score of 848.
"I worked through my shots and performed very well. I am proud of the outcome of this tournament," said Sandhu, whose result was part of Archery Manitoba recording four individual podium finishes across two major events to open the 2026 season.
S3DA Indoor Open: The Youth Showcase
Running alongside the Rushmore Rumble was the S3DA Indoor Open, a youth-focused archery tournament hosted by Scholastic 3-D Archery using the same target faces and competition format as the Rumble — giving younger archers a legitimate introduction to national-level indoor competition. "With it being an open-registration event, we hope that anyone registered who is not an S3DA member would consider signing up, hope they enjoyed themselves and check out our other events," said Cody Kirby, Executive Director of Scholastic 3-D Archery.
Retailers in the Shooting Line
One of the week's most distinctive moments came from ATA-member retailers who used the Rushmore Rumble as an opportunity to bring their shop's own archery teams to compete while simultaneously attending the Trade Show and walking the Supershow floor. Gary Hintz of Bucks and Bulls Archery was among those who made the most of the unique overlap — a scenario that would simply not have been possible in Yankton. The multi-role nature of the week — business meetings in the morning, competition in the afternoon — was one of the defining and most appreciated characteristics of the 2026 format.
Key Takeaways
- The 2026 Rushmore Rumble set a new participation record — the best-attended edition in the tournament's five-year history — thanks in large part to the ATA Show Week partnership and the Indianapolis venue's broader reach.
- The combined 900-point format (600-round 5-spot + 300-round Vegas-style) delivered two days of high-stakes competition, culminating in a live 900 Shoot-Off finale.
- International representation, including archers from Canada competing on a national stage, gave the Indianapolis edition a global dimension beyond previous Yankton editions.
- Laganjot Sandhu (Manitoba, Canada) was one of the standout performances, shooting 859/900 for second place in the Compound Cub Male division — finishing just seven points behind gold.
- The S3DA Indoor Open running alongside the Rumble created an entry pathway for youth competitors unfamiliar with NFAA national events, with the combined atmosphere introducing a new generation to top-level indoor archery.
- The partnership between the NFAA and ATA is set to continue — the 2027 Rushmore Rumble is expected to return to Indianapolis alongside ATA Show Week, building further on the record-breaking platform established in 2026.