The American Knife Throwers Alliance is an association of American sportsmen dedicated to the practice and promotion of knife throwing as a sport, recreation and hobby. In support of its dedication to the sport, the purpose of the AKTA is to provide assistance and offer guidelines to individuals and groups who may wish to organize for competitive sport in their local areas.

Harry K. McEvoy, founder of Tru-Balance Knife Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, started the Alliance in 1971. The club grew to about 1,200 members. The Bullseye Buster was published for 22 issues before publication had to be suspended. With very little help or facilities, it became too big a task to produce and mail.

In 1995, Bobby Branton, a longtime knifemaker and thrower, with the blessing of Stephen McEvoy, decided not to let the AKTA die. He has reorganized the AKTA and has resumed publishing the AKTA newsletter, the "BULLSEYE BUSTER".

On April 20, 1996, the first Annual American Knife Thrower's Alliance National Championship was held.

Contact: Bobby Branton, National Directorhttp://www.brantonknives.com

Located at: 4976 Seewee Road, Awendaw, SC 29429 or profly001@aol.com

Yearly membership fee: $15.00 for first year with additional years at $10.00. Includes: color AKTA patch, color AKTA decal, gold membership card and a one-year subscription to the Bullseye Buster newsletter.

Additional member patches available for $5.00 and additional decals for $2.00

The Bullseye Buster, included with membership fee, is a quarterly issue.

The following is an example article from the July 1997 issue, Volume 3, Issue 2 (reprinted with AKTA permission). "Sticking Point" will post new articles on occasion in this section. [ed.]

2nd Annual AKTA Championships

The 2nd Annual AKTA Championships were a huge success. The states represented this year were Florida, New Jersey, Iowa, Colorado, California, Indiana, Alabama, Maryland, Massachusetts and, of course, South Carolina. We had a few members who could not make it because of work and other scheduling problems. All in all, the contest went smoother than last year with no problems. Special attention was paid to safety. We had the throwing range roped off so that only one thrower could enter the range. This year, we had the knife throwing event on Saturday and the tomahawk competition on Sunday. This year we used a new target set-up that I [Bobby Branton, ed.] had designed for this year's events. This new set-up helped keep knives from bouncing all over the range.
The scores were higher this year in the knife competition and the scores in the tomahawk competition were slightly lower. Since this was the first year for hawks, I expect to see the scores a lot higher next year.
We'd like to thank all of the members who attended this year's competition and special thanks to the members who helped with the set-up and breakdown of the targets. I would especially like to thank Dan Dennehy who stayed out at my place and helped me build and assemble the targets, and for sharing his knowledge of throwing with me and other members. It was a pleasure to spend time with a knowledgeable person such a Dan.
I also want to thank all of your for your kind words and encouragement for my knife throwers museum. I have added more knives since the event and want to thank the members who have donated knives and memorabilia to make the museum even better. Maybe in future issues of the Bullseye Buster I will feature photos of the knives in the museum.

Winners of the 1997
AKTA Championship
Knife Throwing

Men's
Pat Minter, David Smith, Arrowmaker St. Jacques

Women's
Brenda Branton, Cathy Fine, Linda Koch

Tomahawk Competition

Men's
David Smith, Pat Minter, Arrowmaker St. Jacques

Women's
Brenda Branton, Linda Koch, Cathy Fine

Official AKTA competition rules.

Bobby Branton, Pro-Flyte, Inc. offers a 10% discount to AKTA members.
Contact him at profly001@aol.com or write to
4976 Seewee Rd Awendaw, SC 29429

Lee Fugatt offers a 10% discount to AKTA members.
Contact him at tonkasila@aol.com or write to
c/o PKT
PO Box 2126
Cupertino, CA 95015-2126 or phone
(650) 965-8257

Harald Moeller "Viper Throwing Knives" offers a 10% discount to AKTA members.
Contact him at:
#17-493 Pioneer Crescent
Dept. TK, Parksville, BC Canada, V9P 1V2
or call 604-248-0391

We are currently verifying other discount sources... stay tuned as we update this section. [ed.]