Reggie Beehner
Shawn Courtney was in Las Vegas with his wife when he first discovered how much fun it was to hurl a two-pound axe through the air at a wooden target. “After that first throw, it’s like ‘Oh, yeah!’” Courtney said of his introduction to hatchet-tossing. “It’s very addicting.”
Courtney, who has a penchant for exploring new business ventures, said he immediately began entertaining the idea of opening his own axe-tossing establishment in Lexington. But when he researched his plan, he learned he had competition. City officials informed him they’d fielded inquiries from a handful of other companies likewise looking to open a hatchet-throwing business in the area. “I wanted to get my feet in here before anybody else did,” Courtney said. “So, I told my wife, ‘We need to hurry up and find a spot.’”
His urgency paid off: On Nov. 1, Courtney is slated to open Lexington’s first indoor hatchet-throwing venue, called Battle Axes. With its home in the Distillery District, the 6,300-square-foot space is equipped with 10 large axe-tossing pits. The pits are enclosed by mesh fencing and separated from the main floor by a bar top where spectators can observe. The facility is open to ages 18 and older, and will offer both soft drinks and beer for sale.
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Reggie Beehner
Specially trained “pit bosses,” including Kevin Napier, teach guests the finer points of axe-throwing and help them keep score. A pit boss remains with each group for the duration of their visit.
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Reggie Beehner
Specially trained “pit bosses” teach guests the finer points of axe-throwing and help them keep score. A pit boss remains with each group for the duration of their visit.
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Reggie Beehner
Specially trained “pit bosses,” including April Brown, teach guests the finer points of axe-throwing and help them keep score. A pit boss remains with each group for the duration of their visit.
Once a novelty sport found primarily at lumberjack competitions, axe-throwing has exploded in popularity in recent years, enjoying new life as a parlor game. The sport first caught on in Toronto about a decade ago, when a local bartender, Matt Wilson, built a makeshift axe-tossing pit in his backyard. Before long, Wilson created the Backyard Axe Throwing League and moved his pits to an indoor warehouse, a business model that soon began to be replicated in other cities, including Chicago and Detroit. The sport made its way into Kentucky in 2017, when Flying Axes opened its doors in Louisville. The company opened a second location in Covington earlier this year.
To open his Lexington venture, Courtney, 45, considered going the franchise route with one of the established axe-throwing companies. But the $300,000 asking price seemed high to Courtney, who saw there was nothing terribly proprietary about the equipment involved—just axes, pits and wooden targets. So, Courtney, a residential contractor by trade, decided he’d do everything himself, believing he could build his own concept at a fraction of the cost. “I just winged it, if you want my honest opinion,” he said of the design. “I took bits and pieces from other places and just molded everything to fit what I had in mind.”
Reggie Beehner
The Rickhouse Building on Manchester Street, where Battle Axes is located, is undergoing a transformation. Apartments are slated for its upper floors, while its ground level will soon to be filled by Fusion Brewing Company, Wise Bird Cider Co., a coffeehouse and co-working space called Bloom, a massage studio and Relic Lexington, a vintage furniture store.
The most critical piece of his plan—the venue’s location—fell into place almost immediately. He found a space in the Rickhouse Building on Manchester Street that was a “perfect fit,” he said. The building boasted 15-foot ceilings, plenty of space for roomy pits, and—best of all—an address in the Distillery District, one of the city’s trendiest spots. The building itself is in the midst of a revival. Its upper floors are earmarked for apartments, and its ground level will soon to be filled by a raft of new businesses, including a brewery (Fusion Brewing Company), a cidery (Wise Bird Cider Co.), a coffeehouse and co-working space (Bloom), a massage studio and a vintage furniture store (Relic Lexington). “We couldn’t have asked for a better spot,” Courtney said.
The sport itself is not unlike darts. Participants take turns hurling axes (they come in three different sizes at Battle Axes) from 14 feet away at a wooden bulls-eye target. Matches consist of three rounds, with five throws each per round. Each pit has its own “pit boss,” a trained employee who helps competitors with their throws and keeps score on an electronic system that Courtney had custom-built for the venue.
Axe pits are reserved from the Battle Axes website (www.battleaxesky.com), costing $20 per player per hour. The venue accommodates large groups, and the entire facility can be rented for $1,800 an hour. Walks-ins also are welcomed—the venue includes a pit reserved for walk-in customers, costing $10 for 30 minutes of throw time.
Despite the sport’s seemingly dangerous nature, Courtney said he was pleasantly surprised by its safety track record. Still, Battle Axes abides by two main rules: No open-toed shoes and no inebriated throwing. “I don’t want to be the first hatchet-throwing place where someone gets injured,” Courtney said. “So we’ll have someone monitoring each pit the entire time. And if we even think someone is inebriated, that person isn’t going to throw. They become a spectator at that point.”
Reggie Beehner
The one thing that does suffer consistent abuse is the wooden targets, made of untreated yellow pine, which get chewed up in short order. The targets are replaced more or less daily, said Morgan Middleton, the venue’s manager, adding that the wood scraps are turned over to the neighboring Break Room bar for use in its fire pits.
Still, Courtney said he can’t complain, as he hasn’t had to spend almost any money on marketing. “Most news outlets come to us—probably because it involves throwing hatchets and drinking beer,” Courtney said with a laugh. “What could go wrong there?”
With its staff of 34 employees trained, its beer coolers stocked (the venue leans heavily toward Kentucky-brewed brands) and its wood and axes stockpiled, Courtney said he was surprised how quickly the entire operation came together. “This went so much more smoothly than I would have thought,” he said. “The space turned out great, and everything fell into place. It’s been really rewarding.”