Hurling Hatchets: Papa Docs Axe Throwing Opens in Downtown Janesville

Korslin was pleasantly surprised recently when a polished-steel, wood-handled Menards-grade hatchet flew end over end from his hand. Its blade stuck dead center in a holographic zombie skull that leered in glowing, colored laser light on a wooden target on the wall 12 feet away.

“I did a lot of farm work back in the day, but that probably has little to no translation to hurling axes,” Korslin said, shrugging his shoulders.

Papa Docs offers by-the-hour recreational ax throwing in lanes protected by wooden knee walls with chain link that runs to the ceiling. The décor — brick walls, heavy wood tables and wall shelves, and industrial-look metal fixtures — is set off by chunks of wood chips scattered beneath the gallery’s ax-pocked wood targets.

The ax throwing gallery is at 401 W. Milwaukee St. inside a former Hispanic grocery and taqueria, just west of the former Monterey Hotel.

Owners Amber and Erik Long launched Papa Docs after they’d tried out ax throwing at a gallery in Rockford. That place was packed, they said, and the atmosphere was laid back and fun.

“While we were there, I looked over and I could tell Erik was calculating how much it would cost to open one of these,” Amber Long said. “It didn’t seem like the overhead would be too crazy, and so Erik started dreaming. Here we are.”

On the wall facing the gallery’s front door, past a small counter that holds snacks and a beer fridge, hangs the startup ax-hurling business’s new logo printed in black on glossy white metal. The design features two axes crossed behind a face that looks bearded and mysteriously tough, eyes hidden behind mirrored aviator shades.

The logo, and the Papa Docs namesake, is in honor of Erik Long’s father, John. He died from cancer a few years ago. John was known by all of Erik’s childhood friends as “Papa Doc,” a nickname with origins now lost to time.

The Longs now have children of their own, and Amber said they opened Papa Docs in part to offer a fun activity for families to do on weekend days. Papa Docs is open Thursday through Sunday into the evening, but it’s the weekend afternoons that have seemed to cultivate the steadiest and most diverse crowds.

“We have a lot of parties, like a group of local teachers that came in recently. We had a phone call that was, ’Hi, my kid’s 14, I’ve got to get him out of the house.’ Somebody got their mom and dad a gift certificate as a Christmas gift. People come in looking for a fun start to a night out. It’s all different kinds of people,” Amber Long said.

The throwing lanes have woodblock targets embedded in the wall, lit up by electronic laser projection systems. That offers ax throwers a range of games including classic target throwing, tic-tac-toe and targets populated by animated ducks and legions of the undead.

Recently, a 75-year-old woman came in with her family. Amber Long said the woman gave one of the axes a chuck.

“She was successful. The ax stuck. It actually stuck deep. People were cheering,” she said.

On a recent night, Erik Long showed a group of newbies how to most effectively throw an ax.

“It’s not like throwing a baseball. It’s a stiff chopping motion,” he said, showing how to launch a hatchet end over end at a target.

The Longs say most people who come in are novices or casual ax throwers who must be shown the house rules and given a quick run through of safe handling of very real, very sharp axes.

But there is a higher level: other ax throwing galleries host sanctioned ax throwing leagues. For more seasoned ax tossers, league ax throwing is in the works at Papa Docs, that now has at least one throwing lane for this group.

One recent day, a fenced-in throwing lane was occupied by a group that was strictly BYOA: “bring your own ax.”

A middle-aged man with a gray beard and a ball cap flung a hand-forged, ornately curved ax — his own personal throwing hatchet. The weapon looked like it belonged tucked in the belt of a Medieval village chieftain. With a heavy “whump,” it marked a glowing red bullseye in the middle of the wood target.

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