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[Sabreur]

Okay, I'm sure you're all tired of seeing these threads pop up.  But my marksdwarves are driving me insane.

1.  They have ammo.  They're set to use bone and wood bolts for training, metal for combat.  They have plentiful numbers of both.
2.  They have quivers.  I can't make my own yet, but I bought more than twice what I need from the dwarven caravan.
3.  They have archery targets, set up to fire in the correct direction (targets on the left side of the room, set to fire from right to left).
4.  Each of the seven targets is set as its own archery range, overlapping with the others.  The squad is assigned to train on each target.
5.  The squad has 6 dwarves, set as archers, armed with iron crossbows.
6.  The squad is set to 'training, 3 dwarf minimum' for half the year (two months on, two months off)
7.  The squad is Active for the current alert in the military menu.
8.  I've tried saving, quitting, and restarting the game.

But the only way they train is if I give them a barracks, in which case they start sparing with their bows as hammers.  What the hell am I missing?

[zombie urist]

Its bugged. Marksdwarves need a barracks to train, and they will also train hammer along with archery. The training/combat bolt thing may also be broken, don't remember if Toady fixed it. Best way to train marksdwarves is to have them shoot captured prisoners, IMO 

[Sabreur]

Best way to train marksdwarves is to have them shoot captured prisoners, IMO

Thank you for this so much.  This one comment turned this from a frustration to a !!SCIENCE!! project. :-)

[GhostDwemer]

Weird. I have had no problem getting marksdwarves to train at archery targets. For me, they will do so in any of the following circumstances: only assigned to the target, also assigned to a barracks, set to active/training, set to inactive (and they are idle.) If I have enough bolts, they will train. The thing is, you need an unending supply of bolts.

The one difference I see is that you have set different training/combat bolt types. I don't think this works, I use all bolts for both combat and training.

[geail]

I always make my crossbows from copper, silver (formerly, when it was possible), or steel and give my marksdwarves metal armor.  They make half decent hammerdwarves when they decide to be poor marksdwarves.

[FrisianDude]

Youch, why waste steel on crossbows when iron is just as heavy?

[Fredd]

 The C or T only designation gets dwarves confused. If they are assigned T only, when its time to practice, they will go to the training ammo stockpile, grab some, then go to target practice. Will not restock their quivers after practice. Remember dwarves are lazy. If you also have other bolts assigned C, they will always carry them in their quiver. So when practice time comes again, Urist thinks "Hey, I already have bolts  in my quiver, might as well save some time and practice with these." There goes your good bolt stockpile.
 Try to control the supply of both types of bolts by using CT. 1 set target bolts, plus a set of combat bolts If you have ranges that recycle bolts, reclaim bolts spent in them when you want them to practice. When trouble arrives, forge a the amount of combat bolts that you will think will get used in the battle. Just remember, any extras will get used for target practice.
 And never ever send archer squads on kill missions where there is a chance of a bolt not being destroyed after its fired at the current target.