Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: boomhowzer on July 28, 2021, 09:16:39 pm
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I've had a few different targets now. They've all been pretty crappy. My first one was a cardboard box with my old clothes in it. Its a good way to clean out your closet, and it worked fine with field points, but I like to practice with the broadheads I'll be hunting with and they were impossible to pull out. I had to force them out the back of the target, which was mayhem for the fletching.
My next target was 3 refrigerator boxes splayed open, laid flat on the ground, rolled up as tightly as possible, and then duct taped all the way around. I remember it was tough to make. Like wrestling a cardboard gorilla, but it was much better than the t-shirt target. It stood up on its own and it was mobile, which I liked, and it lasted an entire year before it wouldn't hold together anymore. The only problem was the broadheads were extremely difficult to pull out and a bunch of their heads popped right off.
The target in the picture is my best yet. Its a large cardboard box completely duct taped on the sides and the bottom, then filled with sand. The top is made out of another cardboard box and duct taped to the rest of the target after the sand was shoveled in, making a weatherproof enclosure. Its obviously not mobile. Its also very ugly as far as yard art goes, but I haven't lost a single broad head in it. Even delicate or slightly injured broadheads come out undamaged. Its only flaw is longevity. After just 4 months its beginning to deteriorate. All of the moisture in the sand has settled to the bottom of the box, so now when I shoot an arrow into the top of the target, it comes out dry and smelling like the beach, but if I shoot an arrow into the bottom of the target, it comes out wet and smelling like a swampy garbage heap. I guess drier sand might work, but I'm hoping one of you guys has the greatest target known to mankind and you would be willing to share its design with us.
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Northern tool and tractor supply sell trailers that come in stacked up with foam blocks between them. The blocks are something like 12”x18” give or take. The tractor supply near me gives them away, northern wants a couple bucks a piece for them. I like them for random range targets as I kick them around the yard and shoot from block to block. My wife bought me a commercial target that I shoot for a fixed range target.
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I shoot at straw bales but only use field points. Broadheads would destroy the bales very quickly. A while back I asked about targets for broadheads and someone suggested a target butt made from numerous layers of extruded styrofoam sheet (the pink or blue stuff, not the bead styrofoam). Buy a 4'x8' sheet of foam board 1" or thicker, then cut it into 2'x2' squares, stack all the squares and tape the edges to keep them together.
Mark
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I am currently shooting at a pile of cardboard stuffed into a cardboard box. It is really to small, but it is easy to move to the sand pit where I shoot.
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It's hard to beat hay or straw for primitive and traditional bows. Hang a layer of two of carpet or carpet pad behind it and arrows will not go through even loose bales.
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A feed bag filled with sheet plastic or plastic grocery bags works well for target points.
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I set up the foam sheets for my indoor range(15 yards). Left them full size as I don't want holes through the shop wall! Hope to find some rubber stall mats cheap to set up outdoors for bit more rang or some 3d type targets. outdoor carpet hung from a rack is also a good idea, and it comes in several colors (lol)!
Hawkdancer
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I've had several targets over the years from cardboard boxes stuffed with magazines and newspapers, to a real woven grass target picked up at a yard sale.
More recently a bag target (at least 20 years old) was rejuvenated with a heavy contractor's black bag with duck tape for aiming points. Although I live in small town near the downtown, a combination of landscaping, fencing and existing trees hide both the shooting point and target site from prying eyes. When the contractors bag gets too shot up, a new one is waiting and we can repeat the process.
At MoJAM 2021 I noticed some of the fellas using the small crossbow yellow jacket target, I got one, under 20 bucks at Bass Pro or Cabellas.
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That's the type that voids Khan's arrows warranty; for some good reason I'm sure.
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Since I have both round and square hay bales that’s what I generally shoot at. Works great for field points, not so great for broad heads. With broad heads I use 4 layers of extruded blue foam. It’s a pain, I have to pull the layers apart and unscrew the point to get them out.
My cane arrows with homemade broad heads have a taper on the back. I can shoot them into hay bales and pull them back out.
Their pretty hard on the strings though.
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Years ago I found furniture moving pads on sale and bought several for my dog to use as bedding. She has a habit of tearing holes in her bedding so they lasted about three months each at most. I took her last one, which was in rags and stuffed it in a cardboard box and taped it shut.
Its worked very well.
The dog has been sleeping on a large piece of foam backed carpeting I found on the side of the road. She managed to rip it into wide strips so I took the most narrow strips and cut then square to fit into a shallow box.
I was surprised that the furniture pad proved superior to the thick collapsed foam padding of the carpeting.
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If you use cardboard stack it flat so the edges face out, if it's layered the other orientation that's what catches on the points.
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If you are in it for the long haul and plan to be in the same house for a long time I would suggest you make a dedicated archery target that will withstand 10s of thousands of shots and the weather as well. I have changed my target cover 4 times when it has become shot to pieces front and back, a new cover costs about $20 now.
I also have collected a full set of 3D targets over the years from buying shot up ones for about $20-30 after a tournament and patching them. I don't put them out much anymore.
Here is mine;
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The key to shooting 3D targets is to have enough to spread your shots out over and not completely shoot just one target to pieces.
I bought this one for $5 , fixed it and have been using it for the last ten years, it still looks really good because I have a lot more targets to spread my shots out over.
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Here is how I fixed it, I use Great Stuff insulating foam, then paint the foam with the same colors as the original target. The racoon was $5 as well and had a hole in it you could put your fist through.
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Back in the 90's I was cleaning out a storm damaged storage shed and found several stuffed animal toys that were a little mildewed, not nasty but not worth cleaning up.
I used a large teddy bear and a small polar bear toy as targets. The smaller bear was about the size of a ground hog.
The large teddy bear was so big and tightly stuffed that it would stop even arrows from a powerful compound bow.
I had a beautiful Plot puppy in the 80's that ran loose most of the time. One day my mom told me my dog was having a yard sale. Somewhere he had found a dozen or so stuffed animals and brought them home.
He would line the toys up in a perfectly straight line parallel to the street. He walked back and forth in front of them like a drill sergeant . If one seemed a bit out of line he'd growl at it and bat it back into place with his paw. Then he'd sit at one end of the line as if showing off his new pack.
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Them Plott Hounds Are pretty smart! Training them is another matter! I showed my miniature wire haired Dachshunds in obedience and once the judge told me she just had to get one and that if I could train hounds, I could train anything, meaning dogs - little did she know I was a Special Forces Sergeant Major >:D >:D (lol). Also showed Irish Wolfhounds!
Hawkdancer
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Wow...I was not expecting such gruesome pictures. I mean, that one Eric Krewson posted of the coyote split completely in half made my wife scream and my cat to run under the bed. That's some amazing handywork getting them back together though! If I ever run across a munched up foam target, I won't be afraid to bring it home! How does the foam do with broadheads though? Is it worth making a form and sort of casting your own target out of it?
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Broadheads are a no-no, so are compounds and crossbows. I also bought what we call "legs" which are the center section of a 3D target that was about to be discarded after being replaced by new. I shoot broadheads at these center sections to make sure they are flying true.
Here is one from a mt goat next to my bag target, I bought it for $5.
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Where do you buy these things?
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All the tournaments I go to used to sell shot up or broken targets after the tournaments when they got new ones in.
Used to be they auctioned the targets on Sunday evening after the tournaments, usually most of the folk had left by then so there were few people to bid on them.
The last tournament I went to where they auctioned off the worn out targets they had the auction after dinner on Saturday when there was still a big crowd, the biding was much more active and the targets went for between $50 and $100 with some people buying a half dozen at a time.
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Well I forgot one; I made this target 20 years ago, I can shoot out to 15 yards in my basement. I never shoot at the same place and pick an ear, eyeball, base of the tail, black dots or any other place I can "pick a spot". That is why the kill isn't shot out, the bag is stuffed with sheet plastic, I have never restuffed, it is two sided with a deer on both sides.
I don't shoot the target much anymore but at one time I had it outside and put thousands of arrows into it.
Ames made this "you stuff it" target, they are out of business now but I think I saw a similar bag target with an animal face in one of the archery catalogs recently. I have seen these bag targets on eBay occasionally, new old stock. Three Rivers sells a you stuff it square bag target for around $25.
My target is bigger than the picture would suggest at 38"X38". The bungie cords keep it pulled tight.
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Haven't tried it yet but seems to me a loosely woven burlap sack filled with tightly packed batting might make a durable target, if used with field points only of course.
A loose weave would encourage the point to slide into the material without breaking the tough woven strands.
I've seen African armor worn by ceremonial horse guards that was made of cloth and packed tightly with cotton several inches thick. It worked a bit like a European Gambeson . It was of course most effective against sling stones but also provided some defense against arrows from traditional Africa hunting bows and javelins.
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Burlap coffee bags make good targets, you can find them online plus I have seen them farm stores and big box craft stores for $4 each. They are course weave and take shots well.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/184725378296?hash=item2b027d94f8:g:EUEAAOSwJEZgW2zT
This one is stuffed with polyester bats that once filled a large commercial archery target, I salvaged the filling after the covering rotted off. I have it in my shop now and use it for exercising a bow when I am in the tillering process, I prefer short draw shots rather than simply pulling the string back.
I have made a bunch of these over the years, most were crammed full of sheet plastic. These targets need to be covered when not in use if left outside, the burlap will deteriorate if left out in the rain.
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I have a black hole target which is fine, but they come apart after a year maybe... now I mostly use compacted straw or hay or any other compacted bail that you can find at a tracter suply, I think there for feeding and whatnot, ussually wrapped in a white plastic bag. they only cost 15 dollers or so and have lasted just as long or longer then the black hole target, and its not so bad for the planet with all that plastic for the black hole one.
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Cheers to Eric Krewson for laying down some real target experience for us. Thank you.
My biggest thing is that I always want to practice with my hunting broadheads and I haven't found anything that works besides sand and wood chips. Now I'm thinking I'm going to stuff a burlap sack with wood chips, duct tape the whole thing so its waterproof and stick it out where I think a deer is going to walk by. I tried making smaller, mobile sand targets, but even a 2' x 2' box of sand gets pretty heavy carrying it from spot to spot. We'll see how it goes. Thanks again for all the input. I love seeing what guys are shooting at.