Hey y'all, I'm curious what you've tried for your "home-made" targets and backstops. I've heard of people compressing sheets of cardboard and foam mats, I've thoughts of trying spray insulation into a cardboard box, and I've seen people just shoot into whatever. I'm shooting a Hoyt VTM 31 at about 65 lbs draw weight, 26.5" draw length, and around a 500 grain arrow. Wanting to make sure I can put something together that I won't shoot straight through. Let's see all your crazy ideas folks!
SkishEmGood
I made a backstop with a horse stall mat and a pvc frame I cut and glued together.
I hung the mat up with baling wire.
It’s still going strong.
I hung the mat up with baling wire.
It’s still going strong.
I cleaned out my old clothes from the closet, and put them in a burlap sack I got from amazon and it stops my 70lb bows. I even had to like fluff the clothes a little bit to get more penetration. I didn't think it was going to work at first so I compacted the clothes a lot, first shot it just popped right off the face of the sack. It works wonderfully and I can get 6 packs of burlap sacks on amazon. The burlap does seem to be pretty good for dispersing the shots and as long as I shoot around the target and not stack groups together too much, the burlap actually moves around the arrow so it lasts a pretty good amount of time.
Two wooden frames of whatever size you wish. Connected sides, bottom and top with 30cm wide ply wood. Weed mat or shade cloth or other suitably strong mesh material for the front and back. Stuff it with pallet wrap...can get for free from a lot of businesses who normally have to pay to dispose of it.... Put hinges on the top piece of plywood so you can open it and re stuff over time. Sign vinyl from the dumpster at the local sign shop if you want a nice face, otherwise shoot into the matting. This one took me a few hours to build. I already had the scrap wood, the only thing I bought was some screws to screw it together and some paint to protect it from the weather.
It stops compound arrows and is very easy to pull the arrows from.
![Image]()
It stops compound arrows and is very easy to pull the arrows from.
I have shot my stacked carpet target for 20 sum years now. It’s heavy as all get out but has lasted the test of time with thousands of arrows. Every now and again I will rotate the layers. I went to a local carpet installer and asked if I could rummage through their dumpster and they said have at it . A friend made a portable target by getting a 10-12 long by 12 inches wide piece and rolled it up and put a metal band around it .
Has anyone tried rubber mulch compressed into cardboard boxes? I've been using this for a while with 24x24" boxes to catch the lead from my PCP airguns (it's been enough to stop 200-300FPE), but I haven't tested them yet with arrows.
I usually buy the covers from somewhere. You can buy replacement covers from pretty much every major target supplier pretty cheap, then fill with your choice. Last couple bag targets I did are filled with carpet bits and pieces, inside pretty lasts forever. This last year we built this 38 x 36 from ThirdHand Inc. It's filled with quilts we got from a local thrift shop, think we paid like $20 for stack of them. It'll about stop anything from point blank range.
![Image]()
I’ve used horse mat as well, I hung mine on a 1” square ss tubing I had laying around. I use it in my backyard.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That horse stall mat seems to work great! Picked up (2) 4x6ft from Tractor Supply ($46.95/ea). Wound up cutting one down and made a quick and dirty stand for it on a couple of dollies with casters ($11/ea at Home Depot).
Now here's the cool thing - I used a hard / thin treated board to connect the two mounting posts, which basically serves as a suspension of sorts for the dollies to roll independently on the grass (with the mat unmounted). The board has some axial twist that gives it that off-road mobility.
I just need to get some hooks or figure out how I want to suspend the mat long-term, but I like it:
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
Now here's the cool thing - I used a hard / thin treated board to connect the two mounting posts, which basically serves as a suspension of sorts for the dollies to roll independently on the grass (with the mat unmounted). The board has some axial twist that gives it that off-road mobility.
I just need to get some hooks or figure out how I want to suspend the mat long-term, but I like it:
Made this one for under $15. Mind you I had everything put the redi rod. Had a project with left over acoustic sealing tiles from a suspended ceiling. Looks like donna conna which our club uses. I compressed the tiles which are a foot wide as in thick. 30lb recurve arrows go in about 3" deep the compound more like 4". I spray the arrows with silicon lube like for weatherstripping so they do not stick much.
![Image]()
![Image]()
I made myself a 4’x4’x16” frame and stuffed tarps inside of it and it’s been nothing but great for me. Gonna have to replace the front soon because I’m shooting fat arrows I’m it and tears it up a lot more
I used this woven polypro bag first (that they no longer sell). It's like a heavy duty feed bag material.
And stuffed it tight with plastic bags (feed bags and wood pellet bags mostly but also Walmart, etc)
To get it tight, I compacted them into garbage bags first (sit on bag to remove air then twist shut) and then stacked those inside the debris bag and stuffed loose bags in between.
This lasted 5 years until the Sun's UV made the polypropylene fail.
I took the whole target (falling apart) and stuck it inside this much larger similar bag
and zipped tied the top shut. It's a bit loose but still works great (just don't shoot extreme edges where loose).
That should last another 5 years.
I chose not to use rags, etc because plastic inside is more hygienic, longer lasting (think less mildew and bugs, etc inside).
It was hard enough to fill an 89 gallon one tight. I wouldn't attempt the 200 gallon unless you folded it down to make it smaller. I haven't looked but similar ones that aren't over 100 gallons are probably available somewhere.
On the first one, I used 2 bags (filled first one, then capped it with the second turned upside down and then sewed them together with zip ties). This was a bad idea (the two bags stretch then snap back to trap your field point/insert inside). If I had to do it over, I would've capped the first one with a piece of doubled over tarp and then sewed to the bag with an awl and zip ties. The old bag inside the new bag doesn't do that now because the old double layered target is so dry rotted that it can't grab the points now. But when new it was really bad (like 100 to 200 lbs of force to remove an arrow bad).
You can rotate and shoot all 6 sides.
And stuffed it tight with plastic bags (feed bags and wood pellet bags mostly but also Walmart, etc)
To get it tight, I compacted them into garbage bags first (sit on bag to remove air then twist shut) and then stacked those inside the debris bag and stuffed loose bags in between.
This lasted 5 years until the Sun's UV made the polypropylene fail.
I took the whole target (falling apart) and stuck it inside this much larger similar bag
and zipped tied the top shut. It's a bit loose but still works great (just don't shoot extreme edges where loose).
That should last another 5 years.
I chose not to use rags, etc because plastic inside is more hygienic, longer lasting (think less mildew and bugs, etc inside).
It was hard enough to fill an 89 gallon one tight. I wouldn't attempt the 200 gallon unless you folded it down to make it smaller. I haven't looked but similar ones that aren't over 100 gallons are probably available somewhere.
On the first one, I used 2 bags (filled first one, then capped it with the second turned upside down and then sewed them together with zip ties). This was a bad idea (the two bags stretch then snap back to trap your field point/insert inside). If I had to do it over, I would've capped the first one with a piece of doubled over tarp and then sewed to the bag with an awl and zip ties. The old bag inside the new bag doesn't do that now because the old double layered target is so dry rotted that it can't grab the points now. But when new it was really bad (like 100 to 200 lbs of force to remove an arrow bad).
You can rotate and shoot all 6 sides.
Great thread. I need to build something for my broadheads. Been going through those foam dice like crazy.
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
