Foam block is the best for target archery. Bag targets are not great. Pinning a target to a bag target doesn't really work. One of my old clubs tried bag targets one year and the head coach told me bag targets wear out much faster and, again, you can't pin targets to them flat. An alternative to them is "Bulldog" type targets. A wood frame filled with plastic bag material and some models have a flat front to pin a target onto nicely. Bulldog does refurbishing of the filler material and flat front for free when things wear out. Bulldog is a Canadian company, btw. I have a few Bulldogs but my main target butt is a Danage. It's 9 foam blocks held together by a wood bracket of 2x2's. As the blocks wear you can rotate them and you can also buy fresh blocks. Canada Archery Online sells them. I bought mine before Danage had a Canadian distributor so I paid a lot to get it to Middle of Nowhere Canada. But I love it. It was worth it.

 

A danage is definitely on my list for when I have some land to leave it up all the time. I need something more portable for winter as I shoot indoors after hours at my works shop, and need to haul it around quite a bit. The ones I make are essentially the exact same as a bulldog. Maybe I just need to order some real face fabric for them.

 

If it's just for you, and you are shooting arrows that don't tear up the face fabric, (like properly fitted tips into small shafts and sharp clean points) then a fabric like Spylar, stretched real tight, work real good for face material. When you shoot large arrows with burrs on the tips, Points that are larger than the shaft with a sharp edge when you pull them out, or chewed up points, they tear up the fibers and destroy the spylar. The trick with the fabric is you need to stretch it real tight, otherwise you will have bounce outs.

About Spylar™ Mesh Target Facing

About SpyderWeb® Targets Spylar™ Mesh facing for unmatched durability. Perfect for serious archers seeking long-lasting targets. Made in USA.

spyderwebtargets.net

If you call them/contact them directly they will sell you just the fabric.

 

I’m shooting .166’s and it’s just for me, about 250-300 arrows a week. How does that spylar compare to something like the third hand archery skins or bulldog faces?

 

Albeit the cost I am a foam/block target fan--easy removal of arrows, easy target set up and last a long long time. Bag targets for outside can have a number of problems and sketchy arrow removal and require re stuffing in various forms but they are cheap compared to block targets. Currently I use a bag target as a back stop to 3 two inch layers of high density foam duct taped to the target. The outer later is recycle to the next layer and the back layer discarded periodically (maybe once or a bit more per year). This is a 40 X 40 inch target so not as big as a block target. I wish I could afford a block mo-foam target or a big Block target but not in the cards.

 

I have a Block 6x6. It's ok, but my VAPs blow much bigger exit holes out the back, than entry holes, using field points. It might work better if you shoot larger diameter arrows. The 2 best targets I've owned are Morrell Vital Signs Combo and Rinehart Rhinoblock XL. They're expensive, but either would give you the service life of at least 5, Block 6x6 targets, for about twice the $. And I shoot broadheads and target points into mine.

 

I only draw 34 lbs with my recurve so I can’t imagine shooting through a foam one for quite awhile

 

There were several indoor ranges in this area (how I found out about the spylar system) as well as a few in the Boston area using spylar walls. They all told me with the leagues and shooting all day, when they kept up with being very vigilant about quality of arrows being shot, they had not had to replace the faces for several years. Some did have to restuff the bales but that was minimal.

The stopping power is give by the stuffing and not the facing. The basic reason the facing is there is to keep the arrows from hanging down loose, or bouncing back. I did find that if you don't stretch it tight enough and if you don't "force" the facing from flexing too much (by putting a good stuffing behind it) then the 10-20lb bows we were shooting at it caused lots of bounce backs. But once we figured out that having the system stretched enough and some stuffing pressed against the back of the facing so that it doesn't act like a trampoline, then it did an extremely good job of not having bounce outs, and holding the arrows in place.

 

for the most part the arrow removal out of these bales was extremely easy. two fingers to pull most arrows out. (especially if there is no lip on the arrow points)

The biggest drawback to this system was it's fragile to sharp edges (not points) so broad heads would destroy the face extremely quickly, as would a knife. wood arrows with crimp on points, and screw in points that are not exactly the same diameter as the shaft behind them, are also a problem with this system. Bulging points (that don't have a sharp lip, slightly larger diameter with gentle curve to bulge on point) were a little harder to pull out of the spylar but it didn't seem to damage the fabric) So if you don't have someone enforcing proper arrow selection, the spylar facing is NOT for you.

DC