# Bag vs. Block Targets



## RecurveArcher99 (Mar 18, 2008)

Hounestly, iam kinda a farm boy, so i use 3 bales of straw but i can shoot outside cuse i have land but i would tru a burlap sack willed with plastic grocery bags used that for a while worked fine


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## Steve N (Apr 27, 2004)

I shoot a block target. I have heard of, but never seen, a home-made bag target made from a feed sack and stretch-wrap. Get a plastic burlap feed sack at your local feed store. Stuff it full of used stretch-wrap that is wadded up, not folded neatly. Stitch the top of the bag shut with heavy twine. Shoot away. I heard about this type of target on the compound forum here on AT. The stretch wrap can be had for free at most companies.


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## RecurveArcher99 (Mar 18, 2008)

Steve N said:


> I shoot a block target. I have heard of, but never seen, a home-made bag target made from a feed sack and stretch-wrap. Get a plastic burlap feed sack at your local feed store. Stuff it full of used stretch-wrap that is wadded up, not folded neatly. Stitch the top of the bag shut with heavy twine. Shoot away. I heard about this type of target on the compound forum here on AT. The stretch wrap can be had for free at most companies.



acctuly they fall apart very easily when punctured in one spot reptitively, wearas burlap wont as much, so dont use plastic ones


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## sawtoothscream (Apr 19, 2008)

i use a mackenzie shot block and think it is amazing. arrow removal is so so so easy and it hold up real well.


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## AKRuss (Jan 10, 2003)

Foam Block targets are relatively light and have no odor. You can even use them as a seat or stand. Straw or burlap has a definite odor that you may find objectionable inside the house. The down side of a Block target is that they're spendy.


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## bdca (Apr 9, 2007)

I use a Morrell bag indoors. The advantage is easy arrow removal even at very close distances. I take it to tournaments and blank bale in my motel room the night prior.

How do you 20M in San Francisco???

Cya!


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## WetPaint (Sep 2, 2008)

Thanks for the replies guys.

Is "stretch wrap" the same as shrink wrap? 

I'm going to try a DIY route at first before considering buying something pre-made. The plan as it now stands: burlap sack filled with a melting pot of dry discards - shredded and crumpled paper, cut-up cardboard, old cotton t-shirts and rags cut into small pieces, misc. discarded shipping foam and peanuts. Plastic grocery bags have been outlawed here in SF, so a quantity of these is harder to come by now; I'll still throw in what I can find though.

I have a long-ish house in SF, with two places where I can potentially shoot 20m indoor. The first is a side alley next to the garage and the second is from the living room through the main hallway and then through 2 bedrooms. These bedrooms aren't being used at the moment and probably wont be until next spring, so most likely I'll shoot from the heated comfort of my living room


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## Brandeis_Archer (Dec 20, 2006)

I'd say skip the paper products and packing peanuts- stick to rags, clothing, industrial shrink wrap and plastic bags. They should recover better, and you'll be able to get more use from the target.


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## VinZ (Apr 30, 2007)

I bought a Bulldog FP with lifetime warranty and must say it is a nice target. lightweight, stand alone, nylon grip so you can easily pick it up. It is much noisier then my old back stop, but that only means I don't shoot early or late at night. Would I recommend it to anyone? YES! Lifetime warranty ... I have got to see that!
I shoot 40# 31" ACE on it at 3 meters so it does get a beating.
(www.bulldogtargets.com or www.nationalarcherysupply.com)


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## Kai Ju (Nov 2, 2008)

*Homemade target*

I made a target out of commercial strength carpet that I cut into 7" strips and rolled into a spiral, compressed with a tie down strap.
The whole thing hangs from an old door in my garage and works quite well.
Initially I got strange looks from the neighbors standing in my driveway and shooting into my garage, but it allows me to practice at home anytime I want to.
Nobody told me that this wouldn't work so I tried it and so far so good. 
As I keep hitting the same spot over and over the carpet is compacting but I anticpate just unrolling it again will take care of that.
I'm shooting 28 lbs limbs from 18 meters and the arrows don't go through.
For higher poundage it may require wider than 7" strips.

my 2 cents worth.

Kai Ju


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## ewan (Aug 28, 2007)

I used a burlap sack stuffed with strips of carpet with a few phonebooks in the back as a target back in college. Stopped ACEs at 1 metre out of a 40lbs Extremes..


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## Xcreekarchery1 (Aug 7, 2007)

i use a materal called celtec i think thats how u spell it. we cut it into 4ft long and 8inches thick. then layer it like pancakes in a wood frame. they hold up amazingly with all the arrows ive put through it. the one we have now ive had since about half way through outdoor season and it probably has 50,000 arrow in it because we replaces some of the stuff.


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## Steve N (Apr 27, 2004)

Xcreekarchery1 said:


> i use a materal called celtec...QUOTE]
> 
> The material is Celotex. It is a board made from compressed wood fibers. You can buy either coated or un-coated Celotex. Use un-coated ONLY! The coated has a very thin coat of a tar-like material sprayed on to the sides, and it will glue your arrows to the stop. Celotex comes in 4 ft x 8 ft x 1/2" thick sheets. I have never seen it at Home Depot or Lowe's. You will have to go to a regular lumber yard to get it.
> 
> ...


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## BergerButton (Dec 3, 2008)

I saw some comments here regarding shrink wrap and decided to post...
Near me there is an archery club that has a pretty nice outdoor course. Years ago they decided to use old plastic (mostly shrink wrap) from a recycle center as their bails. Well they are not pretty but work quite well and have been pounded on for years. They are large cubes that resemble what a car looks like after being crushed that are strapped onto a pallet and placed with a fork lift.

For me I have one of those block targets but would love to get a full size FITA bale.


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## Les K (Apr 2, 2008)

I have both a "Morrell" bag and a "Block" elite target. The Morrell is very cheap at around 60 to 70 dollars and works very well. It has grommet holes for hanging if you wish, and stops arrows well. Thing is, until you "wear in" the center part, it is loud when an arrow hits the bag. That comes from the arrow punching through the outer shell. There is a bunch of wadded up burlap inside but there seems to be a harder materal that I can feel in the middle that seems to prevent shoot throughs and is a good safety thing. I do get some "bounce outs" with this one depending on how the burlap sits inside of the bag. 

The Block is much more expensive at 200 dollars, but is designed to stop arrows at 400 fps which no current bow can reach. It promises to last much longer, but I have to say that arrow removal is really, really tough until the center is softened up. It is very quiet compared to the Morrell. You will need an arrow puller with this one! Even with a puller, I sometimes curse when an arrow is right next to another one, which makes it hard to pull either one!

It might be worth it to go with the Morrell versus the effort to make your own. I would also suggest safety measures AROUND your primary target in case of a complete miss, especially if you decide to shoot outside in the ally. You can NEVER say that you'll never miss such a big target, there might be an equipment issue that will cause an errant arrow, an accidental slip, I've even heard of someone that got stung by a bee just as he was releasing. This is most important, and I can't stress this enough. SAFETY FIRST!

Les


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## FrayAdjacent (Oct 20, 2008)

That Bulldog Range Dog setup looks nice... There are a lot of undeveloped lots in my neighborhood currently... I could set that up out there and shoot at pretty much any distance I wanted to. Or I could stand it up in my garage and shoot into the garage like Kai Ju does.


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## Zed (Nov 22, 2008)

I have a block 4x4 that has taken a beating on almost all sides from broadheads and field tips. great target! 
I am considering getting a couple of bag targets for general practice.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

I made my own targets from the time I was about 8 until American Whitetail generously began supplying them for me in 2004. Doubt I've made my last one however. You can take the boy out from under the tree, but you can't take the shade-tree out of the boy so to speak  .

Anyway, the best "homemade" target I ever used was actually a bag target that I bought (just the bag) from Three Rivers Archery (a traditional supplier - check their website). I think it's called a "U-Stuff it" or something like that, and you just do as the name implies - stuff it with whatever material you can find that stops an arrow. Recycled grocery sacks are what I used, but those don't work real well for small diamever carbon arrows. You can use old blankets, or sheets of plastic, or towels, or old kid's clothing, etc.

Basically, for less than $20, you can get a huge bag target (I learned to shoot 70 and 90 meters on mine years ago) that really lasts a long time. And it comes with a replaceable center you can stitch back in when the original wears out.

I've also found other inexpensive bag targets for under $40 all over the place. Bag's are the way to go for affordability IMO. And the arrows pull real easy, which is a plus. 

I had a bag target of some kind set up in the corner of my garage for years so I could blank bale in the evenings before I went to bed. Only way to go if you seriously want to train. So for close quarters work, a good bag target is indespensible. 

But for long distance, you'd have to shoot me to get my 52" whitetail mat 

John.


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## Greg Bouras (Nov 17, 2006)

My outdoor butt is a second hand Saunders matt that our club was going to throw out.

I re-stuffed the worn out center and stitched in a patch on both sided. The patch material I used was the backing from a NG folding lawn chair. The material is a tight fiber mesh. That was 3 years ago.

I cover the target every fall with plastic to keep it out of the weather over the winter months.

I could not believe it but the patch is still in perfect condition after 3 years of shooting, and I have shot many thousand arrows into it.

I have another OK condition lawn chair in the garage. I would hate to see it go to waste being reclined in. The next bag target I make will have the netting from the lawn chair as a cover.

I don't think I will ever be able to wear out the repaired Saunders matt.

I shoot a big block target in the basement that I bought from a store going out of business 6 years ago. I have it lying horizontal to help prolong the life. That target has many, many thousand arrows shot into it. I switched sides last year. By shooting just black dots made from shot up NFAA Hunter targets and moving the dot around over the whole target face I will be able to shoot that target for years to come.

I have an infinity bag target that was originally stuffed with rags. Repaired as needed with a roll of ground cover netting from the local lawn and garden store. I have had this target for almost 10 years.

All the targets are shot with recurve or low poundage compound and I always have room for another archer or archers to shoot on a minutes notice!


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## WetPaint (Sep 2, 2008)

Wow, thanks for all the responses and ideas. Really much appreciated and hopefully other budding archers here will find the information useful as well.

Has anyone tried stacking strips (12-18inches wide) of used or new cardboard into a stack of say 24-30 inches high and then holding it all together with a couple long carpenters clamps? I can scrounge around used cardboard boxes here at work pretty easily and already have a couple long clamps at home. I'll give this a try too and if it doesn't work, at least the cardboard is recyclable.


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## dchan (Jun 29, 2004)

WetPaint said:


> Wow, thanks for all the responses and ideas. Really much appreciated and hopefully other budding archers here will find the information useful as well.
> 
> Has anyone tried stacking strips (12-18inches wide) of used or new cardboard into a stack of say 24-30 inches high and then holding it all together with a couple long carpenters clamps? I can scrounge around used cardboard boxes here at work pretty easily and already have a couple long clamps at home. I'll give this a try too and if it doesn't work, at least the cardboard is recyclable.



For many years the Bow Rack used cardboard stacks. At the end of each league session the club that used to shoot there would rotate the stacks where we would pull the shot up sections out, and shuffle the stacks, then add new cardboard where needed.

We used steel 3/4" banding to bind the bales. I'm guessing we did the bale shuffle about 4 times a year.

I'm not sure what they are using now. The last time I was there it was recycled carpet.


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## Greg Bouras (Nov 17, 2006)

WetPaint said:


> Wow, thanks for all the responses and ideas. Really much appreciated and hopefully other budding archers here will find the information useful as well.
> 
> Has anyone tried stacking strips (12-18inches wide) of used or new cardboard into a stack of say 24-30 inches high and then holding it all together with a couple long carpenters clamps? I can scrounge around used cardboard boxes here at work pretty easily and already have a couple long clamps at home. I'll give this a try too and if it doesn't work, at least the cardboard is recyclable.


Cardboard (compressed) works great but wears out. That's not a problem because the butt is easy to fix.

Years ago when the surface finish of carbon arrows was considerably rougher than is present day an arrow shot out of a high power compound bow would generate enough friction that it would melt the glue in the cardboard.

At our club in southern Illinois, Pine Tree Archery we had an ACE shaft glued to the cardboard. Three of huskiest fellows you could imagine could not collectively get that arrow pulled form the wall.

We left it there and named our "Sword in The Stone" until the wall was rebuilt.

Bigfoot Archers in Lake Geneva Wisconsin uses a card board wall and the board they buy is designed to make the center section replaceable.
The center inserts are trapezoidal in shape.


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