# Field Targets



## rock monkey (Dec 28, 2002)

the chicken wire could become a problem with arrows as it gets older, rusts and breaks. the biggest thing is keeping the target face flat and giving a good presentation to the shooting line.

probably the cheapest and most durable target you could manufacture on site is a layered, compressed sheet foam target....a diy block target. another but a tad more diy labor intensive would be a layered carpet target. i think the crew at DCWC made them. if you search, you might be able to find the thread here in the field forum. one thing i do know is you do not want to use the carpet that is not jute backed. foam or adhesive backed can be a real pain trying to get arrows out.

you could use compressed and untreated celotex.

you could make bag targets out of either silt fence or trampoline material. both work well.

if you're looking for an inexpensive but fairly durable manufactured target, look at the Big Green Targets range bags. we have them at our club and they have worked pretty well. there has been a change in use of materials inside. they used to use loose fill high density foam, but have gone to more of a compressed rag bag fill. how the newer targets hold up, i cant say but ours have done well for their purpose.


for any materials you use, try to keep them around the 14" range for bale depth. it might be a good idea to go deeper if you have the material to do it with.

the most difficult part is keeping the guys from using broadheads on any materials used.


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

Thanks. We also thought about hay bales. Would this work? I've seen several pics in the sticky here that looked to have hay bales with some type of plastic wrap around them....? If this does work we can probably swing that pretty easily. 

Anybody got any good contacts for some of the layered materials Rock Monkey was talking about? All help is greatly appreciated.


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## Kade (Jan 11, 2011)

If you can get enough help to make the job easier, notice I didn't say easy. I would go the carpet target route. It's going to be cheap as you only need to buy the hardware to make the frames and keep the targets compressed and tight which you would have to buy for anything other then bag target anyway. More then likely you would be able to get the carpet free, you just have to cut a TON of it up. 

I have shot several ranges with it and I absolutely love it. But its a good bit of work from what I am told. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

And it is the "juke" backed carpet that works best???


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## rock monkey (Dec 28, 2002)

pacnate said:


> And it is the "juke" backed carpet that works best???


it's better because the foam, glue and any other 'heat softened' material doesnt bond to the arrow and possibly 'gluing' it into the bale.


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## TNMAN (Oct 6, 2009)

pacnate said:


> And it is the "juke" backed carpet that works best???


Yes. A good/high grade medium pile works very well. *No rubber backing.* Cut carpet 4'X18" min. and stack enough height to give 4' height after pressed. Need target house with roof for long life. Also need a tractor with FEL to move butts--or assemble in place. Takes an entire average size house "take out" to makeup one butt. Use plywood template to cut carpet. Carpet should be free if you haul from the house. Cutting used carpet is dirty and dangerous work. I am no expert, and this is from my limited experience building my own practice butts.


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## wolfman_73 (Mar 7, 2005)

What we have at our range are roughly 4 foot square boxes, 18" deep, stuffed with shrink wrap, plastic wrap etc. And faced with carpet, backing side out. Stops everything I've seen thrown at them, from the birdie on out. Should be able to get the pallet wrap from businesses if you ask around and the carpet shouldn't be bad either to get ahold of.

Like was said earlier, the hardest part is keeping the ding dongs from using broadheads....


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

We don't have a lot of guys that would come with broadheads, and the range won't be open all the time. Only for shoot dates since we are on borrowed property behind our church. We are going to try these carpet targets......18" deep is plenty? Or would just 15" deep work? And should we use the metal lumber straps or the all thread rod?


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## rsw (May 22, 2002)

I suggest the DIY targets. chicken wire is no factor. I have shot them for a significant period of time with no ill effects and those targets will last forever with basically zero maintenance. for a flat face, simply tack a 4X4 piece of carpet on the front of the posts (leaves about 4" of space from the chicken wire and this makes a perfectly flat face which also ensures that the arrows will not kick sideways when they hit the target. These are great targets.

Hay absolutely will not work (you may have seen excelsior bales which work well for a while, but then they loosen up and arrows pass right on through) and foam requires continuous replacement if the range is used quite a bit - modern high velocity bows and small diameter shafts just don't do well on these mediums and fat shafts destroy foam quickly. Carpet is a serious labor investment.


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## JPE (Feb 1, 2004)

I wish I had taken a few more pics, but these are the bales from the course that hosted sectionals last year. The back box appeared to be anywhere from 2x8's to 2x12's (varied from target to target). It was built similar to the "lifetime" target that you referred to, except that it didn't appear to have any kind of chicken wire since holding shape isn't an issue.

The front box was a 2x4 frame on all targets, separated from the back box by about 6". It was wrapped only in the burlap type material (trampoline fabric may work there too) and had nothing stuffed inside. The purpose of this layer is to provide a flat surface for target faces and to keep the arrows straight in the bale. This is basically the principle behind the Spyderweb type range targets.

They worked really well. I'd like to add a couple targets behind my place and when I do it'll likely be something like this.


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## archerycharlie (Nov 4, 2002)

Here is a photo of a target that our club built way back in the days of field archery and are still going strong. The part that holds the targets were made of cardboard and was about 16 or 17 inches deep and about 40inches wide. The cardboard lasted for years and worked great just by clamping down the turn buckles tighter. I just put the foam pieces in last fall to try it out as i got them from another archery club when they replaced theres


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## archerycharlie (Nov 4, 2002)

Here is another shot on one of the targets.


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

Thanks a lot. I'm definitely thinking about putting the layer in front like JPE showed. That sounds like a great idea. Is burlap the best stuff to put on the outside? We will cover them with tarps I'm sure, but we also need something to keep them halfway looking nice.


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## Joe Pf (Feb 1, 2011)

The material I use to cover my boxes looks like white burlap, but is actually from a seed bag that held corn or soybean seed. The bags are approximately a 4' cube and the 4 sides are what you use. Rip open the seams and you have 4 nice pieces of fabric to staple on your box. The top and bottom are different material and have filler tubes and emptying tubes in them. Check with any farmers in the area. Some places give the farmer $10 or $20 to return the bags, but other areas don't and the farmers have piles of these bags around. I filled my box with used plastic silt fence and old fiberglass window screen, but another friend stuffed his with more seed bags. I would say to stuff them tightly, not fold and stack in your box or it will be so dense the arrows will bounce off! I made my box out of 2x10's ,slightly smaller than the seed bag panel which was about 46"x45" for my seed bags. I then put a 2x4 box about 10" in front of the stuffed bag to keep the arrows from leaning. Just about like a Spider target.


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## Joe Pf (Feb 1, 2011)

Joe again. my targets look exactly like JPE's pictures above and I would bet those are seed bags they used. The front 2x4 box has fabric on both sides but is left empty. It's just to keep the arrows from dangling. Works GREAT!


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## rsw (May 22, 2002)

A single 4 by 4 piece of carpet will do super for the front piece and will last forever. If you try that, put the bottom part of the carpet in front. I think I would much prefer that to the seed bag material and it is plentiful from carpet stores who install and then discard the old carpet. I have been thinking about using carpet sheets to hold the stuffing in the bag part also rather than the chicken wire.


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## hdracer (Aug 8, 2007)

JPE said:


> View attachment 1289809
> 
> 
> I wish I had taken a few more pics, but these are the bales from the course that hosted sectionals last year. The back box appeared to be anywhere from 2x8's to 2x12's (varied from target to target). It was built similar to the "lifetime" target that you referred to, except that it didn't appear to have any kind of chicken wire since holding shape isn't an issue.
> ...


Think we could build these at the CCFSA course? Maybe add 3-4 a year till we have a full 28 target course? What would the cost difference be between this and the PB's we already have (other than shipping)?

BTW, how was Vegas?


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

Yeah. I was thinking the carpet layered to hold the arrow true was better than the seed bag too. Not that the other was a bad idea, just thought the carpet would stand strong longer.

In terms of using the carpet instead of chicken wire..........Would you be able to pull that tight enough to keep the clothes and stuff in for packing or would it eventually pull loose?


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## Joe Pf (Feb 1, 2011)

The nice thing about the seed bags is that they don't hold moisture, so they don't get wet and stinky. The silt fence and old window screen we use for stuffing also lets all the moisture escape quickly. Cotton will never dry out once it gets wet inside. Not in Minnesota anyway. It also gets pretty hard when it's below 32 degrees!
When we use the seed bags on the face, the arrows tend to slide between the weave and we don't end up with very many broken strands or holes. just don't stretch it drum tight, allow the threads a little wiggle room to let the arrows through.


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## carlosii (Feb 25, 2007)

i made a target using plastic bags for filler. i put the chicken wire on the front and back and covered with carpet. i have not been able to keep the middle from loosing up and allowing pass-throughs.


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## JPE (Feb 1, 2004)

hdracer said:


> Think we could build these at the CCFSA course? Maybe add 3-4 a year till we have a full 28 target course? What would the cost difference be between this and the PB's we already have (other than shipping)?
> 
> BTW, how was Vegas?


We could certainly build these. Could even incorporate a roof right into the build so they'd look the same as our other targets. Cost could vary greatly. Would need to find an inexpensive source of the feed/seed bag fabric or something similar and a cheap source of some material to stuff the bales with. Hard to say if it would be a significant cost saving until we figured out some of those details.


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## jimrau (Dec 27, 2006)

Here is one of our targets made from carpet with rags inside. They are covered with metal roofing.


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## rsw (May 22, 2002)

The targets with which I am familiar used the chicken wire to hold old sheets discarded from a hospital. With a small roof over the top, the targets had been in place for 7 years and the range manager said they had virtually zero maintenance during that time other than to replace the front piece of carpet once. The sheets were held out at length and then twisted before stuffing into the chicken wire basket. It really doesn't matter if the basket pushes out in the middle rather than maintaining a flat integrity. The arrows I shot went in perfectly straight, didn't penetrate very deeply, and pulled extremely easily with two fingers and no effort. I doubt if a little moisture in the stuffing would hurt anything, but I would still use a good roof over the target. I plan to build a couple of them, but use carpet in place of the chicken wire, front and back. I don't think the arrows will even reach the back piece based on my experience.

I wonder if any old clothes would also work well for stuffing such as one might get from the charity houses (that aren't suitable for distribution).


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## jimrau (Dec 27, 2006)

I wonder if any old clothes would also work well for stuffing such as one might get from the charity houses (that aren't suitable for distribution).[/QUOTE]

We use old clothes we get for free. BUT be srue to remove all the zippers and buttons. 

Main problem with these economical targets is "critter" damage. Bugs get in and then birds and bears go after the bugs. The worst combination is bees and bears. Bees sting the shooters and bears rip the targets apart to get the bees.


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## Geeman (Nov 28, 2011)

I just tested out a "seed bag" target and it stops 300 fps 390 grain arrows at 20 yards, no problem. What I did was to take two woven "plastic" seed or feed bags (note that dog food bags from Purina, some bird seed bags and lots of feed and seed bags are now not made out of burlap, but instead woven polypropelene) and put one inside the other and then stuffed the inner bag full with plastic bags and more plastic woven seed bags, and I mean stuffed it, stood inside the bags and stuffed it some more, rolled up the top and secured the top with a couple of spring clamps and walla, a DYI target. The seed bag material appears to be the same material used on some commercial bag targets now.


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

How many of each size target will we need to build?

I know I should only need 1 4'x4' for the bunny shot, but what about the other sized targets???? Thanks


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## rock monkey (Dec 28, 2002)

you're better off making the same sized bale for each lane. makes it easy to move around and maintain.

the biggest size of paper face will be about 3foot square. the extra bale will help keep people from chasing loose arrows and gives you the ability to move the target around the 'soft' spot that develops from the 5ring shooters.


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## jimrau (Dec 27, 2006)

rock monkey said:


> you're better off making the same sized bale for each lane. makes it easy to move around and maintain.
> 
> the biggest size of paper face will be about 3foot square. the extra bale will help keep people from chasing loose arrows and gives you the ability to move the target around the 'soft' spot that develops from the 5ring shooters.


That's what we did too. I recommend it.


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## rock monkey (Dec 28, 2002)

another thing about using a standard sized bale on your course......able to put up multiple faces.....mixing up the field and hunter faces.

look thru the NFAA's range captain's guide and the staking table to know what you need for each lane.


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## pacnate (Sep 23, 2009)

Thanks a lot rock monkey.


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## martincheetah12 (Feb 21, 2012)

the practice target i have at home is just a styrofoam cooler filled with old clothes stops arrows amazingly from any distance just tape the lid in and it will last forever


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