[Archers] Target Thoughts [Was; This looks FUN!!!]

[Garth G. Groff]

M'Lord Christophe,

After a while the material inside targets like these can become 
compressed. I had a commercial "Yellow Jacket" target in my basement for 
a while, and it got very hard in the center. Arrows were bouncing out 
all the time. I recently shot with the folks from Caer Mear and River's 
Point on a public range with special archery hay bale targets. Our host 
Lord Briain said those bales became really badly compressed when people 
used air-soft guns against them (which they aren't supposed to do on 
this range, but get away with it). We had only a few bouncers though. 
Our bale was pretty new.

I finally retired my Yellow Jacket, shook out the stuffing (felt 
again!), and used it to fill a cardboard bicycle  box. Even though I 
added several extra layers of cardboard inside the box, it isn't hard 
enough and I now get blow-throughs. Since I shoot indoors, this isn't a 
good idea. A smaller box packed tighter would work better.

Right now I'm using a rubber cube target in the basement. Works well, 
and the first face lasted more than a year. It will pull off any points 
that aren't glued securely, or have any sort of lip at the shoulder end 
(i.e. Ace faux-medieval points, of which there are several buried inside 
the rubber now).

I just bought Isenfir a "Morrell Outdoor Target" (that's what it is 
called, no stock number) for about $100. It is an archery foam core 
inside a coated burlap bag which weighs about 50 lbs. and is big enough 
to hold our standard FITA paper target. Arrows came out cleanly at our 
first shoot, and there was no "target gunk" like with the pink or blue 
construction foam we previously used. Lord Sebastiana G. Fanelli, with a 
bit of lumber holding from me (he has all the cool power tools), built 
us a folding easel to hold this monster. He used this target and easel 
combination in another kingdom, and says the targets lasted for years. 
I'm really pleased. I still have the easel plan, and if anyone wants to 
build this, just let me know and I see that you get a copy. The total 
cost for the stand was about $23, plus $4 for a pair of bungee cords to 
hold the Morrell target to the stand.

Kind regards,


Lord Mungo Napier, etc.

On 5/3/2011 8:12 AM, John Atkins wrote:
> Interesting Mungo.  I have had the same lack of sticking success with 
> burlap bags (peanut bags from the local steak house) stuffed with 
> plastic bags.  Wierd 'cuz they work pretty well for a while but then 
> begin to reject arrow penetration.  At first I thought it might be 
> because I had also slipped a piece of cardboard down the front face to 
> provide a flat surface for the target face.  But even with that 
> removed I still, on occasion, get the bounce back problem.
> BTW burlap bags stuffed with plastic shopping bags are great targets 
> that will last for a couple of years.
> cog
>
>     M'lady Lorelei and Noble Friends of the Bow,
>
>     At our last practice on 24 April we had a 10-yard prize shoot. Our
>     target was a leprechaun left over from St. Patrick's Day (our
>     March shoot was called because of snow). The idea was to separate
>     him from his gold by hitting the coins in his pot (1 point each),
>     or the single coin in his hand (5 points). His pot itself was
>     worth nothing, and any hit even breaking a line on the leprechaun
>     himself was a minus 2 points. You can't kill a leprechaun with
>     arrows (they're immortals you know), but you can make them really mad.
>
>     So how did the shoot go? It was a miserable failure. The
>     leprechaun was made of felt in multiple layers, and even with a 40
>     pound bow, some of my arrows bounced off the target. Other archers
>     had nothing but bounces. So here's the lesson: FELT TARGETS DON'T
>     WORK! I called the shoot closed and we switched to a Royal Round.
>
>     This month we will massacre cutsy bunnies and chicks, but they are
>     NOT made of felt.
>
>     To those of you who are curious, we usually open our practice with
>     a 10-yard prize shoot at some sort of novelty target; usually two
>     rounds of six arrows. The highest scoring adult and youth each win
>     a prize provided by Lady Sarah Sinclair and myself (we shoot, but
>     our scores don't count--we're trying to get rid of the stuff in
>     the prize bag). The previous month's winners are also
>     disqualified, so more people have a chance to win. This is
>     especially important for the kids, since one pre-teen would win
>     all the time. I announce the time for the shoot on our email tree
>     the week before practice, and nobody is allowed to join in once
>     the competition starts. This was a positive way of getting all the
>     archers to show up on time, and it works much better than nagging.
>
>     Kind regards,
>
>
>     Lord Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir TA Marshal
>

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