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

[John Atkins]

Mungo,
Good stuff.  Thanks.
 
cog

-----Original Message-----
From: archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:archers-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of Garth G.
Groff
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 9:02 AM
To: Archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: [Archers] Target Thoughts [Was; This looks FUN!!!]


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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