[Archers] Spray Foam Target Problems

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Recently I was working on some targets for a future shoot made from large
plastic bottles filled with expanding sealant foam. I was using two
products. One was "Great Stuff Big Gap Filler", made by Dow and sold only
at Lowes. The other foam was a similar Dow product, maybe the same stuff in
a different can (also from Lowes, but apparently sold other places as
well). I no longer have a can of this stuff, so I don't remember its name,
but it comes in a yellow can.

I filled the bottles last spring. When I tested one of the targets, I found
it spun on its stake, so earlier this month I drilled the bottles for a
second stake. My drill came out covered with a sticky goo similar to epoxy
that quickly expanded and solidified. Apparently some bottles had pockets
of foam that had been cut off from oxygen and so couldn't expand, perhaps
the cans weren't shaken enough, or whatever.

I scrapped the project (after about $40 worth of foam!) because I cannot be
sure there aren't more unexpanded pockets in the bottles. I refuse to offer
targets that can ruin our guest's arrows. I still use the foam to patch
blow-throughs and other weak spots in my flat archery foam targets (made
from closed cell ethylene). The foam there is applied in smaller
quantities, and is fully expanded and dry in a few hours.

Have any of you used these or similar sealant products, and have you had
problems?

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
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