Homemade Broadhead Targets

[SteveMcD]

#7069

Homemade Broadhead Targets… who’s got em? Let’s see them? Any advice?

[Ed Ashby]

#57851

Nothing beats a big pile of sand! Put a sand filled cardboard box on the sand pile if you like. I don’t have one set up at my new place yet. I’ll have to have the sand hauled in. I got nothing but rocks; big rocks, small rocks … and boulders :roll:.

Ed

[SteveMcD]

#57853

Thanks, Dr.Ed… I am thinking of that too. I cannot put one in my yard, due to local ordinance. But I could do that at the local range. I was also thinking of foam, but I shoot wood and have visions of pulling fletch through the foam, which I’m not crazy about.

[wildschwein]

#57861

I always used to use a cardboard box filled with even more cardboard boxes. Broadhead would poke out the other side and I would unscrew it and remove the arrow. But seeing as how your shootin woodies I would just use an old canvas feed bag stuffed (as full as humanly possible) with plastic, so that when you pull your arrows through it didn’t mess up your fletch. I made one such bag this Spring and my buddy who shoots woodies out of a 60lb longbow was only penetrating about half an arrow. Just far enough to expose the broadhead and bit, and make for easy removal.

[SteveMcD]

#57868

Wildschwein… that’s a good on too. Thanks.

[bruc]

#57876

I have used cardboard of any description cut into 2′ x 3′ pieces. After they are cut, they need to be glued together. It takes about 12 – 15 plies depending on the thickness of the cardboard. Regular white wood glue works good. I usually water it down slightly so it goes further. Pour the glue with a small amount of water in a pail mix it thoroughly. Apply it with a paint brush between each layer. Once everything is glued The backstop needs to be compressed somehow until the glue has cured. Laid on top of a table with lots of weight on top works good. After it has cured, the edges can be trimmed on a table saw and duct tape applied to edges.
Need to work fairly quick during gluing process!
Boxes that vinyl siding come in work great.
Only cost is the glue:wink:
Bruce

[FUBAR]

#57905

I need to get my eyes checked. At first I thought I read that you useed 2×3 inch pieces of cardboard. I was thinking that you had to be one heck of a shot:lol:
Anyway, for plastic to stuff boxes or burlap bags, we go to dumpsters behind clothing stores and use the plastic that new clothes are wrapped in.

[David Coulter]

#57966

Here in PA we have billboards all over the place and now they use a plastic tarp type of material that is printed in Canada, shipped to PA and hung up with stretchers on the billboards. Once they expire, they go to the dumpster.
I visited a local ad agency and the nice fellow there gave me a bundle of about 8 ads. Feed sacks are about 75 cents each. I just haven’t had a chance to put one together. I know they’ll work fine on field tips, as I’ve made couple of targets out of old tarps. I tried a variety of plastic material and like the tarp weight the best. The light stuff, like shopping bags, gets pushed out the back and makes a mess in short order.
A friend’s dad uses bales of straw. They get shot up pretty quick, but he uses big nylon binder straps to compress the bales. The might work well with the feed bags stuff with the billboards, too.

[David Petersen]

#57982

As stated in previous threads of this nature, I’ve long favored the burlap bag stuffed tight with heavy plastic — for field points. But that set-up won’t stop my current broadhead set-up and I’m stuck with pulling arrows through when shooting woodies and mostly also with carbons since they penetrate so deep the fletching winds up inside the bag and can’t be pulled back out. So, as Ed and others said, it’s back to the sandpile. Steve, it’s hard to imagine why local ordinances would keep you from putting a pile of sand in your own yard, but equally good is clean dirt (that is, no rocks). Maybe that will get you around the silly rule? I had good luck brieflyh with a foam block target from Walmart, which it turns out is composed of thin sheets of foam layered together, like a stack of typewriter paper. You shoot into the solid side with field points and edge-on, so that you’re shooting “between” the layers, with broadheads, which makes ’em real easy to pull out. It cost $37 and I shot it out in no time … so back to the dirt pile again for me. It never lets you down though it’s not much fun when wet.

[David Coulter]

#58032

I’ll take your words for it, but sand seem a little rough on the blades and shafts, no?

[David Petersen]

#58073

Absolutely! Sand more so than clean dirt, but both dull broadheads and wear the finish off shafts. Easy solution: designate a couple of heads and shafts for practice and tuning. Since there’s no need to resharpen, you won’t have time in this life to shoot those arrows enough to lower the head weight enough to affect accuracy.

PS: This is really weird! The new avatar photo — I don’t even have it in photobucket or on the Gravatar image list … yet here it is, risen from the bowels of my computer somewhere, 20 years old. I can only wish I was still that lean and mean. Lean has gone to bony, and mean, only in my heart. 😈 I keep trying to post a close-up shot of a bull staring at the camera, but apparently my computer is haunted.

[Raymond Coffman]

#58111

Big Dave –
That Avatar looks like a “Lean Mean Hunting Machine” !Ready for the Fall Elk Hunt !
We are all that way in our Minds/Hearts as long as we don’t look too long in the Mirror—- except for the young studs of course-
I use the same “Black Wal Mart” target backed [ 8″ away ] by poster board. As long as I do not get closer than 15 yards the BHs just barely get into the board — I can then pull them out far enuff to twist them[bh] off and pull the headless shaft out of the foam —
I shoot a lot of Fpts into the other Plastic type tgts,{ mounted next to each other} then fire a triplet of bhs into the foam to finish.

Scout

[wildschwein]

#58143

Dave I just hope you bring back your previous avatar by X-mas. My 5 year old niece saw it and thought it was so cool I was talking to Santa Claus. And don’t worry, I didn’t tell her what you did to the Reindeer.

[David Coulter]

#58204

Dave,
Appreciate your comments on the sand. I have a big pile of wood chips, but the arrows just go for a dive in those. I have a foam target that I’m reserving for tuning some new arrows. This is my second one. The get chewed up pretty quick. thanks, dwc

[Ralph]

#58807

I still have a piece of foam leftover from an old floating boat dock. I had much more but as it was my main target for years all I have left is one piece about about 2 1/2′ cubed. It works great for broadheads. They stop before the fletching goes in and easy to remove. I only use it now for checking broadhead flight in my backyard. I haven’t seen similar foam in years (I’ve had this stuff for 30+ years so maybe modern stuff better :))

[David Petersen]

#58816

Wildschwein — Actually, Santa Claus is a promotion. Once, a reporter who interviewed me said in his story that I had an “elfish” look. That was years ago and I hear they’re about ready to release what’s left of him from the hospital. 😛

[WICanner]

#58917

We have a local business that makes smokehouses. Within the walls of the smokehouses, they spray expandable foam. Prior to spraying a smoke house, they spray some of the foam into a garbage bag to test the foam mixture. Wha-la, free, cheap broadhead target. I would suppose one could do the same thing with a couple cans of that foam you use to seal cracks and such. A kitchen garbage bag would get you a barrel shape similar to a deer torso. They only last about a year or so depending upon how much you shoot broadheads. But nothing really stands up to shooting broadheads anyway, besides dirt or sand.

[David Coulter]

#37808

As a beginner I try to practice a lot, usually with jodos for stumping and field points for my bag targets stuffed with old billboard material and tarps.

When I throw in broadheads it must have created some anxiety. I think I expected them to fly differently and they did. So I decided just to shoot broadheads more until the ghost went away. I’ve eaten up a couple of foam targets and they are expensive. Having enough Scots blood in me and a couple of crumb snatchers in the house, I want to spend as little as possible and still get a good result.

Out of the recycling came a cardboard box. I loaded it with my favorite catalogs that get tossed before opened.. you know the ones..and duct taped it tight.

This thing cost me nothing besides the tape and a few minutes and stops the broadheads easily. Usually they don’t penetrate the entire head, depending on the density where they land. They pull out easy and don’t seem to do any damage whatsoever. I’ve dedicated one head for target practice, but it only takes a few strokes on a stone and strop to get it hunting sharp.

The downside is that it is not weather proof, so I bring it in when I’m done.

That’s my trash target.

[garydavis]

#37839

I’ve been using an old hayladge bale for my fp’s. Broadhead’s should be here this week so I haven’t tried them yet.

It’s a round bale you see in pastures all wrapped up in white plastic. Look like huge marshmallows out in the field. Shafts get a little dirty from the fermented hay in them, but they are packed tight enough to slow my arrows down before the feathers get boogered. Shrink wrap will hold it together if you shoot one side apart and you can just scootch it around for a new area to shoot at , or tip it over and shoot at the top or bottom. you can get the smaller one’s 500-600 lbs for 30 or 40 bucks. The farmer will load them for you and you can easily tip them out of your truck where you want to shoot at them. It’s raining here a good bit and the bale doesn’t suffer a bit so far.

Best,

Gary

[handirifle]

#38219

I need to figure something out too. i have a foam target that I bought a few years back, and it had huge holes in it where repeated hits cut through. So just the other day, I took all the pieces of foam out of it, and tore it apart. I then put together a smaller cardboard box, about 2’x3′ and filled it tightly with the larger pieces and taped it all shut.

I then made a wood base that stuck out about 8 inches front and back for stability. It stops the arrow fine, but the single bevel heads HAVE to be pushed through and unscrewed every time because they WILL NOT pull back out the way they came in. It’s that twisting thing. Anyone else encounter this issue?

I wonder about the multi-layer cardboard target, that be easier to pull back out of?

I haven’t tried the 3 blade heads I shoot.

I, too, only shoot a couple heads for target practice. No sense buggering them all up.

[lyagooshka]

#39034

I got an e-book a while back about some off-base archery projects (building a PVC bow, etc). One of them was building a target. The way this person had done it (I hope I remember this right) was to collect a bunch of scrap cardboard from work. He then laid these on top of one another (like in a ream of paper or a phone book) and cut them to equal length and width. When he had enough, he sandwiched them between two 2X10s and compress them with ratchet straps. I have actually not tried this, but it sounds like it could work. Might be pretty dirty with cardboard scraps, but wrapping a burlap sack around it might do the trick. Hope this helps. Be well.

Alex

😀

[archer38]

#39800

WIcanner wrote: We have a local business that makes smokehouses. Within the walls of the smokehouses, they spray expandable foam. Prior to spraying a smoke house, they spray some of the foam into a garbage bag to test the foam mixture. Wha-la, free, cheap broadhead target. I would suppose one could do the same thing with a couple cans of that foam you use to seal cracks and such. A kitchen garbage bag would get you a barrel shape similar to a deer torso. They only last about a year or so depending upon how much you shoot broadheads. But nothing really stands up to shooting broadheads anyway, besides dirt or sand.

The spray foam idea works good, although not the can stuff. I tried filling a beach ball with it to make a big round target.

One; it doesn’t have the density of the industrial spray foam. Two; it needs to react with the air to expand properly. when sprayed into a closed container like the ball or a bag, it doesn’t expand. Or at least not very well.

I had one of the insulator guys fill a cardboard box with his test spray and it worked great !! I shot that thing for a long time before passing one through it.

[handirifle]

#39848

Wonder what they would charge to fill 4 or 5 normal sized boxes with foam? I’d like more than one to vary my ranges from one arrow to the next.

Less chance of hitting arrows, and tearing up targets.

[David Coulter]

#62925

With the days until deer season ticking down, I thought I’d revive this thread with an update. This obviously does not get used every day and it’s brought indoors when not in use, but this is the third year I’ve been using this. A few fresh pieces of duct take keeps it going strong. It’s simply a cardboard box filled with magazines and catalogs, taped shut. In the center, the broadhead, Tuffhead in this case, penetrate just past the head. On the edges or places that don’t get hit as often, they penetrate about two-thirds the way in. Full disclosure, this was my last shot of four. I quit when I’m ahead. The first two were a bit high left and the third a bit lower to the right.

I really only shoot the broadheads just to make sure I’m in tune, otherwise it’s field tips and judos. These shots are from a 46# longbow at about 15 yards.

Best, dwc

All the best to you.

[Ralph]

#62933

Why don’t ya try for the middle next time? :D:D

Good shot Dave…..:lol:

[Author]

Posts