Ragg bag filling

[snikkerbua]

#2564

Hallo everyone.

I just got me one of those target bags and are wondering what you have best eksperience filling them with?

They are probably suposed to be filled with clooth, old kloding and sutch, but there are always someone with a good idea out there.

How do you all fill them, in nice layers like an army looker, or just throwing it in?

All answers are welkom 😀

[Doc Nock]

#10771

I love AMes PIllow Targets…big 40×40 burlap target bags with deer oneach side in opposing d irections… I fill mine with Shrink wrap.

I used to just stuff i t down in…but found I’d lay out the scraps I’d get (all skids are today wrapped with shrink wrap) and then roll it up and form flat rolls of it and lay them in. Worked a lot better. Lasts for thousands of shots.

Last time I changed out a shot up target, I reused the plastic shrink wrap inside. Even stopped a neighbor’s grand daughter’s Cross bow bolts!

[David Coulter]

#10843

I’ve used, with good success, everything from old tarps, billboard tarp material, door mats, and carpet remnants. I stuff the stuff in feed bags, which cost 75 cents, or grass seed bags for smaller targets. This sort of thing stops a 635 grain arrow with 28% foc out of a 46 lb longbow. My broadhead target is stacked newspaper in a duct taped cardboard box. Works great. Gotta be cheap. Have fun. Dwc

[CareyE]

#10927

I have been filling burlap sacks with the plastic shopping bags you get everywhere these days. I fill one bag with several other bags as with bread bags or any other plastic bag. It stops arrows from my 57 lb Bushbow with no problems. Easy arrow removal too.

[David Petersen]

#10994

Another vote for recycled plastic. I get mine from the local post office, which, as mentioned above, gets pallets of mail wrapped in very heavy-duty plastic, which really holds up compared to flimsier plastic. What I did was call the PO and tell them I wanted a large quantity of plastic wrap, which they were happy to save up (didn’t take long) and call me to come collect. I stomp it down into double-layer burlap bags I get for 50 cents each at a local yuppie coffee place where they buy beans in bulk and roast themselves. Total cost for a great target that stops target points efficiently and can easily be picked up and moved around: one buck. It’s important, however, that you not leave ’em out in the weather, or the burlap will rot and the plastic–shredded by man arrow shots–will start leaking out and make a great mess. You can’t use such a target for broadheads, as pulling them out quickly shred both plastic and burlap. For broadheads I prefer dirt or sand piles.

[Jason Wesbrock]

#11777

Just go to your local supermarket and get a bunch of old plastic shopping bags.

[David Coulter]

#12096

I tried the shopping bag route and ended up with a mess. Packed tightly, it stops the arrow quite well, but eventually ended up pushing out the back side. The heavy duty plastic and tarp material doesn’t form to the arrow so much and does not get pushed through. If you have a way to work with the shopping bags that keeps them neat, let me know. Thanks, d

[stalkin4elk]

#12207

stuff tight with used baling twine.

[snikkerbua]

#14142

Thank you all for good sugestiones. I will se what I can get a hold of and fill it up.

Have a nice weekend everyone 😀

[David Fudala]

#16760

I have one of those burlap stuff targets. Went to the local thrift store and bought a big comforter for a couple bucks. Works great but just as David P. said, gotta keep it dry.

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#18404

I’ve filled my Rag Bag with all manner of stuff – from plastic packing material to foam remnants to t-shirts from the thrift store. The nice thing is that once you’ve ammassed all the filling, you can just transfer it to a new bag and top it off occasionally as needed. I seem to get about 6 mos. of almost daily shooting out of a bag before it starts blowing out, no different than the way over-priced, pre-filled ones from a sporting goods store.

[David Petersen]

#18849

Bruce– No need to transfer the stuffing to a new bag when the original bag gets shot-out … just slip a new burlap over the old one, like a sock. I usually insert the original bag’s laced-up top (I use baling wire) upside-down for further integrity. This way, even with heavy plastic (I would never use light plastic) that gradually deteriorates, you can refurbish the target without completely restuffing … though this is a good time to add a bit more if needed. Coffee bean bags come with a large variety of writing and graphics on them, and when I’m going through what’s available at the coffee shop I look first for more fine-woven burlap, which lasts longer, and secondly for interesting graphics that serve as target points. I did this for years with great success. Before and during hunting season, I would stash a few of them around the woods in my “yard,” some vertical and some horizontal, for sort of an at-home roving range. Don’t know why I quit using burlap and started buying foam targets; laziness I think. But none of the commercial foam targets I’ve bought lasted anywhere nearly as long as burlap bags stuffed tight with heavy postal plastic. I reiterate that keeping them out of wet weather is mandatory for maximum life. And not shooting broadheads, of course.

[Ralph]

#18964

I found one of the woven plastic tarp stuff that they put over the trailers of grain haulers one time. Huge, to cover the trailer on a tractor trailer. It was ripped so I guess they would rather leave it for someone else to pick up their trash for them.

I thought I had the cats meow there. Cut in pieces, layered some of it in a gunny sack (origin of a burlap bag being called a gunny sack or tow sack?), about 6-8″ thick, hung and then, darn. If an arrow stuck in it it just fell and hung in the way, most bounced off. You know how an arrow is just hanging out of a target, it’s your next subconscious target and it’s way easy to hit.:evil:

So that didn’t work for s***. Cleaned up the barrow ditch though and mostly filled the trash dumpster.

I use plastic, shrink rap (best I think) anything like that I can scrounge. Visqueen not good.

I get burlap bags sometime at the local mart (Amigos, imagine roasting chilies :-)) when they’re roasting chiles. They’re more than glad for me to get rid of they’re trash for them.

Sometimes I gotta go buy them at the local farm/ranch store but I get them for about a buck apiece.

Mine are outside always (you shoulda seen the dust fly out of them last year after some of those dust storms). I take’em down when the plastic starts pooching out, stomp on them to reshape, and put them another bag and sew it up. I use some wax string for that that followed me from work after I retired:)

I need to redo a couple of them now as a matter of fact.

[David Coulter]

#19021

A quick way to close up these bags, whether plastic feed bags or burlap is to use small, thin zip ties, about 4 – 5 inches long. Roll down the end as tight as you can get it, run a pilot hole through under the roll with a sharp punch and stick the zip through and zip it tight. Works well. The plastic “burlap” feed bags hold up well in the weather too. I don’t bring them in. The also last a bit longer if you paint them with spray paint. I painted a couple of mine brown, not so much as to look like a deer, but the white sticks out like a sore thumb up in the woods. dwc

[Stephen Graf]

#19381

David Petersen wrote: …But none of the commercial foam targets I’ve bought lasted anywhere nearly as long as burlap bags stuffed tight with heavy postal plastic…

The best thing I’ve found to stuff bag targets with is the old block target material. I cut it into strips and stuff it in the sack.

I use bird seed bags for my sacks. I leave them out all year and they last several years before having to stuff the old bag into a new bag.

Best bags are the slick plastic coated bags. Last a really long time. I put a couple spray paint dots on the bags. Or use the tweety birds already on the bag 😯

[Ralph]

#19459

I kinda figured Tweety had enough problems with Sylvester.

But with me shooting he’d more than likely be fine. 😀

[Stephen Graf]

#20455

R2 wrote: I kinda figured Tweety had enough problems with Sylvester.

But with me shooting he’d more than likely be fine. 😀

One advantage of being a poor shot, is that you don’t have to invest in too many target faces, dots, or tweety birds. I’m proud of my bulls eye conservation efforts too 😳 🙄

Good Quote! Whatever Carl says, goes double for me.

[Ralph]

#20481

I have have a feeling that there’s another word that commonly comes after bull that might be a bit more applicable for use in this conversation.:D

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