Shooting into sand

[Brian K]

Does anyone do this? I'm thinking of buying several bags of "play" sand from the hardware store and rigging up something to shoot into. I'm sick of destroying expensive targets...

[crokit]

I would imagine it would cause alot of wear and tear on broadheads and arrows. Probably end up costing you more in the long run.

[Wingbone]

It would be like forcing your arrow shafts through sand paper. To occasionally test broadhead flight, maybe, but I don't think it would be a good idea to do it alot.

[BGfisher]

Say what you will fellows, but sand is what we used long ago. All these expensive broadhead targets haven't been in production forever, you know.

Brian, if you got the itch just give it a shot. If you have a back yard just puilt you a 3 sided box out of flakeboard and a couple 2x4's. Sand will cause some wear on the heads, mostly just removing the anodizing and will definitely dull the blades.

Just two more things you'll need. First is a bicket of water to rinse the heads after each shot. This keeps sand from building up in the cracks and crevices of the ferrule. The other is another set of replacement blades, which you probably aready have.

The arrows will drive in pretty deep. Us old guys here used to mix in some top soil and plant grass with the sand to help holt it together,

Hey, give it a try. The worst it can do is cost you a couple bucks. Then you'll know.

[Bernie P.]

I've been doing it for years.In the spring the town road crews clean up all the sand they spread over the winter.I just asked them to dump a load for me out back.Works better than anything else,cost free and is not hard on arrows.I use Magnus heads so I'm not worried about damage here either.If I were using those expensive replaceable jobs then it might be another story.

[CamoCop]

back when i was in highschool 10+ years ago, i could not afford a target. so i leaned a ladder up to my house and climbed on the roof. from here i would shoot at premeasured distances. this worked out well for 2 reasons...saved money by not buying a target and made better accuracy for treestand hunting by sighting in from up in the air.

by the way, this never messed up any of my arrows either. i have shot aluminum and carbon this way.