It was a burlap bag filled with seat cushion stuff. i think iwas doing something when drawing that was making it fly sideways and that made it bounce. Some how twisting something. i dont think i was at full draw either. anyway it hits hard enough now. i have been shooting very very close, at like 5 yards just trying to build muscles again and develope the muscle memory to have a good form. That was some advice i was given as well as that when releasing i was jerking the string. I think its all sorted now. I am hitting fairly consistently today, at that extremly close range, and the arrows are not hitting sideways anymore. I had some help and i think i might be on the right track now. This is much more different from a compound bow than I realized, but it's much more fun to me also. The arrows I'm using are actually the spine the easton site recomends for the weight of the feild points, draw length etc. for a recurve. I guess now I should just keep practicing.