jachunter

How do you shoot into hay bales without getting pass throughs? I've done that and the arrow just blows right through. Those big round ones used to stop my 45lb aluminum arrows. But make sure you douse those things down with ant killer...Ants love 'em!

mauser06

the original poster was using the backstop as extra protection INCASE he/she missed the TARGET i believe. in that case i think hay bales would work fine. i wouldnt use hay bales as a target with todays bows. id think they would more then likely wind up burried prettttty good. im going to be in the same dilema hopefully if i get my bow i want. my yard is fenced in. one neighbor has kids that play in his back yard and theres only one fence so i dont think ill shoot that direction. the back of the yard there is a school...but its empty for the summer and brick(i may shoot that direction..theres a fence between me and it) the other is a doubled fence..the neighbors put up there own against ours...i may shoot that direction. i dont wanna shot towards the front yard because the fence is new and thinner then the original..though all wood fencing. i have an old over grown apple tree at the corner of the double fence and the school fence. i may shoot into that corner and trim out the apple tree. but no matter what direction i shot i plan on building a hay bale wall. i heard carpet works very good at stopping arrows so ill put a layer in there somewhere. maybe a layer onfront of the hay..in between the wall(2 bales thick 3 high should work well enough...if i miss that bad i shouldnt be shooting! lol) and thena layer on the back sideright before the fence. that should stop a bullet let alone an arrow. 3 layers of carpet...2 layers of hay bales and 2 wooden fences. i am more then sure the arrow will stay in there somewhere and no worries. thats JUST IF i miss my target. be careful shooting inside city limits. check the laws. you really dont wanna get caught doing something like that if illegal. im lucky i live juuuuuust outside city limits by a few houses and live in the township where im fine but still wanna be safe doing it. if caught they could probably confinscate your gear and leave you with a stiff fine or something along those lines. depending on how the situation is and everything. just because you say you live in a city you may have a big yard and it would be safe to shoot a bow in. just gota be smart and be careful. the last thing you want is a biggggg uht ohhhhhh or OMG...lol. you could get real fancy and build a whole building to stack the hay bales into etc. my buddy did that. its almost like a mimi tool shed. he built it because theres nothing but houses and fields around(though the houses are 100s and 100s of yards away. better to be safe then sorry. so he built it and put a roof on it and a thick board on the back. it holds 3 bales high and 2 across. keeps the bales dry and they last a long time too.

Dairy King

Round bales? Im not sure how big your yard is, but you might have some trouble getting a round bale into your yard. You would have to have a tractor either bring it in, or atleast unload it off the trailer. I guess you could just roll it off and hope it doesnt keep rolling through your fence or whatever. You might want to rethink that idea. Just a thought!

Snood Slapper

Something else you might consider...in a lot of cities (if that is where you are at), at least here in KS, it is illegal to shoot bows in the city limits.

As far as the styrofoam I was talking about, we've not had any problems whatsoever with it at our archery club with relation to it "melting". I've shot 410 grain arrows at about 290 fps into it with no ill affects. Now, you wouldn't want to use it for broadheads, but it stops FT's just fine. It is not like the packing foam you get with your TV or something like that. It is very dense and made to protect and support a heavy load like a PTO shaft and such.

turtleshell

Try it with the switchback, I bet you will have different results

Amhrdwd

Friend of mine showed me this trick. go to your local Grocery store and ask for their empty carboard boxes. Break them open and cut them down to 4 or 5 inch strips. Get some wood 2x4'sto build a base stand. Now on top of the stand you use a 2x6 for the bottom and a 2x6 for a top, cut to desired width for your backing. Drill a hole on each side so it looks like this
__________________
:O O
__________________:

(sorry about the drawing skills)
Center the holes (represented with the O's) on each side, and do this to both 2x6's. Attach bottom to the stand you made out of 2x4's.

Now You buy some threaded rod, bolts and washers from your local hardware store. You thread the rods through the holes you made, with washers and bolts on the outside of the 2x6's. Add your cardboard ( you will need quite a bit for a descent sized backing) and tighten the bolts to compress the cardoard. Most supermarkets will be happy to give you their empty cardboard boxes. And the lumber should be cheap enough.

You can tape a target to the cardboard get creative. Once the carboard is used up you can replace it. Buy this point you shouldn't have to replace all the cardboard.


=l============l= l threaded rods
lxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxlx Carboard
lxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl = 2x6 compresion boards
lxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl m 2x4 base stand
=l============l=
mmmmm
m m
m m

drstalker

For a target backstop,one thing that I am going to put together(and I think it will work)is some repair screen.I am going to double and /or maybe tripple it in thickness,then span the upper part with rope and tie the ends off from tree to tree,then I will leave the bottom loose to float, so that when arrows hit it willmove tohelp stop a blow through.The screen material I have actually seen in some bag targets,it is made of what looks like fiberglass or maybesome fabric of a sort.It's not cheap though.

Jerry/NJ

Why not just use a thick sheet of plywood? Paint it to protect it from the weather and maybe put in a couple of posts to support it.

ilovehunting

Thanks for the thought Amhrdwd, sounds like a good idea. The fact that I work at a grocery store may help in getting boxesI can take as many as I want so that would work great.

Bow_hunter15

I use a big celser bail the work good there the ones that are rapped in plastic