I know this should be in the bowhunting forum but I am sure there are archery hunters here. I used to shoot at cardboard boxes with flatten cardboard stuffed in one box. It worked but pulling the arrows out was not fun. So I took the idea of those commercial targets that use layered foam pads and set my cardboard target on its side. So I was shooting at layered cardboard. It actually worked. It slowed down the arrow and pulling the arrows out is easy.

Good idea buckmine ,
how would it stand up to a .54 cal. muzzleloader round ?
Seriously , I' ll have to give that a try , thanks !

Actually, that idea is not really new. I know of several pro shops who used layers of cardboard compressed between two by fours and long set screws. As the target is shot up then they tighten the screws to get the thicker density again.

PABowhntr, Thet do that at my pro shop, They tighten down on threaded rods, Great Idea But where would someone get that much cardboard?

i used to work at an appliance place and i took cardboard from tvs, stoves, refigerators etc. i should get some more from them.

go to wal mart, they will give you all the cardboard you want

Our local range that I' ve been going to for years does that exact thing (indoor range). They' ve got 5 lanes in front of 5' x5' ' blocks' of compressed-stacked cardboard (they' ve got blocks on top with screw vises through them to keep everything in place). They get it from local businesses, it' s only like 18" thick, but it' ll stop an arrow in a big ol' hurry, even when I' m shooting 125#.

Only problem is that broadheads rip them up bad, so they aren' t allowed there. (I shoot expandable C.O.I' s, so I don' t have to worry about it though.)

I managed an archery shop where we had the automatic lanes, Motorized, and we used the cardboard like that all the time. We would buy the cardboard from someone who cut it to size for us to fit our targets. We also had that backed up with bales of excelsior straw. If it got too shot out, you would need to replace the cardboard periodically. It works real nice !!