im new to bowhunting and i was just wondering if any of you guys know of anything i can use around the house to make a good target to shoot at. i dont want to have to go out and spend a bunch of money. thanks for the help

Hello and welcome MTHunter15 -

I have made a TON of different targets. The best one for home building is the "carpet target". This has been made the same way for years. It is not unlike the "new" block design. All you need is some carpet old or new and cut it into strips of no more than three inches thick and about three to four feet long. This is kind of labor intensive but they last a long time. Just cut and stack until you get the height you like. The trick is to fasten them all in a tight form stack. I like to run a couple of four foot treaded poles of about 5/8 through the outside edges of the carpet and two four by fours to clamp it. These are heavy as hell and I would assemble it at the area you will shoot.
On the other hand you could just go out and by some hay bails. They are the best for the price.
Have fun
DOA

Hi MThunter15,
Many of the targets on the market today are nothing more than different types of bags stuffed with screen scraps. My hunting partner made several targets with burlap bags and screen scraps that he got for free at a local hardware store. Stuff the bag tight and it will stop high speed bows shooting carbon arrows. Nice part is they are cheap and light weight.

Ted

I just stuffed a couple of my kids' old sleeping bags in a large trash bag. I have since changed the trash bag to a canvas bag and so far it works great and has lasted me two full years. I don't think I would use broadheads on it unless I had a couple extra canvas bags laying around.

I use a large paper bale that I bought from a recycler, it is pretty heavy but works great. You can also take a burlap bag and fill it with plastic shooping bags it make a good target but needs a new bag fairly often.

MThunter15, try this site

http://thunder.prohosting.com/~mfoster/archery/targets.html

Have fun and let us know how you make out

Back to the stove
Turtle

Use Dirt....it's.....dirt cheap.

For broadhead practice I use a paper cup in front of a dirt berm. Very safe and not too hard on your broadheads.

BTW - You want to be sure that the soil is not full of rocks.

Old Boogey boards!

I use an old school bag filled with scraps of cloth and rug.

It's made for portability (using the two back straps), and I can retreive the arrows with my thumb and index!

A seed bag or burlap bag stuffed with plastic shopping bags works well. It takes a long time to get enough bags, but it is a great way to recycle them. Pack them tight and an arrow will not go through them. I shoot 64 pounds and my arrows only penetrate about four or five inches at 20 yards.

If you try the 'homemade' targets and find you are spending more time/money building/fixing them, I'd highly recommend one of the Morrells Eternity Targets - they last for ever and you can pull out the arrows with two fingers. It's well worth the money (maybe you can get someone to buy one for you as a gift).

I have used hay bails before thay make good targets but make sure you pull your brodheads out the back side.