How to Build an Archery Target Backing

Video Transcript

"Did you know that most people think they can use anything they want to stop a target arrow? Well, there's some things that you can use and some things you can't. My name is Joe and we're going to show you some of the things that you can do to build your own or make your own target backing. One of the things that you can do, probably the most cost effective, is dock foam. Dock foam is simply that, you find them on lakes, it will cost you no more than the time to go down and pick it up if its floating in the lake and its disconnected from wherever it once was. This works pretty good for practice points and hunting points and its been used for decades and decades, probably the most used target ever. One of the other things that you can use is layered foam that would be used from packing material. These are usually found in shipping warehouses or the actual manufacturers that make this and that works well too. One other thing that you can use is a burlap sack. You can usually pick these up at a feed store. You can stuff them with recycled plastics like your extra food mart bags or whatever materials that you would like. The more dense the plastic is, the better it works. This bag weighs about 40 pounds and so the more you can get in there the better it will be. Its like a big pillow at that point. So they're only made for fill points, the other layered materials that we were talking about, the dock foam and the layered foam, they may be used for either or fill points or broad heads or your hunting points. Now one thing that gets people into trouble is with today's compound bows, you can't always stop an arrow with just one of these. You have to set them up in certain layers or certain configurations to be able to stop these bows because they shoot so fast and they have so much more kinetic energy than they did even 10 years ago. So be very careful when you do that and if you do have any questions, you can always contact your local pro shop and they'll give you some of the ideas they have for being able to do that and they'll probably show you some other ones that are probably going to work better. And one of the ones that are going to work better are typically manufactured by different companies and they'll do the same type of job. Most dense, more compressed materials inside of it. This one weights about the same as the larger material but its going to last a little bit longer. The one I'm sitting on is made for broad heads only. Its layered foam but when you only shoot a practice point into it, what happens is you can't pull that out very easy because it didn't cut a path. One of them that's kind of multipurpose is this one right here. Its a compressed cellular foam and what happens there is you can shoot fill points or broad heads into it and it will last for a long time. A minimum of a year guarantee on this specific target. And as they get better and they get more dense and they last longer, they typically cost more. Another option is the bails that you see here. These are 240 pound compressed hay bails that have 3 metal bands that hold them together. So they cost about 100 dollars a piece and these will stop today's compound bows at point blank range. They're a lot different than the ones you would see laying on a farm with regular straw ties holding them together. So when you shoot at those, you only want to use practice points unless you have a youth shooting at a really low poundage bow or recursed style bow that the smaller ones may work. For an adult shooting a compound bow, you typically would only shoot at something pretty heavy duty at least consisting of about a 90 pound bail or heavier and you would want to have that and test it first. If you're shooting up to the fletches or the feathers on your arrow, you would want to replace that target with something better. And again, my name is Joe and I hope this has helped."