A few months back I began plans on building a new archery target (original post here) that would stop just about anything thrown at it and I’ve finally been able to find the time to finish the project. I had originally planned on making the target 10″ thick but after reading more about similar targets and considering that I want to shoot high-energy
and small diameter arrows (Easton ST Axis), I decided to go with a little more stopping power and a 12″ thick target.
The first step was to go on a little shopping trip to get all the necessary materials for the target. A quick trip to Lowes resulted in a couple of eight foot long 2x 12s, two eight foot 1x4s, some 3/8″ staples and a bunch of sizes of wood screws since I was running low on them anyhow. Next stop was at the local farm supply store to buy a roll of 36″ chicken wire. At home I already had a large roll of weed control ground cover to finish things off.
Next I cut the 2x12s into two sections, a five foot length and a three foot length. This resulted in zero waste of the wood and exactly what I needed. Using oil-based Minwax, all boards were thoroughly stained with a couple of thick coats to protect against the elements and give the wood a nice rustic look. By using the oil-based stain and lots of it, the boards will survive well outdoors without needed any other treatment other than a touch up every couple of years to keep the wood from drying out.
Next up was to cut the top hole into which the arrow-stopping material would be placed. I picked the tightest-grained, densest boards that I could find and not much is going to cut through them than a good solid blade. For this the trusty ol’ Porter Cable radial saw was the perfect tool. After marking out the cut-out, I made for cuts with the saw and then trimmed out what was left of the corners with a jigsaw.
The main target frame consists of the two five foot boards forming the vertical sides with the three footers forming the top and bottom. A long time ago I learned that if you want a truly square structure, a couple of clamps and squaring tool go a long ways to making this easy and possible. After the squaring jig and clamps were in place, I put four, 6″ wood screws in to each intersection of boards.
With the frame complete, it was time to break out the chicken wire and get it into place. Because the actual target area is three feet square, the 36″ chicken wire was easy to cut and line up. I used a very generous amount of staples to secure the wire. By wrapping the wire around the sides of the frame a bit, it will prevent the chicken wire from coming off after all the abuse the target is sure to go through. There are rows of staples along the front of the frame as well as the side to solidly anchor the wire. After using the staple gun to place all of the staples, a solid whack with a hammer seated them fully.
Now it was time to start stuffing the target with the clothing. From hearing of other people’s experiences I knew that denim would do well at stopping arrows, but also tends to be tougher to pull the arrows from. Because of this I made the very bottom layers out of our discarded jeans where the arrows are less likely to hit and saved the shirts and other thinner cloth for the top layers. To prevent the chicken wire from bulging out as the stuffing was piled up, I placed a row of three tie wires for about every 9″ of stuffing.
Before beginning to stuff all of the clothes and rags in, I made sure to remove anything that could potentially damage an arrow. All zippers, metal buttons or other hard objects were removed. Any clothes with silk screens or anything I thought might rub off on or melt on an arrow I separated and put towards the edges of the target.
As the layers built up I altered between stuffing and rolling the clothes up to get the densest packing possible. By making rolls of cloth and packing the spaces between with cut up pieces the arrow stoppign power should be increased. It takes a lot of clothing to fill up a target this size. The picture to the right shows the target after putting in about five large garbage sacks!
Once the target was filled it was time to put on the front frame and face. I decided to use weed barrier ground cover for the face because of its durability and soft texture. In the past I have used the ubiquitous blue tarps for target faces and found them to be very noisy (the arrows make a loud “smack” on impact) and the blue coloring will rub off on the arrows. The soft, yet durable weed barrier will hopefully make a quieter and more user friendly surface. I also like the black color because when setting a bow up and shooting with bright fletchings, it’s easy to see how the arrow is flying against the black background color.
The ground cloth was tacked into place with a few staples and then framed in with the 1x4s and a few screws up each side. When the target face wears out, it should be a simple and quick task to remove the screws, attach and new face and replace the frame. Even though the weed barrier should weather well, I plan on putting a lot of arrows into it and want to be able to replace it easily and quickly.
The only thing left to do was to stick a few arrows into the target and see how it would perform!
These first shots were taken with a Bowtech Destroyer 350 and a 490 grain arrow which results in just under 100 ft.-lbs. of kinetic energy; definitely not an easy arrow to stop! The arrows penetrated about 6-8″ and stopped dead.
The total cost for this project was probably under $40 by the time I include all the materials I had on hand. Time to build was around three hours with several interruptions. Anytime the target begins to get shot out, the cloth inside can be re-packed and/or new stuffing added and it should literally last a lifetime if cared for. For now the target is covered in a tarp when I am not shooting to protect it from the elements but in the future I will be building a more permanent structure around it.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Micheal,
I’ve got some questions about the chicken wire,
1.What are they made of? Did you use stainless steel or galvenized wire?
2.Which size of mesh is best for the job? 1″? 1.5″? 2″?
Thank you!
Frank L.
Frank,
I used the basic chicken wire that I could get at my local farm and feed store. There was only one type I could find locally, galvanized with 1″ measurement across the flats. If I had a choice, I would go for the larger mesh size if I could find it because every time you hit the wire, it will deflect your arrow a bit.