This design was originally inspired by Tracy Bullock’s thread on Archery Talk (unfortunately the link to the thread had to be removed as it no longer exists.) The design appealed to me because of the simplicity of the design, easily available materials and the ability to refresh the target to a new state. It can be made to fit any size area and if the right lumber and other materials are used, should last a very long time.
The Design
All frame materials are readily available at any lumber/hardware store:
- 2×12 kiln dried boards (kiln dried to minimize any future warping)
- 1×4 framing
- Tarp/burlap
- Chickenwire
- Filling: discarded clothing with any hard objects removed (zippers, buttons, etc.)
Full height of the target design is 60″ with a shootable area of approximately 36″x36″. All wood is sealed and waterproofed.
The frame is fastened together with screws and the front cover that holds the target face (tarp/burlap) in place is held on by screws. This will make the cover easy to remove and replace without damaging the main frame.
The Build
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 or similar), 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.
Main frame pieces cut and ready to go
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.
Cutting out the top hole
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.
Squaring the frame before screwing together
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.
Attaching the chicken wire
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.
Wire ties across the bottom layer of denim
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 stopping power should be increased. It takes a lot of clothing to fill up a target this size. The picture below shows the target after putting in about five large garbage sacks!
Packing in the layers
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.
All framed in
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! It sure looks nice, but that means nothing if it doesn’t stop arrows well. 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.
First test shots
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.
Update and Maintenance
It’s time to take a look at the target I built approximately two years ago (spring 2010) and see how it is holding up and what needs to be done to maintain it. Since it was meant to last a lifetime, we’ll look at how it’s doing and if it’s on course to last.
Last spring I had noticed that there was a noticeable bulge out the back of the target that resulted from many thousands of arrow impacts. I tipped the target onto its face and stomped on the back of the target to flatten it back out. It seemed like it would be a good idea to add some reinforcement to the back of the target in the form of a couple of 2x4s screwed across the back face to try to stem the backward bulge from happening again.
This ended up working well for a short time, but the high energy impact of repeated shooting actually popped the screws right out of the back of the target and blew the 2x4s right off. I tried much longer screws and this lasted a bit longer, but in the end the result was the same. The sharp, repeated impacts of the arrows were too much for the supports and I eventually abandoned the idea. Lesson learned!
For now I’ve decided just to deal with the bulge by pushing it back out every 6-8 weeks. I have contemplated putting a hinged plate that covers the entire back of the target that would be made of particle board (not as rough on arrows as plywood should they make it through the body of the target.) The board could possibly be covered in some type of rubber and the hinge would allow it some give to minimize the chance of arrow damage.
Otherwise the material in the target needed some refreshing as there were some weak spots where the material had been shot a lot or otherwise moved around. First I used a pole to do a good general pack down from the top. Of course the two sides of the chicken wire are wire together and this method didn’t really move the material around the ties too well.
The second step was to take a rod (old arrow shaft) and to stick it through the chicken wire and work the cloth downwards and pack it tighter. This did a great job overall in moving the material around and packing it tighter overall. However, there were some individual spots that were hard to pack tight using this method, mostly due to the wire ties again. The solution is simple: socks! I’ve been saving all my holey socks for just this purpose.
Using the rod again, I pushed the socks into individual voids that could have used a little extra filler. Other small rags or torn up t-shirts would work just as well, I just so happened to have a plethora of socks to use. All this packing left a bit of a void up top so I packed in a dozen or so old shirts to top the target off.
The front of the target that is covered with the weed barrier is finally showing some decent wear and I’ll probably replace it in a couple of months. There are a few spots where direct hits with arrow points has severed the chicken wire itself. Rather than have a sharp wire poke out, I trimmed a couple of these back. When I replaced the covering, I’ll also remove the chicken wire and put and new layer in place.
All of this work took maybe half an hour, and the target is packed tighter than ever and ready for more shots. It’s stopping arrows better than ever with the newly packed material and other than the face showing some wear after nearly two years, it’s going strong.
The target face made of the weed stopper fabric has performed much better than I had expected. I had figured that by now I would have had to change it, but it’s still holding up quite well even in the most worn sections. This choice of material was made somewhat because I had some laying around. However, it turned out to be a great material and I would highly recommend it’s use to anyone considering a target like this.
I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical when this project began as to how well this target would perform. So far I have almost zero complaints and though I have had to do a little maintenance here and there, the work has been minimal and the shooting has been great!
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry folks! When I updated this article I lost all of the old comments
Seems the last thing I would want to do with my new Lightspeeds is shoot at metal chicken wire which would rip them to shreds…why would this NOT happen. Curious
This question always comes up and I thought the same at first! I have had zero damage to any of my shafts while shooting at this target. The arrow point will deflect off of the chicken wire, forcing the arrow to the side. This does have the drawback of having the final resting point of your arrow be slightly off from where it originally hit if you hit the wire head on, but it’s a minor complaint. I have shot everything from Victory VAPs (very small diameter) to GT 30Xs (very large diameter) shafts and had no issues thus far.
I would like to see an article on the new round vane design you are using.
Type of rest needed, benefits..the good and bad etc
Bob,
You can read a little more about the FOBs here: http://archeryreport.com/2009/10/fletching-review-speed-drop/ and here: http://archeryreport.com/2010/06/fobs-fletching-rest-rocket/
They have been a popular subject and I will be doing a full write-up featuring them in the near future..
What keeps it from falling over with all the arrow force? It seems kinda high to be balanced that easily on 2x12s. It also looks like it would weigh a ton and not be easily transportable for events?
Judith,
It’s actually very stable with the cross beam feet on the bottom. You can make them as long as you want depending on where you are placing the target. If I were to place it out in the open with lots of wind, I might make the feet a little longer.
I would not take my version to events as it is quite heavy. With the 2x12s and 3′x3′ face, that’s a lot of stuffing inside! Eventually I plan on making a smaller, portable version that will probably use 2x10s and be 2′x2′ and without the taller legs. That should make it about a third of it’s current weight.
Ach, I see. There’s no pic in your tutorial that actually shows the full view with the cross beams, so that was throwing me off.
If you look at the first image with the exploded view of the parts used, you can see it there. I should add a finished photograph that shows it better.
Excellent, thanks. Nice design.
do you think a plastic mesh would work better than the wire or no difference.
The plastic mesh has been tried by people before with mixed results. The two biggest issues are that it will bulge and stretch more when pack the clothes in and that it will get shot up by the arrows and have to be replaced more often.
Wow, I built one today and got out to shoot it. This thing works…very well. It is straight forward to build, even got the kid’s involved.
As long as we can hit the target there will be no more lost arrows. Thanks for the step by step instructions and pictures, they went a long way to describe what you built here.
Thanks again, it’s a long way to bow season but this is going to pass the time nicely.
G.
Greg,
It’s great to hear that you got one built and are using it already! Hopefully yours will bring you as much shooting and fun as mine had.
I’m glad you did the updated write up. Planning to put one of these together soon.
happy hunting, dv
Nice write up! Loved the design. I’ve been wanting to build my son a target and you’ve provided the final pieces! I plan to use the frame design filled with layers of dense straw rugs (from garden ridge) with a couple of layers of the weed stop material between them. I also plan to build a 1×1 subframe behind the main frame, hinged at the top with a chain stay on the cross member. I like the wire also.. However, to prevent sagging, i think i’ll put a couple of wood rods vertically in the back. I think drilling through the top and half way through the bottom of the frame to allow the rods to spin would go a long way. Can’t wait to get started! Thanks again for posting you knowledge!
Did I miss something about removing the chicken wire? The only reason I’m asking is because this is a wonderful target design, but wouldn’t you have an increased risk for damaged or broken carbon arrows?
The chicken wire has never done any damage to my arrows. Because you are shooting with steel points, the points will hit the wire first (when they do at all) and deflect the arrow off to the side slightly. Every once in a while you may hit a wire direct enough, and I just periodically trim these off so there are no “pokies.” Eventually the chicken wire will have to be replaced.
I have not shot for 5 years and decided it was a great time to get back to business. I purchased a new bow “Hoyt Alphamax 32″ and the shop who set me up has 3 of this style targets. 5 feet high by 20 feet wide. I was skeptical at first but now after using the range for weeks I decided to build one just like it. The version I built is very similiar to your plans. 95% of the time the wire is never hit and when it does it deflects slightly to the side. Thanks for the plans and easy to follow instructions.
Thanks for the great instructions. I have been looking all over the place for an inexpensive target. I can’t wait to get it built and start shooting at it.
Great plans, thanks for the information! Two quick questions… Would this target work well with low poundage bows (25lb-35lb)? Do you think the arrows would stick well? Also, after shooting at it for a while, do you still think it needs to be 12 inches deep, or would 10 inches work?
James, I have found that my daughters’ bows will sometimes bounce off, but most often they will stick fine. Even my son’s bow at 40 lbs maybe have an occasional bounce out, but even down to 20 lbs they stick most of the time.
For the depth I still prefer 12″, especially with my heavier, higher-penetrating hunting arrows. It’s tough to stop my Easton ST Axis arrows and I have to re-pack the material every now and then to keep things tight. Even my lightweight 3D arrows that are fatter will often poke out the back if I don’t keep the material packed well. I think you could get away with 10″ if you pack it tight and keep it that way, but I’d still recommend 12″ if you can do it.
Any issue with the clothes getting wet and moldy??? It looks as if your back is open and I would think the clothes would be a problem. Do you have yours under cover or is it not an issue? And also what do you think of the shrink wrap material instead of clothes?
I am just rounding up my supplies for one of these and great plans!
Thanks
chris, I keep my covered with a tarp at this time. Eventually I plan to build a roof over the whole thing, but that’s a project that keeps getting delayed! On occasion it has gotten wet, but a decent sunny day takes care of it pretty quick. In the past I have used different plastics/shrink wraps and the biggest issue I had with them is that some would melt and/or stick to the shafts. I was constantly cleaning stuff off of the shafts and am much happier with the fabric now.
G’Day,
We have been building butts out of recycled carpet. we cut it about 400mm deep and the width of the butt, stack it up flat and compress it with 4wd jacks and screw the top down, we need no wire on them, the only cost is the timber frame as carpet companies cannot give us enough carpet. we have been shooting these butts outside and in for a year now and they are still perfect, plus the arrows pull out very easily
People can also try the acoustic ceiling panels, bought at Home Depot for cheep. $20
They are SIZE: 2 x 2′ sq.
Just cut them in half for 12′ and that doubles your wide and gives you 12 ” deep, which is perfect.
They give a person ease to keep together with just some cloths hanger wire through the corners.
Another method is:
Go to Carpet store and ask for Reminiscent pieces of scrap. Cut them to size and press them flat togeather and the upright them. Using Wire as well, which will pull them together and then shoot through them lengthwise and 12-18″ deep. This will last years 2 or more with average shooting.
If you have trouble putting holes through materials, then go to Home Depot and buy the drill bit for 10-15$ that electrical people use which is very fine 1/8th bit, by 12″ long, that they use to go through the walls, works great to run your wire binding.
Also if you want cheep wire, go to the Concrete section and use re-bar wire tie wire in a small spool for $6 bucks they have. It has to be flattened to thread through the shooting matter, but it is pretty easy after you have done a couple through. You then tie the wire to a Large washer and pull tight.
We have made MANY of these and all for CHEEP $ and do not need Chicken wire, which can be costly for even a small bit, depending where you buy it. Hardware stores charge allot for chicken wire and it is just as well to use coat hanger and or Concrete re-bar wire and very cheep in a spool of that with washer tie offs.
Hope this can help some people make there own Targets and these hold up for Years, depending how you keep them in the weather. We use tarp, for off season and rain, then they do not rot or Mold up if not brought in from the rains. The Mold can make people sick, if you are susceptible to this.
Some interesting ideas there. I have used carpet in the past and was not happy with it because it was abrasive to the arrows.
The beauty of the DiY target with chicken wire and clothes is that it’s eternally able to be replenished; it takes little maintenance and can literally last forever if taken care of.
waiting for the book on tips and shooting how long? Ron
Michael great design and awsome step by step plans. Wish I had seen this before I tried to put together my plans. Anyway, we just came out with a DIY Range Target Skin that will fit your target perfectly. It is a skin that is 36″x36″. Why would you want it? It is guaranteed for life. The skin is made of the same material used in our Rag Bags which have been proven to out last any commercially made target to date. Using the skin eliminates the need to use chicken wire. It also eliminates reenforcement on the back. As the target starts to bulge, just turn it and shoot the other side. http://www.thirdhandarchery.com products DIY Range Target Skins.
Hello,
I stumbled upon this article while googling for DIY archery targets. I realized I had everything lying around and got to work immediately. This article provided much inspiration, guidance and motivation.
I’ve run out of screws, but the local store is open on sunday mornings so I’ll have it finished by tomorrow evening. I’ll use an old mattress to catch my arrows, it’s done a wonderful job at previous DIY attempts. This will be a great target without doubt.
Thank you for writing this article.
Nice article.
I have a similar target.
A 39 in square frame of 2×1 covered in an old piece of shade cloth. I have stuffed mine with old quilts, grain sacks, plastic shopping bags, a bit more shade cloth. All scraps.
I focussed on synthetics and a light frame so that the target could be liftable and in fact it is hung from the ceiling and removed after each session.
Deep in my garage I found a sheet of rubber floor mat, I have one layer of this at the back of the target, it prevents the bulging.
what brand of ground cover i bought extra heavy from home depoe and its not holding up chicken wire is and no damage to my arrows
Jim,
To be honest, I don’t know what brand the ground cover is that I have. It was actually left behind by the previous home owner, many years ago. It is very thick and has yellow marking lines down it. I am able to get at least a couple of years of fairly intense shooting out of it.
I think I found the cloth he used at Lowes. It’s a woven material that looks similar, brand name is Hanes Heavy Duty Silt Fence 3′x50′ for $20.
May I ask what kind of board woods you used? Lowes seems to have a pretty wide variety of kiln-dried boards; did you go the cheapest route or something pricier to hold up? How is the wood doing after so long?