What is the best target butt material?

[sevenmil]

I just started getting back into archery and recently made a red oak bow. Been using sugar cane mulch in plastic bags (landscaping mulch), however they aren't the best.

What are people commonly using for target butts?

[rmcpb]

A couple of old boogy boards taped together with cardboard on the outside.

[bigbob]

I have a large wool bale with compressed plastic wrap stuffed in it. stops an arrow very quick, but is certainly not very maneuverable. Lucky it just sits in the one spot

[GrahameA]

Morning.

I just started getting back into archery and recently made a red oak bow. Been using sugar cane mulch in plastic bags (landscaping mulch), however they aren't the best.

What are people commonly using for target butts?

What do you want the buttress to be and do? There are many choices available and each of them are made to comply with different criteria. It all depend on what you want.

[Fanto]

hessian or poly sack full of old clothes or wetsuit works great.

[hazard]

Many who attend Wisemans would say to use old pillows tied up like a present 4-5 work well.

council clean up really supplies some usefull stuff

and supply replacements every now and than when you wear it out

That's the answer I got when I asked the exact question.

[woodie]

I read somewhere about using news papers stacked up with a piece of ply top and bottom and use a ratchet strap or two to compact it all. The only problem is you would have to cover it or bring it inside.
I have not tried it but I will one day.
woodie

[little arrows]

we use a wool bale stuffed with hessian bags that have been stuffed with plastic shopping bags.

cheers
sue

[Jim]

About a year ago I made a target that is essentially a wooden box with stacked carpet inside. It cost just about nothing as it was virtually all scraps.



It's been excellent but not very mobile at all, those wheels pretty much allow me to move it under the patio when it rains. I have a hessian sack full of clothes I use as a blunt target that's mobile, but I have little faith in its ability to stop pointy arrows

Jim

[sevenmil]

Thank you guys, all very innovative.

Anyone used stramit board, there are a few advertisers pushing this as a good target butt? Any other materials you guys using?

[Mick Smith]

We used to have Stramit butts at the archery club, but they weren't popular with members. Stramit is too hard on your arrows, as it pulls them up too quickly and it's also too hard to pull your arrows out. Later on, we provided a few different sorts of butts, including the Stramits, but we retired the Stramits as nobody liked using them when they didn't have to.

Personally, I think a good butt can be made up quite cheaply by using a roughly hand sewn shell of shade cloth filled with compressed scrap plastic. This makes a durable and weatherproof butt.

I have also had excellent service from a portable butt I bought from Cabelas many years ago. It has had thousands of arrows shot into it and it's still going .... just.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunting/ ... t103978980


I have just recently bought a Rinehart 18 to 1 portable target to replace the Cabelas Block. Time will tell how it performs.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunting/ ... t103978980

[sevenmil]

Thanks Mick, very helpful

[yeoman]

I bought two packs of EVA foam mats for I think $15 each. They're the mats with jigsaw edges you put together for a safe play mat for kids etc. They're about two and a half feet square.

Great for target arrows, not sure how long they'd last with broadheads.

[GrahameA]

Thank you guys, all very innovative.

Anyone used stramit board, there are a few advertisers pushing this as a good target butt? Any other materials you guys using?

Stramit was used by many Target clubs. Most of those clubs have removed Stramit butts from them and replaced them with alternatives. On a personal basis I would not shoot arrows I own into Stramit. If that was all that was available I would arrange for something else.

[CraigH]

I just started getting back into archery and recently made a red oak bow. Been using sugar cane mulch in plastic bags (landscaping mulch), however they aren't the best.

What are people commonly using for target butts?

Neoprene. Old chopped up wetsuits, stubby holders in a hessian bag. Bit heavy, but stops the arrows well.

[paulM]

Hessian bag (dog bed) filled with plastic. light and manoeuvrable.

[morganp]

I find the easiest and almost completely recyclable setup is one of the oldest and most traditional, a small bale of lucerne (or similar hay appropriate to your area) for just a few dollars and old pillows. Hays are softer than straws on your slickest arrow designs but either will do the job. Many farmers still make them and you can still get them in most garden centers if you are in the city.

No pass-throughs yet in fifteen years of doing this but drape carpet over back if you are concerned or put a bale behind the bale. These bales are easy enough to lift and move (use a wheelbarrow if you are a bit crook). The tightness and weight can vary depending on the farmer but if it all falls to pieces - well then it is instant mulch/fertiliser, on the spot or on a garden bed nearby. You can cut a bale and put a disposable laundry bag/hessian sack/old carpet round it if you wish. Stack them, turn them end on, whatever you want!

I just grab old cushions or pillows (as these days the missus replaces those every few months) and a plastic bag from, you guessed it, the 'TARGET' store over that, that gives an instant red roundel at approx. 50/100/150 mm! Some of my bales have been around for ten years and have turned to grass-grown piles of weeds but still do the job. I even got a crop of peas from one lot of pea-straw bales.

I did try the traditional, medieval (?) twisted rope on a board but it grabbed arrows, especially broadheads.

Why spend hours or many dollars when hay bales are so easy and if used right can do an excellent job without any comments from passing greenies? Safety note: I did find that if modern pillows were crushed into bags very, very tightly, sometimes field points even bounced off them, so don't overpack them! You can pull arrows right through pillows without damage and just steam any ruffled fletching back into place.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2i3iu64wywdrc ... target.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7fd3b879lhobt ... e%2010.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pn7lovwh25znl ... e%2020.jpg

That last shot is 20 odd meters paced, camera makes it look much more! Those bales cost $3.50 each, more than ten years ago and have absorbed many hundreds of various arrows - good value eh? Cheap pillows these days cost just $5. The plastic bags are also bio-degradable.