A Backyard Archery Range

[Ernildir]

My family and I recently moved to a new house with an acre for a backyard. Obviously, this is enough space to be able to practice archery without the need to drive out to an archery range. Do any of you have experience with setting up a backyard archery range? Any tips on how I could get started? Hay or straw bales, perhaps? Any information would be welcome and appreciated.

Thanks.

[Eledhwen]

I use burlap targets laced to simple frames. You can make frames from PVC as freestanding if you like. Mine use something called a portable hole..three pieces of wood, two elbow joints, two portable holes.

A backstop will help prevent lost arrows.

Eledhwen

[Peter Remling]

They used to make an item called Excelsior bales, these were bales of wood shavings bound together in the approximate size and shape of a hay bale. They were used for back stops for arrows as regular hay bales are too loose to guarantee no penetration. They don't appear to still be made and when they did they were quite expensive, $35 a bale in this was in the mid 70s.

What I'd recommend is making a earth butte , similar to those used in England and Europe during the Middle Ages.

In their time, natural occuring rifts were augmented with additional earthworks to form a good arrow stop. Today, I'd suggest you make a 2x4 framework, 4-6' high by 8' long and 18" deep. Line the outside of vertical frame with plywood, fill with dampened earth, sans stones. If you live in a dry clime, add loose hay to the earth mix to help bind it all together. Allow to set for several days and remove the plywood panels. You will have a earth wall backstop, that will stop arrows shot from even the most powerful bows.

Damage from use can easily be repaired by the application of semi-dry mud patches. If it starts to dry out and crumble, lightly spray it with a garden hose and let it set again.

The initial set up takes a lot of work (unless you have a backhoe handy) but maintainance is a breeze.

[Greg]

Wow, Pete. That sounds like a ton of fun to put together!

I have hay bales as my backstop. The only initial problem is that arrows occasionally get shot between two bales, which makes them penetrate farther, sometimes up to the fletching. "Oh well...it was gonna get ruffled sometime anyway."

A more prolonged problem is rot. Cover them up with a tarp when not in use if they'll start to rot from the inside out when the rain comes. If you pull an arrow from the bale and you find that the tip is warm, even hot, it's NOT from friction. The hay is heating up inside as it rots. Not detrimental, but it will shorten the life of your target butts.

Get a LOT of bales unless you really trust your accuracy. Accidents happen, and you don't want to miss your backstop completely. Put your target on the middle; if you have 9 bales set up 3-wide by 3-high, put it on the center one to protect from wayward shots. Then, ideally, you should get enough to have them 2 bales deep to help hold them up, too. I've knocked the top bale off the stack completely with my 60#er before...they're not very sturdy stacked on their own.

Always shoot at the top/bottom (open ends) of the bales. Arrows are easier to withdraw, you're not breaking hay/straw strands with every shot, and you can shoot broadheads without nearly any worry that you'll cut/break the cords holding the bales together.

Lastly, if you have the materials, set up a piece of plywood behind the bales. The occasional "crack between the bales" shot can wind up flying out the other side and become dangerous.

Thankfully, hay bales are cheap. Mine were free; the county bales up the wild grasses they trim from along the interstates up here and just leave the bales of grasses out there with a big "Free" sign on them. Some 2-300 bales in a giant stack. So I loaded up.

[Eledhwen]

I use old carpet as a backstop; got it from the apartment complex. The periodically replace carpets here and a doubled piece hung from a simple frame has, thus far, stopped the arrows quite well. Since the burlap targets I fill when I use them and empty when I am done, I do not have to worry much about rotting straw...and if I use old nylon window screening, not at all.

Then again, I do not have the ability to permanently alter the yard space so these things have to be portable and storable.

Eledhwen

[Jon]

For a backstop I use an piece of an old trampoline (the material that you bounce on) which doesn't stop the arrows going through it but it stops them about when they are halfway through the material

[Ernildir]

Thank you very much for the suggestions... I like all of the ideas (Pete's sounds particularly exciting), but for lack of materials, I think I'll wait a little bit. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get some free bales around the end of December, so I'll just try for that; if it doesn't work out, I might go for another idea.

[Ernildir]

Well, it's not looking as if the free bales I spoke of will exist this year, so until I can obtain some bales elsewhere, or some other sort of backstop, what do you think of simply shooting into the side of a dirt hill? I have a hill of good soil at about a 45 degree angle. I could probably set up a little target of some sort and just shoot at that. Are there any disadvantages or is there any harm that could come from shooting into soil?

[Willrett]

Just be sure of what is behind the hill or over it. Go with the 5 foot rule. what happens if you miss the target by 5 feet on each side and shoot 5 feet high, if bad things will happen then see what can be added. The only bad thing about the the dirt hill that I can think of are rocks. I'm sure some one will be of more help.

[Greg]

Take a shovel and break up the dirt with it, removing any and all rocks you come across. Wood shafts have a nasty habit of shattering...

[Ernildir]

So I just scored a half-rotten hay-bale from the local archery range... life is good!

[Greg]

Woo hoo!

I like shooting at hay bales, because they have lots of subtle color variations, much like animal hair. Very easy to pick something super-tiny to focus on. Remember, aim small=miss small. Focus on tiny details. Don't aim for the dot...aim for the piece of fluff STUCK to the dot.

Have fun!

[Ernildir]

Hmm... I'll have to find a piece of fluff, then.

I'm certainly having fun... shot for about an hour this morning. I'm not sure what my new neighbors think of me, though. While not in full Ranger garb, I was wearing a long, dark-green trench coat and my cloak when I went out to shoot. A rather period-looking combination. Neighbors on both sides of the lot stared for a bit, but didn't say anything, and I don't think they called the police either, so it's all good.

[Willrett]

trace a quarter on a piece of paper and cut it out, take some spray paint some bright color (white, orange, ect) and spay the paper against the bail so that you have a perfect circle that is a small size.