Cheap Arrow Targets

[T Folts]

I am in the process of layering carboard, then using a banding set to get it nice and tight, should last a long time out of the rain.

[Jerry Jeffer]

I use chunks of packing styrofoam like Vermonster mentioned. I also set up tin cans, milk jugs, or heavy plastic juice bottles around the yard. The milk jugs or big plastic bottles last longer if you fill them with expanding foam. When you fill 'em with foam, put a stick in the opening to use for a stake into the ground.

[vermonster13]

For target bags you can get 100# feed bags for .50-.75 at the feed store. I have a bag target that is real old that I just keep rebagging in those. You can also fill them with the plastic shopping bags or whatever you have. I am frugal when it comes to things I just plan on destroying anyways.

[deedubya]

Cheapest of all.  Poly sheeting ('Visqueen', etc.), 6 mil.  Make a pillow from it using duct tape, 2 or 3 layers.  Stuff firmly with wads of same.  Stuff the whole thing in a burlap bag, stitched closed with nylon cable ties.  Hang it from the corners between two fenceposts with rope and bungees.

Stops anything.  Don't use with broadheads--it stops them easily but they are difficult to remove and the broadheads cut up the burlap.

It will work fine without the burlap bag if you are in a hurry.  Fashion hanging loops on the corners from duct tape.  But it will eventually leave a mess.

It will last for years if protected from UV by the burlap (also use UV resistant cable ties--usually black colored).  The burlap also keeps deer and birds from picking it apart.  When the burlap gets shot out, just remove it from the old bag and stuff it into a new one.

[Dave Bulla]

I second the bag targets filled with plastic.  Where I work we make the Lawrys spices and about all the supplies come in either a cardboard box or a big plastic bag.  Our restaurant size bottles come packaged in plastic bags that are about 5 ft X 5 ft square and they are heavy plastic.  As the operators run the line and resupply the bottles the put all the empty bags into another bag and when it's packed full it gets thrown away.  I occasionally take one home for a target and they work great.

If you think a bit, I bet you know SOMEBODY who works in a factory or warehouse environment and I can almost guarantee they can probably get you about all the plastic or cardboard you could possibly ever use.

Off topic but noteworthy.... You can also ask anyone from a manufacturing plant if they use shrink wrap for the pallets of goods before they get put on the truck.  Commercial grade shrink wrap is about the most awsome deer processing "handy wrap" material you'll ever get your hands on and the stuff for wrapping pallets is about 2 feet wide.  It's super strong and sticks a LOT better than grocery store stuff.  It also shrinks if heated so hitting it with a hair dryer after you wrap the meat seals and shrinks it tight.

Where I work, these rolls start out with about six inches of wrap on a roll and they are suposed to run it down till they can see the cardboard through the plastic but being a union job, they tend to change it well before then if it's getting close to break time.  I get them with a good 1/2 inch thick layer still left on them all the time which is about 300 to 500 % more running feet per roll than the store stuff.

[TimZeigler]

All mine are free.  I take a 36x36 box we get gear in, that they are gonna throw away anyhow, and I tell the shipping guys to fill it with any cellophane wrap that they cut off of the incoming pallets.  They gladly do it because it keeps the them from having to empty the trash trolly a couple times a day.  I have two of them stacked up in my garage, works great.  I've also bought the burlap pillow targets and filled them with the same stuff.

[Bill Tell]

My friends with compounds all shoot the block or some similar layer target.  When they have them shot out I ask for them and then cut them apart and get the foam out of them.  This stuff I shred up a bit and put it in burlap bags that I get free at a local coffee house that roasts their own beans.  So total cost is $.0. and I keep the block out of the landfill.