Al,
Here are a few pictures of my archery course. The pictures are in pairs showing a view from the shooting point and a zoomed in view showing the target. The course is made up of foam 3D targets and burlap bag targets. The burlap bag targets are stuffed with plastic pallet rapping material and the open end is sealed using plastic wire zip ties. The bags are about the size of a whitetail deer’s body (16” x 24”) and they have become my favorite type of target. Mainly because the bags are inexpensive and easy to replace, but they also blend into the environment fairly well. If a bag gets damaged by weather, rodents or shooting, they can be easily replaced at a $1 a piece. The bags are suspended at the corners by zip ties to a “U” shaped rebar frame. This idea was given to me by a fellow Trad Ganger and the rebar was supplied to me by another Trad Gang member.
At this time my course consists of 23 targets but it soon will have a total of 50 targets. I laid the course out by stump shooting it first. When doing the preliminary stump shooting layout, I carried two different colors of surveying flags with me, one color, orange, represented where the shot was taken from and the other color, red, told me where to set the target. Most of the shots on the course are shot from target to target. This has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are a lot of shots can be packed into a small amount of space and most of the targets have been positioned so that the course can be shot forward and backwards. This has almost doubled the number of different shot opportunities on the course. The disadvantage is, the course described above is not friendly to larger groups but it works great for a small group that shoots together. I refer to the course as a hunting course because I don’t alter much of the vegetation between the shooter and the target. There are some wide open shots but for the most part the shooter has to “snake” the shot through the surrounding obstacles.
I guess my advice to you is to be creative and have fun with your shot setups. My course is an arrow eater. While this may not appeal to some it appeals to me and so far everyone that has shot the course has liked it even though they typically leave with fewer arrows then they started out with. I purposefully set the targets behind logs, a group of saplings, near a rock out in an open field or in an area with no backstop to invoke a penalty for a bad shot. This is done to make the shooter really concentrate on their shot. My course has shots that are uphill, downhill, through thick brush, some shots make the shooter squat, kneel and one requires the shooter to stand up on a larger log giving the shooter bad footing and an unsteadying feeling while trying to shoot. There are a couple of Hail Mary shots on the course just because its fun to see the arrows fly along distance and this year I am planning to put in a couple of moving targets to keep things interesting and I would like to build a wobbly platform about a foot off the ground to simulate shooting from a rocking boat.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to share some thoughts with you. If you come up with some unique shot ideas please let me know so I can incorporate them into my course. Good luck with your land purchase! My personal pick would be the second tract of land. Are those cliffs in the background? It looks like it has more hills and interesting terrain. Besides, land is like a drug once you get a little bit you’ll find that you want more.
Tom
Topic: Show me your home shooting range please... now with pics on page 2! (Read 1324 times)
