Returning to archery

[Dorado]

Hello Camp!
Been out of action for a while due to a couple of surgeries, then complications from surgeries, and surgeries to fix the complications. But I'm back and I'm looking to get started all over again. I've started practicing with my bows again and I'm starting to get back to where I was, not that I was any good the last time around, but I'm getting better. I won't be doing any deer hunting with my bow this year but I'm going to try some small game hunting and the like. Therefore that's what I'm gearing up to do. I'll be practicing more with my #35 Samick Sage than with my #60 Bear Polar. Need to be doing that anyways. A while back I made a hill style back quiver following Bud B.'s instructions and lined the mouth with rabbit fur. Also, I just ordered an Asbell wool vest and a wool bandana to go along with the zippered Jacket I got from them a while back.
Anyways...enough with the equipment list, I come with a couple of questions.
First off. I'm shooting a bag target and I'm doing well with it at 20 yards. But I can only shoot at that for so long. I get bored with it. I can't afford a 3D target and I've been shooting blunts at some rolling pistol targets. What I was thinking of was filling an old football or small basketball with that expanding foam insulation and shooting that.
Would that stop my arrows? I figured that the hard foam would keep them from bouncing too much.
Secondly, I think I either need a new string or different nocks for my Bear Polar bow. Right now there's an audible click when I nock my arrows, and it takes some force to pull them off. They are too secure. I'm using the GT Traditional blems from Big Jim's with their nocks.
What should I do about this?

[Buckeye1977]

Haven't tried it myself but heard you can warm up some water and put the nock in it to soften a little then open them up slightly to fit your string. I'm sure the more experienced will chime in soon

[Pine]

An easy fix for the nocks is to stick them in boiling water for a few seconds .
Then put them on your string , and kinda work them on and off slowly , until they are cooled down some .
Then run them under cold water to set them .
As far as the foam in the ball , that works great .
Welcome back .

[Orion]

Can also just reserve your string with a smaller diameter thread.  I don't like messing around with the nocks.  The plastic ears are pretty small to begin with.  Bending weakens them, I think, and has the potential to take them out of alignment.

If you have room to roam, put some blunts on a few of your arrows and go out and shoot some stumps, clumps of dirt, dandelion heads, etc.

[John Malone]

I'm in the same position as you almost, as far as getting back into shooting. I'm lucky enough to live out in the country, so in have a big round hay bail to shoot. But as you said that gets boring, so I placed a branch on top of it and hung a plastic bottle cap by a strand of thread so hangs center of target, makes it a lot more interesting. Sometimes  when I remove my arrows I give it a swing and try to hit the moving bottle cap. You can also hang pine cones, water bottles anything to make a little more interesting or that's what I do anyway. Lots of  satisfaction when ya drill a one inch cap at 15-20 yards, also a pine cone is roughly the size of a squirrels body if you can hit the cone dead center your good for small game, have fun I know I am.

[Dorado]

Originally posted by Graps:
An easy fix for the nocks is to stick them in boiling water for a few seconds .
Then put them on your string , and kinda work them on and off slowly , until they are cooled down some .
Then run them under cold water to set them .
As far as the foam in the ball , that works great .
Welcome back .

[Dorado]

Originally posted by Orion:
Can also just reserve your string with a smaller diameter thread.  I don't like messing around with the nocks.  The plastic ears are pretty small to begin with.  Bending weakens them, I think, and has the potential to take them out of alignment.

If you have room to roam, put some blunts on a few of your arrows and go out and shoot some stumps, clumps of dirt, dandelion heads, etc.

I don't have any way of reserving the thread. I've never done that and I don't have the tools. I'm still new to archery in general.

I don't have much room. I've got about 5 acres but  I have ill temper neighbors to one side and the other would just eat my arrows. I do shoot my Ace Hexheads at dandelions and other things but I'd still like something different. I'm looking for a place that I can go stumping and small game hunting. Hard finding something like that around where I live. Lots of private land and most of it's leased out for hunting. There's a few places but they frown on bow use for anything except deer.

[Dorado]

Well I may have messed up.
I bought me a can of the expanding foam sealant and punched out the inflation valve from a basketball. I think it takes more than one can. I shook the can until my arm was out of joint and then emptied it into the ball. It kept trying to inflate so I had to  stop a few times and let the excess air out. The ball is nearly full but there's still some room left in it. Tomorrow I'll get me another can and see if I can fill it out. I think it'd be best if I let it set for a day or two before I shot it at any rate.
I won't be using my blunts on it only my field points. I'm afraid that  my blunts will either bounce off and come back to bite me or they'll penetrate and get stuck. My blunts are Ace 200gr Hexheads with 25gr replacement Tiger Claws behind them. I use these with my #60 bow. I don't have any with my #35, I'll try field points with it and see what happens I'm a bit leery of it though.

[8upbowhunter]

I have used the expanding foam to repair targets before but it took more than a day or two for the inside to fully cure, I would give it 4-5 days.

[Jim Brennen]

You can also fill empty milk jugs with expanding foam and set them out around the yard.

[Dorado]

Originally posted by 8upbowhunter:
I have used the expanding foam to repair targets before but it took more than a day or two for the inside to fully cure, I would give it 4-5 days.

Thanks for telling me that. I took an old basketball and filled it with a can and a half. The other half I put into a small basketball. It's only four inches in diameter. So far They're still flat, It's not expanding at all and it's supposed to be the gap filling stuff.
 

Originally posted by Jim Brennen:
You can also fill empty milk jugs with expanding foam and set them out around the yard.

That's a good tip. Wish I knew that earlier. I would have done that much sooner. I get those quite often.

I've never used this stuff before. How long should it take for it to expand and fill the balls?

[Tajue17]

I put an old broadhead file inside the nock near the handle and then pull the file thru, two or 3 times but you keep checking on the serving...  it quickly turns into a mercury speed nock with no click and stays on..