home made fun to shoot targets

[Sean Butler]

Howdy everyone,

my girlfriend is semi interested in giving a trad bow a try.  She has a compound but rarely shoots so i think i can win her over with an old recurve my dad had bought for my sister when we were kids.  

I am thinking that if there was something more fun than a big foam block with a dot on it she'd be more inclined to give shooting a try.  

My original idea was to put a tennis ball on a string and fire away... i gave it a try with the bow for her but the arrow bounced directly back at me.  I half expected so there were no injuries, but i don't think she'll enjoy shooting a bow and then running away from the returning arrow.

So what's your most fun to shoot at target?  The more outrageous the better! pics of course are always welcome

[ChuckC]

I have a bunch of foam balls the same size as a tennis ball.  I suspend them on a heavy string, probably similar to what you did and tie them from trees so they are just off the ground.  

I shoot at them with hex heads or judos and they are great fun.  I have never had an arrow come back at me  !  They are free hanging so I am not certain that this even could happen.

I think the most fun is no targets. .  just walk thru the woods or field and choose plants, leaves, and other stuff to shoot at.  Some close, some far, some easy,  many just impossible.  Shoot a lot.
ChuckC

[rolltidehunter]

i realy enjoy stump shooting. but rarely shoot at stumps. i shoot at leafs, flowers, cans, pine cones..... whatever i see that catches my eye. get a couple of Judo points... i have never lost one. i get so bored shooting at my block target in the back yard. sometimes just to do something diffrent i take a long wax candle and sick it in my target and shoot at it at dark!

dont know if your girlfirend would enjoy doing this but i also have a bird bath in my back yard filled with corn. i take a peak every 10 min or so and see if there is a squirl on the bath. i leave my door cracked just enough where i can get a shot! lol! thats fun too

[Stiks-n-Strings]

Stumpimg and roving is a blast!

[R H Clark]

If you have grass and enough room between you and the neighbors,anything with a judo is fun.I use small nerf balls or gallon plastic jugs for beginners.

[L. E. Carroll]

Baloons tied to the target have always been fun... lots of instant gratification seeing them break...start her on med-large size and work down      

Gene

a baloon will keep her attention, pin a ballon up on the target and no one will want to quit till they hit it,  it works for me anyway. kids love it!

[Hopewell Tom]

Balloons will do it, cheap and easy too. I'd put a number of sizes up, big one gets busted first and then the determination to get the smaller ones. I might try that myself!

[rice]

Two bales of hay 1 stacked on top of the other and then hang 6 clay target for you and six for her.Broken wooden arrows will hold them when shoved into bale. First one to break all six wins.
Saw this at a shoot in OKC. Was lots of fun!

CKR

[brinkwolf]

I'll go with the pine cones(natures cheap targets). They're plentiful,renewable and with judo pointed arrows just plain fun.

[Kevin Winkler]

Shooting at plastic milk jugs filled with colored water make for a fun time. Just put up two pulleys run a rope through them and put two S hooks on the ends.

The winner is the one that shoots the most holes so that the water runs out the fastest and the other jug hits the ground. It's cheap and fun!


 

[reddogge]

Kevin,
Aside from the wheelie guys shooting from chip shot distances I think that is a great idea.  Move them back and put a stickbow in their hand and you'd have some fun.

[Ron+dog]

kevin thats awesome man what a great idea

sean i like balloons and fruit anything reactive
         

[Kevin Winkler]

I got the idea from another stickbow shooter. He said it is a big draw at shoots. I set it up last year at one of my clubs 3-D shoots and everyone loved it.

I'm sorry about the wheelie guys in the picture, but it's hard to take pictures of yourself when your shooting. It's fast action and much better suited for stickbows.

The kids are just crazy to shoot it. We set it up so that the winner of each round would get a ticket in the drawing for 1/2 the pot and the other half went to the WI Bowhunters Association.

[luv2bowhunt]

I like to fold a dollar bill in half and stick it to the target... whoever hits it gets it and the loser puts up another... the only gambling that I have any luck at  :D

[L. E. Carroll]

We have done the dollar thing also, usually at 20 yards.  We fold ours in 1/3's.... just the face shows that way. Just the ticket to re-nue
action when things start to slow down.      

Gene

[Sean Butler]

Thank you everyone for the great ideas so far.

My dad used to do the dollar bill thing with my sister and i when we were kids.  I was always so proud of my dollar with a hole it in, any way onto today...  

I finally got my girlfriend out to shoot.  It went ok.  She did quite well but her interest began to decline after about 45 minutes.  I think she was just expecting to be better than she was.  We shot at a leaf on the target and the dreaded tennis ball (No injuries yet).

Tomorrow I'll pick up some balloons.  Even if she doesn't want to shoot, they just seem like fun to pop  

[Archer 1]

I use a 1 inch waffer cut from one of those wacky noodles that kids play with while swimming.
 Just hang it by a fish line in front of the target. I tie a small screw on the line, and just stick it in the waffer. It blows back and forth in the wind if hung out in front of the target, and makes a fun target to shoot. It is cheap, you can get them for about a 1.50, and can make a bunch of waffers from one of them, as there about 3 feet long.

[Saltydog]

It maybe that 45 mins. is too long. I shot almost every day and I notice that after about 1/2 hour I start losing the concentration and focus to shoot my best.

[yeager]

Here's a target I made for our archery club.  Each year we host a shoot made primarily of homemade targets like this one...infact we just had that shoot last weekend.  Other targets I have made are - zebra, rhino, kangaroo, cape buffalo, muskox to name a few.