Inquiring Minds want to know

[paleFace]

reading another thread about traditional archery ranges had me thinking, (smoke).  what are some of the neatest, coolest, most unique ideas you have seen on a 3D course for setting up a target???

we had a few this past weekend that were pretty cool. had a raccoon facing you with a steel trash can on the left with a big oak to the right. no room for error. the second one was an alligator lying on a log.

let's here some of the really interesting ones. hope this will give some good ideas to spice up some of the same old shots you see at every 3D shoot.

[kctreeman]

Irish and I went to a Topeka shoot a few years ago and they had a coon or some kind of small critter set up on a window sill inside a brick silo. There was no room for error.  If I remember correctley we lost(broke) one or two arrows there.

[warden415]

My buddy made a moving groundhog target. It was mounted to a post which is mounted to a metal gear wheel. When the switch is flipped, the groundhog slowly rises from behind a clump of dirt. Just as it reaches full height there are teeth cut out of the metal gears and the target falls instantly out of sight. The rules are supposed to be turn it on and shoot when you can see it, if it falls before you get your shot off, you get a zero.
Kinda fun watching the compound guys let it run its cycle a half a dozen times before they get their timing down.

[warden415]

Same buddy also made a moving turkey target. A hen and a gobbler (Mckenzie) are mounted on a round metal track secured to a wood base. When the power is turned on, they slowly revolve around the track. The hen is kinda in the way of the gobbler, if you hit the hen, you get a zero. Both of the targets I mention are near the clubhouse so an extension cord is simply run down to them during the 3d shoots.

[draco]

Years ago on the Austin archery range we had a flying turkey target on a wire that went down a little draw. If you missed you hit good old Texas limestone on the other side of the draw.Some people would`nt even try the shot because so many arrows were smashed---sissies.

[Forester]

Howdy Rob!

I shot (at) a good target this year.  A large boar hog target was suspended on a zip line uphill from the shooting stake, at about 12 yards.  The shooting stake was directly under the zip line.  A rope was used to pull the hog uphill and hold it in place.  When the rope was released the shooter was charged by the hog and the only shot was a frontal at the skull of the charging pig.  There were stops on the zip line so that the target stopped with just enough room between the pig snout and the shooter for a 30" arrow to be stuck in the skull and the nock not hitting the shooter.  The Turbo Pig at ETAR has nothing on this set up!

Kudos to Strictly Sticks Traditional Archers in PA for such a fun target.  I just wish I was a better shot or hope that I never get charged by a big hog....

[wtpops]

At the Jean Foster Traditional shoot in Fresno California they had one station with 6 targets first a rabbit ran by at 5 yards (if you were not ready you did not even get a shot off) then a deer pops up at about 20 yards then a possem swings down on a tree branch at about 12 to 15 yards then a racoon pops up out of a trash can at 12 to 15 yards then a bear swings out from behind a tree at about 20 yards then a goose flys out of a tree at about 25 yards. Was one of the funest targets i have ever shot. This hole thing took about 30 to 45 sec.

[702plmo]

At one of the loacl shoots someone had engineered rotating clothes rack from a dry cleaners into a moving deer target.
It worked great and they had the speed very similiar to a walking deer.

[T.J.]

We have a standing black bear that is on the other side of a 20ft water fall. You have to shoot through the waterfall to hit it. If it's been raining the falls are so thick you can't even see the bear. You have to walk up right in front of it find it then go back and shoot blindly. It was a blast!

[JoeM]

In PA once they had an old quarry on the property so they placed the bighorn sheep across the way and down about twenty feet on the edge of a cliff.  If you missed your arrow kissed rock, but it was very realistic and fun.  Another time upstate NY a guy had a deer target with a 3/8 steel plate blocking out everything but the vitals (he owned a archery shop must have needed business).  It was fun to be walking around all day through the woods and occasionally here this DOONNNGGG ring through the woods and here everyone laugh and groan. Joe

[Yellowsnake]

I always enjoy a good moving target.  the running hog shot at the Baltimore Bowmen shoot is always fun.

[Talondale]

The S.T.A.R. shoot I went to this year had a ground blind built with a stump seat and you shot at two targets.  Not as mechanically impressive but realistic.

I also went to a shoot years ago in Hershey,PA, during my wheelie days that had one range where all the targets were on a track (think small railroad) and had overhead wires that pulled them along.  You had different stations and the target would emerge from behind a tree and then disappear behind another.   Another shoot they had was where you stood on a platform looking at a ski slope.  Out of the tall grass in the ski slope 3D targets would pnuematically pop up and then drop after 5 seconds.  It was fun.

[Barney]

warden415, that sounds like something they'd do in Brooke county.

[Pat B]

At the old Southeastern in Elberton, GA they had a mountain goat in amoungst a large rock pile and above the shooting stake. There was always lots of cedar splinters around that goat. Another one there was a moving buck chasing a doe. They were about 10' apart, moving at quite a clip and it was a 2 arrow target...one for the buck and one for the doe.     Pat