I have been using the compressed straw bails from Tractor Supply. They keep them inside store. The are banded tight and wrapped in plastic. Smaller than regular bales but they really stop an arrow. I think they were $7.00 ea. I don't think I have shot more than halfway through and have a lot of shots into them.
Anyone else use them? How long did they last?
Tedd
Been using one for almost two months now and it's still stopping everything just fine. I will get some poking out the back from my 60 pounder but not much.
I was checking out at TS a couple of weeks ago and the guy in front of me had one of those bales in his cart. I was wondering if they would make a good target. May have to go pick up a couple to try out.
I was watching Maters of the barebow 2 and a guy from CO was shooting bales on his property. I thought how easy that would be to do on mine. TS has compressed bales I think I will pick up a few. With some 2D targets I can have a nice and resonably priced walk around range.
Thanks for the heads up. I need a few at the cabin.
CHuckC
I use them, too. Excellent target for the money, as long as you only use field points.
I use these by taking 9 bales, stack them and put a rachet strap around the unit. makes them big for the 4-H kid's archery.
Are these what they call...
Standlee Premium Western Forage Certified Straw Grab & Go Compressed Bale, 50 lb. Bale @ TS?
Yes Tippit thats it. I can't find a photo on the www that looks like them. The photo shown isn't accurate. I'm embarrassed I no longer know a local guy to get some regular straw bales from. Had to call tractor supply like a suburban fellow .
I purchased 6 but I'm only using 4. (I have no decent terrain out back to stop my arrows in case of miss so I like a big backstop).
Mine are on a raised wooden platform and have a tarp over top. I strapped 4 of them tight together with ratchet straps so an arrow won't slip though the cracks. For the first few hundred shots the arrows don't penetrate far. I'm going to sit one of the unused bales on the back porch for those before work and after dark shots.
I had been using a layered block target on the porch for that but those pcs get everywhere after a while.
You really don't even have to cover them. The shrink wrap they come in sheds water.
Picked up four yesterday. Paid a little over $11.00 per bale. About twice the price of a regular straw bale... we'll see how well they hold up.
One of the guys here uses them. He said that you need to keep them dry, they turn into silage pretty quick when they get wet.
X2 what Pavan says, we used straw bales back in the day of field archery. We ended up banding the bales together with a piece of roofing material on top. That helped the most. We tried plastic but the wind and sun turned it into waste material.
I shoot at Rhinehart deer targets for long range shooting from 35 to 65 yards. I used to drag a four foot Saunders grass mat around. they were my favorite in my target shooting days. when I live east I shot at a compressed stack of excelsior bales, they were sold at Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Then I went to the plastic side bales of from a bread tie maker in Worthington, Minnesota. Now I shoot 4 by 4 square soy bean seed crates stuffed with silage plastic. I am getting increasingly cheap, I get the seed crate bags for free and each one will tolerate hundreds of thousands of shots before needing replacement. However, I sometimes miss how nice and straight the arrows stuck in those Saunders mats.
Is this the bale used for targets?
EZ-Straw Seeding Mulch with Tack for $9.99 each.
Finally shot mine out to the point that it wasn't stopping arrows anymore. Will get another the next time I'm at tractor supply.
I bought 3 a few weeks ago. Will pick up another 3 soon....mainly to build a bigger target, even if i need to buy 3 more yet again.
I'm not postive about this but I was told by someone at my range who takes care of the archery course if I do go with bales for a backstop then load the whole top with heavy timber stumps (or anything heavy) to compress the straw even more,,, will stop the fastest arrows and last 3 times as long because the bands get loose as you shoot them more and more.
I use straw bales as targets, but compress them myself because I cant get to a TS easily. I use a ratchet strap lengthwise around the bale with a short scrap piece of 5/4 decking at each end for compression. Crank the ratchet down until the bale is very tight, then use the twine that is on the bale or cut it off and use another piece of just or nylon to retie the bale. I have one bale on top of another, sitting off the ground in a wooden rack. I hang a piece of folded-over carpet in the back, just to stop an arrow if I hit too close to the seam. But, I use the ratchet to hold the bales onto the rack, so even the seam gets pretty tight.
I use regular straw bales but need to keep them tarped to prevent rot when not shooting. Those TS bales pre-shrink-wrapped sounds like a great idea.
discovered there is a TS here in Mass actually a few of them,, But maybe its a Mass thing but I stood around in that store and could not for the life of me find anyone working anywhere,,, finally a young girl comes from the employees only area and helps me but she never heard of compressed hay and didn't even know what I was talking about when I said I want it to shoot arrows at (I swear she was anti by the smirk I got) but she said the only thing they carry is what's out in the trailer,,,,, the hay in the trailer was feed hay tied loose with twine even my selfbow would blow thru it..
I'm sure the TS places in more remote or farmland areas will have better quality stuff with a bigger selection but here though It didn't cut it for what I needed it for.
Rough run, I was thinking about threaded rod thru 2x4's sandwiching 3 bales together but I like your idea,,, wonder if putting the strap thru PVC pipe will protect it from arrows a bit but good idea.
There may not be an excelsior supplier in every area but I've located one in the last two states I've lived in. I simply got sick of dealing with rotten straw, vermin, wasps, bees, an pass throughs....although a piece of conveyor belting is a good idea if you don't have a safe background. There is an excelsior supplier w/in a reasonable drive from me. They charge $47/bale and will firmly band together 3 in a stack. No it's not cheap but I've got a sloped roof built over it with a drop down tarp. Kept dry and tightly bound excelsior bales will last many years. I also have 5 3ds scattered around the property as well. But for shooting at night under the lights, or teaching a newby,
bare shaft tuning a new setup, etc, it's real nice to have a real good backstop.
There may not be an excelsior supplier in every area but I've located one in the last two states I've lived in. I simply got sick of dealing with rotten straw, vermin, wasps, bees, an pass throughs....although a piece of conveyor belting is a good idea if you don't have a safe background. There is an excelsior supplier w/in a reasonable drive from me. They charge $47/bale and will firmly band together 3 in a stack. No it's not cheap but I've got a sloped roof built over it with a drop down tarp. Kept dry and tightly bound excelsior bales will last many years. I also have 5 3ds scattered around the property as well. But for shooting at night under the lights, or teaching a newby,
bare shaft tuning a new setup, etc, it's real nice to have a real good backstop.
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Rough run, I was thinking about threaded rod thru 2x4's sandwiching 3 bales together but I like your idea,,, wonder if putting the strap thru PVC pipe will protect it from arrows a bit but good idea.
I think that threaded rods would work well for the target. But I have found that the bales have to be tightened individually to be really snug for arrows, so I used the strap for ease and speed. PVC pipe will definitely protect it - but I have the strap around the outside of the bales, so an arrow has never touched the strap. A tarp weighted with 2x4, attached to the target frame I built, keeps everything dry.