I would like to know members recommendations for practice with broadheads.
Thanks,
Bill
I haven't shot any broadheads into it yet, but I recently picked up a Rinehart 18-1 at a great price. It's guaranteed for a year, no matter what type heads you shoot into it.
When this topic has come up before, it seems like a lot of folks are happy shooting into sand piles. I just use dirt piles, carefully picking out the rocks. If I were shooting regularly and a lot with broadheads I'd want something perhaps a bit fancier, but don't know what it would be. But I usually shoot only a few prior to each season to reassure myself they are flying like the practice points. Of course, shooting into dirt of sand is highly abbrasive and I wouldn't want to do it much with my hunting heads or shafts.
I've been pretty happy with my morrell yellow jacket target so far.
I was going to say Yellow Jacket also
Any of the layered foam targets seem to work pretty well. Of course, the broadheads tend to tear them up faster than field points do. I use one side for broadheads and the other side for field points, which seems to make them last a little longer. I guess that wouldn't help people who do most of their target shooting with broadheads, but I shoot mainly field points into my targets.
american whitetail "the cube" aweesome broadhead target
Foam targets are okay for limited broadhead shooting but if your like me who target shoot mostly with broadheads all year long you better have a pile of sand has a backstop or be willing to tear up a bunch of foam targets.
Go to any tractor supply and they have foam blocks they use for the transportation of their trailors. Bring a truck and they will give you all you can carry for "FREE".
A live whitetail deer, preferably a buck of 125" or better...
As for practice, whatever cube/block taget is cheapest when I make a Cabelas run. When used as a dedicated broadhead target, the most expensive on the maket has about the same usuable life (actually quite short) as the cheapest, so I don't see any sense in sinking big bucks into them. You can make them last a bit longer by shooting all sides, but once that hole gets blown in the center, they aren't worth much.
The last couple 3D deer targets I've gotten were Deltas ( I think they were backyard,treestand bucks, or broadhead bucks, I don't recall which...) with replacable core. When I get a target like this I buy at least one extra core. I've found if I limit broadheads to maybe 20% of the shots on this type of target, I can get 2-3 years out of a core...
If you want foam targets like these to last, particularly 3D's, don't leave them out in the weather. When you get done shooting, store them indoors. I hang mine in the barn, as if I leave them on the floor the cats use them as scratching posts...
What Dave said sand, Im lucky here in Perth Australia the whole place is sand. I have one broadhead i dont bother to sharpen that i practice with.
So far the best I've used is the yellow jacket and when the season gets closer I shoot BH's daily
Try bales of alfalfa or tighly packed grass hay. Most feed stores and farmers will have a couple of bad bales around, ones that got wet or have too many weeds, that they'll sell cheap or give away.
If you hit a wire or it gets loose use it for mulch. I've been shooting broadheads into the same ones for two years.
Oh ya, straw bales will not work as well.
I have shot at the Block, the Yellow Jacket Broadhead Target and the Delta Broadhead Buck. All of these targets worked fine for a while. The one thing they all have in common is they breakdown very quickly when broadheads are shot at them. Out of the three mentioned above, the Yellow Jacket lasted the longest. In my opinion the best bang for the buck is a pile of dirt or sand.
Thanks, folks. Hope all of you had a good independence day.
Bill