Just wondering if anyone uses a round bale of hay for their backyard target?
I am close to needing to replace my current target. :banghead:
Also, if you do use one, what is a fair price to pay (delivered) and about how long can I expect one to last??
Thanks,
Allen
Out here they are $80-90.
Depending how many deer you have around, you may want to get straw instead...
No worries about the deer. I have a Jack Russel and a beagle. They keep the deer away! :bigsmyl:
Bad thing about round bale, if shot at wrong spot or angle, your arrow will completely disappear into it. Ask me how I know.
I use them all the time and love them. I have one 4 years old that still works fine. Shoot the rounded side with strings facing you and you will not lose arrows if the bale was properly made. The flat side can let arrows in deep enough to lose. Don't know the price, I let some folks bale hay off my land and they just give me one when I need it.
Round bales around here are $20-25 you get'em (fescue). Not sure about delivered. They can weigh 400-800 lbs depending on how the farmer bales them. Kinda hard to move around.
If you cover them with that wrap I see on them they should last quite a while.
Swinestalker is right. Don't shoot the flat side. I can't attest to shooting the round side. Once was enough for me, too.
But... around here $80 for straw, $120 for hay but I'm not that sure.
Best long duration targets I've ever shot at were cedar bales they have have at Kenmore at Seattle, but have no idea how much they cost or where to get them.
I shoot at one with burlap targets on it. I love it.It lasted over a year with no covering on it. My buddy gave it to me.
Allen...........
Last years hay will be really cheap, wait till spring and buy hay. I use the compacted cardboard bales, they last about 3 yrs outside, a little messy but they will stop a 30-06.
I shot bales for years. I personally like two large square bales stacked. It ends up 8' by 8'. If you miss that you need help. :)
Square bales are more dense and I don't remember loosing arrows in them. Sometimes I would slip one between them, but it usually passed to a point I could pull it from the other side.
Sometimes I would drive cardboard onto it with large screws and staple paper to the cardboard.
I got away from shooting them, though, because they wear your carbon arrows badly. Maybe it varies with the coarseness of the grass, but my hay bales would chew the finish down to the black carbon after a summer of shooting.
Jeff
Allen, Like jeff said, you might try a couple of square bales. I'm getting $5 a bale for horse hay right now.
Here's the deal. cut you a couple pcs of plywood the size of the bale. take them to a local building supply and get the guys in the back to band them together with the metal bands they use on lumber packs. plywood on bottom and top, bales in between. the bands will compress the hay and make the target last 5 times longer. Keep it dry and that much the better. Good luck Don
Thanks so much for the input guys!
Don, I may give your idea a try.
Shoot straight,
Allen
I shoot round bales all the time. But I shoot them and then feed them. So I get to shoot new ones pretty often. I wish I got Prairie Drifter prices for the ones I sold for 60 a bale. I like batman's idea, then you don't have 1200lbs of hay to deal with when you break the strings.
I shoot round bales all the time. If you can get the bales that are net wrapped they will last a lot longer.
Mine has lasted four years so far! Love it.
I have used them but after a while they do seem to develop soft spots & you will lose your arrows in them. Oh, & if you do use one as a target make sure you shoot the side & not the ends.
An annual ritual of mine is to go long range mastadon hunting with my longbow.
After bailing, the neighbor lets his round bales out in the field right where he dropped them. He eventually gathers them all up, so for a few days each summer I can walk around the field taking long shots at the "mastadons".
Way cool!
I use hay bales every fall at the cabin since there is around two hundred sitting on my land. shot angles and side of the bale you shoot at make a huge difference. If you can flax bales they are better and last longer (way longer). Flax might last you over ten years or more. I'm not sure of avaliability of flax in your area or an alternative. Try to get a hard core bale (not soft core) hard core are woven tighter so are heavier and have more material making then cost more but are much denser and will be better for arrow recovery. Flax bales, at least up here are usually burnt after baling so price might be good if no paper or textile mills in the area to take it. Shoot the string side of the bale, especially if shooting soft cores. Only issue with shooting on the string side is try not to break the strings or your bale will fall apart.
Hope this helps
cheer have fun shooting
I use them all the time but have to shoot into them from the side!(lost a few arrows shooting into the ends)
dnovo - "Bad thing about round bale, if shot at wrong spot or angle, your arrow will completely disappear into it. Ask me how I know."
Yep, me too... Am still waiting on one I shot at for a short time to melt down to where I can retrieve some of my arrows.
QuoteOriginally posted by Smitty:
I wish I got Prairie Drifter prices for the ones I sold for 60 a bale.
That's what I have been paying for the last few years for my horses and rams. That is delivered though.
Should add. . . I have never even come close to losing an arrow in a bale. Even after four full years of sitting out in the weather, even compound friend's arrows do not penetrate more than 6-10" at most. I suppose there are different bales made with different equipment. . . maybe Kansas farmers just know how to do it right! :bigsmyl:
I got one for free from the neighbor. Probably shouldn't plan on that though. Been shooting it since spring. I'll last till this spring. Shoot blunts when you are inside say, twenty yards or so and when you are shooting face on. From the side or farther away, field points work. I've had to dig out a couple of arrows. Depending where you put it, you can practice for a while, then stand on the backside of it and maybe get a shot at dusk as the deer work out of the woods and head to the pond to drink. ;)
Ksdan, Ours weigh 1600+-. We set the baler as tight as she'll wind em. I don't like putting out bales any more often than I have to. I usually use one bale a season for a backstop with a 3D target in front of it. Then it goes out for feed and a new one goes in its place.
You guys that feed ever loose field points in these bails?
I have been shooting one for 3 years now. Didn't know any better so I shot the flat side.....now it has developed a hole and there are quite a few arrows stuck way inside there.
There are also probably 15 or so field tips, and various broadheads also stuck in there.
We aint feeding this one........
shoot the round side. Dammit.
Round bales work good and last quite a long time. You have to make sure they are baled tight though. If they are not you may need to wrap a couple ratchet straps around them to compress them some. If they are too loose they will gobble up arrows and it is really hard to find them!
Bisch
As far as the density goes, you want one bailed by a John Deere bailer. They get super tight. I would also want net wrapped for the life of the bail.
Yall guys are getting crazy prices for your hay. I sell mine for $25-$30 a bale, all bermuda net wrapped 5X6 @ 1100+lbs. I could have sold it for more to the Tx or Ok boys, but feel like I would be taking advantage of folks...not in me.
If you want one, A.S., I'll give it to you...ya just gotta come and get it.
God Bless,
Nathan
Nathan, great offer! If I find myself in AR soon, I will look you up! :archer:
Your price sounds more in line with what I was expecting. I will start shopping around.
I like Batmans idea. I know my old man is getting $250/ton for good hay right now so it isn't cheap. Round bales can be loosely rolled and you can lose arrows in them. Big and small squares are probably the best as they are more compact. Bigs will weigh 1200+ pounds though.
We would shoot bales in the field after baling growing up. Just randomly pick a bale at an unknown distance and shoot. If we hit strings then we fed it sooner.
What is the diff. between hay and straw. Is one stronger, last longer??
I'm like AS I shoot and feed. Lost a broadhead once in one. It took a while but i dug it out.
Out here there are most generally grass hay bales and alfalfa bales. Most generally alfalfa makes a tighter bale because it was baled with some moisture. Grass hay is usually baled a little dryer so they are not quite as tight. I shoot round bales that are net wrapped all the time. I don't know how long one would last it usually gets shot a few days and then gets fed. For those of you who have lost arrows see if you can find someone with a bale bed to unroll the bale for you. Recovered several this way. Try and find a bale that is baled tight, you can tell because you won't be able to dig your hand in the bale on the flat side.
QuoteOriginally posted by The Whittler:
What is the diff. between hay and straw. Is one stronger, last longer??
Hay is used as feed. Straw is used as bedding. Hay is much heavier.
OK thanks, so you can use either as both will work equally well for stoping arrows.