Instead of buying a target I thought about making one myself. I would like to see and hear how some of you made your targets! Thanks.......IJ

Mine are petty down and dirty. 100# feed bags from the feed store stuffed with plastic wrap and sewn shut. Light portable, replaceable, cheap. I hang them longwise in the woods to simulate deer.

Feed sack with plastic grocery bags.

I use burlap bags and stuff with old clothes, rags, towels, etc.  Double bag them to add strength and you can spray whatever you would like on them.  They also are brown and when they are set on their side they get you thinking about deer!  Very cheap and durable when using field tips.

Feed sacks with plastic wrap and grocery bags stuffed into them and sewn shut.

The absolute, very best homemade target I have made (and I have made a few) is collapsed cardboard boxes stacked and cut to the size you want, then held tightly together with ratchet straps. There are YouTube videos showing how if you do a quick internet search. They stop arrows very easily, and you can remove them with only two fingers. If you shoot broadheads in it, they are easy to remove as well.
This target can be built for free if you locate the boxes and lasts a few years.

Bags stuffed with plastic wrap are awesome--I use the ones that come filled with air to take up space on semis to keep loads from shifting--just deflate and stuff with used shrink wrap---feed sacks etc. can all be used.  I built a big target out back---70 inches wide---60 inches tall and 2 feet deep (approx.).  I used 4 2 by 4s at corners, plywood on sides and bottom (drilled holes in bottom to drain the rain), and ran 2X4s around top and bottom,  I tack large carpet remants (free from the local store) onto the front and back and then stuff it with shrink wrap---a lot of shrink wrap.  I use it for a backstop and also just paint spots on it to shoot at---works great as a blind bale also.  You can add a roof of some sort if you want.  Also I buy the collapsible turkey targets when on sale for about 5 bucks and fill them with Great Stuff foam---these last quite awhile and stop trad arrows well.  Hope this helps.  Good luck,  John

Burlap bag with shrink wrap .

Feed sacks stuffed with all sorts of things work great!

I use old feed bags and get the urethane spray foam guys to fill the bags. They fill up nicely and are just about the right size and last a long time. Most anything you can fill would work too, boxes etc. Just find a spray foam service that is on a job already and get them to fill you targets when they are set up already. it's usually not very expensive either.

 

I use old feed bags and get the urethane spray foam guys to fill the bags. They fill up nicely and are just about the right size and last a long time. Most anything you can fill would work too, boxes etc. Just find a spray foam service that is on a job already and get them to fill you targets when they are set up already. it's usually not very expensive either.

 

Various size dog and cat food bags,stuffing the small up to 50 pound bags into a 55 pound Pedigree bag.

I buy sheets of cardboard, stack them on a frame that uses 2 threaded rods to compress them.   It is not the cheapest home-made target, but the last one I made lasted for over 6 years.   As the cardboard gets shot up, it can be restacked/rearranged to prolong longevity.  Funny that this came up-cardboard is what I asked my wife for Christmas.  Today I put it all together, my new cardboard and my existing frame.

Just a few straw bales wrapped in shrink wrap. The wrap makes it tight and keeps the bales together. It has been out in the weather for a couple of years now and I've re-wrapped it once when I shot it up with broadheads.

for the back yard i shoot into a big pile of sand,but it will dull broad heads and sand blast your shaft over time. i use stumpin arrows for that. my new shafts i use the bag deal they are talking about above. but most of the time the sand pile for regular shooting works great.

Lots of good threads on this subject can be found with  the search function.Trad nerds make the best targets and save their money for important stuff like ammo!   :p

QuoteOriginally posted by slim_grim:
Just a few straw bales wrapped in shrink wrap. The wrap makes it tight and keeps the bales together. It has been out in the weather for a couple of years now and I've re-wrapped it once when I shot it up with broadheads.

 

Genius!!!! I'm making one of these this spring!

build one (or more ) of this:
http://archeryreport.com/2011/04/diy-lifetime-archery-target/

Here's one I built out of a tv cabinet

Bldtrailer, Thats awesome! you could even get one of those entrainment centers with the doors that hide the tv. My wife may let me do something like that. Does the chicken put alot of ware on the shafts?

Tommy ! Have you been taking your wife's furniture again ?