OK, what I mean by this is, what is your favorite things to shoot at that isn't an actual archery target.
Like old toys, sticks or something.
I'm going to tell a funny one on myself.
Way back in the early 70s I discovered the Judo Points.
I got one of those and was shooting in the yard just to see how it wouldn't burrow under the grass.
Man that thing worked great.
:jumper: Ooooo, I have an idea! I'm going to get my nice soccer ball and kick it like jumping a rabbit.
I kicked the ball, drew up to snap shoot and I nailed it at about 15yards. :scared: :dunno: :knothead:
To my surprise the arrow went through the ball.
That shot was not done again and my very nice " LEATHER SOCCER BALL" was ruined. :o
Not very many stumps to shoot in Texas but there's plenty of prickly pear!
I have two daughters....no I don't shoot at them. But they accumulate an ungodly amount of toys. Barbie dolls are a fun target.
Tennis balls are my favorite by far.
Cheap, last well and small enough to be a good challenge.
When you center punch one with a blunt, they give a very satisfying "thwok" as they ping further out into the field to tempt you with another, often harder shot.
Target points do penetrate them pretty easy though.
Best
Lex
One of the worst ass whoopens the ole man ever gave me, was when I shot up frosty the plastic snowman out in the front yard..
I was 8 years old then, and just couldn't figure out how he knew I did it..
Guess it was all the arrow holes in it now that I think about it..
LOL
Quote from: Roy from Pa on January 16, 2019, 09:07:30 PM
One of the worst ass whoopens the ole man ever gave me, was when I shot up frosty the plastic snowman out in the front yard..
I was 8 years old then, and just couldn't figure out how he knew I did it..
Guess it was all the arrow holes in it now that I think about it..
LOL
:laughing: I've done things like that too. :laughing:
We have an old foam soccer ball that I kick back and forth across the yard. Lasts a bit longer than a leather one. :goldtooth:
Tennis balls and golf balls are also a lot of fun, and there's always something fun to play with in the recycling bin.
I love to throw small plastic golf balls around the yard and shoot them with a judo point. The vented ones are my favorite. The will jump when you hit them and offer a new distance for you to shoot. They keep me entertained for hours.
I love to stump shoot, as long as it isn't actual stumps! Plastic bottles on broken arrow shafts, pine cones, halloween rats on sticks, stuff hanging from limbs of trees, etc. Whatever is fun to shoot and won't break our arrows.
Years ago there was a big white stuffed bear around. Made a great target for field points.
Nowadays I just shoot real archery targets but as a kid two things I remember exempting animals of course. We used to fill milk jugs with a couple rocks and throw it. Another guy shot flu flus at it. Was fun. Another was "stump shooting" butterflies. I don't remember if I ever killed one but it's def challenging and forced quick multi distanced shots. Was fun too. Just remember your judo points or the arrow is gone.
Several years ago my friend and I made a winter range in my garage. Once per week we got together to shoot at things we gathered. We always tried to out do each other with crazy targets.
Barbies, old radio, Michael Jackson CD's, a Mr Coffee, Chuck Adams pictures, cans, balls, stuffed animals, and baby dolls were just some of the things we destroyed with our bows.
It wasn't worth shooting at if it didn't take a push broom and a shovel to clean up.
Tennis balls,beer cans,dogs stuffed animals,ant hills,dry cow turds.
Quote from: Bowguy67 on January 16, 2019, 11:35:12 PM
Nowadays I just shoot real archery targets but as a kid two things I remember exempting animals of course. We used to fill milk jugs with a couple rocks and throw it. Another guy shot flu flus at it. Was fun. Another was "stump shooting" butterflies. I don't remember if I ever killed one but it's def challenging and forced quick multi distanced shots. Was fun too. Just remember your judo points or the arrow is gone.
Yes Bowguy, butterflies are great fun. A couple of years ago my two sons and I had an absolute ball on cabbage moths (white butterflies) on a turnip crop. Bright pink flu-flus were a must. We all managed to "puff" a few moths each.
Good fun and good memories. Thanks for reminding me :biglaugh:
Best
Lex
Cheap, kids sized soccer ball while using rubber blunts. Great fun in any large field or open trail. You can kick it along while walking and take shots whenever you like the look of the shot where it stops. I also like to kick it and try to hit it while rolling, have a friend throw it in the air, or (using one arrow only, that you walk and pick up after each shot) see how far you can move the ball with consecutive shots before missing. You just need to be a little aware because center shots will bounce back at you.
I stalked up to this target while out stumping a couple years ago. Proof that we have bear in these parts.
(https://i.imgur.com/vtdRmjF.jpg)
I saw tennis balls mentioned. They would be a great target if I didnt have a labrador retriever. Tennis balls dont last long here.
Be carefull shooting at inflatable balls with blunts! The arrow can come straight back at you or your kids faster than you can blink!
I forgot about ant hills. One of my favorite things on our annual trip to Wild Things is shooting at fire ant hills while we look for arrow heads.
Caddo nailed it. Prickly pear and other cactus are a favorite of mine. Tennis balls come in a close second for me as well as plastic coke bottles.
Mushroom stumps are also a lot of fun. If I find a stump with a bunch of mushrooms growing on the side, I'll walk around and try to pick them off (unless they're edible of course).
I used to shoot pop cans but they are pretty hard on feathers and I also worried about them scraping my arrows.
When I was a kid me and my best buddy used to ride our bikes into town and went as many stuffed animals as we could from those Grabber machines X. We used to shoot them until all the stuffing couldn't be stuffed back in anymore
Quote from: dringge on January 17, 2019, 08:36:22 AM
I saw tennis balls mentioned. They would be a great target if I didnt have a labrador retriever. Tennis balls dont last long here.
Yeah, my Blue Heeler loves tennis balls too, but I think she loves archery even more. Now I just tell her "No, it's a target" and she leaves the ball alone and sits by me till I shoot. When I do whack the tennis ball though, she can't help it and tears off after it and brings it back.
Now, if I could get her to retrieve arrows....................... :goldtooth:
Just remembered, I tried ping pong balls for a target, once. Useless. They just smash when you hit them.
Another thing. We often place a floro clay target in various places in our woods here at home, and then go back and "stalk" them. One shot allowed only. Miss and move on, and it's the next persons shot. That has been great fun, like someone said earlier, "Keeps me (and my boys) entertained for hours".
Best
Lex
I like butterflies, no point in harming the harmless. I love to shoot dry milkweed pods. They are reactive, and it spreads the growth of milkweeds, monarch butterflies need those milkweeds.
I hear you Pavan, but the cabbage moths were a pest and were going to be sprayed with a pesticide the next week, so we didn't mind whacking the odd one or three.
Dollar store smaller stuffed balls were ok for a while, but my heavy longbow and blunts knocked the stuffing out of them in no time, literally. Hence my love for tennis balls. No bounce back with those and a heavy arrow, and they last well.
Might give golf balls a try next. They sound like fun.
Best
Lex
I shot one orange golf ball out of there air that was thrown hard my by me. I had four witnesses. The best shot that i ever made with that 89 pound Big 5. I have never missed an orange golf ball that I happened to find out at the old country golf course, that was thrown by me and hit at about 35 yards out and 30 feet high. golf balls do not make good targets, arrow deflection can be extreme, as in the case of the one that I shot. I have seen some surprise deflections with tennis balls as well, okay for open fields, not so good for the back yard.
I bait my target with some peanut butter which brings in the ants which brings in the lizards to eat the ants . Lizards crap all over the pool deck so they have to go .
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I love giant puff balls, when new hard and suck up arrow shock well, when ripe they explode like mini atomic bombs. my ranch has many after hay harvest is off.
I second (or third) tennis balls and plastic golf balls. However, my favorites are small rubber balls from an old "ladder game". I push bailing twine through them and hang them from low tree branches. The wind moves them slightly and they are a blast to shoot.
Ducks
I like to hang a paper towel tube from a piece of rope in front of my target, then when its a bit windy, try to shoot through the center of it whenever it turns and is lined up with me. It's really tough to do, but a lot of fun at the same time.
Hedge balls.
I stick my broken arrows in the ground at differing distances and shoot at the feathers. I hate throwing away broken arrows that I spent so much time and money making.
Mole Hills are the most common thing I shot at I guess, if I'm taking a practice shot from the tree stand it's usually a leaf. Small shrubs, flower heads, Tufts of grass round out the balance.
Bugs make for fun targets. That said, really anything can light up my face. I just like shooting.
When I was a boy of 12 in the 50s I took an old pair of pants and shirt and stuffed them. I hung the scarecrow in the chain link fence gate and it became the Sheriff of Nottingham and received arrows from my Ben Pearson longbow. You see, the movie Robin Hood was big at the time.
A good friend of mine has a lot of foam "pigs" that he got from gas pipeline works near his home. They're used once and thrown out. They are 3' x 5' and 2' x 4' and make great targets. My buddy ties them to trees and spray paints dots and animal silhouettes on them.
They last for years and can stop an arrow from a heavy bow.
Dave.
I shot at a hornets nest once..... Never did that again!
"I stick my broken arrows in the ground at differing distances and shoot at the feathers."
I used to do this when I broke arrows stump shooting; just planted 'em where they broke. then it got too depressing roving the woods and seeing broken arrows all over the place.
The bugs that I am able to hit. In all honesty I shoot my bow almost like a kid with a BB gun when I take my bow shooting. My favorite targets are really anything that challenges me and is acceptable to shoot.
Quote from: slowbowjoe on January 21, 2019, 07:56:43 PM
"I stick my broken arrows in the ground at differing distances and shoot at the feathers."
I used to do this when I broke arrows stump shooting; just planted 'em where they broke. then it got too depressing roving the woods and seeing broken arrows all over the place.
Yah, kinda looks like an arrow cemetery. Just remember to pay your respects and tread lightly.
As a kid we had a garden. Not big but enough. One year I wanted pumpkins. Things went everywhere and became targets. Of course the bigger ones were critters of my imagination. I was 10-12 years old, 35# lemon wood bow, .25 arrows.
Quote from: mcgroundstalker on January 21, 2019, 06:48:31 PM
I shot at a hornets nest once..... Never did that again!
We get some pretty big ones out at our golf course. We try and bust them open so the birds will take care of it, but since we can't use a gun while there are golfers, I shoot them with judo points. Lots of fun as long as they don't figure out where you're standing. :biglaugh:
Candles are a lot of fun too. I shoot those a lot at night during the summer when it's too hot to shoot during the day.
Stumps!
I like to collect a bunch of chewing tobacco cans. I put some flour in each one and run a piece of fishing string through the lid when i close it. Then just find a tree with a bunch of low branches with a hill behind it to tie them to. When you hit one the flour makes a very satisfying white puff.
Pine cones when I'm down south. Leafs when I'm up north.
Haven't read all the whole thread but I like to shoot lions... dandelions that is, mostly the mature white ones. They give a satisfying poof when you make a solid hit.... :archer2:
Nerf footballs work great
it is remarkable how easy it is to hit a plastic jug with a rotten apple on top of it.
Crawdead mounds. ( crawdads, crawfish ?? ) Depends where you from! Lol
Callem what cha like but they everywhere down here.
Great targets
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Shotgun shells!
Dollar store nerf footballs. I picture them as being lungs on a deer.
I also like to shoot bottle caps. When I do hit one they are great, when I don't they just suck. LOL
Jeremy
ROVING!
(An excerpt from The Essentials of Archery, circa 1942 ~1953)
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Get yourself a good long bow and go roving. Tuck half a dozen tough birch shafts, fletched with long, low turkey feathers, under your belt or slip them in your quiver. Adjust your leather armguard and put the "tab" in place. If you have a dog, take him along, he'll get as much fun out of it as you will. Saunter down the lane or strike off across the fields. The first target that catches your eye is a corner fence post. Draw, hold a second and away whistles your arrow. You miss by an inch, but you secretly figure it was a darn close shot at that.
Next there is a burdock bush. "Now if there was a rabbit right at the base of it, I'll bet I'd get him." A quick draw, a snappy release and the arrow speeds clean and true-right through the imaginary bunny. "That's shooting," say you. You walk a bit more and catch up with a friend. "Let's see you hit that telegraph pole, bet you can't." You nock a shaft - a favorite one, for now you're shooting under the eyes of a skeptic and critic. You take careful aim, loose perfectly and-a real thrill - you hit the pole dead center. "Gosh, you hit it!" "I'd like to shoot too, must be lots of fun." You affect indifference, as if socking a pole at that distance - all of forty yards-is nothing at all, and begin telling him something about bows and arrows.
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After four or five of your friends are equipped, you can have real fun. You plan a roving course through the woods and over a hill. You lay out targets of various kinds. A corrugated box full of sod, a small flour sack full of leaves and dirt, a whitened stake, a wooden figure cut to resemble a bird, a toy balloon. Each one is placed from twenty to fifty yards apart, down the road, through the woods and up the hillside. You start at number one and shoot from mark to mark. He who gets around with the least number of shots, wins.
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Years ago, in England, the home of the yeoman and long bow archery, elaborate roving courses were laid out. One of the famous ones, built about 1594, was near London and was called Finsbury Fields. The names of the butts or targets breathe romance and adventure. From The Castle to Gardstone was 185 yards: from Turkswale to Lambeth was 75 yards; from Bloody House Ridge to Arndol was 154 yards. From the Scarlet Lion to Jehu was 82 yards.
The course had hundreds of marks and could be shot over from many directions. After an exhilarating round of the course, the merry party could drop off at the Egg Pye or Whitehall for a tankard of ale and a cut of cold beef.
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Empty plastic water bottles with a little sand, gravel, or dirt in them, this way they still move when you hit them but they don't fly away to far.
I get a lot of satisfaction with "threading the needle" shots while roving... stumps or some such that has a natural hole built in.
When I find old cans out in the woods, I set 'em in a stick and put it where there's a reasonable shot; when I'm roving another day and come across it, it's a favorite hit.
Have worried a little about tearing fletching and beating up my wood shafts, but somehow it hasn't been a problem (I've had lots of pass thru's!).
I like shooting just about anything.[attachment=1][attachment=2][attachment=3]
Stumps! Dead logs as a close second. ;-)
(https://i.imgur.com/AUxHxSc.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bJD5Fo0.jpg)