Hey all:

What do you recommend for a backstop in the backyard. I shot an arrow this morning and it hit the corner of the target and went under the fence behind it. Now I made sure no one or animal was behind the fence before I shot, so I am not worried about that, but I am embarrassed about the crappy shot and DO NOT WANT TO DO IT AGAIN.

Thanks for the help.

TBRA

A  puiture is worth a thousand words. That is 1/2" thick rubber belting. Very very durable or you can use cow mats.

Four foot wide piece of conveyor belting behind all my targets.

I throw a canvas tarp over my fence and let it hang so that it bunches up at the bottom.  Then put the taget in from of it.  The tarp is 16' long so it hangs to the ground on both sides of the fence.  An arrow may pass thru one layer of tarp, but not two.

This way I am not distracted by concerns of a bad arrow hitting the fence and flying off who knows where.

I use discarded marina foam cut into 4 foot lengths and glued togeter with spray faom. Have used the same backstop now for 15 years. Its getting old enough and has been shot so much that occasionally an arrow will pass thru it but the arrow ends up on the ground on the other side. You can paint the stuff with latex paint to cover the blue color.

I extend the height of the fence with some plywood, and tack old carpeting on my side of the fence.

Whatever you do, make sure your neighbor understands and approves of your shooting arrows against the fence, because s**t happens, and sooner or later, an arrow will go over the fence.  So, as you did, only shoot whenever you're sure nobody is on the other side.

Once when my neighbors were gone, I was shooting and somehow an arrow went through the fence.  I looked over and saw it on the other side, and thought I could reach it with a rake.  So I went to get my rake, but by the time I got back, the neighbor's dog had come, and when I tried to rake the arrow over to me, the dog grabbed the arrow and raced off with it.  As I take care of the dog sometimes when the neighbors are gone, I felt okay about going in their backyard to get the arrow away from the dog, but the dog had hidden the arrow and I couldn't find it.  The next morning, after the neighbors had returned, I found the arrow laying across my newspaper in my driveway.  You don't need too many of those kind of things to happen before your archery becomes an unpopular activity in your neighborhood.  Fortunately for me, the neighbor is also a hunter and meant the gesture of putting the arrow on my newspaper in a friendly way.  But with an implied message, I'm sure.

Isn't this really a Pow Wow thread?

This is from a while back, but may give you an idea or 2.

http://www.youtube.com/user/W8N4FALL#p/u/17/aQV_lVzjLx0

a sheet of osb on my fence has worked for me

shoot toward your house, if it's brick even better. that's what i do. have a tendence to concentrate more.

I use square bails of hey(about 6) stacked on top of a pallet with a heavy rubber truck mud flap on top and ratchet strapped down on the pallet. This gives me a back stop at 6 feet tall and three feet wide to stop any arrows that miss the target. Plus the fence behind is a 6 foot wooden fence. You can also use a round bail of hey if you can get it in your yard(I can't.)

QuoteOriginally posted by bigiron:
shoot toward your house, if it's brick even better. that's what i do. have a tendence to concentrate more. [/QUOTE)
That would work but kinda hard on arrows.

I made this back stop out of free materials.  It consistes of layers of foam squeezed together.  Sort of like those block targets only much larger, about 48 inches wide and as tall as I want to make them.

QuoteOriginally posted by ronp:
I made this back stop out of free materials.  It consistes of layers of foam squeezed together.  Sort of like those block targets only much larger, about 48 inches wide and as tall as I want to make them.

 

Wish I could get free stuff like that(that's why I use hey it's free from the farm).

You can probably get an old trampoline free  for hauling it off. Anyhow drape it over something hang some gallon milk jugs from bailing twine a couple of feet in front of it, I use a part of the trampoline frame to hang the jugs from. When you hit a jug it sounds like a 22 going off and that jug will wrap around the frame like a tetherball. My kids have a blast with this setup, instead of getting tired of shooting in a few minutes ,sometimes they're out there for a couple of hours hoopin and hollerin when they hit a jug. We haven't broken or lost any arrows doing this either. I set this up for shooting blunts not feildpoints.

I've heard of some people using those rubber mats that you can get at a feed store.