Back stop?

zr600

New member
What could I use for a back stop for shooting in my garage? My daughter is in 4h archery and I want to get her shooting more and if we could shoot at home that would help a lot. She is shooting a Mathews mission craze at the lightest setting and shortest. Would like something that will stop the arrows without breaking them. She can be inconsistent and miss targets so I want to put up a backstop to not be punching holes in the walls and breaking arrows.
 
I've also heard those stall mat's from Tractor Supply Co. work real well.They're supposed to be very heavy.They measure 4'x6'x3/4".I plan to pick one up tomorrow myself since I'll be driving right by one of their stores.I'd suggest using rubber blunts to reduce any chance of pass through.TSC has compressed bales that folks use for targets.Think I'll try one of those to.
 
growing up we used to use haybales as our backstop, but that does leave the "weak points" where the bales stack togther.

i would suspect some of those, with one of those mats hanging a few inches behind it would probably be a good option as it will allow most of the arrows to get caught by the bales, which make for easier removal than pulling them back thru a 3/4" rubber mat. and likely make the mat much more sustainable long term.

hth
 
When I used to shoot at one buddy's house he used old pieces of conveyor belt from a gravel pit. That stuff was tough, never seen an arrow go through it.
 
not sure how much power that bow has, but hay bales won't stop my arrows, not even close. 12" of styrofoam won't do it either. I think I would put up 3/4 ply with something in front of it like the stall mats, separated by 6 a few inches.
 
We use to use styrofoam we got from boat docks.I use to shot an 80 pound Spoiler in it. Another good backstop are the ones made from canvas and filled with cotton or old rags as long as field points are used. I think they are called Dead Stops. With out knowing the poundage of her bow, its hard to say but there are lots of options. Even an old bed mattress maybe.
 
I took 3 bales of straw and stacked them on top of each other horizontally so that the end grain of the straw is facing front. Put 2 lengths of 4x4 on each side, one front and one back. Ran some lengths of all thread through the 4x4s top and bottom and compressed the bales while wet.
 
Well what I ended up doing was going to a flooring store and ask if they had any dumpster of old carpet. Sure enough they told go look out back take whatever you need. Heck the carpet even looked good yet wasn’t all dirty and wore out looking. It works good stops her arrows. It even stopped my arrows not sure what I’m pulling back proably 50-60 lbs but you do need room behind it about 1/2-3/4 of the arrow on mine will go through it.
 
My exp with carpet's the same as yours.FYI the stall mat's working out great.Weighs 80Lbs.The compressed straw bale's little better than plain old hay bales.Not worth bothering with.Better off with hay at around 2.25 per bale vs 14 bucks for the compressed stuff.
 
Layers of cardboard would stop an arrow....if You could get some large cardboard boxes and lay them flat and thick and tape them together they would work really good and be easy to pull an arrow back out.We get big sheets of cardboard at work used as slip sheets on pallets and we get lots of cardboard between skids/layers of product that cover an area of 48 inches by 40...most Furniture or Grocery Stores would have something similar to use plus its covers a larger area in case of a miss.
 
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