Target Butts - The Hair-Tearing Curse of Archers Worldwide

Hi All

We've just completed another couple of working bees at our club remaking/repacking our target butts, in steaming hot weather, to prepare them for a major ranking shoot for SE Qld clubs just two weeks ago.

Just that one day's shooting and we need more working bees to repair, rapack and remake the bloody things again. AAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

This really is a tiresome business and I'm sure archers everywhere struggle with the problem. The current range of solutions is either highly expensive (eg Danage Domino targets) or highly work intensive (just about every other solution).

As I am getting older and tireder, I have been searching for an easier solution and believe I may have come up with one. I have to say right from the outset that this isn't my idea but was invented by a firm calling themselves ProMat, which makes a target consisting of a mesh, monofilament front screen which holds the arrow in place as it penetrates and a material backstop (probably made of Kevlar or the like) to prevent arrow penetration.

My idea is a refienment (I hope) on this idea. I once tried the ProMat backstop and it didn't prove terribly durable or long lasting so I really never pursued the idea any further. However now I think I have a way to get around this and make for a workable long lasting target (I hope)

As best I can determine, the mesh that ProMat uses is a monofilament, self healing, polymer screen printing mesh and I discovered many websites on the web offering this stuff for sale in a heap of different grades and it's pretty cheap too.

The problem at this early stage is to work out which mesh is the most suitable. One has to get the right degree of "space" between the meshes but this should be a case of trial and error. I'll start with a fairly open style and work from there.

I intend using two screens, not one, some six to eight inches apart to give better control of the arrow and stop any movement. For a back stop I have contacted Dupont Aust and asked them about obtaining either heavy duty Cordura or Kevlar ballistic cloth. I'll use a single heavy layer of this but with two reinforcing pads about seven ring size attached to the main stop with velcro so that they are easily changed if damaged. This back stop will have brass eyes fitted in the corners and attached to the target frame with springs to allow some controlled give when the arrow strikes. See Drawings:



The real key to this thing working, I believe is to change the arrow point design. I'm not sure if any back stop will take the pounding of the usual arrow points, which although not greatly sharpened nevertheless have a point to them which will penetrate just about anything.

I've just ground down one of my points using a hand held Dremel and cut off wheel to achieve a rounded point, which should allow for parting of the mesh material without damage to it and should not penetrate the back stop material or if it does it should be very limited. here is a pic of what I have done:



You may well think that this will cause a wide variation in arrow weights. Not so. I have done this with several points now and have kept the weight to within a couple of grains of each other so it isn't a problem. Just a bit of care needed.

Will it work?

Well the ProMat works and I believe this is an improvement of the design. I'll let y'all know following Christmas.

I offer this design up to all here in case you too, like me, have been struggling with this issue as well.

[geoffretired]

Somebody has been very busy, I can see.
I like the idea of the back stop with two extra layers velcroed on for easy replacement. I think that could also be very useful for clubs with lots of softish straw bosses that are starting to get pass throughs.
Do the two mesh layers fit into a frame to pull them tight? I am trying to imagine a target face on the front screen and an arrow passing through. Have you seen how that works? The arrows don't move about tearing the target face do they?
It looks like they will be very light. That must be a huge plus when there are large numbers to be set out. Or when you are on your own cause the others are late;again!
I shall be interested in your results, and what Du Pont have to say about your enquiry. Nice one.

Hi Geoff

There could be arrow movement side to side with just the one screen, which I always thought was a weakness of the ProMat system. The two screens will ensure that the arrows are held quite firmly without any sideways squirming at all. The screens will have to be stretched fairly tight over a wooden frame but not overly so - just firm. The target face clips to the front screen using our club "patented" system of two sharp hooks joined by a rubber band. Works well.

The only thing that will require some tuning will be the buffer springs and I will be trying a variety of different tensions. Having arrows bounce right back out would be highly amusing for a while but I think it would wear thin quite quickly. The aim is to get the right spring tension which will allow the backstop to move back against the springs and then ease forward again slowly.

The real key to this "system" is the arrow point. A sharp point will enter the backstop and eventually you will get pass throughs and be no better off than with all of the present systems. You need a point that it rounded enough to pass through the mesh without damaging it and which will not penetrate the backstop material. Will my point idea work? Dunno, until I get some of the Dupont material.

I'll keep everyone who is interested, posted on the results.