Medieval arrow target

[Englishbowman]

I recently acquired some old wooden longbow arrows with large arrowheads, I have shot a few into my straw boss but they get completely embedded in it. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can make a target that I could retrieve them from easily?

[wolfsire]

I don't know how it would compare with straw, I can only let you know how I made my targets.  Basically it is to stack up sheets of cardboard.  There is a little more to it than that.  Mine are 4-5 inches thick.  The corigation direction is alternated.  One has a layer of carpet in the middle.  They are enclosed in thin boxes of appropriate size.  Held together with duck tape.  Easy enought to put a target image on.

[SteveO]

 The best I have come up with for broad head arrows is a dirt pile. At a previous residence I had made two parallel walls about 4 feet apart, both 4 feet long and 3 feet high. I hauled dirt and dumped it between the walls, then planted grass seed on it to keep it from washing away. It worked on everything. Since there wasn't any hard things in the dirt at all, I could even shoot flint points into it with a reasonable expectation of not doing them any harm. I believe many of the English target butts during the middle ages were nothing more than glorified dirt piles.

 Steve

[armymedic.2]

agree with stevo.  i also like to bundle cloth inside "plastic burlap" bags, and hang them so they swing freely.  very easy to get arrows out, no damage to heads, only terouble is broadheads eat up the bags pretty fast.  still, you should be able to get a bunch of shots before slipping another bag over hole deal.   real cheap target without a lot of wieght.

[Loki]

The heads are designed not to be pulled out,which makes them a bugger to,well extract  .Shooting those heads into straw bales is a good way of braking the arrows or the target's.Have you tried wand shooting? place a wand (a straight tree branch around 6 foot tall and a inch diameter) infront of a small hill like a little barrow or if there's none of those in your area,spend a bit of time and mound some earth up behind the wand.It may be a bit of work but wand shooting is great fun.Allternatively you could get some hessian sacks (what potato's used to come in) and fill them full of garden chippings,you know that tree bark stuff for going round the flowers?mulch i think it's called.Once full hang the sacks of chippings from tree limbs and shoot away,bodkins come out easy and broadheads are easier to extract but there allways going to be difficult without resorting to the Bollock knife  .
I shot this nasty thing into a sack and it came out whilst still attached to the shaft,but i had to fiddle it out.If i shot that into a straw target i would have no chance of extracting it without butchering the target.Which is what it was designed for,but Frenchies not straw  .


Andy

[Englishbowman]

Thanks for the advice, I think I will go for the tato’ sacks because our local farm shop sells them for a tuppence, cheers.
 

[huntersteve]

I recently bought a broadhead target that works great....it was made using expanding foam and filling up a large clear trash bag...let it harden and it works great for broadheads or field points....I've been shooting mine all year and it's still in great shape....steve