First I tried sandwiching twenty or so sheets of cardboard and pasting a target on that. It was OK, but a lot of my blunt arrows just bounced out, since cardboard is very springy on the flat.
Then I had a great idea- use the stiffness of the corrugations on edge to my advantage!
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| Make a cardboard archery target backstop. |
- Cut the boxes into strips of 10-15cm wide against the grain of the corrugations.
- Start to roll the strips, taping more strips on as you come to the end of each one. it doesn't have to be super tight. Stop when you reach your desired size and tape the end down.
- Trace around your roll on a large piece of cardboard, and cut out two plates- for the front and back.
- Tape the front and back plates on the roll tightly, and either draw on or print out a target to paste on the roll.
That's it, now find a nice embankment to rest it against and start practicing!
It works great! The stiffness of the backstop keeps the arrows from bouncing out, and if the front plate gets too ragged, I can just flip it over or tape on a new one!
UNofficial target from wikimedia
Have you ever messed around with an atlatl? I was thinking of making one this summer, attach fire crackers to the darts, and use them to keep the monkeys out of the rice paddy.
ReplyDeleteI have tried a few times, but not seriously. Although the website primitiveways.com has some excellent ideas on making them.
DeleteMonkeys, eh... just boars here for now. They are bad enough!
Thanks for the tip on primitiveways.com.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the monkeys cleaned us out last year. I had fantasies of having the freedom to use firearms for just one day. I suggested that the town I live in look into exporting bush meat to Europe and relieve some of the stress on the African monkey population. They seemed as though they were actually half interested in the idea.