We have round bales of hay cut on our farm each year. I have lost more arrows into those than I care to admit to. You will find a void sooner or later and the bales are too big to dig the arrow out. Judo attachments would probably help but plain tips will disappear.
I have a few in a round bail now. lol They have been there close to a year and they can stay till it rots. My brother and I were shooting at it with a FITA target face at 100yds and it would eat them when it hit a soft spot. We dug a few out. We stopped after losing 4 or 5 in it. We finally put 3 layers of cardboard behind the face. We didn't loose any more but we had to keep removing the cardboard to remove arrows. Haven't shot at it since.
I used a 18" square cardboard box stuffed with old clothes for about 6 months. Just cut off any zippers or buttons off some old clothes. Pack them into the box as tightly as possible. I duct taped this shut from the top. I shot it across my basement until I started passing through it, which took about 6 months. Then I got a Block 4x4 on sale. I still use the target for shooting my pellet rifle into in the basement. It stops pellets from the air gun like nothing and I don't have to worry about ricochets. I got a bag style target from my local hardware store that sells seasonal outdoors items occasionally. I've got that in the garage so I can shoot after my wife goes to bed. It only cost $20 on sale. If it lasts 6 months to a year I'll be happy. I'm shooting a Z7xtreme at 66lb with a 405 grain arrow. I'm over 70 ft/lb of impact and I'm only shooting 12-15 yards for my everyday shooting so I'm hard on targets. I average 60-70 arrows each day and shoot 6 days per week.
I would never ever recomend shooting the round 5' tall hay bales.. I shot 6 arrows from 30 yards at a dot I put on a bit of paper stuck to the bale and all 6 arrows ended up in the middle of the damn thing and took yonks to find and dig out (only found 3)...
I have friends who work in a mail room, so I get tons of cardboard boxes for free. I just use cardboard only. I take about 28 flattened boxes and arrange them in a spiral pattern to form a 3' x 5' rectangle that is about 1.5" thick or so. Then I put a few duck tape bands around it to hold it all together. Then I just find random soda bottle caps and tape them to the face to act as bulls eyes. It's free, it's dead simple to make, it stops the arrows from my 70/30 compound no problem. It seems like a good way to recycle cardboard too :-) It lasts surprisingly long, but be careful if it gets wet. That makes it swallow arrows :-/
Straw bales are better than hay. Also you can put a couple of 2x6 boards on each end connected by all thread and keep it as tight as you like. Just tighten down on the nut on the all thread when you want it tighter. They work great and will last a long time but it isn't easy to move because it gets wet and heavy. Also look up "life time targets". They are home made frames with rags or shrink wrap pressed down in them. Here is a link to one being made. http://www.bullnettlenews.com/forum/yaf_postst15140_DIY-lifetime-target-lots-of-pics.aspx
Have one similar to this at my work... http://www.outdoorblog.net/pnwbowhunting/2010/07/29/economical-diy-archery-target/ Only problem is with broadheads, either take them off and pull it back out or pull it through the target possibly doing damage to the fletching. We have about a foot depth of target/cardboard. Very cheap to make.
I took 2x10's and made a 4x4 frame, fastened a piece of carpet to the front and filled it up with shrink wrap and packed it tight. I then fastened a piece of carpet to the back. It works great! You can put spots on it or attach picture targets to it. When one side wears out turn it aroung and shoot the other side. Arrows are easy to pull out and no residue on them. Best thing of all is I had the material laying around so it not cost me anything. You will never waste money on store bougt spot targets again.
I've tried various configurations mentioned (stuffed box/bags, cardboard, carpet, haybales, etc). The config I settled on is like vitalzone's and similar to the targets at Chester State Park in SC, except I use the cheap chicken wire to hold cardboard layers fairly tightly together. I added a shed roof on the top (a board and some vinyl scrap and raised it off the ground a few inches which allows it to stay outside. Minimal maintenance to rotate/replace the cardboard. All built from scrap wood. If you're shooting broadheads the chicken wire is probably not the way to go.
A cheap old rolled up matress, like on a bunk bed. Roll it up tighter than heck then wrap with a bunch of food wrap (seethru stretchy stuff). Preferably a bigger roll of it, available at menardes or lowes as shrinkwrap. Target will stop arrows from any bow and will last for years with just adding some more wraps to it every year.
A friend of mine uses thick phone books. The one's that are about 5". Seems to work fine for him, I was a little suprised at first but Ill stick with my ole' trusty Block.
i have just got 2 massiv 6ft by 3ft hay bails with a paper target. they are something really large to shoot at and I'm not afraid to try different things and missing coz of the size.
Hay bales can make for great backstops. Arrows are not lost, just misplaced in the bale for a period of time. Foam from a trailer dealer is also a great idea!
Find ya a large burlap bag (many farms store carry these ) Place inside the inner foam of a couple old couch cushions and place 1 or 2 if you'd like pieces of scrap carpet on either side of the foam inside the bag. stitch the open end closed, then sray paint on a few dots( I like 5 ) and waa laa. It will not only stop your arrows well but arrow removal is a one finger and thumb job. When the burlap wears out ( which takes quite a while ) simply slip the whole assembly into a new bag and paint some new dots.
I use round hay bales with ratchet strap so it is. Really compacted and stop arrows from my bow. I have a hoyt rampage xt 65 pounds with a 28 inch DL and 300 fps
