Practice makes perfect.
Practice is the best thing a beginning archer or bowhunter can do to improve her or his skills. A beginner may practice more frequently than a more-experienced archer, so when looking for a target, you’ll want one that can survive a lot of hits over its lifetime. You will also want a target that will keep challenging you as you improve. With these features in mind—durable and challenging—here are half a dozen targets for archery beginners.
The Yellow Jacket YJ-450 Plus is an incredibly durable bag target with several options to challenge beginners and help them to hone their archery skills. The YJ-450 Plus is a free-standing bag with its own internal frame system and more than 90 layers of material to produce incredible stopping power for arrows fired at speeds faster than even 450 feet per second—and easy arrow removal afterward. The bag’s four sides offer plenty of target varieties that will push beginning archers to improve.
The Rhinoblock XL target from Rhinehart is about as durable as they come, and with six sides of 18-inch by 15-inch target zone, offers plenty of challenges for archers of all skill levels. The Rhinoblock XL offers superior arrow stoppage, halting projectiles fired at speeds well over 300 feet per second. There are two features that set Rhinoblock XL apart from the competition. First, you can safely use broadheads with the target. In addition, the target’s foam core is replaceable, so you won’t have to purchase a whole new target once you’ve put it through its paces.
The Hurricane H-20 is a heavy-duty bag target with plenty of features to challenge beginning archers. Its heavy-duty, tri-core construction makes for superior durability and long target life. The Hurricane H-20 also boasts high-visibility aiming points, which allow archers to maximize their ranges. One side of the Hurricane H-20 offers several targets, the reverse mimics the broadside vital areas of a deer. The latter are offset from the centers of the targets on the opposite side in order to prolong the life of the H-20.
Beginning bowhunters will appreciate all the features found on the three-dimensional GlenDel Buck target. The Buck is built with open-layered, polyfusion technology which means easy arrow removal—and you can use either field tips or broadheads. The GlenDel Buck target comes in three sizes that mimic the proportions of whitetail bucks at various stages of maturity. The buck’s vital area is a replaceable insert, so you can use the target for years of realistic hunting practice.
Block, the maker of the most popular archery target on the market, makes the Block Infinity Target, which is ideal for beginners, thanks to its variety of targets and industry-leading durability. The Infinity Target boasts multiple aiming points, in a variety of shapes and locations, on all six sides of the block. It’s made with a layered polyfusion technology that allows for easy arrow removal and an ability to stop both field points and broadheads fired at speeds up to 500 feet per second.
The Big Shooter Buck is another three-dimensional deer target that mimics the shape of a whitetail deer. What makes this target great for beginning bowhunters is that its price point tends to be much lower than that of comparable targets. In addition to stopping all broadheads and field points, which can be easily removed from the target, the Big Shooter Bucks vitals are inserts that can be replaced once they’ve been damaged beyond the point of utility.
