Straw Bosses

Hidden Hippo

New member
What foam bosses do you all use.
Layered?
Pro Boss?
Danage?
Eleven?

All have their pros and cons.

Ones with centers are not appropriate if putting more than one face on a boss.
Layered tend to break up and leave foam laying about - hardly green .
Danage are expensive and useless in the wet.

Sometimes good old straw is the best option

- - - Updated - - -

HH - loving your profile picture on this thread! :)
That's my set of 6 now ;)

Layered foam is simple, although given the choice I like Danage.
 

ben tarrow

Well-known member
I just think you are all just being picky because you can be.
10 years ago, hardly anyone had foam bosses and everyone had straw. Now, just because some are using foam, you expect everyone to have the money to pay for them and the additional storage space to keep them?
 

dvd8n

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
I just think you are all just being picky because you can be.
10 years ago, hardly anyone had foam bosses and everyone had straw. Now, just because some are using foam, you expect everyone to have the money to pay for them and the additional storage space to keep them?
Interesting. I wonder how many people actually are shooting on straw versus foam. I'm not an old timer in fairness but I have never shot a straw boss and none of my clubs are particularly rich.
 

Shirt

Well-known member
I just think you are all just being picky because you can be.
10 years ago, hardly anyone had foam bosses and everyone had straw. Now, just because some are using foam, you expect everyone to have the money to pay for them and the additional storage space to keep them?
Yes. Arrows are expensive, straw targets wear the hell out of them and have a significantly higher risk of breakage, and I'm lazy so I don't like having to have two people pull every arrow.

I shoot maybe one round a year on straw, which is mostly down to bad luck because I plan my season around shoots where I know they have foam targets.
 

Hidden Hippo

New member
I just think you are all just being picky because you can be.
10 years ago, hardly anyone had foam bosses and everyone had straw. Now, just because some are using foam, you expect everyone to have the money to pay for them and the additional storage space to keep them?
The storage and movement I agree, that's a downside to layered foam, but danage/eleven etc. alleviate that problem, albeit at a cost.

The general cost, however, I'd disagree with. My first club shot on straw and would usually get 2-3 seasons out of a boss before retiring it to juniors/beginner lessons. The club only shot 2-3 times a week outdoors and didn't have anyone shooting particularly high poundage/putting a lot of pressure on the middle. With rebanding of layered foam bosses, they'd have probably managed 3 seasons per boss without any hassle. Add in the cost to archers of breaking arrows/having them come out covered in glue and straw and I'd gladly pay a club an extra ?10/20 a year to never have to shoot straw.

Gtek said it best - why shoot a 21st century bow into 17th century targets.
 

DarkMuppet

Member
I just think you are all just being picky because you can be.
10 years ago, hardly anyone had foam bosses and everyone had straw. Now, just because some are using foam, you expect everyone to have the money to pay for them and the additional storage space to keep them?
Actually I do. It's was a much needed step in target evolution.
A target that's too hard to pull your arrows from and breaks arrows on impact is fundamentally flawed, and isn't fit for purpose. It's entire existence is to catch arrows safely, if it can't do that then what's it's point?
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
A lot of interesting comments of people breaking carbon arrows in straw bosses. As a longbow archer (yes one of us had to ship in), I don't think I've had an arrow break because it hit the boss (I've had some break because they've glanced the boss, or stand)
So I'm happy to shoot at straw bosses, I've shot at new and old ones without any real difficulty. True on occasion there are hard spots that I have to use two hands to pull an arrow (I very rarely use a puller, even for carbon ones).

Out of interest are your carbon arrows breaking on impact, or getting them out? If getting them out then perhaps you aren't pulling them right, I see a number of archers can't pull arrows straight, which is why a number of longbow archers insist on pulling their own arrows.

There is a saying I've heard a few times, "If you can't pull your arrows, you shouldn't be shooting that bow."
 

Kernowlad

Supporter
Supporter
My son shot on straw on Wednesday; aged 8, bow is just over 20lbs but it was STILL hard to pull them out. I've shot my old bow indoors at 50 into straw and it was incredibly hard to get them out.

Seeing as some of my ACGs almost go through a thick foam boss, straw would be disastrous.
 

bimble

Well-known member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
AIUK Saviour
Out of interest are your carbon arrows breaking on impact, or getting them out? If getting them out then perhaps you aren't pulling them right, I see a number of archers can't pull arrows straight, which is why a number of longbow archers insist on pulling their own arrows.

There is a saying I've heard a few times, "If you can't pull your arrows, you shouldn't be shooting that bow."
As in the photo I shared on page one, all the ones I've seen break break on impact. With maybe a couple of inches of penetration into a hard spot and then the shaft breaking at the target. I seem to recall that when Easton brought out the Pro Tour they had to come out with a warning that the targets had to allow 15cm of penetration or the arrows would be at risk.

If I can pull my arrows from an Atlas target single handed, without even needing a puller, but it takes three people to get the same arrow from the centre of a straw boss, is it my poundage, or the boss that's the issue...??
 

Hawkmoon

Member
Just my views

First off I have never had an arrow break on straw boss, ACC, ACG or AC.

Yes they can be hard to pull out mainly for carbon shafts, this tends to be from the heat generated melting the glue that holds the straw together and then gluing the shaft in the boss (also leaves bits of straw stuck to the shaft). The solution is to have some form of barrier/lube to apply to the front two inches of the shaft, the best things that I have used are a silicon shoe shine sponge (not the colour ones), dry cycle chain lube (it is Teflon in a suspension that drys on, mountain bikers use it in the summer when dust is an issue for wet lubes), or Dragon Snot. There are lots of other options you could even have the front two inches of your shafts PVD coated with PTFE but when I looked at that it would have cost about ?200 to have twelve shafts treated, although you would then be able to fry an egg on them without it sticking!

Foam is good but has issues of it's own including disposal, as it is not biodegradable whereas straw is.
 

Yew Selfbow

Active member
Foam is good but has issues of it's own including disposal, as it is not biodegradable whereas straw is.
Good point, most foam targets are a hybrid modified P.U. The polymer formulation is designed to resist UV degradation and break down of the cell structure. That foam boss will still be alive and kicking in a land fill long after we're all dead and buried. Plus those carbon arrows and limbs we're all so fond of .... they'll be in land fill sites for the next 500 hundred years.
 

ben tarrow

Well-known member
Thanks for the replies folks.
As for Gtek's comment about straw bosses being 17th century technology, I have to dispute that. When I was a lad, a bit after the 17th century but before compounds became popular, bosses were much lighter and far less dense. The approved way to pick a boss up was to go down on one knee with the boss behind you, put your hands under the boss and stand up. Not so easy with today's heavier straw bosses. We used to have races round the field with a boss on your back. Ah, them were the days.
I find a lot of new arrows that have had too much hotmelt used in putting the piles in dont get cleaned properly, so the spare hotmelt gets smeared down the outside of the shaft. This of course melts when the arrow enters the boss and you end up with straw glued to the outside of the shaft.
Funny how attitudes move on. Forward facing quivers, backward facing, oops, back to forward facing again.
At my club a couple of years ago, we offered the compounders danage bosses as long as they got them out and put them away again. We can get 10 straw bosses and A frames on our trolley to set the field up. needless to say, the compounders are still shooting straw with the rest of us.
This thread has given me food for thought though, so I'll be raising this again at our next meeting.
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
I seem to recall that when Easton brought out the Pro Tour they had to come out with a warning that the targets had to allow 15cm of penetration or the arrows would be at risk.
The require 15cm of penetration? REALLY? Sorry but that in my mind isn't a good arrow. The whole workings behind arrow is based on impact, if the arrow only works with soft targets then the material/spec is not suitable for purpose.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
A think fat Ally shafts can be slowed down nicely by the old and softer straw bosses of those times. Harder straw for thinner or faster arrows, seems like the way to progress. But it doesn't work like that because we don't all shoot the faster thinner arrows. Foam is good but can take up much more room.
An old straw boss in front of a new harder one can work very nicely, and softens the new one after some time of use. The drawback is two bosses to set up on one stand; and some stands need longer fingers to take the second boss.
I don't think there is a perfect solution; just different compromises for different conditions.
 

jerryRTD

Well-known member
I just think you are all just being picky because you can be.
10 years ago, hardly anyone had foam bosses and everyone had straw. Now, just because some are using foam, you expect everyone to have the money to pay for them and the additional storage space to keep them?
Ten years ago I was a member of Euston Park Bowmen and that club was using Danage bosses. I also remember that the FITA star and h2h that year at Taverham was also shot on Danage bosses.
 

Corax67

Well-known member
Never considered people would object to straw bosses - at club we shoot foam bosses for our (4) compound archers and everyone else on straw.

A wide mix of arrow types are shot into the straw but we've never had breakages either from impact or when pulling - in fact the only dead arrows we get are from contact with timber, either penetrating or glancing.

As we don't have any ultra competitive archers with cutting edge arrows amongst us then I cannot say what might happen to X10's or the like but our visitors on league matches have never raised objections to shooting on straw.

I see no evidence of wear & tear on my ACC's yet after almost 2 years of straw only shooting 40# OTF indoor and out but obviously if people do have concerned then it's better to stick to their preferred target.



Karl
 

davedownsouth

New member
Only ever shot on foam once & didn't particularly like it as at 80 yards I had no idea if the arrows were hitting (my sight is no where near good enough to tell). On straw, you alway get a nice confirmation thud when (if :pessimist) the arrow hits. Foam was totally silent.
 
Top