Straw Bosses

ben tarrow

Well-known 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.
I find you get a different type of thud depending on how close to the center your arrow hits. A gold gives a "whump" like a boxing glove in a cushion, where as the white gives a "whap" like a slapped bum
 

bimble

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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.
With Atlas or Pro Bosses (or any boss that uses a different density foam for the centre of the target) you get a different *thump* when you hit the middle as opposed to the rest of the boss... so not only can you tell by sound you've hit, but whether it was in the middle or not! ;)
 

Yew Selfbow

Active member
Maybe one thing to consider is, the straw available to boss manufacturers has changed dramatically over the last 25 years. Very little Barley is grown in the UK nowadays and whereas 30 or 40 years ago wheat straw was was almost a meter in length and of large diameter, today modern strains of Wheat and Barley have very short and very narrow diameter stems
 

ben tarrow

Well-known member
Maybe one thing to consider is, the straw available to boss manufacturers has changed dramatically over the last 25 years. Very little Barley is grown in the UK nowadays and whereas 30 or 40 years ago wheat straw was was almost a meter in length and of large diameter, today modern strains of Wheat and Barley have very short and very narrow diameter stems
I had heard that Egertec had to have older crops grown specially for the purpose of boss building
 

jerryRTD

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There is a certain amount of 'thatching straw' grown there are a couple of fields around Suffolk that look rather different at harvest time
 

mk1

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I had heard that Egertec had to have older crops grown specially for the purpose of boss building
It said on their website that they grew an old variety for straw length - I guess under the new ownership this still happens. Can anyone remember when they "beefed" up the bosses to cope with modern archery - they twisted a bit tighter and made then deeper IIRC
 

urbin

Member
Down here in the colonies we traditionally used layered Pinex (soft particleboard) which sounds similar to straw in that it can be very difficult to get your arrows out. Most compounders won't shoot on it anymore, but it's cheaper than danage and also good for Crossbow. Pinex targets are also heavy to move.

Mostly we shoot on danage and rotate the blocks around to give them all similar wear, but as you can imagine getting them shipped from Europe to New Zealand makes it pretty costly.
 

Rik

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It said on their website that they grew an old variety for straw length - I guess under the new ownership this still happens. Can anyone remember when they "beefed" up the bosses to cope with modern archery - they twisted a bit tighter and made then deeper IIRC
The first mention I can see of Egertec targets (the beefed up ones) on the old Sagi board is 1999. That feels about right. Before that they were "Egerton" (the company name).
 

chrisgas

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Hmm, I am at a point where In the next few weeks I was looking at investing in a dozen straw bosses. But after reading this post and the myriad of negative replies, would I be better in investing that money in buying plywood/OSB etc. and building a couple of dozen d.i.y. bosses? These would be outside in semi permanent positions. If I bought the timber for framing, would I be better with OSB or Marine ply? Where I live we average around 30 days a year where we have rain at some time of the day but maybe only 10-15 days where we have a full day of rain.
 

little-else

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foam bosses survive outside a damned sight better than straw and have a number of advantages that include not knackering your arrows. There are differetn types of foam boss to choose from but they ahve a couple of disadvantages.
1 they are generally bigger than straw bosses (good and bad) so putting them away requires a lot more room for storage. shouldt be a problem for you but you will have to cosider this when costing stands and other materials.
2 they cost more. As they last longer and can be repaired this doesnt make them more expensive over their lifetime but you initial outlay will be higher.
 

dvd8n

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I have never seen a foam boss made with ply or chipboard. I've only seen them made with 2x2 timber and strapping. Ours sit outside for years in all weathers and last for yonks.
 

chrisgas

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I have never seen a foam boss made with ply or chipboard. I've only seen them made with 2x2 timber and strapping. Ours sit outside for years in all weathers and last for yonks.
I was thinking along the line of filling with clothes and or wrapping plastic, there seems to be some good diy bosses on you tube. I would make most with legs and wheels. I would probably have a go at making "some" foam bosses, The local DIY store sells sound insulation foam, I think this is used in some bosses I have seen, double layered with exercise mat foam on the face may work out reasonably cheap. How do you make your foam bosses? Are they layered and strapped? What type of foam? Time is not an issue for making stuff, all the ply for framing can be pre-cut to size at the supplier and I have a cheap source for all the timber i.e. ?7 for 4m x 15cm x 5cm pine which I can rip up.
 

dvd8n

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This is the kind of foam that I have always seen targets made from: http://www.packprod.com/foam-skins.html

Although that's not much use to you in Spain :) I think that it's actually a by-product of the manufacturing process. However we've always bought it direct from archery suppliers as it comes ready cut. You need a lot for a boss which means a lot of cutting.

I'm not saying that other foam types would not work.

It gets framed and strapped like this: http://www.merlinarchery.co.uk/130cm-layered-foam-archery-target-21112.html

The wood does need repaired periodically as it does suffer from arrow strikes.
 
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