From time to time your target bosses will be in need of repairs. We know this as we go through the process of inspecting and repairing our targets at the club. Sometimes this is a complete rebuild, other times the boss straps or banding simply needs tightening up. In the next few articles I will be providing some thoughts and advice on how I go about repairing targets.
Bit of a disclaimer here. I am no expert but I have used these techniques and found them to work, but please take care and use common sense.
The only issue that can occur is if there isn’t enough banding to connect to the banding ratchet. To overcome this problem we came up with a quick solution of creating an extension strap. I can’t lay claim to coming up with this idea or technique entirely on my own and would like to thank Tony Parsons for his help and advice.
Buckle and extension strap
This is a length of about 12-14 inches with a buckle on the end. With a little luck there should be enough banding on the boss end to loop through the other side of the buckle.
You might want to use a pair of pliers to pull the end through as shown below.
You can then use the extended length of strapping in the bander to tighten the boss straps.
Be careful with using this technique as if there is insufficient banding on the buckle it can slip off.
Another added advantage of this method and the buckles is if you are careful you can tighten the bosses in situ on the course by just taking the banding ratchet and extension length.
Don’t over compress the bosses as we’ve found light poundage junior bows struggle to penetrate and arrows can bounce back.
Any comments or thoughts let me know.
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What’s the tightest you can tighten the strapping? Is there a limit to how much it can take without breaking? I just refoamed mine but am unsure of how much to recompress it, arrows bouncing off isn’t a concern.
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Really good question Alex and the answer us yes you can overtighten the straps to the point where
1. They snap
2. The boss is so compressed that lower poundage bows will struggle.
It’s a bit of trial and error I’m afraid. I use banding ties that allow me to retighten the banding when needed to and position these on the side .
If you can use a ratchet strap initially
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Thanks Rob. By banding ties are you referring to ratcheting straps? I’ve used them to allow me to remove the straps following your helpful guide.
Also have you heard about turning the targets so the layers are vertical? I’ve read it increases the life of the foam as the arrows are cutting into less material when they penetrate the layers.
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Under the safety rules of the NFAS the bosses have to have the wooden frames to the side. My understanding is this is to reduce the risks of arrows glancing off the top, skyward and landing somewhere else on the course.
As for banding, sorry I did not make that clear.
We use plastic banding straps with fixtures that allow the banding to be retightened. Tgus allows us to retighten bosses that prove too “soft”
I know some people use ratchet straps as they don’t have banding machines.
If you like drop me an email address and I can sort a zoom chat to discuss further.
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Hi again Alex
I hope this article explains the buckles further
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I’d like to learn more on these plastic banding straps which allow the bosses to be retightened but I’m a little shy on zoom, would you be able to post pictures of it to your website? I intend on keeping my banded target for as long as I can keep refoaming it and a method to retighten on the fly sounds very appealing.
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I’ll try and get a photo of them as I’m rebuilding a couple of targets currently.
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