The 11 year old son will be getting a youth compound bow for Christmas. Can anyone recommend materials to build a backstop?

Horse stall mats. One will stop any arrow that hits it. Put a target in front of the stall matt.

Hay bales

Another one is 2 or 3 pieces of carpet hanging so it can swing behind the target.

On teaching him to shoot harp on the basics and the draw for anyone shooting in the back yard draw from the bow low so it is never pointed above the backstop. The new shooter or old shooter should be able to draw the bow without sky drawing or going through gyrations.

For a kid maybe but be careful , 70# draw will shoot right through a bale

What I have,. I put two steel posts in the ground. Using (2) 2x6’s ever 4ft between to screw in the stall mats. My backstop is 8x6

Depending on weather it will stop my arrows 99%. As he gets older I’d add a second stall mate to the back side of the lower 2x6

This is what I use. Works great and it's free. It's also easier to pull the arrows out of.

Horse stall mats stop everything from my longbow to my cross bow.

Hot tub/spa places have used hot tub lids which most of the time they give away or trash'em. The are 2 big pieces of styrofoam which makes for a good backstop for beginner bow hunters.
I just called around till i found a place that was giving them away.

We have two of those cheap foam arrow targets. The ones at Walmart covered in plastic with elk silhouette on one side and bear silhouette on the other.

My 70 ib compound shoots 284 fps with about a 400 grain arrow, 260’s with 490 grains. Those cheap little blocks can stop 640 grains from my bow but they are buried to the vanes sticking way out the back.

I also have two of the bone collector blocks rated up to 350 fps even with a broadhead. Stick to field points I wore one out in a few days shooting Montec heads. Didn’t want to adjust my sights lol

I’m not a fan of Hay bails, I’ve seen to many arrows slide right through. I’m going to try the mats here later on, I’m tearing down my barn and will replace the horse mats.

I have tried the horse stall mats, crossbow buries up to the fletch and usually most of the fletching ruining the arrows and I find it difficult to remove the arrows. With a low lb bow they should be good to go.

I use horse stall mats, I attached a 2x4 to the top edge and screwed 2 eyebolts into it and then hung it from a tree limb so it swings free. Nothing, and I mean nothing, I have ever shot it with (compound, crossbow, recurve, or long bow) has ever passed through or even penetrated beyond a couple of inches.

You guys got me doubting my memory so I grabbed a piece of horse stall mat I just bought maybe 6 mths ago for my gator. Took it and hung it from a tree,
From about 25 yds I shot it with my compound and got a foot or more of penetration with a dull field point, Had to take it off the tree to get the thing out of there. Also took my crossbow and the only tip I had was an old cheap broadhead I use for squirrels, figured it may have more drag being blunt and beat up but it blew through the mat w/out hesitation and was banged up in the wood pile and tore the fletch off, nearly knocked the nock out of it and destroyed the broadhead when it hit the mesquite slabs behind it. Maybe they make a better stall mat somehwere but this is my experience with these.

I very seldom shoot all the way through mine. It normally stops them before fletching. With that said it’s a back stop and if I miss target, it’s usually while shooting from knees at 60+ Yards etc. I have a brick wall four yards behind target, I haven’t broken an arrow since putting it up.

I’d betting not all horse mat is created equal also.

Im confused and maybe its because im inexperienced as a bowhunter. I assumed that most are shooting into some type foam target and these horse matt/hay bales are being used behind that as a "secondary" backstop. Are these suggestions yall are making intended as the primary/only back stop and you just put a paper target on them???

Backstop for another target. Lots of the horse mats I have seen are made from recycled shredded tires and still have metal in them which could damage an arrow

Targets I use Rinehart and in reality I do miss sometimes especially when I have not shot the recurve in a while, (which I do shoot to 30 yards or a bit beyond though I do not want a shot on game over 20 yards and prefer 10 to 15 yards).

One hanging so it can swing will stop arrows better than a stationary one though.

Think it was about a backstop in case of a miss. That being said it needs to be able to stop a direct hit of course. With a crossbow it is definately not an adequate backstop especially if shooting in town.

Secondary

There is an archery shop posting videos to YouTube that hangs a horse stall mat for a backstop. So it’s gotta be decent. Maybe not for a broadhead but if your bow is tuned why are you practicing with broadheads?

I only just learned that the other day though, that you can tune the arrow rest and/or nock point of your bow until broadheads and field points group together.

There is so much more to this than I thought.

All I can say is make it big; know of a great shooter who’s arrow glanced from the target, left his backyard, over a 6’ fence, traveled at some unknown path(almost impossible) girl passing by in car, broke her side window, slashed her neck. She’s ok. Police got him. I still trace the path and say it’s not possible. Anyway be very careful.

There is a need to be safe. Many, if not most, larger municipalities have ordinances against discharging any weapon that has a projectile including bows and air guns.
For me a horse stall mat does it but I shoot mainly a traditional bow. It even stops my compound arrows. Now if you miss with your crossbow you've got worse problems than your choice of backstop.
If you make the choice to shoot in your yard you damn well better choose to spend the time and money to do it as safe as possible. I have the mat and a treated wood backup behind it.
My grandkids play in the yard behind the fence where my backstop is. So I am not leaving it to "good enough".

The last two posts about safety are probably worth some thought.