I have shot thousands upon thousands of arrows during equipment testing
over the past several years and almost all of them have hit the same brand
of target -- American Whitetail. I own several Cube targets and a Foamlite
broadhead target. Recently I was introduced to another one of their targets,
the Kinetic Cube, which is a compressed layer target.
No, American Whitetail isn't just jumping on the compressed target
bandwagon either. They designed the first ever such target in 1985 and
while they found it fitting for field points did not like the performance
on broadheads. Now, however they have come up with an acceptable solution
for broadheads. Read on to find out their secret.
Basics
The Kinetic Cube has 75 white sheets of dense ¼" foam at its
core. These sheets are compressed between two ¾" pine boards at
the top and bottom that are notched on both ends to accept a band of stainless
steel cable. This cable wraps completely around the target and is drawn
tight and clamped to compress the foam. The white foam has a black five-dot
pattern on one side and is labeled "field points". The thickness
of the field point face ranges from 12 to 13" depending on how it was drawn
up for compression.
Now for the broadhead solution. As mentioned before, American Whitetail
was not pleased with the performance of its 1985 compressed target when
it came to broadheads. They found that the life was "cut" (sorry, couldn't
resist) short due to slivering when the sharp blades sliced the layers.
Now, they have found that bonding two solid 1" thick foam sheets to the
sides gives the layers structural integrity and longer life. The solid
sheets are black with two white aiming dots and are labeled "broadheads".
The thickness of the broadhead face is approximately 17 ¼".
Testing
A quick quality check found the target to be in basically good condition.
Only one item seemed noteworthy and that was that the bottom board was
somewhat bowed. The uneven bottom was situated in such a way that when
the target was shot it would rock a little more than it probably would
have with a flat bottom. The target never fell over though even when shot
at a relatively high point on the face.
The first arrows fired at the Kinetic Cube were tipped with field points.
In all there were close to 250 field point tipped arrows launched at the
center of the correlating face. Arrows were shot from different rigs ranging
from 190 fps to 300 fps. I found that arrows that were traveling over 265
fps tended to sink deeply into the target and those that were burning at
300 fps would occasionally pass through. Anything under 265 was safe and
the fletching was not compromised.
The broadhead side of the target was a different story. Not one arrow
ever made it in deep enough to sink the fletching and generally they were
stopped well before half of the arrow penetrated. I pounded the same spot
on the target with broadheads for quite some time and didn?t achieve a
pass through. Now, of course the broadheads diminished in sharpness throughout
the testing but so will yours unless you switch or sharpen blades for each
shot. In all, there were probably 50 broadhead impacts in a concentrated
area. This side of the target seems to be holding up well so far. The testing
will continue.....
The Kinetic Cube performed well on the broadhead side, taking a considerable
pounding with minimal damage. I would have liked to see a thicker field
point face though, perhaps the same thickness as the broadhead side, to
stop the faster arrows.
Design: 4 of 5
The structural integrity that the bonded foam sheets provide is a product
of good design. American Whitetail will gain a well-rounded target once
they increase the size of the field point face. Another feature that I
would like to see added to the Kinetic Cube is a handle like the ones found
on their other models.
Durability: 4.5 of 5
So far the target is persevering under a barrage of arrows quite well.
Both sides are holding up and appear as if they will survive the season.
For information on these and other American
Whitetail products contact:
American Whitetail, Inc.
8478 East SR 62
Ferdinand, Indiana 47132
888-233-1976
Web: www.archerytargets.com
Email: archer@psci.net |
