Equipment: $40 DIY Hockey Shooting Tarp

[Jarick]

I wanted something like this:

Shooting Tarp from Hockeyshot.com



But don't have several hundred dollars laying around. So I built my own for about $40.

Got the billboard tarp for $25 off Craigslist, there's a company selling them out of a warehouse 10 minutes from my work. The front has an ad on it, but the back is white. Put the thing in my basement, something like 10' by 30', really long.

And it smelled awful. Obviously because it was outside. I didn't think of that. So I mopped it front and back. Dunno if it helped or I just got used to the smell. Hit it with Febreze last night. We'll see.

Anyway, went to the hardware store and got some of these screw hooks:

And some of these quick link carabiner type things:

And some red duct tape:

Okay, so I cut it down to about 7' tall (height of my basement up to the wooden joists or whatever they are called) and about 8' wide. Measured out a 4' x 6' net with the duct tape. Then poked a couple holes in the top, then screwed the hooks into the wood on the ceiling, and attached them with the carabiners. And done:

Surprisingly, just one layer of this stuff is enough to pretty much kill the pucks' momentum. It's mounted maybe a foot off the back (concrete) wall. A couple pucks have hit hard enough to get the back wall, but so much force is dispersed by then it's not a big deal.

Three things though I have found so far:

1. One of the hooks pulled out. Granted it was in a pre-existing hole and I could drill a fresh hole and get more bite, but I'll keep an eye out. I might have to find a more robust mount.

2. The holes I poked in the tarp are ripping. I was pretty sure at some point I'd have to bite the bullet and get a grommet kit. So that will likely happen soon.

3. It is LOUD. A big WHUMP noise that you can hear throughout the house. So not a stealth tarp. Maybe I'll try putting some Dynamat I have leftover on it, or some foam on the back, or something.

Pretty cool though to have a little shooting setup in my basement. I can adjust the blade, stick length, whatever on my work bench and then take it right over and shoot.

Click to read more...

 

[RJ8812*]

The Flyers consistently used one in the 2010 Stanley Cup finals. I believe they actually named it "Michael Leighton"

 

[Jarick]

Bump, built the tarp, see the OP.

 

[Jackson12]

did you put grommets in the holes in the tarp? i don't know if the impact from the puck is enough to rip the holes open more or not. grommets would definitely be better for the long term life either way.

 

[bonnielad]

Aside from the grommets up top that Jackson12 mentioned you can also put a broomstick handle or wooden dowel on the bottom (roll it up and duct tape it) to create a little more stiffness in the tarp and keep it from swinging back on even the hardest of shots.

 

[Jarick]

Yeah I was going to look into that as well. It snaps back not too bad but would be nice to have something at the bottom for when my kid slides the puck underneath.

 

[Jarick]

Yesterday I got a grommet kit for my shooting tarp. Put three grommets in and hung up on the ceiling. Within 10 shots, one of the grommets ripped through and another hook pulled out of the ceiling. Back to the drawing board.

Also got a long piece of wood for the bottom but haven't figured out how to attach it.

Any thoughts?

 

[Malarowski]

Fold over the bottom and sew in the wood in that pocket?

 

[MJAYK]

Fold over the bottom and sew in the wood in that pocket?

It seems there's not enough extra tarp on the bottom to do that.

 

[Jarick]

I can cut a new piece if need be. I'm lazy though so it might not happen

Any thoughts for securing the top?

 

[opivy]

You can hem in weights to the bottom and have it stay more constent in form. It would help with the pulling out by absorbing recoil. Also maybe with the grommets - put a bungee into the grommet end and the other bungee side on a screw / hook. Then you don't have direct contact to the tarp (and can change the tarp if it tears) and it will really disperse the energy and lessen the noise.

On the bad side if you get it too tight you may be catch the pucks right back at you.

Just ideas, not sure if it's able to be done there.

 

[Malarowski]

I can cut a new piece if need be. I'm lazy though so it might not happen

Any thoughts for securing the top?

For the top I would do the same I suggested for the bottom, although that's extra work.

Fold over a bit of it and sew in some sort of tube like a bamboo stick or similar. This you can suspend from the wooden beams then and the force would be applied more uniformly to the whole thing rather than ripping out individual grommets.

 

[Jarick]

This weekend I re-mounted the tarp.

At the top, there was already a fold where the material is stitched. I had a piece of 2x2 that fit all the way through it pretty snug. I drilled some holes into the board and put some eye bolts in there, then attached some beefy anchor hooks to the ceiling. The force of the pucks should disperse along the length of the tarp up top and the whole thing can be detached quickly and rolled up for when the landlord comes around. This adds another $15 or so to the cost of the project, which is still pretty low.

 

[jazzykat]

If smell is an issue, use a bleach/water solution. It will most likely kill what is stinking. Unfortunately, you will smell bleach for a while so best to do when you can air dry it outside for a few days.

 

[rh71]

interesting. I don't know if this is the best suited one but they can get pretty pricey:
http://www.tarpsplus.com/heavy-duty-gray-vinyl-tarps.html

I'd agree that it's better than having pucks deflect off a post.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Apologies, but I'm gonna raise this thread from the dead.

If memory serves, Jarick unfortunately hasn't posted in a while, but I'm curious if anyone else has tried making their own indoor shooting area like this. I'll be moving somewhere soon where I'll finally have space for something like this, but I just can't stomach spending $200+ on the HockeyShot version. If I can go to Menards or whatever and get a big enough tarp for a fraction of the price, I'd much rather do that. That said, I guess I'm looking for suggestions from anyone else that's gone the DIY route on specific types of tarp, hanging/suspension tips, and so on.

 

[American in Paris]

I shoot against the concrete wall in my garage. I drew a regulation sized goal on with chalk. I suspended 1.5 liter plastic bottles with twine into the 4 corners and 5-hole to use as shooting targets. They make a satisfying noise when you hit them.

Also, the wall tends to rebound the pucks so I don't spend so much time picking them up.

 

[jorbjorb]

let's see a pick of your tarp man

 

[puckpilot]

I have a small area, that can shoot in, but sound is an issue, so here's what I did. Instead of a tarp I used a heavy duty moving blanket I bought at the UPS store. It's some where around 10 feet across.

I suspended it from an old cloths hanging rack, similar to this.

All I had to do was make a fold at the top and cloths peg the fold together forming a pocket. Then I just slipped it over the rack. I put some boxes of old books against the bottom of the rack to stabilise it and put a piece of metal bed frame to weigh down the bottom of the blanket.

Marked some targets up with some tape and voila shooting "tarp." It's not pretty, but it works and it's cheap, and it muffles most of the sound.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The $200 tarp linked in the OP is honestly ridiculous. I get that you want it to be a *little* bigger than a net so you don't dent your garage, but come on. How bad can a person's shot be that he needs a 16' wide target? That would be a $120 tarp if it were reasonably sized.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

I have a small area, that can shoot in, but sound is an issue, so here's what I did. Instead of a tarp I used a heavy duty moving blanket I bought at the UPS store. It's some where around 10 feet across.

I suspended it from an old cloths hanging rack, similar to this.

All I had to do was make a fold at the top and cloths peg the fold together forming a pocket. Then I just slipped it over the rack. I put some boxes of old books against the bottom of the rack to stabilise it and put a piece of metal bed frame to weigh down the bottom of the blanket.

Marked some targets up with some tape and voila shooting "tarp." It's not pretty, but it works and it's cheap, and it muffles most of the sound.

Interesting... I will be moving soon, so this could be a good option.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Update: I've finally had time to build one of my own out of PVC, a heavy duty tarp, and heavy duty zip ties, all of which I got at Menards for under $40. I've only whipped a couple of pucks at it so far, but so far so good. I'll have to update when I get some sort of shooting surface and it gets some heavier usage.