The 4 Best Crossbow Targets for 500 FPS of 2026

By Gayle Woods Editors Updated 4 products scored

A crossbow rated at 500 fps doesn't just shoot flatter than the one you learned on — it arrives at the target with roughly double the energy, and the wrong block will swallow a bolt to the fletching on the first shot. I learned that with a borrowed target that had no speed rating printed anywhere on it, then spent twenty minutes working a bolt back out with pliers. A good one does two jobs at once: it kills that energy in the first few inches, then lets go of the arrow without a fight.

Over the past eight months, my team and I have put 11 crossbow targets through exactly that, from lightweight hanging bags to dense foam blocks. The speed ratings stamped on the side are self-reported and generous, and nearly all of them assume field points only — save the broadheads for something else. Size and weight matter more than people expect, too; a heavy bag that slides off the sawhorse is worse than a lighter one you can tie down, and two-sided faces are where the real value hides. The picks below are the ones that held up.

Our Top Picks

The 4 Best Crossbow Targets for 500 FPS of 2026

1

SpyderWeb 18XL Best Overall

SpyderWeb 18XL No Speed Limit Crossbow Target 500+ FPS

500+ FPS practice

Field Score 92/100
Size
18 x 18 x 14 in
Weight
34 lb
Arrow Type
Field points only
Speed Rating
No speed limit (500+ FPS)
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Bolt removal is where a fast crossbow spoils a practice session, and it is the first thing we noticed about the 18XL: the bolt comes back with two fingers and one hand. No bracing the target against a fence, no rocking the shaft loose, no wincing at the nock. That alone changes how many shots you take before you quit for the day.

There is no FPS ceiling printed on this one because SpyderWeb does not set one. It is sold as a no-speed-limit target and rated for 500+ FPS, and of the four targets here it is the one we hand someone who just bought a fast crossbow and does not want to think about ratings again. Stopping is unremarkable in the best way: bolts drive in and stop inside the body rather than zipping through or chewing vanes.

The face is what keeps it in service. An 18 x 18-inch panel carrying more than 200 printed aiming points lets you move your group around all season instead of drilling one hole, and the Spylar mesh body is 14 inches deep and built to take that wear without turning into a soft spot. The shell shrugs off weather, so it can live at the edge of the yard instead of in the garage.

It is a field-point target, and it costs more than either Delta bag here, which is the honest question to ask yourself. What you are paying for is mesh and aiming points that keep the target working long after a stuffed bag has gone soft in the middle. It is also made in St. Joseph, Michigan, and it is the one we leave out between sessions.

Worth Noting

  • 34 pounds to move between spots
Our Verdict

If your crossbow runs near 500 FPS and you are tired of fighting bolts out of a bag, the SpyderWeb 18XL is the target we recommend.

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2

Bigshot Iron Man Kinetic 650 Best for the Fastest Crossbows

BIGSHOT Iron Man Kinetic 650 Ten Point Edition Crossbow Target

Extreme-speed crossbows

Field Score 91/100
Core
Aramid fiber
Size
20 x 20 x 14 in
Weight
45 lb
Speed Rating
650 FPS
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A 650 FPS rating is easy to print and harder to earn, so it is worth knowing what stands behind this one: a five-stage core of aramid fiber, the material used in body armor, under high-compression stuffing, rated for 250 foot-pounds of kinetic energy and approved by TenPoint for their fastest bows. If you shoot a Nitro, a Vapor, or anything else in that class, this is the target in this group that was designed around your bow.

What the aramid buys is at the pull, and we noticed it right away. Bolts come back with one straight hand-over-hand tug: no rocking the shaft, no torn vanes, none of the two-handed brace you learn on a stuffed bag. With a bow that drives a bolt deep, that matters more than any other single feature, because a target you dread pulling from is a target you stop shooting.

The face asks something of you. Twenty inches square is generous at 30 yards, but it is one block, so a shooter who puts every bolt into the same four-inch circle wears that corner first. Move around it deliberately and it holds up; hammer the middle and you will feel the change in the pull before you see it in the cover.

Against the SpyderWeb it loses on one thing only, and that is aiming points: more of them means more places to move wear. Everything the Iron Man claims about stopping power, it backs up. Aramid is not on the spec sheet to sound impressive; it is there so the thousandth pull feels like the tenth.

Worth Noting

  • Premium price for headroom most bows do not need
Our Verdict

Rated to 650 FPS and 250 foot-pounds with an aramid core, the Iron Man Kinetic is what we point at anyone shooting a new flagship crossbow.

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3

Delta McKenzie MAX Speedbag Best Large Face

Delta McKenzie Crossbow MAX SPEEDBAG

Big-face sight-in

Field Score 89/100
Weight
50 lb
Arrow Type
Field points only
Dimensions
24 X 10 X 24 in
Speed Rating
525 FPS
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At 40 yards an 18-inch block looks small. The MAX Speedbag puts 24 x 24 inches of shooting surface in front of you, the biggest face in this group, and prints it on both sides, so a tired front face does not retire the whole target.

That size is the reason we like it for sighting in. A new scope, a new bolt weight, a new rest: the first dozen shots are about finding paper at all, and a forgiving face keeps those early shots from costing you a target. Once you are zeroed, the 525 FPS field-point rating covers a 500 FPS bow with room to spare, and the heavy fill sits still when a bolt lands instead of skidding backward.

Wear is manageable rather than mysterious. The fill packs and eventually tears where the same spot keeps getting hit, so rotate across the printed points, and with a face this size there is plenty of room to. Lift it by the body rather than the strap, because that much fill puts real load on a handle.

Set against the smaller Delta bag, it is the same 525 rating and the same field-point rule with nearly twice the weight on the label; what the difference buys is face, depth, and a target that does not shift when you hit it. If your range is a permanent spot at the edge of the yard, that is an easy trade to make.

Worth Noting

  • 50 pounds to site and move
Our Verdict

The biggest face here, printed on both sides: we reach for the MAX Speedbag when a new scope needs zeroing and misses need to be cheap.

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4

Delta McKenzie Speedbag 20 Best Budget

Delta McKenzie Speedbag 20" Archery Field Point Bag Target

Budget backyard practice

Field Score 88/100
Size
20 in diameter
Depth
10 in
Weight
27 lb
Speed Rating
525 FPS
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Twenty inches across, ten inches deep, 27 pounds, and the least expensive target here: the Speedbag 20 is what we point people to when the crossbow has already eaten the season's budget.

On paper it earns its place. The rating is 525 FPS for field points, and there are grommets in the corners so it can be hung instead of set on the ground. At 27 pounds it is the easiest thing here to carry out of the shed, which is the practical difference between a target you shoot and one you keep meaning to shoot.

Treat it like a bag and it repays you. Hang it by the grommets rather than leaving it sitting in wet grass, and move your aiming point every few ends so the fill stays even across the face; the center is always the first part to give, and a bag that has been shot into one spot pulls harder every session. None of that is fussy. It is thirty seconds of setup that stretches the useful life.

Where it cannot compete is the premium end, with no mesh, no aramid, and far fewer aiming points, and for backyard practice at 20 to 30 yards it does not need to. The dual-sided printing is the detail we keep coming back to: when the front face is done, turn it around and keep going.

Worth Noting

  • Fills go soft where you group shots
Our Verdict

For a first crossbow season on a tight budget, the Speedbag 20 stops 500-class bolts for less than anything else here and can be hung clear of wet ground.

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How We Tested These Targets at 500 FPS

We started by pulling every crossbow-rated target we could find with a published rating of 500 fps or better, then narrowed the field by price, face size, and whether the maker listed a weight we'd actually carry from the truck to the backyard. That left 11 targets. Each one lived on a sawhorse or a block stand behind my barn for eight months, shot at 20, 40, and 60 yards with a 500 fps crossbow and field points only.

Arrow stopping came first. I marked every shaft at the insert so I could see how deep each bolt buried, and I kept a log of pass-throughs — anything that let a bolt poke out the back got pulled from the rotation quickly. Then came removal, which is where these targets separate: I noted whether a bolt came out with two fingers, needed a brace against the stand, or required the two-handed tug-and-twist that wears out your shoulder and your serving.

Build quality showed up over time rather than on day one. I counted shots until faces frayed, tracked whether a bag sagged or the core shifted, and left each target out through a week of rain to see which covers shed water and which turned into a wet sponge you could feel in the handle. Size and weight got judged on the walk out and the walk back, and value came down to usable face — a two-sided target with replaceable covers effectively doubles its life.

How to Choose a Crossbow Target for 500 Fps

Read the Speed Rating as a Floor

When a target is rated to 525 FPS, that figure assumes field points and a face that is not shot out. You want the rating at or above your bow's real bolt speed, with margin left over, because the headroom is what absorbs a heavy bolt and a worn center later in the season. Speed alone is not the whole story either: a heavy bolt at 400 FPS can hit as hard as a lighter one at 500.

If you do not know your bolt's actual speed, chronograph it before you shop and buy a target rated above that number. A 450 FPS target under a 500 FPS crossbow is not a bargain; it is a short-lived target that will teach you to hate pulling bolts.

Stopping Power Is Mass, and Mass Is a Place

Everything that stops a bolt reliably does it with density: layered foam, packed fill, woven mesh, an aramid core. Density costs weight, and that is the decision most buyers skip. The 27-pound bag moves easily; the 45- and 50-pound blocks do not.

Decide where the target lives before you decide what it is made of. If it has to come out of the shed and go back every session, stay light. If it can sit against a fence or a berm from spring through fall, buy the heaviest, deepest target you can afford and let the mass do the work for you.

Removal Effort Is the Daily Cost

Stopping is a one-time event per shot; pulling is what you do every single time, and it is the part that changes. As the fill packs down and the center softens, a bolt that came out with two fingers in June takes a real pull in October.

Two things slow that decline: a face with plenty of aiming points so you can spread the wear, and a construction that releases a shaft rather than gripping it. Count the aiming points before you buy. It is the most underrated number on an archery target.

Face Size and the Shot You Are Taking

An 18-inch face at 40 yards looks a lot smaller through a scope than it does in the product photo, which is why sighting in and casual practice pull in different directions. A 24-inch face forgives a new scope; a compact block is easier to move and easier to miss.

Be honest about distance and about how tight you group. And if you plan to tune broadheads, buy a dedicated broadhead target: every field-point target here will be cut apart by blades and stop inconsistently afterward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict

Most 500 FPS shooters should buy the SpyderWeb 18XL. It is the target in this group that stops a fast bolt and then hands it back without a fight, and its 200+ aiming points mean you spread wear instead of drilling one hole.

If your crossbow is one of the 600-plus flagships, the Bigshot Iron Man Kinetic's 650 FPS rating and aramid core are worth the premium. If the budget is already stretched by the bow, the Delta McKenzie Speedbag 20 covers a 500 FPS bolt for the least money here.