SPF is on Target

Spray Foam Magazine – The Spray Foam Magazine team (SFMT) loves hearing how people in the industry have used SPF for their extracurricular activities. Christopher Paoli, owner of Central Florida Spray Foam LLC, has been in the spray foam industry for over 20 years and has a great reputation in delivering a service to both residential and commercial projects, applying polyurethanes, polyurea, and numerous waterproofing and coating materials.

In his spare time, he likes to target practice with both guns and arrows. He decided to fill injection mold torsos, which are basically T-shirt storefront models he buys online, with variations of whatever closed cell-foam they have/had in the lines. The teal-colored torso in this article is 2 lb. Demilec Heatlok Soy 200 closed-cell foam and the off-white foam is 2.8 lb. Lapolla 2800 roofing foam. Paoli explains, “Each one allows an arrow in at different depths since the foams are not equal in poundage i.e., density.”

Christopher Paoli uses his spray foam skills to fill t-shirt storefront model torsos with closed- cell foam for target practice with both bullets and arrows

Paoli has been driving around with a foam torso in the back of his pick-up truck for 15 years with hundreds of bullet/arrow holes through it and it still doesn't have any holes you can see through. According to Paoli, he’s yet to make a target that’s crumbled. The back of the torso is sprayed with a thin layer of foam release agent, so it cures solid, then the rest of the foam is added. With some of the torsos, he places a stick inside which enables him to stab them into the ground easily, and others he inserts a plastic tube through the neck so a string can be added to hang it as a target. It takes between 10 and 20 board feet per piece to fill depending on the size.  

When Paoli is spraying the torsos, he sometimes drops ketchup and mustard packets inside where the "vitals” would be. When the target is hit, the condiments explode making the practice more realistic. “The foam is so strong that the condiment packets remain within the foam and are sometimes hard to see if they’re buried too deep within. It’s just a goof since we don’t necessarily sell these, we give most of them away to southern clients we like,” states Paoli.

Having SPF in the mix adds a unique edge to target practice. So why not try filling a target torso with foam, grab a bow and arrow, or a gun, and have some target practice fun!