Best cornhole bags

A modern competitive bag has two different fabrics, one on each face. The slick face slides — you throw it flat, it lands on the board and carries into the hole. The stick face grabs — you throw it to stop where it lands, usually right in front of the hole, blocking your opponent's slide.

That is the whole game at a decent level: put a blocker up, then push it in with your next bag. A single-fabric bag cannot do both jobs, which is why a good player's bags always look mismatched.

Two of the makers here publish real numbers for it rather than adjectives, which is rare enough to be a reason to buy:

A 31-point spread (GameChanger) gives you two genuinely different shots. A 20-point spread (All-Slides) is narrower, which sounds worse and is actually easier to learn on — the slow side still slides a little, so a mistimed throw does not stop dead six inches short of where you wanted it.

Resin pellet fill — sometimes listed as DFR pellets — is the standard now, and it is the reason a modern bag survives being left out in a shower. Corn fill rots, attracts animals and changes weight as it absorbs moisture, which means a corn bag that got damp is no longer a 16-ounce bag and no longer throws the same.

If a listing does not say what is inside the bag, that is a meaningful omission. Every maker using resin says so, because it is the selling point.

• Bags for a backyard set guests will use: the ACL REC Stick-N-Slick. Correct size, correct feel, sold in eights, and nobody at a cookout is going to exploit a dual-speed face.
• Bags for a group that has started keeping score seriously: the ACL COMP set. Certified for competitive play, sold as eight, and the last bag purchase you need to make before a league.
• Bags for a player who already blocks and pushes: GameChanger OG for the widest published spread, or Slide-Rite Geo if your lawn is wet more often than not.

And if the boards are the weak link rather than the bags, the cornhole set ranking is the page you want.