Quoted from Dr-Willy:One thing i also noticed is airballs of the drop targets have lessened tramendously. Not sure if its do to the harder plastic so they bend less thus not flinging the ball back as much or if its just cause they are new and not broken in, but i was getting a ton of airballs off that front set of drops.
I took some slow-mo video of the drop targets to see how they were occurring, but already pretty much knew the answer before as you had stated. The drop targets are bending back upon impact more than they really should and creating a slingshot/catapult effect for the ball once they rebound. Check out the video on youtube. Sorry for the poor lighting as the slo-mo on the phone greatly reduces the exposure aperture or something along those lines. Also planning to replace target stickers soon... but now that there is positive feedback about the lighted polyacrylic drop targets, I might have to look into a full scale replacement.
Also... I cut a small lexan shield to put over the drop target bank and it has eliminated airballs completely for me so far, though I've only had it installed for a few days. Not too unsightly, but the thicker replacement drop targets still might be nicer (albeit much more expensive).