The Target-Stands.
The most usual target-stands are of iron, in three pieces, each of about six feet in length, hinged together at the top, and painted green, forming a tripod for the support of the target, which is caught on to it by a hooked spike at the top of the stand, and kept from shifting its position thereon by a spike about half way up each of the front legs. These stands are so destructive to any arrows that hit them, even through the targets, that, for home use, they should be padded in front with a strip of thick felt, secured with strong twine, and then carefully wrapped with strong binding and painted.
The late Mr. James Spedding first invented this method of covering the stands which he had made for the Royal Toxophilite Society, of three long ash poles, united together at the top with iron nutted screw-bolts. When the stand is so treated it is almost impossible that an arrow can be injured by contact with the stand, and the extra expense (which is, however, considerable) is soon saved by the saving in arrows at 2s. 6d. apiece.
The Meyler stand, a very expensive machine, was a strong iron arm, fitted into a metal socket fixed in the ground, and at the upper end provided with three prongs, upon which the target was fixed; but it possessed the same incurable fault as the old earthen butts, in that it was immovable (except to the places where the necessary sockets were).