Target Stand

Presented By: Lord Johann Friedrich

These plans are based off of FITA rule 7.1 in book 2, which specifies an angle between 10 and 15 degrees from the vertical and the center of the gold will be 130cm (+/-5cm) above the ground. To the best of our knowledge, there are no official SCA nor kingdom standards for target stands. Use of stands made from these plans have shown the stands to be stable, and no bungee cords are needed to hold the target butt to the stand.

Take 4 of the pickets and remove 8 ¹/₂" off the bottom. Take 2 of the boards and fasten the bottoms together with the hinge. Take the 2 remaining boards and cut the bottom corners at 45° to match the tops, or you may optionally round off the end.

Cut the remaining board in half, and round off one end of each board. These will be the arms for holding the target butt.

Find yourself a drill, a ¹/₄" drill bit and a few clamps. Now clamp together the matching boards. Measuring from the top (hinge) of the front legs, drill a hole at 14" and one at 29 ³/₄". Drill three holes in the rear legs at 1 ³/₄", 6 ³/₄", and 29 ¹/₄". Now find where you put the arms and drill one hole at 1 ³/₄" from the rounded end, and another one at 11 ³/₄" from the flat end. You also want to drill a hole large enough for the cap nut at approximately 6 ¹/₄" from the flat end so you can fold the arm up for storage. The other option is to fold the arm down, but it's easier to setup and takedown if you don't have to bend over too far.

Now this is the hard part... assemble all the parts so it looks like a target stand!

Suggestions for Optional Modifications

An experianced archer looked at these plans, and he had a few suggestions for moodifications that people could make to improve upon the stand's use in various situations.

• Give the stand the option of being staked down. This can be done in a variety of ways. Some stands I have seen have a hole drilled through a back leg at an angle for a spike to go directly through. Other options include a small surface mount ring, or an eyebolt. Look around your shop and be creative!
• For some types of shoots, lane assigment numbers are necessary. Adding small hooks to the front legs (or perhaps some other mechanism), you could hang numbers from the stands.
• A small tube attached to one of the legs could hold a small flag that would indicate the direction of the wind on the range, and a rough indication of how fast it's blowing.

Thanks Harold for the great suggestions!