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Author Topic: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD  (Read 17227 times)

Offline Bill Turner

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #20 on: November 02, 2005, 05:43:00 PM »
My prayers and those of Danny Long (Ric O'Shay) go out to the family and friends of this fine man. As Jack said, "He will be sorely missed".

Offline Lambow

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #21 on: November 02, 2005, 06:02:00 PM »
I am thankful to have known Jack Howard in the short time that i did. He ranks right up there with the all time great's of this sport that we love.
It saddens me to have heard this news.
We will miss his contributions to this site, and for bowhunting in general.

Offline W. H. Bill Fuller

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #22 on: November 02, 2005, 07:05:00 PM »
My heart is heavy.  I'd ask all you guys and gals to shoot some arrows in memory of Jack.
Bow shootin' 51 years & still counting.
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Offline olFatGuy KenWood

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #23 on: November 02, 2005, 07:11:00 PM »
Prayers sent to the Mrs.  It sucks that some of the best go Dang early.  

KenWood
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Offline frankwright

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #24 on: November 02, 2005, 08:43:00 PM »
Another legend Passes! Condolences to his family.

Online Charlie Lamb

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #25 on: November 03, 2005, 08:53:00 AM »
I'm saddened by the loss of Jack Howard. As a hunter and bowyer, he was and has remained one of my heroes since my boyhood.
But I choose not to mourn his passing. Instead I choose to celebrate his life and what it has meant to me.

As a boy I read countless articles about Jack in the archery periodicals of the time. Archery World, Bow and Arrow Magazine, Archery and later, even Bowhunter Magazine told of his adventures.

Jack was first and foremost a hunter. In his youth he was known to have jumped on the back of a mule deer and killed it with a knife.

Jim Dougherty, who shot Jack's bows to very good effect in the sixties and was a friend of Jack said something to the effect of... "Jack Howard shoots game with the cool detachment of a machine".  High praise from a man who would make his life shooting game with bow and arrow.

I doubt there was a high profile bowhunter out there during the 50', 60's, and 70's who didn't admire and respect what Jack Howard consistently did in the game fields with his hand crafted bow and arrows. You'd have had to be the village idiot to not know Jack was at the top of the heap when it came to hunting.

In a time when little was known about realistic bugles and cow elk calls, Jack brought in huge bull elk.

Very few bowhunters of his period made a habit of hunting elk with a bow let alone hunting specific animals.

Jack expected a lot out of himself, his hunting companions and his equiptment.

He'd often go off into the wilderness of our western mountains alone with minimal camp equiptment.  (a run down of his gear for a 5 day stay was printed in the old Kittredge Bow Hut catalog.  If I remember right, the whole kit didn't weigh over 15 pounds... most of us carry more than that when we go to our deer stands!

Jack would have scouted his quarry in advance and taking advantage of his light camp and good optics he'd watch (sometimes for days) to find the very best approach or set up to shoot a particular animal. Only when he was sure did he move in for the kill.

Often for elk that would mean building a small blind near a favored travel route to feed or water.  

As was common in the west in those days, his shooting position would often be a minimum of 30 yards from where the anticipated shot would be... and at almost twice the effective range of most of todays archers he would cooly capitalize on his shooting advantage and execute the shot with surgical precision.

His bows too reflected his preferred style of hunting. They were long by today's standards... 66"  until later in life when he started producing his beloved "Gamemaster" in 64" to meet the demand for a shorter bow.

His unique and inovative techniques in bow making produced a very fast bow for the time and even for this time! It was and is dead stable on release and made to such exacting standards that he could duplicate the shooting characteristics of a particular bow just by pulling up it's registration card.
"Making weight" wasn't a problem for Jack. His bows were so meticulously made that at the very most a bow might come in a pound or two above finish weight.
The Gamemaster was a true custom bow in a time when there were few or no custom bowyers out there.

It always looked the same, but that really isn't what "custom" is about. Looks are just cosmetic... how the bow shoots in the hands of the customer and his form is what makes a bow truly custom and Jack knew exactly how to make the best shooting bow for a particular style.

Never happy to accept the status quo, Jack even experimented with string material to find what he thought was best from his bows.
What he found flew in the face of traditional thinking.
At a time when everyone was thinking "no stretch" meant higher arrow speeds, Jack found a material which did stretch and improved the performance of his bows as well as being very easy on the bow.

I'm humbled that he shared his secret with me and gave me permission to market that material myself.
 I quite agree with his findings, but doubt it would ever gain acceptance over material marketed by the "big names" in string manufacture.
As trad archers, we are a hard headed lot, but vulnerable to "hype".

Jack spent many years as an instinctive archer, but it was his use of sights on his recurve bow that really set him apart from other bowhunters of the time.
For the most part it was thought that a sight couldn't be effectively used for hunting... Jack shot that theory full of holes.
He was a master of judging distance and as has been said, cool as a cucumber at the moment of truth.

He was also a problem solver of the first degree. Unhappy with broadheads in those early days and there cutting/ edge holding abilities, he started using heavy duty razorblades to his multiblade heads. He may have been the first to do so and certainly not the last as today's trend in replaceable blade heads will attest.

At a time when good quivers josteled and crowded broadhead arrows together, he developed a side quiver which held his arrows separate and securely. Ready in razor sharp condition to leap safely into the hands of the bowhunter... we see many variations on that theme today.

In the days before "Bowhunter Magazine" put the push on to remind hunters to keep their broadheads razor sharp Jack was making sure they were... in those days only the very serious bowhunters seemed to realize intuitively that an arrow needed to be razor sharp to be as effective as they could be.
He set a high standard for broadhead sharpness as in everything else he did.  

Yes, losing Jack Howard (who I had come to know over these past few years) leaves an empty spot deep inside me, but I owe who I am as a bowhunter to Jack. He raised the bar for me as a hunter and made it all seem quite possible to reach and even exceed his standards.

Boy to man and now closing in on old age myself, I have always known Jack Howard, bowyer, bowhunter and he will forever live on in my heart, drawing a steady shaft to anchor on some huge old bull or pussyfooting through the sage to anchor a heavy horned mule deer buck.

Thank God for Jack Howard!
Hunt Sharp

Charlie

Online Terry Green

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #26 on: November 03, 2005, 08:59:00 AM »
Prayers from GA.

Thanks Charlie.
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Offline Dirteater

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #27 on: November 03, 2005, 09:01:00 AM »
Charlie, thank you sir.

Offline C. M. Sackett

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #28 on: November 03, 2005, 09:05:00 AM »
Well done, Charlie... very well done.
"The cost of Freedom tends to be very high.  The cost of apathy... incalculable".

Online Charlie Lamb

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #29 on: November 03, 2005, 09:15:00 AM »
Jack Millet.... just so you know, I will personally put the finish on any of Jack's Gamemasters that remain "unfinished"... no charge.
I think Jack would be proud of the finish I can put on his bow.
Hunt Sharp

Charlie

Online Phil Magistro

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #30 on: November 03, 2005, 09:30:00 AM »
One thing that Jack Howard mentioned to me that illustrates his ability and dedication was that he never lost an animal that he hit with an arrow.  Considering the number of animals he killed over his long career, that's quite an accomplishment.

Phil
"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."    - Oscar Wilde

Offline JC

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #31 on: November 03, 2005, 09:36:00 AM »
Excellent post Charlie, a fitting remembrance.
"Being there was good enough..." Charlie Lamb reflecting on a hunt
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Offline PAPALAPIN

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #32 on: November 03, 2005, 09:42:00 AM »
CHARLIE

What a great testimonial to Jack.  If we all could have gotten together for a memorial service, I could not think of a better Eulogy.

You have a way with words that challenges MR. SACKETT.

Like you, as a teenager, I grew up drooling over Jack's stories and ads that appeared in Archery Magazines.  I always admired him and wished that I could afford to get one of his bows in the early '60's.  I now have 8 of them, and more importantly became good friends with him via e-mail and telephone over the last 6 years.  It was great to make his acquaintence.  It was an honer to call him "FRIEND".

Ms. Dorothy may take you up on the offer for refinishing.  I have traded e-mail with Bowdoc.  He is agreeing to finish all that need it, of course at a charge.  Also, Bowdoc always has a backlog of work.  Your offer may be her best bet, but I would think it only fair that you get something for your efforts.  I recommended to her that she sell theses bows at a reduced rate and let the buyers make arrangements to have them finished by Bowdoc, Droptine59, or anyone they want.  However, any of these bows will have to be sold with no warranty or guarantee as Ms. Dorothy has do way of replacing a defective bow.  Now, that is an oxymoron.  A defective Jack Howard bow.  I don't think there ever was such a thing.  Jack once told me that he had never had to honor his warranty, or his guaranty that his bows were faster than anything you were currently shooting, or your money back.
JACK MILLET-TBG,TGMM Family of the Bow


"Don't worry about tomorrow.  If the sun doesn't come up in the morning, we will play in the dark" - ME

The most important part of your hunting setup is the broadhead.  The rest is just the delivery system.

Offline Roughcountry

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #33 on: November 03, 2005, 10:05:00 AM »
After reading what everyone posted here it strikes me that Mr Howard was one that gave much to this great lifestyle.
Not only did he raise the bar high for the rest of us, he provided the tools and insite on how to get there.

I have a few emails that I traded and will now cherish even more.

Thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and those close. RS

Offline George D. Stout

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #34 on: November 03, 2005, 12:48:00 PM »
When I first got into archery, I wanted to know all of the whos, whys, whats and wheres;  in particular, the whos of the sport.

I always looked for the escapades of Jack Howard in Bow and Arrow magazine; he most often hunted alone but many times his friend Doug Kittredge tagged along.  Do yourself a favor and get ahold of some of the old Bow and Arrow magazines from the 60's and early 70's and look for his articles.

  It's sad to have lost him, but it is even sadder to know that many will just follow-up with a "Jack who (?)" when his name is mentioned.    I'm sure his old buddy, Doug Kittredge is heart-sick.   Prayers from Pennsylavnia.

Offline PAPALAPIN

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #35 on: November 03, 2005, 03:22:00 PM »
Thanks to everyone for your comments.  I spoke to Mrs. Howard today and told her of all the comments that have been made.  She was touched.  She is not a computer person so she cannot log on to TRADGANG to read them, so I printed out all the comments made to this point and mailed them to her. I know she will appreciate them.

I hope that when my time comes and someone posts my passing here, that I can get 1/10 of the positive comments tht you have given Jack.  

NAW, most of you will probably say  
"Good ridance".
JACK MILLET-TBG,TGMM Family of the Bow


"Don't worry about tomorrow.  If the sun doesn't come up in the morning, we will play in the dark" - ME

The most important part of your hunting setup is the broadhead.  The rest is just the delivery system.

Offline String Cutter

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #36 on: November 03, 2005, 07:09:00 PM »
Sorry for your loss. Anyone got pics of his art work? Or pics of him to post?
Fatherhood is the greatest adventure a man can ever take.

Online Charlie Lamb

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #37 on: November 03, 2005, 07:42:00 PM »
Here's one from around 40 years ago...

 
Hunt Sharp

Charlie

Online Charlie Lamb

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #38 on: November 03, 2005, 07:45:00 PM »
Here is the Howard Gamemaster. The bow of my dreams from childhood.

   

I own two of them now.
Hunt Sharp

Charlie

Online Phil Magistro

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Re: PASSING OF JACK HOWARD
« Reply #39 on: November 03, 2005, 08:04:00 PM »
Here's the Jet brochure cover. This bow has the best grip of any bow I've ever owned or shot.

 
"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."    - Oscar Wilde

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