@pavan. In Howard Hill collectable book it says that they had 11 bowyers for Hill bows. That"s a lot of bows. I can"t believe that I"ve been doing this for 20 years. Archery is a great pastime. Darren

Great article - Thank You!

11 is not a lot of bows, when I had 36 longbows, that was a lot of bows. The worse part of all of this is the fact that I have a right hand yew and a yew/bamboo that tells me I don't need any other right hand bows.  The only bow that I would want is a left hand reverse handle model with a coco-bola handle. My wife says that my new Outback with every bell and whistle has to be paid for first before I can get another new bow. She should have told me that before we bought it.

Well, I need to pack the Tacoma up with food and snow-gear and be ready to head out Thanksgiving Morning, but before I go, I thought I should share some text from the Scott Toll article for those who did not click on the link Rob provided above.

If you haven't read it, and don't already hunt with a Hill bow, you probably should not read the article. You will understand why later.

For the rest of you, I quote. . .


". . . we spent more time in the basement looking at various personal items which belonged to Howard. This was most enjoyable for me.

There is a set of Cape Buffalo Horns hanging on the wall and a ten-foot snake skin, tacked out on a board, right below them. Howard collected both of these trophies when he traveled to Africa in the fifties.

An arrow spine chart that Howard made for the business in the fifties hangs on the wall. It uses a graph-like format, with curved lines running throughout to indicate bow poundage.

There is a wooden, eight-arrow, fletching jig Howard made back in the late twenties. It is more complicated than reading the spine chart.

It was a real pleasure for me to look at and handle longbows that Howard had actually built. They had three of these beauties, including two that he'd built for an NBA basketball player and his girlfriend in 1939.

All three longbows are fiberglass backed with multiple-pieced, laminated handles. The basic dimensions are the same as those made today with an exception of having more backset in their limbs.

Craig brought out an old cardboard box containing a set of Howard's buckskins, which matched, in every detail, with those he wore in his earliest hunting pictures. They are sweat-stained and have cigarette burns on the front side. I had never noticed the built-in armguard on the bow arm sleeve before.

There is a worn-out backquiver of Howard's hanging on a nail in the wall. It contains several of the special arrows he used to use. One arrow is blunt-tipped, with high cut feathers. It was an arrow he used for stunt-shooting in the original filming of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn.

Another is an arrow he used for hunting elephants with in Africa. It has a prodigious broadhead welded onto a five-inch, steel shank, which is inserted into an aluminum shaft.

Travis brought out a box which contained family photographs, news paper articles, and letters with Howard Hill in them. He had gathered it together several years earlier by rummaging through the basement and gathering it into one place.

One priceless picture was a snap-shot of Howard sitting in a lawn with his longbow. It was taken in 1975. and is the last known picture of him pulling back a bow before he passed away that year. We spent a great deal of time just looking over the unpublished photographs and discussing them."

---That was a tiny snippet of the article, but I had a feeling it would interest you. Read on if you are interested.

P. S. One final note. Of all the traditional archers I have known, let me say that Scott Toll is the most accurate, most deadly archer I have ever had the pleasure to shoot against.

Scott also loves 66-inch or longer old-time recurves, and would often compete with them. But----if at lunch time, when the morning's scores were posted----anyone was anywhere near him in score, Scott would casually finish lunch, walk over to his truck, put the long recurve away, pull out his Howard Hill longbow, and in the last half of the shoot, totally eliminate any competition. I saw him do this time after time after time.

He shoots left-handed bows, which I tried to shoot several times left handed, so at the time. . .being a right-handed shooter. . .I did not understand.

Now I do.

Thanks Rik and Rob that was a great article!

Rik, suddenly a light comes on, and I  realize this thread makes me look at my collection of the Instinctive Archer as some of my most prized archery posessions.  I thank you.
Shick

yep, lotta REAL good stuff in the iam cd collection ... about the best $15 you'll ever spend on trad archery/bowhunting.  

 

I recently got my copy from Rob D.
I'm thoroughly enjoying the IA magzine articles!

Like Rob said it's a good investment.

Well, I intended to do this a while back, and for some reason I got side tracked (oh look a bunny). Just ordered my copy of IAM on cd. Thanks in advance Rob!

Tim

Rob-

I have that copy of IA magazine somewhere. That was the best traditional magazine published, I really enjoyed all the articles.

Darren

This Instincive Archer mag is awesome!!

A shame it had a limited span of life.

Question:
Any chance to revive this treasure chest of trad archery information?

Vincent ,
Look at Robs Sig line and click the link. Or just check this out.
http://tradgang.com/rob/iam/

Or did you mean to start the Mag up again?

Chuck

Chuck:

I clicked through Robs CD-teaser of IA Mag.

Actually, I meant to start it up again!

My thoughts:
- Trad archery and specially the HH longbow fraction is experiencing quite a renaissance
- We are all living online 24/7, BUT we grew up with books and newsPAPERS thats`s why I believe that a printed information source could be worth thinking of
- As there is a growing demand in trad products the industry will spend mor on advertising
- Finally: IT WILL BE FUN TO READ!!!

Any volunteers for the chief editor  

i SERIOUSLY doubt that rik will resurrect iam in print, but i'm sure he'll reply back here ....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I truly enjoy this thread and all the folks that contribute. Darren

Wow.....I ate a LOT! Happy Thanksgiving to all my Hill brethren.

2011 Thanksgiving morning with Howard Hill.



Unfortunately the only shot I took before leaving the stand was just a target shot at a leaf on the ground. I got the leaf, but also the rock behind it hidden in the ground. I lost a good arrow. But it was stil a great day.

Rob,
regarding the IA Mag post:
I for sure didn`t mean to step on somebody`s toes. Sorry, if I did.

Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Cheers from Germany,
Vincent

Berliner,

Don't believe that should have stepped on toes at all. It was your opinion. I like print too. I just bought Robs cd, but will have to be at home to read it. I travel a lot, so I always carry a couple of archery mags with me as I no longer own a laptop.

Far Rider,

thank you! I didn`t meant to excuse for posting/expressing my opinion or ideas, but definitely don`t wanna drop a brick either....    

So again, enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend.