My take on all this is that the MOST IMPORTANT alignment is having your bow arm 90* to your spine.  This is regardless of where the target is.  If you look at all the pictures of the "masters" you will see that 90* angle.  When you are developing this, having the bale/target at shoulder level will help learn and set that angle.

Arne

Bingo Arne.....and Hill, having a background in target/field archery would have developed this.  I think it is one of the fundamentals.  Each of us has a rythm to get the bow up to that point of solid form where everything is in line, backtension is good and release happens while pulling in the oposite direction of the pushing bowhand.

Without this type of form then the type of accuracy Hill achieved would have been hard to accomplish.

One of my favorite quotes from Hill....."if your form is right, you won't be too far off at 50 yards"     why that distance and what does it have to do with this basic level shooting form that needs to be ingrained until it becomes habit?   Think on it.....it is one of my favorite lessons from Hill who is still teaching us how much he knew and how little he told the general public

Goshawkin, ever since I heard of Ken and Walt Wilhelm, I often wondered if I could be distantly related to them.  There aren't a lot of famous people with the Wilhelm name, but I am glad there are two that are famous for their ability with the bow.

MoeBow is right on.  He helped me this week and my shooting improved dramatically.  Nate the not far off at 50 yards quote I think has to do with Hills secondary aiming that he advocated at that time.  However I ain't no expert and most likely may be wrong.  Oh well gotta hit the Bail again before I try some still hunting after church.  Almost got a hog that way a couple of weekends ago and I'm hooked.

I'm thinking the 50yds deal meant his bows were point on, dead level, 50 yrds.

elbow to bow hand alignment, head angle, aiming the arrow - for me, those are the static basics.  

dynamic basics of back tension, release and follow through, depend on good, consistent static basics.

 

To keep this discussion from going to the shooters forum I am going to keep the discussions on form as they relate to the Hillstyle of shooting....but this same basic form works for al shooters.

Hills point on distance and those of most split fingered shooters anchoring at the corner of the mouth, with bows shooting around 180 fps would be around 55-60 yards.  And his split vision style worked for any distance....

Basically shooting the swing style for several weeks at a level bale of hay (or backstop) with no target on it was Hill's method of ingraining the swing up to level motion until it became automatic.  If you do this you will be amazed at how tight the arrow groups will be at 10 yards without any "aiming"

I am learning to post photos, this is my new Miller longbow its bamboo and yew by David Miller, its 64" and 47 lbs at 26".

Here is another photo.

Another photo, this bow has 3 lams of yew on the belly and 1 lam of bamboo on the back and is smooth drawing with good speed,its called the Favorite and is similar to the American semi longbow thar John Schulz made. David Miller bows are sweet. Ron.

[IMG]http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/qq9/manybows3/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20RON-PC/2012-10-06%20Miller%20favorite%20longbow%20yew%20and%20bamboo/Millerfavoritelongbowyewandba mboo018.jpg/IMG]
One last photo.

LETS TRY AGAIN.

Very nice! What arrows are you shooting out of that bow Ron?

So then this would be David's inspiration.
Great bows and terrific in the woods, if I just picked the right gap this morning I would of had a nice buck right now. Deer never heard a thing, except when the arrow sailed over his back and slices into the brush.

I am shooting both tapered cedar arrows 45 -50 spine and trad gold tip carbons 35 -55 cut to 26.5" and 160 grn broadheads on both sets.

Yew sure makes a sweet, smooth drawing bow.

Enjoy !

Thanks Ron.

Great looking bows guys, can't wait til my slot on Dave's list comes upin April!

Ok Nate putting it into practice,however,my cord snaped and my bag came down so I gotta hook it up again tomarrow. Keep posting.

Longstick...those are elegantly understated arrows...beautifully deadly and simple to go with a bow that's tbe same.

Ron....beautiful bow!