July 19, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
81 
Loose-Handed Shooting. 
Pittsburgh, Pa., July 12 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Having read Dr. Elmer’s article on 
this subject, and having watched, with a certain 
degree of envy that gentleman shoot at the 
target, I am prepared to tell just what the doctor 
does when he performs this trick. 
The bow is, as he says, held loosely, the 
fingers and thumb forming a ring around the 
handle. The arm is straight and firm, not stiff 
like a poker—just straight and firm. 
If at this point my observations had ceased, 
the matter of success with this method would 
indeed be poorly explained; but an important 
movement at the loose takes place, and upon 
the correct making of this movement all accu¬ 
racy depends. 
Having watched Elmer carefully, I found 
that he had been deceiving himself in regard 
to the loose hand, for at the exact moment that 
the record of the bow took place, the hand tight¬ 
ened, and the arrow left the bow with the same 
firmly gripped. 
The advantage of this method is—the loose 
hand allows the arrow to be aligned and dis¬ 
charged without danger of disturbing the align¬ 
ment at the moment of the loose. The gripping 
of the bow at the exact time the recoil takes 
place prevents the left arm from giving or yield¬ 
ing. 
Now, while this looks simple of perform¬ 
ance, it is really complicated, and, I think, would 
require a lot of practice to master. 
Personally, I think the safer plan is to draw 
the arrow to the head before lightening the 
grip on the bow, and then, as the aim is com¬ 
pleted and the loose negotiated, let everything 
be held firmly. If the arm is not locked at the 
elbow, the arrow will go true; but if the archer 
overdoes the stiff left arm item, the arrow will 
do just what it did in Elmer’s machine—fly to 
the left. 
Incidentally, the writer’s poor score at the 
Wayne tournament was not caused by lack of 
stiffness of either arm or backbone, but by a 
combination of circumstances with which every 
archer is familiar. O. L. Hertig. 
Now the Slump Has Changed. 
Pittsburgh, Pa., July 14 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Please find space for the following: 
A controversy of long standing between Dr. 
O. L. Hertig, of the Bon Air Archery Club, and 
J. S. Jiles, of the Beechview Club, as to the 
relative merits of their respective clubs, came 
to a climax last Saturday when the two teams 
shot an American round on the Beechview range 
with the following results: 
Bon Air. 
Dr. O. L. Hertig-. 69 323 
V. J. Long. 68 320 
W J Gray. 70 318 
Beechview. 
W.J. Holmes. 87 499 
J. S. Jiles. 85 497 
J. F. Burckel. 70 348 
207 961 
242 1344 
Dr. Hertig, who has had a great deal of 
sport with the writer about his recent “slump,” 
has just discovered he has developed a beauti¬ 
ful one himself, as his score in this match is 
but little better than half his usual American 
round score. It is to be hoped that the genial 
dean of archery in Pittsburgh will recover by 
Aug. 18, a"s we expect to see his name in the 
columns with the top notchers at the National 
shoot in Boston. Jas. S. Jiles. 
Shooting With Variable Aim. 
Wayne, Pa., July 3. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: For the first time in my life I made 
a perfect score of hits to-day in the American 
round. The tale was 30-168, 30-174, 30-216. The 
reason I report it is that for the first time I 
used the system to an exact degree of variable 
aim for the arrows. Very few arrows fly alike. 
If the archer makes a small target on a piece 
of writing paper and then, shooting a team 
round, plots the number of each arrow on its 
appropriate spot as it falls, he will find when 
he has finished that the numbers form definite 
groups. All the 6’s may be over to the left, 
the 2’s to the lower right and so on. He must 
then find the average error for each arrow and 
allow for it in aiming. For instance, I shot four 
successive arrows to-day at 40 yards, varying the 
aim the full width of the red ring and yet they 
fell so close together in the gold that I could 
put my finger and thumb about them all. 
My arrows are numbered 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 18, 
22 and 23. The accompanying diagram shows 
the average variation of each arrow. In shoot¬ 
ing, I lay this on the ground at my feet for 
reference. For instance, if when aiming for the 
gold an arrow hits 8 o’clock blue, then in order 
to hit the gold one must aim for 2 o’clock blue. 
There are two expert fletchers in this coun¬ 
try. I used the arrows of one and Mr. Hale, 
who was shooting with me, used those of the 
other. So far as we could see they were equal¬ 
ly inaccurate. It seems almost impossible to get 
arrows of identical flight. I have known at 
least three archers who have bought four dozen 
arrows at a time from both English and Ameri¬ 
can makers, and out of the lot could get only 
six that would fly alike. Inasmuch as this dif¬ 
ficulty is practically insurmountable to the man 
of average pocket book, the only cure is to learn 
the idiosyncrasies of each arrow and vary the 
point of aim to suit them. 
Robert P. Elmer. 
Ye Archer of Old. 
Boston, Mass., July 8. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: In re W. H. Wills’ “Friendly Com¬ 
ment” and request, “the spirit is willing, but the 
flesh is weak.” However, I’ll try, for the pic¬ 
ture of it comes back to me most vividly, viz.: 
A grassy little meadow, flanked by willows 
of silver gray. A distant target that seemed a 
long way off to me, and probably was at least 
100 yards. A group of archers, and this man, 
who was thick-set and tall, weighing doubtless 
175 pounds or more. He stood squared for the 
target, both hands down. As the bow arm rose, 
the arrow hand went with it, but higher, higher, 
sweeping up and backward till just before the 
bow arm reached the level, the other hand was 
passing above the eyebrow and still backward 
with a steady, circular downward sweep, appar¬ 
ently intending to circumnavigate the ear; only, 
just then at some second or half-second, the 
point of aim was won, and the loose came with¬ 
out a pause or jerk. The arrow arm seemed 
really raised at one point of its course above 
the level of the head. 
Wait a bit! Here is another memory. 
Seems to me there is extant in statuary and en¬ 
graving a centaur teaching somebody (Hercules?) 
how to shoot. If I am right as to that memory, 
that centaur's arms are arrested in the very act 
of going through that circular course. 
On one matter though, we’ll just have to 
agree to disagree, if I can’t convince by brief 
argument. Those old bowmen most certainly did 
know how to hit their individual marks, regard¬ 
less of how they aimed or didn’t aim. Mind 
you, a large part of their young education cov¬ 
ered just that point. (For a good hint about 
that, see Conan Doyle’s “The White Company.”) 
It must have been a matter of pride with every 
man in a picked troop of archers to bring down 
his man, for human nature was as much to that 
point then as now, if not more so. Also, many 
made their own arrows, because they had to or 
go without; and a man is mighty careful in such 
a case to make every shaft count that can. 
Distances were not necessarily at long range, re¬ 
member. And any variation of course due to 
habit of draw would be rectified automatically 
by the archer. Why, take a Western gunman, 
firing from the hip. What a variation there, 
from line of sight! 
To compare small things with great: As a 
boy I was able to select my own ripe sugar loaf 
apple in the top of a very high tree and bring 
it down with another apple, by getting directly 
under and throwing vertically up. Generally the 
first shot brought it; sometimes the second, and 
when it took three I felt I was way below form. 
Now, my point of view was a few inches to the 
right of that sugar loaf, throwing left-handed. 
A dead-on sight meant a miss. Don't you sup¬ 
pose an archer of old who made a business of 
it would achieve depth of draw to the utter¬ 
most for penetration through armor and accu¬ 
racy by windage? We don’t need to believe 
miracles of course, but there’s a happy medium. 
John Preston True. 
Be&cK View-Bon Air Scores. 
Pittsburgh, Pa., July 13 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following practice scores were 
made during the past week: 
York round: 
100 yds. 
W. J. Holmes.37 113 
♦O. L. Herti?. 49 171 
47 177 
Team Round: 
W. T. Holmes. 89 417 
Jas. S. Jiles. 86 398 
American round: 
W. T. Holmes.... 88 476 
T S Jiles. 87 447 
87 453 
80yds. 
60yds. 
Total. 
24 
100 
19 
85 
80 
298 
42 
186 
22 
108 
113 
465 
39 
169 
21 
95 
107 
441 
W. 
T. Gray.. 
. 41 
219 
Jas 
Burkel . 
. 39 
197 
W. 
T. Gray.. 
, 62 
248 
J Burkel 
. 58 
238 
Jiles is out of his slump and happy. 
O. L. Hertig. 
