Many interesting articles written by noted 
archers on the making of hunting arrows have 
appeared in the Forest and Stream from time to 
time, but it seems to me that much of the in¬ 
struction is so technical that the ordinary fellow 
has neither the ability nor the time to spare to 
manufacture his own arrows. Most of us have a 
regular occupation, but we ought to find a little 
time occasionally to work some kind of a hobby. 
And it is time well spent, too, for many of us 
grow old entirely too fast by getting into the 
dollar chasing habit and getting out of touch 
with Nature. 
I am sure one can make arrows that will an¬ 
swer all practical purposes the cost of which 
is insignificant and leaving off part of the tech¬ 
nique will not spoil, very materially, the useful¬ 
ness of the arrow. The arrow described will 
far surpass any arrow made by any Indian living 
anywhere between Tierra del Fuego and the 
Arctic Circle. I have experimented with a good 
many of these arrows and while they do not fly 
absolutely true they are very accurate up to 
thirty or forty yards and have wonderful pene¬ 
trating power. 
These are the tools needed: Smoothing plane, 
siding-saw., rasp, a thin file and coarse and fine 
sandpaper. 
At the planing mill select some straight old 
grain hickory and have them cut it into strips 
seven-eighths inch square and twenty-eight and 
one-quarter inches long, so when the strip is 
smoothed down it will be exactly three-eighths 
inches square. The shaft can be rounded very 
nicely in the manner described by Mr. Jackson 
by using a grooved board, reducing the shaft 
first to an octagon with the plane, then again 
the corners left, finishing with rasp and coarse 
and fine sandpaper. With a rasp still further 
reduce one-third of the feather end to five-six¬ 
teenths inch at the nock. Make the nock one- 
quarter inch deep with a thin file so it will hold 
the string snugly but not too tight, as it will 
split the shaft when the arrow is loosed. 
The points should be made from sheet 
steel. This can be cut easily with a heavy pair 
of tinner’s shears fastened in a vise and using 
a little extra force upon the handles. Cut them 
one and three-quarters inches long and three- 
eighths inch wide. Cut off the corners at one 
end. Then holding the piece of steel with a 
pair of pinchers, “draw out” the sides of the 
point with a hammer without heating till it is a 
trifle wider than the body that is to be inserted 
into the shaft and resembles in shape a miniature 
trowel. Sharpen and shape up with a file. In¬ 
sert the steel point into a slit made one and one- 
quarter inches deep, cut with the siding-saw 
while the shaft is yet square. If a little glue is 
placed upon the point when it is inserted it will 
be less easily dislodged. Wrap the wood as far 
as the slit is made with a couple of strands of 
Barbour’s Irish linen twisted and glued. 
Hunting Arrows 
By I. M. Fulton. 
Feather with turkey-tail feathers cut one- 
half inch at the widest part and tapering off till 
they are two and one-half inches long. Use San¬ 
ford’s or Le Page's liquid glue put up in col¬ 
lapsible tubes. Glue the edges of the feather, 
Scout Master McChesney. 
allowing it to dry till it will stay where it is 
placed. Then by using a two-inch stationer’s 
clip you can place them straight upon the shaft 
dividing the distance around the shaft into three 
equal parts. Allow one inch from the bottom 
of the nock where the fingers are to be placed. 
Wrap the front end of the feathers with five or 
six turns of fine silk thread and cover with glue. 
The whole shaft should then be given a coat of 
red varnish carriage paint. 
Now this shaft will not compare with the 
fine hunting arrows made by machinery by Mr. 
Jackson, but they are good for all practical pur¬ 
pose and are so simply constructed that it will 
induce many to try who would otherwise give 
it up as entirely too technical for them to waste 
time upon it. 
1 use a good lemonwood bow made by Mr. 
Duff and his arrows for target practice, but for 
hunting (rabbits are about all the game we have 
here that is not protected by law) the arrows 
above described are plenty good enough and you 
can make enough of them in a few spare hours 
to go on several hunting trips and if you lose 
all of them the trip will not cost as much as a 
hunt with a shotgun and much more enjoyable. 
A cheap quiver can be made out of lino¬ 
leum, twenty-eight inches long. Make the bot¬ 
tom out of a block of wood one inch wide and 
as long as the width at the foots of the six ar¬ 
rows the quiver is to contain—about three inches 
long. Use a block for the upper part one inch 
wide and six and ■’one-half inches long boring 
holes with a half-inch bit for the reception of 
the arrows. The linoleum can be nailed on to the 
blocks with brass-headed furniture nails and a 
piece of webbing fastened long enough so the 
quiver can be thrown over the shoulder. You 
can’t hunt with the bow to any advantage without 
a quiver, for the arrows will catch in the under¬ 
brush and weeds, the glue will get wet on the 
feathers and they become loosened and inter¬ 
fere greatly with your sport. 
Ishi the Archer. 
Chicago, Feb. 14. 
Editor Forest and Stream : In your issue of 
last November 22 you published an article by 
Dr. Saxton T. Pope, of San Francisco, about 
Ishi the Archer. 
I have just received the following very inter¬ 
esting letter from Dr. Pope: 
“Ishi shot his first American Round to-day. I 
send you his score, not to prove that the Ameri¬ 
can Indian is no match for a trained archer, but 
that there may be some data for comparison be¬ 
tween the schools of archery. 
“It must be understood that Ishi is out of his 
element shooting at a target, and .that these dis¬ 
tances are not a test of his skill at hunting. In 
the chase, he undoubtedly would more than hold 
his own against the white man. 
"From time to time I will send his scores and 
probably we can trace rapid improvement, but 
here is his very first. 
“Ishi’s first American round, shot February 10, 
1914, 12:15 P. M. to 1 :i5 P. M.: 
60 Yards. 50 Yards. 40 Yards. 
H.—S. 
H.—S. 
H.—S. 
2— 6 
3 —i 3 
4—12 
1— 7 
3—13 
5—20 
1— 3 
2— 6 
5—27 
52 Hits 
4—10 
4—14 
3—13 
2— 8 
4—22 
5—21 
7 Goals 
195 Score’ 
10—34 
16—68 
26—93 
EDWARD B. WESTON. 
350 
