June 21, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
789 
Forest and Stream is the official organ of the National Archery Association. 
How to Learn Archery 
By W. H. WILLS 
{Concluded from last week.) 
A nother essential from which the atten¬ 
tion cannot be released a single moment 
is the management of the bow hand. This 
must be held absolutely firm. And this doesn’t 
require bull strength, unless the archer is over¬ 
bowed ; i. e., using a weapon beyond his strength. 
Grasp the handle lightly at the beginning of the 
draw and keep it so till the moment the draw is 
being completed; then squeeze the handle as if 
you would crush it. That produces rigidity all 
through the left arm and will maintain this 
rigidity till the arrow is gone. Don’t relax the 
squeeze and drop the bow hand the moment you 
loose; that is sure to result in dropping the arrow 
and spoiling the shot. Keep the pull on the string 
fingers till the loose, and keep the bow hand 
firmly extended till the arrow is well gone. 
Never take the attention from these cardinal 
points. 
Now comes the point of aim. Since the 
arrow cannot be “sighted” like a gun barrel, 
on account of the acute angle it makes with 
the line from eye to object, the aiming must 
be from the tip of the arrow to the object. The 
object is a relative one. If fifty yards is the 
distance, with a fifty-pound bow the arrow should 
fly nearly horizontal, so that in aiming the bow 
hand must be depressed till the steel finds a 
point on the ground this side the target which 
will make the shaft about parallel with the 
ground. The exact spot depends on the strength 
of the bow and the archer’s skill. It must be 
found by experiment. 
To shoot sixty yards, the point will be nearer 
the target, as the arrow will describe a low arch, 
and to shoot 100 yards there is a decided trajec¬ 
tory, and the point of aim will lie above the 
target on some object in the background. In 
all cases, whether on the near or far side of 
the target, this object must be in line with the 
gold of the target, and in elevating to the point 
of aim the arrow should take a straight upward 
line. In drawing, do not start out of a straight 
line, so that you will have to swing around in 
a curve. 
The arrow, as has been said, should be 
drawn to the steel pile. The length of the 
arrow should be such that when it is full drawn 
this will be the case. For the man and woman 
of average arm length, twenty-eight inches and 
twenty-five inches, respectively, are right. Rarely 
does one require longer arrows, but many short¬ 
armed persons take twenty-seven and twenty- 
four inches, respectively. 
The “game” is simple. For men there is 
the York round—six dozen arrows at 100 yards, 
four dozen at 80 yards and two dozen at 60 
yards; and the American round, distinctive to 
this country, consisting of ninety arrows, divided 
equally at 60, 50 and 40 yards. For women the 
National round—four dozen arrows at 60 yards 
and two dozen at 50—corresponds to the York, 
while their short range is the Columbia round, 
seventy-two arrows divided at 50, 40 and 30 
yards. The English do not recognize the short 
ranges, and in this country there is a lively dis¬ 
pute between the advocates of long and short 
range shooting.^ From personal experience the 
writer, who has been accredited with having 
made very rapid progress to the first rank, would 
recommend the beginner to shoot at 50 yards, 
if a man, and 40 yards if a woman, until fair 
facility in handling the implements has been at¬ 
tained ; then stick to the long range. This is 
on the theory that having become able to hit 
the target at the long range, the short ranges 
follow as a matter of course. 
The values of the colors on the target are 
as follows: Gold, 9; red, 7; blue, 5; black, 3; 
white, I. If all six arrows at an “end” hit the 
target, one on each color, that “end” would be 
scored thus: 6-25, meaning six hits, 25 points. 
An arrow on the dividing line between two 
colors counts for the higher. If an arrow re¬ 
bounds, or passes entirely through the target, 
under American rules, it counts 5. To compute 
a score simply add up the “ends.” A beginner 
should get a blank book and from the start 
keep his record. It will afford him much satis¬ 
faction some day. 
New York Archery Club. 
The archery tournament in Wanamaker’s 
store. New York, June 10 to 14, under the aus¬ 
pices of the New York Archery Association and 
Forest and Stream, was more successful than 
its most sanguine well wishers expected. The 
Wanamaker concern was much interested by the 
increase in calls for archery tackle recently, and 
conceived the idea of boosting the cause by this 
public meet. The Wanamaker store gets its 
archery supplies from E. I. Horsman Company, 
the veteran archery goods headquarters. W. H. 
Wills, President of the New York Archery As¬ 
sociation, superintended the matches, and was 
on hand part of the day during the week. 
The prize contested for was a handsome 
cup, given by Forest and Stream, which was on 
display during the week. The meet developed 
some unusually good archery talent. None of 
the contestants had ever handled bow and arrow 
before, but at the rate at which they mastered 
the rudiments of the sport and improved their 
scores from day to day was highly creditable. 
The shooting for the cup took place Saturday 
forenoon, and was confined to those who by 
their’ four days’ record had qualified. About 
twenty-five got on the eligible list, which was 
surprising, seeing that the standard was fairly 
high. 
Saturday’s contest quickly narrowed down 
to Edwin L. Malone, 332 East Seventeenth 
street; H. L. Towle, 12 West Eighth street, 
and Charles Tisdall, of the Victoria Hotel. Mr. 
Malone finished first with a score of 23-157; 
Mr. Towle second, with 23-137, and Mr. Tisdall 
third, with 21-129. Mr. Malone accordingly re¬ 
ceived the cup. 
Those who deserved honorable mention were 
Miss Sadie Davidson, 43 West Seventy-fifth 
street; Miss Frances Smith, 605 West 156th 
street; E. T. Vandewater, 403 East 115th street; 
S. S. Colodney, 2122 Eighty-third street, Brook¬ 
lyn ; Mrs. Hattie Darling, 210 West Seventy- 
eighth street; Miss Margaret Desmond, 62 Mad¬ 
ison avenue; C. R. Cockey, Ridgewood, N. J.; 
L. Strauss, Far Rockaway; H. R. Goldberg, 205 
West i42d street, and C. A. Frutchey, of the 
Park Avenue Hotel. 
Not only was the week’s shooting partici¬ 
pated in by an unexpectedly large number of 
ladies and gentlemen, but a still larger crowd 
was always on hand to watch the shooting. The 
occasion was successful in every way and has 
furnished a number of very promising young 
archers as members of the New York Archery 
Association, whose season is now under way. 
Anyone interested in joining the association 
should communicate with W. H. Wills, 116 Nas¬ 
sau street. 
Now I Wonder About That! 
Boston, Mass., June 15 .—Editor Forest and 
Stieam: If memory serves, we read in history 
that the archers of Rameses drew to the ear, 
while the Greeks drew to the chest. The 
Gyptian won out because those extra inches 
gave the longer range, even as Togo swatted 
the Russ. Also, the English at Crecy and 
Poictiers were to-the-ears drawers, were they 
not? An artist would picture such drawing to 
the eye. Once I saw a man whose arrow hand 
went back level with his hat brim and seemed 
to circle his ear before loosing, and he was pin¬ 
cushioning the gold right along at about 100 
yards. His shaft was apparently level with his 
eye at loose. I heard a man say admiringly: 
He s a splendid archer.” He certainly got 
scores. I wonder if I have misread Mr. Wills? 
If so, others may also. 
John Preston True. 
