470 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April 12, 1913 
some explaining anent tliis heavy bow business. 
Someone has to clear the atmosphere of mystery 
surrounding it if we are to arrive at any con¬ 
clusions. Just for the sport of it 1 am going 
to remain passive. 1 have nothing to impart— 
1 would not impart what I have learned from 
experience for fear 1 will be pounced upon and 
e.xcluded from the honorable ranks. \\'hcn i\lr. 
Rendtorff says "a weak thirty-five pound bow” 
I cease to wonder, lie is easily at the head of 
the world's combined archers; his strength is 
enormous, or I have l)een dreaming. i\Ir. Rend- 
torfif makes the mistake all highbrows or near 
highbrows make—he soars way up and there 
takes his perch, sticking to one thing and one 
thing only. 
It is very easy to see that he has little time 
for small bows, flow many of the average can 
shoot from a fifteen-pound bow, let alone a ten- 
])Ounder? Highbrow anglers will jeer at a five 
dollar machine-made rod and laud their little 
bamboo fifty dollar rods to the skies, and yet 
the five dollar rod will do perfect work and is 
just as good a.s the hand-made affair if in the 
habds of the right man. Same in this. Hr. 
Rendtorff is doing more damage than good with 
his ‘my superiority” dope. jMr. Rendtorff, if 
you were actually to make j'our own bows, out 
of necessity, saying that your life depended upon 
it, and were given just the same opportunity that 
the average fellow has of selecting wood for his 
material in some rural wood, what would you 
take for instance? Wood that, when cut down 
and seasoned, would weigh your fifty-five pounds, 
forty pounds, thirty-five pounds or even fifteen 
pounds? Kindly answer that. Also just how you 
would go about it and how much said bow 
would weigh after it is seasoned. I have yet 
to find out which way you season bows. Do you 
use “deliquescent agents” or the strong air-tight 
steel cylinder? Have you tried either method? 
Tell what sort of air-tight steel cylinder you 
used, so amateurs like myself may be led along 
the right road to success. About your fifty-five- 
pound bow: Do you get real honest sport out 
of lugging it around? Do you send it by freight? 
How do you manage to lift it and draw the 
string back to your chin? I doubt very much 
if the late Robin Hood had such a bow. What 
do you think of the William Tell episode? 
d'hink he used a fifty-five-pounder? Not say¬ 
ing that T have any faith in the lielief that either 
did the things they w'ere credited with. What 
was the use of your padding up those articles 
with that technical stuff, science and diagram; 
that was too advanced and there are very few 
of beginners who understand it. Your descrip¬ 
tion was very vague: all such stuff is vague and 
is better learned by the individual through ex¬ 
perience. Experience is the best teacher, the 
only one worth while. I have this to say: In 
one year you sure done wonders. I have more 
or less enjoyed bow' and arrow shooting for ten 
years, all told, when work did not crowd me, 
and I do not think I have so very much to im¬ 
part. Will you admit that there are two classes 
of archers, one class that shoots at tournaments 
and one class, “the insignificant.” which shoots in 
secluded places for fear of being found out, who 
have not the money, the means by which they 
can journey from one end of the country to the 
other to attend tournaments and thus get into 
the limelight? 
Men and women who have nothing else to 
do day after day than practice archery, why 
should they not be experts? You and the rest 
of the archery "experts” have gotten together 
by mutual agreement to boom archery. There 
does not seem to be any remuneration in it to 
individuals other than love for the sport. You 
are going to appeal to the majority. \Vell, then, 
take my advice and come down a few niches 
and get on the level with this majority. We 
want the success of the average; the man who 
makes a bow out of common wood—common 
American wood and not I'our imported stuff. I 
think artificiality is a crime. Archery will al¬ 
ways be restricted to the minority. Therein lies 
the fact that it will never be as widespread as 
other sports. You will write of archery on the 
tournament grounds and admit that alone. The 
majority will get no hearing, for that is not 
the nature of things as they are. At the ex¬ 
pense of being made the butt of your jokes I 
am going to take the side of the amateur. ]\Ir. 
Rendtorff will elucidate, since he has broken the 
ice, and must, therefore, do the telling, drawing 
upon his experience and not from old histories. 
And we want your poorest work and your fail¬ 
ures, and not the fact that by accident you 
happened to hit the target at eighty or one 
hundred yards. Target shooting is inferior com¬ 
pared with the true archery out in the woods. 
With a set range the target archer cannot but 
be sure of himself. Init the archer who has no 
set range and must shoot with keenness and 
calculation is vastly different. You target arch¬ 
ers make target scores the sole object of your 
attention and consequently work it to death, 
making it only a dry as dust performance. 
Without the true poetry surrounding it, such 
as the archer in the midst of nature must re¬ 
alize. the pastime is not worthy of the notice. 
And the majority are inclined to favor the latter 
for reasons well to be recognized. And we want 
to -hear about shooting with small liows. Are 
there anv amateurs who have shot with bows 
under ten pounds? Well, then, let us hear from 
you. It will be appreciated, and let us pay no 
attention to such aloof remarks as “a weak 
thirty-five pound bow" from a man who has 
been an archer and knows it all from begin¬ 
ning to end—after one year's practice. 
An Arrow’s Flight. 
CiiicAGO, Ill., IMarch 17.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have read some of the expert opin¬ 
ions in regard to the effect on an arrow’s flight 
of difference in point of balance from others in 
the same set. 
So far, the opinions advanced .‘^eem to deal 
with the effect that such difference in point of 
balance might have on the lateral or side move¬ 
ment of the shaft. 
It is my idea that any such a difference 
w'ould be more likely to affect the flight of the 
arrow in the vertical plane: that is, to cause it 
to fly higher or lower rather than out of line 
to cither side. 
In comparing the behavior of any shaft it 
is not fair to assume any but the most favor¬ 
able state of weatber—that is. little or no wind. 
One can never be sure that a breeze is steady 
or will continue to be of regular force at any 
time or over any part of the range. 
A range that is partially protected by build¬ 
ings or trees is particularly likely to have calm 
belts or cross-currents between the archer 
and the targets Under such conditions no one 
may be sure whether the fault is in tlie arrow 
or the unsteady wind. 
A difference in size, texture and position 
of the feathers will have a much greater in¬ 
fluence on an arrow’s flight than several grains 
difference in weight or quite a decided shifting 
of the point of balance. Of course, the heavier 
the shaft, the less its flight will be affected by 
any small changes in weight or balance. 
During the past few years I have been ex¬ 
perimenting with a view to making the feather¬ 
ing of the arrow more regular than on those 
I’ve been able to get at any dealers. 
This last season all of my best scores were 
made with a 36-pound lancewood, backed with 
hickory, and arrows of my own make weigh¬ 
ing only 340 grains. Out of twenty-five arrows I 
haye been able to select eight that will group 
well enough to hit inside the green line at 
eighty yards (if the archer is not at fault). 
There is a difference of three-quarters of an 
inch in point of balance between some of these 
and also several grains difference in weight be¬ 
tween tbe lightest and heaviest. 
I have given particular attention to the 
feathers and believe they are the main factors 
in holding the arrows in this set in the paths 
in which thej^ are intended to travel. On a 
calm day last December, shooting the entire 
eight at an end, I made a score of 92—490 out 
of 96 arrows at 80 yards. That would seem,to 
bear out my contention that small differences in 
weight and balance do not cut a great figure. 
G. L. Nichols. 
Keystone Archers. 
The Keystone Archers, in organizing for the 
season of 1913, have elected the following of¬ 
ficers: Dr. O. L. Hertig, President; Dr. R. P. 
Elmer, Vice-President; James S. Jiles, Secretary- 
Treasurer. 
At the present time at least four members 
of this club are averaging over 400 in the team 
round and several others are rapidly reaching 
similar ])roficiency. It is probable that the con¬ 
test for the Pearsall bugle this year will be very 
close. Eirst class teams should be entered from 
Illinois, ^Massachusetts, New York and Pennsyl¬ 
vania. 
To Keep Matches Dry. 
A NOVEL method of carrying matches on 
one’s person in the wet without having them 
become soaked is to immerse a box of safety 
matches in paraffin until a solid cake is formed 
out of which a match may be broken when de¬ 
sired. 
When the match is scratched, says the Out¬ 
ing. the coating of “waterproof” is rubbed off 
its tip and also off the composition abrasive on 
the box, thus permitting the match to ignite. 
This is a simple expedient which will be sure 
to appeal to all woodsmen — professional or 
amateur. 
f 
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