504 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April 19, 1913 
until the end of the pile is flush with the back 
of the bow?” 
Answer. ‘ I draw until the shoulder of the 
pile—that is, the bevel—is back as far as it will 
go without dropping on iny knuckle.” 
Question 14. “I notice you stand squarely 
at right angles to the target. Do you throw your 
weight mostly upon your heels or front of your 
feet ?” 
Answer. ‘‘Weight on both feet equally and 
more on the heels than the toes. I stiffen my 
knees and back about the same time as I do my 
grasp on the bow.” 
The American round champion of 1911, Dr. 
R. P. Elmer, answered questions as follows: 
Question i. ‘‘How do 1 loose?” 
Answer. ‘‘In the most rotten manner which 
is a constant source of disgust to me. Practi¬ 
cally all the weight of the string is borne on 
my third finger, instead of being equally dis¬ 
tributed as it should be. This results in an un¬ 
necessarily bent bow string which on being freed 
imparts a wobble to the arrow. Theoretically 
the string should bend only at the nock of the 
arrow, and the thickness of one’s fingers makes 
an unavoidable error. If the third finger does 
the pulling, it is so much the worse. I do not 
loose with a snap, which I do not approve of, 
but at the same time I do not think I am slug¬ 
gish.” 
Question 2. ‘‘Does my string hand touch my 
face ?” 
Answer. ‘‘I had to go out in the yard and 
shoot a few arrows to find out just what hap¬ 
pened, and I discovered that my second meta- 
carpo-phalangeal articulation rested on the in¬ 
ferior mandibular border just anterior to the in¬ 
sertion of the masseter, while my first lay against 
the thyroid cartilage. This is all wrong in my 
opinion, because it throws the nock end of the 
arrow in so close to the neck that if one stands 
sideways to the target, his nose shuts off half 
the shaft of the arrow from the eye. In the 
future I expect to give a good tryout to a draw 
to the mouth for 60 yards as the French do. 
After I have loosed, my hand presses tight to 
my neck.” 
3. “I do not string my bow high enough 
for fear of breaking it.” 
4. ‘‘When in full draw, my arm is straight 
and rigid. This is the cause of my worst fault 
which has lost me many a good score, and which 
is that I throw my left shoulder so far up and 
forward that the bow string often hits it.” 
5. ‘‘My finger tips are far from satisfac¬ 
tory. I use the kind Captain Barnes sells. 
Owing to my pernicious method of holding the 
string, my third finger is apt to become very 
sore, and I have to use on it a very thick 
finger tip. This makes my loose still more in¬ 
accurate.” 
6. “At Chicago I stuck an arrow in the 
ground where the ball of my left foot rested 
and sighted over it to get a straight line to the 
target. It was merely to find the initial line on 
which a point of aim must lie. I think a plumb 
line is better.” 
And in response to a belated request the 
morning after the banquet, the following de¬ 
scription of his “loose” was received from that 
veteran archer and several times champion. Will 
H. Thompson; 
“The string lies in a slightly diagonal direc¬ 
tion from the first finger to the third, not 
straight across, and as much pressure as pos¬ 
sible put upon the shirking first finger. Arrow 
drawn nearly, not quite to the head, aim then 
taken, and then, all being held quite firm, the 
fingers being as straight as possible to retain the 
string, slowly drawn backward off the string. 
“Note.—The fingers not opened at all, but 
pulled off the string. The string should come 
back a trifle with the pull, or feel as if it did, 
and after the loose, the drawing hand should 
remain below the right jaw, with the fingers 
tense and slightly incurved. This gives the 
keenest loose and flattest trajectory of which 
the bow is capable, and no good arrow will wab¬ 
ble or wag in the least if so delivered. With 
such a loose, the lOO-yard range is fully com¬ 
manded by a 40-pound bow. The hardest thing 
to command at the loose is to pull the fingers 
off slozvly, and yet this is more important than 
any other point in archery. Every time a good 
archer gets this slow, even pull of the fingers 
off the string, the arrow goes to the mark. The 
slow loose does not upset the left arm, and gives 
the one measureless moment in which the aim 
is corrected, and the success of the shot as¬ 
sured.” 
I hope the writer may be pardoned if he 
closes this description of methods of shooting 
the long bow by saying that it is his opinion 
that the “loose” is by far the most important 
act in the series of acts that go to make up the 
shooting of an arrow. An archer may stand 
in perfect form, he may nock, draw, hold and 
aim with great care and precision, and yet, when 
the crucial moment comes, the climax or finale 
of the loose, he finds that all the thoughtful 
painstaking care exercised in the preceding acts 
may go for naught because of the slightest vari¬ 
ation or error in the release of the string, and 
may the writer add further that as an adjunct 
to the “loose,” the finger tips do not receive one- 
half the attention they should. 
J. H. Pendry. 
New Archery Club. 
Pittsburgh, Pa., April 10. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: In response to an invitation ten¬ 
dered by C. W. Welty and John T. Monahan, 
prominent citizens of Wheeling, W. Va., James 
S. Jiles and the writer spent Saturday and Sun¬ 
day, April 5 and 6, at the famous little city of 
the hills. 
The object of our visit was to christen a 
new archery club, measure out a new range, and 
teach a half dozen promising converts how to 
keep the “right hand to the face and elbow up.” 
We were taken by Mr. Welty to the Fort 
Henry Club, and there entertained most royally; 
in fact, we partook so freely of our host’s gen¬ 
erous offering that Mr. Jiles wanted to stay 
“right there” and postpone exercise until morn¬ 
ing. Mr. Jiles has considerable of that quality 
which Brother Rendtorff calls inertia, and as 
the inertia of heavy bodies is much greater than 
that of small bodies, we must all concede that 
he is “some stayer.” After lunch we were driven 
by motor to Mr. Monahan’s home, Howard 
Place, Pleasant Valley, and there treated to a 
pleasant surprise, for while we knew that the 
suburbs of Wheeling were beautiful, we were 
not prepared to see the fine country estate of 
nearly one hundred acres with suitable places 
for ranges of one hundred yards or more on 
every terrace. 
The place chosen for the targets is reached 
by a winding road and is situated ,on the level 
crest of a high hill where for miles around one 
can see and enjoy a prospect truly pleasing. 
The wind was high and interfered some¬ 
what with the scores. 
Before initiating the beginners, Mr. Jiles 
and the writer shot an American round with 
the following scores: 
60Yds. 50Yds. 40 Yds. 
.Tiles . 25 113 28 150 30 182 83 446 
Hertig . 28 132 30 164 30 212 88 508 
Beginners’ round, 72 arrows, 40yds.: 
J. T. Monahan ... 40 158 Harry Lutz . 30 102 
C. W. Welty . 36 120 William Howard... 12 42 
Frank Mulaney ... 40 148 
In my opinion these scores made by men 
who never shot a bow before are very good. 
Mr. Welty handled the weapon with the care¬ 
less ease of an Indian, and if it were not for 
his quickness, would have outshot all the others. 
Mr. Jiles has offered a Barnes bow as a 
prize to the first man making, within twelve 
months, a score of 450 in the American. 
One of the objects of our visit was not 
attained. Mr. Monahan was expecting to have 
on hand for our test and inspection a pair of 
bows which Mr. Barnes, the maker, says cannot 
be duplicated in quality for $500. 
The bows were to be delivered on April i, 
but no doubt Mr. Barnes’ illness has held him 
back in their manufacture. 
Meanwhile we hope that many little clubs 
are springing up here and there all over the 
country. O. L. Hertig. 
The Newton Archers. 
Newton Center, Mass., April 7.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: Several of the Newton 
archers spent Saturday afternoon, April 5, in 
target practice on the archery range at the New¬ 
ton Center Playgrounds. 
The weather was about perfect, spring was 
in the air, and several meadowlarks attended the 
archers and sang a tuneful accompaniment to 
the swish of the arrows in their flight. 
The Newton Archers, as the local archery 
club is named, has among its members several 
ladies and three youthful archers about ten years 
old, and some of the ladies and children were 
shooting Saturday afternoon. The men shot the 
American round, the ladies shot the Columbia, 
and the children shot at thirty yards. 
The following 
scores 
were made; 
American Round: 
60 Yds. 
50 Yds. 
40 Yds. 
Total. 
c. 
T. Switzler. 
...23 101 
28 146 
28 149 
80 396 
L 
C. Smith. 
...29 98 
25 127 
30 164 
75 389 
S. 
VV. Wilder . 
...18 70 
28 146 
30 160 
76 376 
FlHs Spear . 
...17 95 
17 69 
22 100 
56 264 
Columbia Round: 
50 Yds. 
40 Yds. 
30 Yds. 
Total. 
Airs. B. P. Gray. 
...20 62 
22 112 
24 136 
66 310 
.'frs. L. C. Smith- 
...14 70 
16 78 
23 123 
53 271 
Ninety-six arrows 
at thirty yards: 
.. 133 
Dorothy Smith. 
45 200 
Philip Wilder. 
In four consecutive ends Dorothy scored as 
follows; 4 18; 3 ii; 5 27; 4 22; total, 16 78. 
Dorothy and Philip both took up archery 
last fall, and there is a friendly rivalry between 
them to see which will make fastest progress. 
On March 22 and again on April 3, S. W. 
Wilder shot an 
American 
round. 
makin 
g the 
following scores; 
60 Yds. 
50 Yds. 
40 Yds. 
Total. 
.27 133 
27 127 
36 154 
84 414 
April 3 . 
.27 109 
27 1S3 
30 206 
84 448 
April 19 is a holiday in Massachusetts and 
