698 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May io, 1913 
Forest and Stream is the official organ of the National Archery Association. 
Bows and their “Weights.” 
Batavia, III., April 20.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The recent article by R. P. Lincoln 
gave me some amusement, but toward what end 
Was it written, and what was his motive? It is 
not much less than an attack on all archers be¬ 
longing to organizations for target practice. And 
he assumes to seek information for some par¬ 
ticular or imaginary body of “downright crude 
beginners’’ who evidently judge archery to be a 
children’s pastime. Archery -is really not a sport 
particularly adapted to children. It looks as if 
his own ignorance was mosth' assumed, as he 
inakes a continuous parade of it and seems to 
lake great pride in the exhibition. 
If he really wishes to benefit the sport of 
archery, his remarks and comparisons of “tour¬ 
nament ginks’’ and “amateurs’’ are a long ways 
out of place. Let me here remark that we are 
all amateurs. The fact that same are good shots 
does not change their standing. 
It would be quite as fair to start a war on 
the trapshooters on the same grounds as those 
on which the attack is made on the clubs of 
archers who practice target shooting, where they 
may have the good luck to get the ground for 
a range. 
For one, I did not suppose there was any 
person of mature years with an actual interest 
in archery who did not know that the weight of 
a bow is the term commonly used to denote the 
strength of pull in number of pounds. 
That writer is quite correct in one of his 
statements. It is not possible to pull and shoot 
a six-foot man’s bow by grasping the string be¬ 
tween the thumb and fore-finger, as children do 
their little toy weapons. Anyone familiar with 
history knows that the great war bows with 
which the old English archers pierced the armor 
of the French knights were a long ways from 
toys. 
Mention was somewhere made of a five dol¬ 
lar fishing rod. Why should that be? The 
writer is not consistent. Why does he not fash¬ 
ion his fish pole from some old wood; even as 
he says a right true amateur archer should make 
his bow? 
There is no hard wood grown in North 
America that will make a bow that will ap¬ 
proach those made from the hard woods of trop¬ 
ical countries. That most commonly used is 
known under the name of lemonwood. It lasts 
very well and has a sharp, strong cast. It is 
the lemonwood bow that is in use by the ma¬ 
jority of archers. If you want to know what 
a good bow is, just invest four dollars in a 
lemonwood that is suited to your strength. After 
you have given it a fair trial, you will just natu¬ 
rally forget about trying to make some old kind 
of a bow out of our native hard woods, most of 
which are unfit for bow timber. 
Aly father is an old-time archer and the 
Writer himself has been using a bow for several 
years. We have made some fair bows from dif¬ 
ferent kinds of hard woods native to this part 
of the country. 
Hickory and black ash are tough, but are 
not snappy enough. They also are likely to break 
oft' short without warning after a short use. Blue 
beech, hard hack and rock elm are smarter, but 
they will not stand the strain much better. Red 
elm, commonly known as slippery elm, furnishes 
the best bow timber to be found in these parts. 
It is fairly smart and will stand the strain well. 
I shot one recently that was made in 1880, and 
it is in very good condition now. 
Texas osage is a little snappier than red 
elm, but not in the class with the South Ameri¬ 
can hard woods. 
The yew of Oregon is probably the best bow 
timber that grows in the United States, and it 
makes a weapon superior to any hard wood. 
Kiln dried lumber loses its life and is no 
good for bows. 
It must be allowed to season thoroughly, 
which process depends on the size and condi¬ 
tion of the timber. If it is obtained in the shape 
of a green plank, it should be sawed up into 
pieces near the size of the bows and hung from 
one end to season in a dry place away from sun¬ 
light and artificial heat. The seasoning will take 
at least six months, and double that time would 
probably be better. 
When ready, the bow may be roughly shaped 
with a double handled draw knife, then finished 
with a plane and sandpaper. If the strength is 
found to be right on stringing and pulling it, a 
couple coats of shellac varnish should be applied 
to prevent warping. 
For a man of ordinary strength a red elm 
bow ought to pull from forty to forty-five pounds. 
It should be six feet long, about one and a half 
inches wide by one and a quarter inches deep at 
the center, each limb tapering to about one-third 
that size at the ends. 
When ready for use. leather or any other 
material to suit individual taste may be glued 
around the center to form a hand hold. 
I would advise any beginner to invest a 
dime in an archery guide. He would find some 
information that might be of benefit; among 
other things that it is not necessary to use a 
moving van to carry a heavy bow. 
To judge Mr. Lincoln’s skill from the tone 
of his article, I should say that he might be able 
to hit the side of a barn if he were inside and 
the doors were closed, providing he had good 
luck. 
However, I agree with him that a bow if 
fifty-five pounds pull is certainly “some bow.” And 
my advice to any beginner on how to pull a bow 
of that strength is—just let it alone. 
Fnless a man is far above average strength 
he can do better shooting with a bow that pulls 
less than fifty pounds, than with one of greater 
weieht. It is always best to use a weapon well 
within the archer’s individual power—one that 
can be pulled out the full arrow’s length and 
held steadily while aiming and loosing, and from 
which you can shoot one hundred arrows in half 
a day and be physically able to shoot some more 
if you desired. 
A person of average power can control a 
weapon of from thirty-eight to forty-five pounds. 
I am quite strong in hands and arms, but can¬ 
not hold and shoot a bow to make good scores 
that pulls more than forty-seven pounds, and 
can do even better with one of forty-three 
pounds, unless I am in particularly good condi¬ 
tion. At the beginning of the season, when soft 
and out of practice, I use a “weak thirty-five- 
pound bow,” and have made some large scores 
with it. 
There are books on archery for the beginner 
as well as the more advanced followers of the 
sport. The manufacturing side of it has been 
left for the greater part in the hands of experts 
w'ho make a business of producing archery tackle. 
It is a far more difficult piece of work to 
make a good reliable arrow than to make a fair 
bow, and it is many times yet more difficult to 
make several arrows that will shoot alike. 
It takes a good archer, who is sure of his 
skill, shooting under the best conditions at a 
target a known distance to test a set of arrows 
and throw out those that will not shoot like the 
rest of the set. The most skillful archer that 
ever lived cannot do good work with arrows that 
are not tried and known to be true. I test my 
arrows at fifty and sixty yards, as at a less dis¬ 
tance defects are not so apparent, while at a 
greater ranger the possibility of personal error 
is too large. 
However slow or weak a bow may be, it 
will suffice to cast an arrow, but making the 
arrow itself demands the utmost care and skill. 
It cannot be made too good. 
In conclusion, I may remark that it would 
be a real pleasure to answer any questions re¬ 
lating to archery, put in good faith with a sincere 
desire for information from anyone who takes 
an interest in the sport. G. L. Nichols. 
A Single York Round. 
Seattle, Wash., April 23 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Stirred by the invitation issued 
by the archers of Newton Center, Mass., to 
shoot on Saturday, April 19, a “team round” and 
report the scores to Forest and Stream, I 
complied in spirit, though not in detail, shoot¬ 
ing a single York round instead of a team round, 
as I get great pleasure out of the one hundred 
yards and eighty ranges, and none whatever out 
of the sixty yards’ range. The result indicates 
that I should have been very low in the lists 
had I completed a team round. The weather 
was ideal, and my scoring with a 40-pound bow 
was very good, indeed. 
lOOvds. SOvd*!. fiOyds. Total. 
50 ‘ 224 41 ' 219 22 110 11.3 553 
Will H. Thompson. 
