How Did Howard Hill train to shoot?

[moebow]

Terry,  I own and have read the books -- several times.  I was just trying to reinforce the fact that Howard shot paper too and as you say,EXTREMELY well.  Folks seem to think that Howard was JUST a hunter and want to disclaim his ability in some areas with "the target and hunting are different" quote.

He did it all and folks would do well to remember that, IMO.

Arne

As mentioned above, one of the best things one can do to become proficient at a difficult skill, is to never watch TV.  I will admit, however, that when Hogan's Heros is on 9 PM to 10 PM on the ME network, I am mindlessly practicing my daily arpeggio exercises and scales on a guitar. The brain numbing affect of the flicker rates have a relaxing affect on my muscle tension in my hands. One aspect of Hill's shooting that gets ignored is that he was constantly trying to come up with fun stuff.  My latest is the use of an expandable crappie rod, the most worthless fishing device ever created, but it is very handy when Gorilla taped to a tall Little Giant step ladder.  I have lost my good coin tossers, the ones can can accurately toss a coin both across my target stack and into the path of an on coming arrow at the same time. Now I use the super long fishing rod to either swing stuff across my target stack or to sometimes just have a dandelion head blowing back forth in the breeze.  I do NOT shoot at bumble bees, butterflies, squirrels and hummingbirds that are also in my backyard and sometimes between me and my targets.  The squirrels are tame, they have no fear of the arrows flying past them or me walking a couple of feet from them when I get my arrows. I would bet Hill would have had them cooked and eaten if he would have had the chance to shoot in my back yard.  I am against baiting and it is illegal in Iowa, I feed those squirrels everyday and they come running when they see the sun flowers seeds come out.

[BWallace10327]

I think Howard Hill was just meant to be an archer, much like Peyton Manning was meant to be a quarterback.  (Howard Hill) happened to find his niche in the universe and ran with it.  He may well have shot more arrows than anyone else, but that doesn't do it.  If I shot as much as he did, I wouldn't probably get worse; I don't have the knack.  I'd have to say he was a combination of rare talent and dedication to his craft.

[Terry Green]

I must have missed all the ragging on target archery post....

I hear you Arn.... I must have Miss read your post I'm in total agreement with you

[DJ Hardy]

I sort of feel like Wallace
I think his best practice was the day he was born

I have a rather skinny hard cover book written by Don Carson, Early Adventures with Howard Hill. While the book does not speak much of shooting techniques, it does allude to the tempo and positions of the shots taken during their hunts.  There also chapters about range shooting, where Hill was unhappy with his shooting, but kept going until he was shaking from exhaustion from shooting over a hundred arrows with his 110 pound snakewood bow. There is also a bit about how Don Carson used a radio light or something similar on his bow as a bow sight.  Hill said that would probably help with shooting targets, but would be a deterrent to have on the bow for hunting and advised him to get rid of it.  this was the early snakewood bow days.  so apparently hill had the ability then to shoot both targets and variable shots.  I have always been curious to know if Hill changed things when shooting targets.  There is a one shot segment of what I think was Hill in his youth shooting next to Larry Dixon. if I am correct that was a young Howard Hill, it is not the same shooting style that was filmed a few years later.

[ChiefStingingArrow]

Awesome history Pavan. Thanks for sharing!

[deathwind]

Pavan,  The lightbulb that you were talking about was actually placed on the ground between the target and the archer. Then the archer would look at the point of the arrow and place the point on the bulb and shoot. If he shot low, you move the bulb closer to the target and so forth.

 There is a picture of Don and Howard together leaning against a railing in the book you spoke of and I have both of those bows.