6
Thee BOX 133. COBBLE HILL, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER Published Monthly , 75¢ for 12 Ossues Volume 2 Number’ 3 FROST REMAINS ‘PLACES 2th IN The final scores of the Canadian National Exhibition championships are not as yet av- ailable, but these final standings were ta- ken from the Toronto Daily Star - The Women's Archery Crown in the C.N.E. tourney goes'to the U. S, with the victory of Grace Miffleton, Oaklyn, N.J. who depos- ed the Canadian Champion, Helen Dicl:son, of September 1950 CANADIAN CHAMP AMERICAN NATIONAL Winnipeg, in close competition, Others fi- nished in this order: D. Dobler, North Tonawanda; M, Brodhecker Toronto; B Dobler, North Tonawanda; Vera Mason, and Dorothy Gittings, Toronto, W.A.E. Frost, Toronto, won the men's fi- nals, and Milt Obediah Brantford was second while five Toronto men - Mel Burrell, irank Hill ,Ralph Hart, A. Rolfe and Julian Magee CUSTOM BUILT RECURVED VYEW BOWS FORTISAN BACKED UNDER TENSION ~ AMAZING CAST ~ PAR-XK BOWS 24- SRT-X ARROWS Complete line of Target Field ¢ Hunting Tackle QRITE FOR PRICE LIST STAN BROOKE 4626 UNION ST VANCOUVER,B.C. finished in that order, Y AMERICAN NATIONAL Canada was represented at the 66th Nat- ional Archery Championships held at Lancas- ter, P.A. the week of August 7, by five ar~ chers from Toronto, Congratulations to Bill Frost, current Canadian Champion, who placed twelfth in aggregate score, in competition with the cream of American Archers, Bill also won the trophy for-high score at 60 yards in the American Round, The other archers who attended, lMrytle Brodhecker,Dorothy Gittings and Frank Hill, all of Toronto Archery Club received target prizes. The tournament this year was attended by some 553 archers from all parts of the U.S. ‘PLAN Now... What of your shooting for 1951 ? CUSTOM BUILT TACKLE OF FINEST MATERIALS IS THE SUREST ANSWER TO ~~ IMPROVED SCORES. BOB COPEMAN “Finest Archery Tackle 10990* 71ST. AVE. EDMONTON, and Canada. Stan Overby of Inglewood, California is Men's National Champion, with an aggregate score of 3249. Frost's aggregate score was 2809. Wowen's National Champion for the third consecutive year is Miss Jean Lee of Springfield, Mass..with an aggregate score of 3812, Many previous records were shattered in- eluding the single York and Dcuble Yorks with Stan Overby setting a new high of 893, 862 - 1755. Frost stood ninth in the Double York with a-score of 7h1, 736 - 1477. A breakdown of Jean Lee's scores show that a new Double Columbia Round record was set at 1198, Her Double National scores were 57), 564 - 1138, Herb Albert, Canadian Flight Champion, also attended the Tournament but arrived too late to register and was wmable to participate.

BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    2

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

Thee

BOX 133. COBBLE HILL,

BRITISH COLUMBIA

CANADIAN ARCHERPublished Monthly , 75¢ for 12 Ossues

Volume 2 Number’ 3

FROST REMAINS‘PLACES 2th IN

The final scores of the Canadian NationalExhibition championships are not as yet av-ailable, but these final standings were ta-ken from the Toronto Daily Star -

The Women's Archery Crown in the C.N.E.tourney goes'to the U. S, with the victoryof Grace Miffleton, Oaklyn, N.J. who depos-ed the Canadian Champion, Helen Dicl:son, of

September 1950

CANADIAN CHAMPAMERICAN NATIONAL

Winnipeg, in close competition, Others fi-nished in this order: D. Dobler, NorthTonawanda; M, Brodhecker Toronto; B Dobler,North Tonawanda; Vera Mason, and DorothyGittings, Toronto,

W.A.E. Frost, Toronto, won the men's fi-nals, and Milt Obediah Brantford was secondwhile five Toronto men - Mel Burrell, irankHill ,Ralph Hart, A. Rolfe and Julian Magee

CUSTOM BUILT RECURVEDVYEW BOWS

FORTISAN BACKED UNDER TENSION~ AMAZING CAST ~

PAR-XK BOWS24- SRT-X ARROWS

Complete line of TargetField ¢ Hunting Tackle

QRITE FOR PRICE LIST

STAN BROOKE4626 UNION ST VANCOUVER,B.C.

finished in that order,

Y AMERICAN NATIONALCanada was represented at the 66th Nat-

ional Archery Championships held at Lancas-ter, P.A. the week of August 7, by five ar~chers from Toronto,

Congratulations to Bill Frost, currentCanadian Champion, who placed twelfth inaggregate score, in competition with thecream of American Archers, Bill also wonthe trophy for-high score at 60 yards inthe American Round, The other archers whoattended, lMrytle Brodhecker,Dorothy Gittingsand Frank Hill, all of Toronto Archery Clubreceived target prizes.

The tournament this year was attended by

some 553 archers from all parts of the U.S.

‘PLAN Now...

What of your shooting

for 1951 ?

CUSTOM BUILT TACKLE OF

FINEST MATERIALS IS THE

SUREST ANSWER TO ~~

IMPROVED SCORES.

BOB COPEMAN“Finest Archery Tackle

10990* 71ST. AVE. EDMONTON, and Canada.

Stan Overby of Inglewood, California isMen's National Champion, with an aggregatescore of 3249. Frost's aggregate score was2809. Wowen's National Champion for thethird consecutive year is Miss Jean Lee ofSpringfield, Mass..with an aggregate scoreof 3812,

Many previous records were shattered in-eluding the single York and Dcuble Yorkswith Stan Overby setting a new high of 893,862 - 1755. Frost stood ninth in the DoubleYork with a-score of 7h1, 736 - 1477.

A breakdown of Jean Lee's scores showthat a new Double Columbia Round record wasset at 1198, Her Double National scoreswere 57), 564 - 1138,

Herb Albert, Canadian Flight Champion,also attended the Tournament but arrivedtoo late to register and was wmable to

participate.

Page 2: BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

x\

2, THE CANADIAN ARCHER

————PART TWO

pack at "Tin Can Alley" I

and had a shot at a smallbut he jumped the

string - too bad! I returned to camp, did

some sketching in oils, and cut sone wood

for the camp fireplace, That evening the

hunt was uneventful, except for the bit I

would like to put infor Bob, and how much

we admired his great resistance to pain

and suffering, and still mintain a sense

of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a

sophisticated boil, known to medical men

as anabscess, and it happened to be lo-

cated in sucha position that it mde it

very difficult for Bob to stand up, or lie

down, especially sit down,

,.

That evening

Ken and I decided that Bob had more than

his share of suffering. First we thought

On Tuesday,saw two deer,puck at about 60 yards,

of relieving him of his suffering, via

proadhead, but then we thought we would

lose his services as a cook entirely, So

we finally used the broadhead only in per-

svading him to go see a Doctor, which he

did and how! I won't go into details, for

he could probably tell it better than I

could,but while waiting for him that night

in Allegan, we parked our,car about two

miles from the doctor's office and so help

me we could hear Bob howl from there -- or

maybe it was a hound running rabbits. We

never inquired,

Thursday, I returned to, "Tin Can Alley”

saw two deer on arrival, but no shots.Then

decided to do a bit of stalking in the bu-

sh for awhile, I was able to get within -

30' of two does twice that morning,—

due to the dense growth of scrub oak -- a

shot was not available, Finally, I lost

track of the deer and gave them up.

While deciding on my next move and look-

ing the woods over I noticed a movement in

the distance, sort of a flashy movement,

Crouching down behind some oak bushes, a

waited, finally I saw a red fox coming my

way at quite a jaunt. I let him come on

until he was about fifteen yards from. me

and I let fly a broadhead, I noticed the

arrow as it sped away acting rather pecul-

iar and swished into the. leaves underneath

the fox. As if released froma spring, the

fox jumped straight up into the air, about

five feet, then ran off .to one side and

stopped, looked back, then decided to re-

turn and see what scared him, By this time

I had nocked another arrow, but wasn't set

+o shoot when the fox looked up from smel-

ling the feathers of my arrow to look dir-

ectly at me and "Swish" like the wind. he

was gone,as silently as he caw but wiser,

On retreiving my arrow I discovered that <

had shot it minus a head, Pulled off in

the bush, I presume. The only one in ny

BYJOHN J. LANDEN

OUR TRIP TO

ALLEGAN

quiver that wasn't pinned on - wouldn't youjust know it?

That afternoon Roy Case arrived in camp.After the usual formalities of introductionetc. Roy proceeded to change from his storeclothes to hunting garb and set out for thetown to procure his hunting license, Laterdoing some hunting across the river, Onarrival a nice doe presented a shot at ab-out 60 yards, but before ve got into actionshe decided to leave us ina hurry for pla-ces unknown to us. Ken was almost in line,for a shot,but for a sudden shift in thewind, Bob had two or three shots at fair-ly close range too, Fortunately for thedeer, each time Bob was caught unawares andnot set for a shot,

During one of our excursions, Ken hadquite a thrill. At about a hundred yards,he spotted a deer feeding his direction -south, The deer kept coming on and on--nowalmost in range and there was Ken ina jit-ter! Suddenly fromthe North a car dro-ve up and stopped, Just then the deer de-cided to head west. When the occupants ofthe car case out and apologized to Ken forspoiling his shot, we found out they hadseen both Bob and the deer and figured that,if they stopped the deer would rum rightinto him, but the scheme back-fired! Roywas very unfortunate, he saw a number ofdeer, but never a good shot presented it-self,

The folloving day, Thursday, all four ofus returned to "Tin Can Alley", which bythen was a very familiar spot to all of us.We-saw two deer in the morning but no shotsIn the afternoon Roy, Bob and I went ex-ploring new territory, Ken stayed in camp,the excuse was a lam back, but between youand me, it was an opportunity to be alone,and at peace with the world to leisurely,moist his tonsils with some American ale,However, the afternoon was uneventful for

us, and we decided that Ken had the rightidea, so we returred to join him,

Friday, we decided to try north of the

river again for the morning hunt. We had

no shots, but saw plenty of signs, and that

morning was the first time tht we from

Canada were introduced to goose hunting

with a scatter gin American style. We al-ways heard that our American neighbours al-ways did things ina big way, and ve were

inclined to believe that staterent after we

heard the first barrage.

We were some distance from where theshooting was taking place, andas far as 1

was concerned, it was a good place to be.

Page 3: BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

THE CANADIAN

ANOTHER DUNSDONFirst”

FIELD FACESSET OF 32 ASSORTED FACES

PRINTED ON WHITE GORRUGATED BOARD

No More Messy Glue Jobs

Or Club S qua bbles

PER SET $3.20 net

WRITE FOR OUR COMPLETE PRICE LIST

LES DUNSDONi@ HAMILTON AVE, BRANTFORD,ONT.

HONKER

ARCHERY SHOPMEDICINE HAT ALBERTA

FIELD, ROVING ¢ TARGET

EQUIPMENT

PAR- X BOWS

24 SRT-X ARROWS

Custom Built TackleFULL ASSORTMENT OF RAW MATERIALS

WRITE FOR CATALOGUE ANOCLUB DISCOUNTS

POT SHOTSCIIANGS OF ADDRESS:

Since making up our mailing list someti-me has elapsed, therefore if you have movedor know of somone who has not received hisissue of the Canadian Archer, drop usa ca-a with the new address, and help us - andyour friend?

HOW ABOUT SOME GCOD JOKES OR CARTOONS!There is very little humour inth C,A.

at present and it my appear to be a littledull to some. If we could receive simplecartoons or fumy pictures that could betraced or copied it would help, .... Thereiust be some humorous incidents that havehappened to you or your club that are worthletting your ‘archer’ frienis know about -let's have then!

Don't forgetto write up any tournamentsor stories you may have and forward then touse Our deadline for mterial to be put incurrent issues is the 10th of the month --=so let's have them early?

ARCHER Bo

Allegan. (Cont'd)

As soon as it became light enough to see, Ipresume, thé geese begin to rise from theirrest and feeding - now the barrage begins -end Ivmean- "barrage", Never in my lifehave I heard anything like it, I thoughtto myself - "those poor geese, how in theworld can any of them possibly escape withthat kind of shooting?" And the barragekept. up practically without let-up wmtilnearly 9: a.m, Then it gradually taperedoff to one or two shots now and then, Whilewalking along a road,I mt an Awrican chapwho seemed friendly. After passing the timeof day,I asked him how many hunters it tookto imke all that noise? He replied: "Ohhell, several hundred of 'em", "Do theyKila many birds?" I asked,and his reply was"Oh they spray at them with everything theyhave and they get the odd one now,and then",In conclusion, he remrked "Hell, if I werethere and knocked a goose off, I'd surehate to go get ‘im in front of all thosetrigger-happy boys". I couldn't help grin-ning at that, for Iwas thinking of howthose same boys were feeding the fodder totheir muskets and enjoying every moment ofit too. More power to ow gm powder bre-thern, I hold no grudge against any hunterregardless of vhat type of weapon he choos-es to hunt with, as long as he uses withhis weapon, good sound conservation judgmentand safety of his fellay hunters,

(Continued Next Month)

OR. ROBERT P ELMERARCHER EXTRAORDINARY

One of the dominating figures of the 66National Archery Championships was 73 yearold Wayne, Fa, marksman who has been affil-jated vith the National Archery Associationsince 1910,

This genial bowman, Dr. RP, Zlmer, hasbeen @ practicing physician in Wayne, Pa,for over 40 years, It was in 1910 than aninjury tohis foot took him out of othersports and brought him into the archeryfold,

He went to his first National Champion-ships in 1911, and came home with. the YorkRomd Title. Since then, Dr. Zlmer ms at-tended almost every championship trial, andhas captured. the National Championship -eight tims!

But the biggest tributeever paid to himor to any other American archer, came justbefore the International Champions hips , in,Copenhagen, Denmark. For this competition,the United States sent its first officialcontingent of archers and in recognition ofthis, Denmark came.up with a good-will ges~ture that brought honor to this 73 year oldWayne archer.

In Wayne, on the private grounds of an=other archery enthusiast, and surrounded bymembers of the United Bowman's Archery Glibof Philadelphia, one of the oldest clubs inthe United States, Dr, Elmer shot a silver,arrow into a target.

Page 4: BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

THE CANADIAN ARCHER dee

This arrow, still embedded in the targetwas put aboard a Scandanavian Airline Syst-em plane, and flown to Copenhagen, Denmark.There Russ: Reynolds, 1949 national championpulled the arrow, and shot it into anothertarget on Denmark's soil.

That target, and that same. silver arrowwas, transported ‘to the public sqwre inCopenhagen where Reynolds pulled the silverarrow from the matting, and presented it toPaul Nielsen President of the Dannish Arch-ery Association,

But this gesture was only one of themany tributes ‘that has been paid to thisgrand old man of archery, Bow enthusiastsall over the United States have paid othercompliments: to him for his books on archery.This! gentleman has) written "Archery" and"Target Archery" - two books known to mostreal enthusiasts of this sport,

In addition, he has collaborated withNabih Feris' on the translation of an earlymanuscript, which has been entitled "ArabArchery".

His knowledge of the sport has been rec-ognized by other authorities'also, Dr, U1-mer has written the definition of archeryfor Webster's Dictionary, and a short arti-cle. on the sport for the EncyclopediaBritannica,

Dr. Elmer has in addition been Presidentof the National Archery Association of theUnited States for two terms, in 1914, andagain in 1920, Today, this 73 year oldgentleman takes his place on the line viththe other archery marksman, and still holdshis own in competition.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

CHAMPIONSHIPS

Orville Craig, of Vancouver regained his. championship in the men's division of theB, C. Archery Tournament at Brockton Point,on Avgust 27th, with an aggregate of 1231points for the York and American Rounds,

His wife Dorothy, retained her women'scrown with an aggregate of 1373 points. for

the National, American and Columbia Rounds,and John Smith, of Vancouver, captured theJunior Championship,

A high wind during the earlier long dis-tance rounds played Mm voc with the shootingbut in spite of a four-foot drift at the100 yard range, 0. Craig managed to pile upsufficient points ito withstand Stan Brookesthreat in the American Round, Brooke, Van-couverPark Board archery instructor, fini-shed a scant seven points behind Craig,

Kay Pavelich, champion of the GreenwoodArchers of Vancouver, was second in the wo-men's event, only eight points behind lirsCraig, and Peggy Pilkie won the ColumbiaRound to finish third in the aggregate,

In winning the Junior Boys' title, JohnSmith shot a mw record of 604, in one ofthe two Junior American Rounds.

No result of the B, C, #ielad Champion-ship has been received as yet. The resultat the half way mark showed 0, Craig, of |Vancouver well in the lead,

VANCOUVER ISLAND

Alan MacInnes of Duncan retained the title of Vancouver Island Archery Champion,on August 27th, at the amual Champion~ship tournément held at Askham's Farm nearMill Bay, MacInnes who holds the challengecup for another year shot a Double Americ-an Round of 1229, to beat runner-up JackMiller of Victoria by 45 points,

Archers from Victoria, Duncan, CobbleHill and Comox attended the shoot,sponsor—ed this year-by the Cowichan..Bowmen,.. TheDouble American.Round, shot by the men andthe Double Columbia Shot by the women werefollowed by a Club Clout, and a FlightMatch,

Connie Bonner, of Cobble Hill won theWowen's Challenge Trophy, for the “DoubleColumbia Round, with a:total of 964. points

followed by Mrs, Goldi MacInnes, of Duncanwith 632, The Koechlin Trophy for the ClubClout was won for the Victoria Bowmen by,Mr. Theo, Gelaude and Miss P. Smith, TonyTurner of Comox defended ‘the title of Isl-and Flight Champion, and holds the cup foranother year, witha flight. shot of 271yards, with Jack Miller, only a few scantinches behind, Mrs, Mabel Windebank,» ofVictoria, took first place in the Women'sPlight. .

ALBERTA CHANPIONSHIPS

The Alberta Frovincial Archery Association Sixth Annual Archery Championship was

held September 3rd and 4th at the EdmontonArckers' Range.

Pat Aull of Calgary. won the senior. wom-

en's aggregate, and Art Kent of Calgary

the men's. Bob Copeman Jr. won both the

target and field titles in the Junior Mens

Division,

Two records were broken during the 2-day

shoot - Herb Albert of Edmonton shot a di-

stance of 530 yds in the flight shoot -

setting a new Provincial Record, D, Litch-

field of Calgary registered 160 in themen's field round breaking the course re-

cord formerly held by Herb Erickson,

The tournament wound up with a gala-

panquet and dance at the Corono Hotel.

Bruce McKenzie of Medicine Hat was ele-

ected President of the Alberta Archers', As=-

sociation for 1951, and the Grand Shoot is

to be held at MedicineHat next year.

Page 5: BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

bo THE CANADIAN<> ARCHER

CHIPS ¢ CHATSBy BOB COPEMAN

With the job of rough tillering complet-ed, it is now time to fit a string to thebow, complete. the tillering and at the sametime bring it to the weight of draw we wantfor the proper draw length,

Rather than digress to the stbject ofmaking bow strings, I think it best to pur-chase a ready made string, It certainlywill prove more successful, than your firstfew efforts at making one and will allow usto get on with the bow job, Get a stringfor a bow afew pounds heavier than you in-tend yours to be,sufficiently long and withan eye spliced in one end only,

With the eye of. the string slipped overthe upper linb, and about 24" below the nockfasten the lower end of the string in itsnock by means of the timber hitch, If youdon't know this hitch, ask any sailor orlumberman, they will show you how, Now -slip the eye into the upper nock, To dothis properly, hold the bow by the handle,in the left hand, with the back of the bowtowards you, Place the lower limb endagainst. the instep of the left foot, andpress against the upper limb just below theeye of the string, with the palm of theright hand, Exert enough pressure so thatthe string is slack and the fingers of theright hand can direct the eye of the stringinto the nock.,

You will now have considerable tensionon the string, and it will be about 3 or 4inches above the handle of the bow. Thisis not high enough for shooting, but merelyserves for the next stage of tillering,

Any great difference in the bend of thelimbs will now become quite apparent, andshould be corrected before the string isdrawn, When the limbs seem to be bendingabout equal and evenly, clamp the handle inthe vise with the string towards you, andpulled from about the centre, pull it notmore than 10 or 12 inches for at least 50times, This my reveal weak spots in eitherlimb, that should be corrected as soon asthey become apparent. Use a scraper or fileand work cautiously, on either side of anarea that is bending too much, and reducethe opposite limb accordingly to keep themeven,

A bracket shaped to fit the bow handle,mounted on a wall or post at eye level witha smll- pulley fastered near the floor,makes an excellent aid to good tillering. Asmall cable or heavy cord with a hook toengage the bow string, running down throughthe pulley, and ending in a 6" piece ofbroom stick for a handle, completes thegadget. With the bow in place on the brac-ket, the hook placed on the bow string at apoint near the centre, allows the bowyer toflex the bow and study the bend or compare

it-with a chart of pre-determined arc fas-tened back of the bow., The up-pull fromthe pulley also males the wrk much easier,

Work the bow plenty, and gradually in-crease the length of pull on the stringwork out the weak spots, and keep the lowerlimb slightly stiffer than the upper.

When the bow will pull evenly to thefull length of the draw with the hook pul-ling nearly straight down, and not off toone side, as will happen when one limb isthe stronger, a pull over towards the lowerlimb, of not more than 1/8" is consideredgood, it is time to rebrace the bow to fullheight or "fistmele" as it is called,

Undo the timber hitch, and move the eyeof the string down to about 43" below thenock and reform the timber hitch in the newlocation, When braced, the string will nowbe about 6" from the handle, which is aboutthe proper "fistmele" or height of the fistwith thumb extended, "Rule of the thumb"is, an expression derived from this practice,

Now repeat the tillering process, care-fully bringing the bow to full draw, Whenit seems about right, check with a springseale, pulling the string down to draw len-gth. The poundage shown will indicate thebow weight. The limbs may now be uniformlyscraped to reduce the bow weight, Work itwell and check often,

A good check on your job is to measure12" out from the hand grip section on bothlimbs and measure the height to the stringfrom these points, The lower limb showldbe about 3/8" closer to the string than theupper,

Good tillering is something gained onlyby @ lot of experience and if you can bringyour first bow to within five pounds ofthe wanted weight and pulling reasonablytrue, you are to be congratulated,

Work slowly, check often and remove woodsparingly is the safest rule to follow.

Next month we will apply the finishingtouches and get our first bow into action,

aa

BILL PARKS SAYS...

last fall in Toronto, genial Bob Ritch ofthe Winnipeg Vanoe Ulub, was on the streetear headed for the Tournament, when he no-ticed an old gent across the car stulyinghis equipxent, Finally the pressure gottoo high: the old lad came over, and satdown beside Bob, fidgeted a bit, and thensaid "Pardon m, do youmind telling mewhat that is?" "That's my bow", repliesBob, courteocw as always. A great lightdawned on the inquirer's face. "Ahi", saidhe, and pointing +o Bob's tackle box onthe floor, "Ani that, I presume is theviolin!"

Page 6: BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADIAN ARCHER › Archives › Canadian... · and suffering, and still mintain a sense of humour, ‘That vas in the formof a sophisticated boil, known to medical

6. THE CANADIAN ARCHER

ACASE WHEREENGLISH YEW DIDMAKE A GOOD BOWBY MAJOR J.B. FARLEY— BRITISH EAST AFRICA

I have been ‘intending to send you @ line

ever since I received the first number, but

never actually got down to it, but a letter

from Mr, Poster of Victoria,Awtralia, which

‘appeared in the August Nunber, has at last

done ‘the trick. He mentions his efforts to

get a billet of English Yew, with which to

make a bow,and*the number of letters he re-

ceived telling him that no good bow wasever made of English Yew.

Well, sowetine ago, how long ago I don't

care to think, I got perndssion from Lord

Clinton's Agent, for two or three shillings

to cut a billet of yew froma vacant prop-

erty on his Devonshire estate. The best I

could find, a single stave, was really ter-

rible! Knots, real big 'uns, every four or

five inches, However, I went ahead with at

Jet it season for about six months ~ nothing

like enough = and then inde it up, mostly

with a rasp, and put horn nocks on it which

I got from a broken bow,

When finished, it mich resetbled the

Neolithic bow which was found in a’ peat bog

néar Cavbridge in 1885, or the ilodden bow

as, of course, I left the knots’'raised’, T

should think it is a good example of what

Robin Hood's bow was like if it was of Eng-

lish yéw, as no doubt it was, only his, in

all probability, pulled about one hundred

pounds. Of course, once it was finistea I

lost no time in putting a string on it, and

trying it out, “but ‘the result was most dis-

appointing! It was weak and flabby and

secmed to take no interest in archery what-

ever, Shooting 80 yards was almost a Plight

shot, and I don't rewewber if Lever tried

it at a hundred,: .I occasionally took it

into the garden, to put the fear of God in-

to a rabbit, which was a mistake, as it now

"follows the string".

Then I put it away, and until T read Mr,

Foster's letter, it had not had a string on

it for at least 15 years.

Reading the letter re:iinded me of the

old bow, and I fitted it with a string, and

tried a shot, and was really amazed? It

pulled,--I should think,

.

about 55 pounds,

and had a reaction as sharp as‘a rat trap.

I have been trying it out, and while one

could not-.call it a good. bow by modern

standards, I'msure it covld have held its

own with the old-timers. It has. a-better

cast at the mundred yards than-several bows

of Spanish yew, pulling 54 pounds, that I

shot with from 1923, onwards, for some years.

No doubt.it is the type of bow that English

archers have. used since pre-historic days,

until foreign yew staves began to be impor-

ted, ,I do not know when that was, but it

was recognized at avery early date. that

yew, from Italy, Spain or’Portugal was the

best. “

wo or three weeks ago, I took the old

pow, and six broadheads that Imade at the

beginning of this last year - to shoot Ger-

man parachutists with; they could give us

in the local Defence Volunteers, (later theHome Guard) no weapons inthe early days

and I thought I should. prefer a bow toa

walking stick, when patrolling on Exmoors -

and went for a walk, I had got’about a

mile without seeing anything, so I loosed

all six arrows at a mark about 40 yards aw-

ay. I fod three of the arrovs readily

put the other three had lost themselves in

such a raze of elephant grass and roots -

that I could not put my hand on then, 1

started tearing at the grass and roots, and

presently cut (a finger very badly with the

razor-sharp grass, and then punched a hole

in the other hand, .

Soon after that I heard some Africans

approaching along a path, through the long

grass, and not wishing to be pothered with

their assistance, I ran back to where I’ had

left the bow, and when they arrived T'was .

being very keenly interested in the view

with both hands red with blood,”

The party consisted of two men, and two

women, one of theti young ana quite pretty

for an African, They cave to a halt at’ the

sight of the huge bow and the three danger=-

ous looking arrays, which coupled with “my

ploody hands, intrigied. them vastly? They

questioned ie earnestly as to what I mda

shot, and where it was, etc, I did not 'en-

lighten them, but only swiled, and looked

mysterious, and mde a few rapid remarks in

Swahili - which is not up ‘to the’ mark any~

way as far as 1am concerred, After a long

time they went, except the pretty one, who

put ine through it again, “but at last she

departed and I resumed my search. I took

out my knife. and began slashing at the

grass, ard presently seared the end of the

index finger of the left hand to the bone,

which, as Iam a left-nanded shot, put an

end to uy archery for a time. It can be

imagined what my hands looked like when I

got home, but I found the arrows!

~ Yours sincerely,"3,5.B, Farley" Ma jor.

Saiwégoli, Box 17,Endebess, Kenya,Br. 3. Africa.Ba. Note: Major Sarley is’ 99 years ‘old,

" ana ‘still shoots a 60 ‘pound bow

a

THE CANADIAN ARCHERBOX 123 COBBLE HULL, B.C,

JOHN ASKHAM = EDITOR #PUBLISHER

To: