Hill-style...the Simple approach to making good music.

     The allure of the longbow has tugged at hearts for countless years.  Seeing a full drawn longbow stirs the mind and heart of an archer like perhaps no other kind of bow.  What is it about the simple that we like so?  For whatever reasons, there is a unique feeling that someone experiences when they grasp hold of a simple Hill style longbow, a feeling that begs them to shoot it and experience a simple act of shooting an arrow to the mark without any encumbrances.  Watching a skilled longbowman shoot arrows with seemingly effortless and fluid rhythm,  hearing nothing but a faint hum of the string and swoosh of the arrow and seeing arrows arc gracefully to the mark,  is a beautiful thing...makes you want to experience it, even if you've never shot one of these bows before.  

    The simplicity of the Hill style longbow in today's world is easily lost when the archer gets off track.  It seems that archers especially, want to experience the joy of shooting this kind of bow, then they immediately want to change it to fit an idea that they have of how this style of bow should feel, and perform.  They immediately lose the simplicity they seek.  The beauty of the Hill style longbow is the effectiveness without the clutter.  

    If someone were to ask a teacher for violin lessons, after having played the guitar for some time,  the assumption to the unlearned asker might be that this will be easy, after all, they both look similar and have strings and fingers and arms are used to play the notes.  If the student foregoes instruction by the teacher and decides to play the violin in the same manner as he/she plays the guitar, the results would be far less than satisfactory.  "Why doesn't the music sound good? They both have strings and I'm playing the violin just like I play the guitar, and they're both capable of making music, why am I not getting the results?"  Sounds silly, huh?  This kind of conversation happens a lot in the archery world with people wanting to shoot a Hill style longbow "the way they shoot all their other bows, after all,  it's their life, they can do it that way if they want to...the bow doesn't know".  Just because it looks simple, there is some nuances to shooting the Hill style that require a different approach IF the shooter wants to shoot it well and get all the performance and joy they can get out of it.  These nuances start with,

   The bow itself.  It is a stick and string and performs best just as it is.  The Hill style longbow has a unique feel and sound, different from other bows, other "longbows" or hybrids or even Asiatic composite bows.  The feel is all it's own, and for some reason, people that want to learn to shoot one, or want to switch over to one, it seems that the very quickest thing they do is try to make the bow feel like their other bows.  Make it sound like their other bows.  Tune it like their other bows.  Why not take the approach of the guitarist learning to play the violin.  Listen to the teacher, listen to the instrument and it will tell you what you need to know.  My advice to people wanting to shoot a Hill style longbow is to just shoot it as it is, simple.  Do not add string silencers, or shoot a "heavy" arrow to quiet down the string hum or feel of the bow.  Do not make the small vibration hum of the bow and string into a dull thump like the hybrid you usually shoot.  Instead, Learn what the string hum will teach you.  Learn what the vibration of the bow is saying.  Learn that different hand pressure on the grip affects these things.  Learn that a properly shot Hill style longbow is very forgiving of a wide array of arrow spines if given the chance to perform without a throttling choke-hold on the grip and a rigid bow arm. Learn that a well shot arrow results in a very quiet sounding bow. 

   Learn to shoot the bow without encumbrance.  No extra weight on the bow to stifle the long, light limbs or affect the timing.  If the bow doesn't feel good, sometimes it can have limbs out of alignment or out of timing and a low-stretch string will help.  Hill braced his bow to have the feather just clear the shelf.  Schulz did the same and I as well as hundreds of other old time longbowman do also.  This means a brace height somewhere between 5 3/4 to 6 1/4" usually.  There is absolutely no reason to have a Hill style longbow with a brace height of 7" or more....unless the shooter is once again trying to make the bow feel like their "other bows".  There is no reason to stick half a beaver in the string to make the bowstring quiet...it's already the quietest by design bow you can shoot...if you're shooting it right.  Unless of course you're trying to make the bow feel like "the other bows".  There is no reason to shoot 12 or 14 grains per pound arrows to tame down the bow...Schulz said it was generally the archer that needed tuning, not the bow.  He's right.

    It seems that when a guy get a Hill style longbow, the first thing he goes out and finds out "what arrows it likes".  Hmm.  In the first five minutes of shooting.  Well,  how about he goes out and just shoots about 500 or 1,000 arrows around the yard or the woodlot, not really trying to shoot any arrows for accuracy and just get a feel of the bow?  Like the violin student just sawing away on the strings, figuring out how to move the arms and fingers in a repeatable motion, just having fun.  Go out and just have fun, without any accuracy or arrow flight expectations and just get the feel.  It doesn't take long to learn to enjoy the slight hum of the string and feel the liveliness in the limbs.  Once the bow is feeling good in the hands, and you're learning to shoot with a heel down bow hand,  bent arm, swing draw form, low bow shoulder, fluid cadence and rhythm, the arrows will be suddenly all flying well and straight, even if they're mis-matched to some degree.  Hmm. Wonder why?  Welcome to the Simplicity of the Hill style longbow and the forgiveness that Hill was talking about.  At that point, you may be ready to start shooting arrows of various spines to find the best range...but I'd be willing to bet a new bowstring, that you'll find what other Hill style longbowman already know...there is a wide range of arrow spines and point weights that will shoot wonderfully out of a well-handled bow.

   When you throttle the simple Hill style longbow by a rigid shooting form, you squeeze the life right out of it.  You are turning the sweet fiddle music it's capable of into some horrible squawking by trying to play it like you've always played with your other bows.   Watch the fluid form of Hill and Schulz, the Wilhelm brothers,  Ron LaClair, Jean-Marie, Reme' Raymond and all those who just swing and shoot without seeming to care.  They learned to let the bow perform how it's designed, rather than force it into another mold of their own choosing.  They are shooting the bow as it was originally intended and designed and therefore, the bow is giving back to them the music they wanted to hear.  You let the Hill style longbow perform, as the past masters have also learned, and you too will make sweet music.  

Shoot straight.