Brace that Longbow!

       After uncasing my longbow from it's sleeve, Schulz asked to watch me string it up.  Placing the lower limb tip against my foot instep, I held onto the handle, pulled it up towards my stomach and sliding my other hand up the limb I dropped the string into the string groove.  "Looks good Nate", he said, "you don't know how many fellas I see that can't string their bow...some of the guys who take my classes even bring a bow stringer!" he chuckled with mirth.  "Hill said you shouldn't shoot any bow that you couldn't string, and he didn't mean with a stringer."  I could see John's eyes shine with humor.

          Like the other aspects of John's teaching, he then went into detail on the proper way to string a longbow sans stringer and be safe about it.  After watching fellas struggle with stringing their longbows over the years, maybe it's a good time for me to give a short lesson.

          Stringing a longbow that is straight limbed is easily accomplished if one uses proper technique and leverage.  We'll leave the curvy deflex-reflex (duo-curve) and recurve bows to the other folks.  This is all about stringing a longbow using the Hill method.

          First, unless you are tall, have long arms, or use a short bow, forget about grasping the bow at the handle.  I don't know where the concept came from that we must grab the bow at the handle to string the bow, but it's not necessary.  The bow limbs bend just fine if you grab a limb above the handle and it sure makes stringing the bow easier this way if you have short arms or use a long bow. Also, it is paramount that you control the upper limb to keep it from springing back at your head and face if the string slips out of the string grooves.  With the very shallow string grooves found on a lot of late model Hill style bows, this is a very important step  Let's walk through the proper steps.  These will be for a right handed archer:

       Grasp the longbow immediately above the upper limb fadeout, or on the upper fadeout or on the handle if you have long enough arms. Place the lower limb tip against your right foot instep, about 1" off the ground, and roll your foot inward to "trap" the limb tip under the edge of your foot.  Lock your hand which is holding onto the bow, against your waist / beltline / stomach with your right arm held firmly against your body. This is important...don't let the arm fly away from your body.  Keep it held close.

      Form a Y with your left hand and cradle the upper limb into the Y between the thumb and index finger, with the limb resting on the inside edge of the thumb pad, then circle the limb with the thumb and index finger just below the string loop and slide the hand up the limb until the string loop is held tautly on the limb with the finger and thumb.  If you cradle the limb correctly against the thumb pad and the hand is cupped a bit, the limb cannot slip out of the hand and encircling finger/thumb, no matter the bow weight.

       While doing these steps, the bow is held parallel with your body / chest, angling upward and your face is looking 90* perpindicular to the bow. Your left arm is bent a little to start with and you pull the bow upward towards your right kidney area by rotating your body.  It's more of a rotation of the hips than a pulling motion by the arm only. (Remember the right hand is locked against your body).  While you rotate your body a bit, pulling the bow upward on a diagonal towards the right kidney, your left arm is straightening and you're sliding your hand along the upper limb.  Slide the left hand up as you rotate with the right arm, bending the upper limb.  For greater leverage, this is where grabbing the limb above the fadeout works great.  The upper limb is longer and there is no way to damage the limb by bending it a little more while stringing the bow.  The left arm is pushing directly away from you to the side, and as the string slides up, it will find its way to the string grooves.

      Slide the string into the grooves but don't relax the pulling upward of the right hand.  Feel with the thumb and index finger to make sure the string is completely seated in the grooves and then relax the bow bending...but don't relax your guard.  Rotate the bow clockwise, feeling the string in the upper grooves and as the bow rotates, look down at the belly of the bow and make sure the lower string loop is still seated in the lower string grooves.  Make sure you rotate the bow clockwise...or so that the back of the bow is rotating while its back faces your chest instead of rotating to face away from you.  If there was a chance that the string came out of the grooves, the bow will whip recoil into your chest and upper arm. Remember, your face is still positioned facing directly forward.  If you rotate the bow the other direction while checking the string and string grooves and perchance it became unstrung, the bow will flip and recoil away from your body and you can't control where it will end up. It could end up recoiling towards your face and head...and many eyes have been damaged by recoiling limb tips.  If someone is around you, you could hit them.  Or at a minimum slam your bow into another object, damaging it.

       You don't face your upper limb if at all possible while stringing it.  You do the slipping of the string into the string grooves by feel.  

       When unstringing the bow, do the reverse and as you pull up and rotate your body with the right hand on the upper limb / fadeout, make sure you've got extra bend in the limb.  Your upper hand is controlling the limb against the thumb pad and your thumb and index finger are encircling the limb tip. DON'T try to pick the string out of the groove along the back of the bow. Instead, use the index fingertip to pull the string off the side groove nearest that finger by hooking the fingertip into the string loop, and pull the string off "around" the bow to the back side, then work out the right side of the string loop by using the thumb tip.  It's much easier than it sounds.  It is much harder to pick out the string from the back of the bow than to hook the string loop with the index fingertip from the side of the bow.

       There is plenty of leverage to over-bend the bow limbs because you are pulling upward on the bow limb by rotating your body to the right and pushing the upper limb with a straight left arm.  You aren't just pulling upward with the right arm. Because you're controlling the bow by it being locked against the body, there's no looseness to the system and you have a lot of control and with that control you can be absolutely sure the string is seated, or unseated properly from the upper limb grooves before you relax the bow's weight onto the string.

    I hope these instructions are understandable; here's a photo of Hill bracing his bow, showing him holding the bow above the handle as Schulz told me.  Hill has locked his arm against his body, and you can see the upper limb cradled safely into the thumb pad.  His head is rotated more towards the limb tip, which I personally don't care for.  I think it's safer to face perpendicular to the bow limb. I've had a bow snap back towards me when the string came off a shallow string groove and let me say, having the bow slam into your chest and arm may surprise you and sting a bit, but the massive limb recoil is smothered as safely as can be.

      Using a bow stringer isn't a failproof method. I've had limb tips slip out of the pocket, I've had a pocket break and string snap.  I heartily dislike a stringer when that happens because the bow is recoiling upwards against me and my head and face.  There is nothing to muffle that recoil since there is always some visual "checking" of the string in the grooves while the bow is in a compromising position. I prefer to maintain total control of the bow and its recoil if that should happen

       I quit using a bowstringer over 30 years ago and stringing a straight-end longbow using the Hill method is quick, easy, and in my opinion, safer.  Try it and get used to it and it will result in you needing one less item to carry with you.

       Brace that bow and go Shoot Straight.