The theory and practice of archery

by Horace A. Ford; W. Butt

Now, in aiming with an arrow, to arrive at anything like certainty, it is necessary to have in view three things, namely, the mark to be hit (the gold of the target); the arrow, as far as possible in its whole line and length (otherwise its real future course cannot be appreciated); and the point of aim.

It may be well to explain here that by the point of aim is meant the spot which the point of the arrow appears to cover. This spot, with the bow, is seldom identical with the centre of the gold, or if it be so with any individual archer at one particular distance, it will not be so at other distances, because the arrow has no adjusting sights such as are provided to assist the aim with a rifle. As an example, let it be supposed that an archer is shooting in a side-wind, say at 80 yards, and that this distance is to him that particular one where, in calm weather, the point of his arrow and the gold are identical for the purposes of aiming. It is clear that, if he now treat them so, the effect of the wind will carry his arrow to the right or left of the mark according to the side from which it blows. He is therefore obliged to aim on one side of his mark, and the point of his arrow consequently covers a spot other than the target's centre. And this other spot in this instance is to him his point of aim. Under the parallel circumstances of a long range and a side-wind the rifle will be found subject to the same rule.

Now it will be understood that it is necessary for the archer to embrace within his vision the gold, the point of aim, and the true line in which the arrow is directed.

Direct vision can only be applied to one object at a time, and as direct vision should be applied as little as possible to the arrow during the aim, it has to be shown in what way the arrow must be held in order that the archer may, by means of his indirect vision, clearly appreciate the true line in which it points at the time of aiming. The discussion as to whether the gold or the point of aim shall be the object of direct vision may be postponed for the present.

Now it may be positively asserted as an incontrovertible axiom in archery that this true line cannot be correctly appreciated by the shooter unless the arrow lie, in its whole length, directly beneath the axis of the aiming eye. This is most confidently maintained, in spite of the fact that the strongest, the most deliberate, and the most successful archer of the present day systematically keeps his arrow a trifle outside his right eye. It must be remembered that Ascham ordains that 'good mennes faultes are not to be followed.'

The indirect vision of both eyes can never be used here, for if it were, according to the law of optics, two arrows would be seen; but this is never the case with the habitual shooter—though both his eyes be open, habit, and the wonderful adapting power of the eye, preventing such an untoward effect equally well as (nay, better than) if the second eye be closed. To state this more correctly: an expert archer with both eyes open is in the same condition with two similar eyes as a person who, with imperfect sight, habitually wears a spy-glass to improve the sight of the one eye, with which improved eye alone he sees, to the complete neglect of all that is taken in by the other eye, though constantly open. Those who have shot both right- and left-handed—and there are not a few such—can answer for it that, though a different indirect vision of the arrow is observed with each eye, either can at will be used without any inconvenience arising from the unnecessary presence of the other. Another unusual exception may here be mentioned of a style of aiming which, though eminently successful through a good many years in the case of a Championess, cannot be recommended for imitation.

She kept her direct vision only on the point of her arrow, thus seeing the nock end of the arrow gradually diverging from its point towards each eye by indirect vision, and also by indirect vision seeing two targets, or two sets of targets, from which she had to select the correct one to secure the right direction for the loose. Many archers close the non-aiming eye, and it will be well for all beginners to do so to avoid a very possible trouble, in the case of an archer whose non-aiming eye is the best and most used of the two, of this better eye officiously interfering to do wrong what its neighbour only can do right.

But to return to the statement that the arrow in its whole length must lie directly beneath the axis of the aiming eye, which is now assumed to be the right eye, as it is so in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. From fig. 40 it will appear that it must be so, because otherwise the shooter will be deceived as to the true line it has to take; for so long as the point of the arrow touches the axis of the aiming eye, the arrow may appear to that eye to be pointing in a straight line to the object looked at, though really directed far away to the right or left of it, as shown in fig. 41; where the arrow CB, though really pointing in the directions bCE, may, through touching the axis of the eye from B to D at C, falsely appear to the archer to be aimed at the object D.

(In figs. 40 to 43 the distances between A and B are supposed to represent the possible two inches or so between the two eyes, and the distances between A and D and B and D to be not less than fifty yards.)