"Squeeze the bow-handle with the left hand. You cannot hold it too fast. Draw quickly and evenly. Let go without, 'bobbling' or tremor."
In a little story written by William Thompson (the brother of Maurice and the champion archer of the Union) there is a still more valuable piece of advice as to how to take aim. He makes one of the characters, who has hitherto always been unsuccessful at a target, hit on the secret, which he tells his friend. It is virtually as follows:
"After nocking the arrow, draw it up to the right ear with the right hand, and hold it there as if it was screwed fast. Think no more of your right hand, but point your left fist at the target and let fly."
This tells the secret of archery better than an elaborate treatise. The aim is taken with the left arm, not the right. Target shooting is, however, a bad school for learning to shoot at game, and here again Maurice Thompson comes in with his invaluable practical hints on the subject. He says:
"One who is trained to aim at a large, graduated target, either with gun or bow, can rarely shoot well at game. The reason is that in target shooting at a fixed distance he gets used to a certain size, color, and condition of background, and when he gets into the woods and lifts his bow to draw on a bird or a hare, his accustomed rings and dark background are not there. His vision is blurred, he draws waveringly and shoots indifferently. A black rubber ball four inches in diameter, suspended in mid-air by a string fastened to the low limb of an apple-tree, makes a first-rate substitute for a bird, and a small bag of straw, placed flat on the ground and shot at at about twenty-five yards, makes good hare practice. You will soon learn the great advantage of not using the same distance all the time, as in the game of archery. For, after all, a bowman's skill is scarcely worthy of admiration if it is confined to a fixed range."
A few words about the strength of bows, and we have said enough for the purposes of a little handbook.
Bows are graduated by the number of pounds' weight required to bend them. Ladies' bows range from fourteen to thirty pounds pull, while gentlemen can take from forty to sixty pound bows. The heaviest bows should be used for hunting purposes, but for target practice at short range a bow under your strength is recommended, as it is easier to take aim with such a weapon than with one that tasks all your force merely to bend it.
THE END.
STANDARD