November 1931

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VOL. 5, NO. 7

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ember, 1531

I5r per rqm

Lour Last Chance.

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Sylvan Archer ALBANY, OREGON

VOL. V., NO. 7

Entered as second-class matter October 14, 1931, at the post office at Albany, Oregon, under the Act of March 3, 1879.

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Published monthly by Ye Sylvan Archer Publishing Co. 325 W. 2nd Street, Albany, Oregon

J. E. DAVIS B. G. THOMPSON Subscription Price.......

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Single Copies...............

..................... Editor .Business Manager $1.00 Per Year $1.25 Per Year 15 Cents

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Advertising rates on application.

Copyright, 1931, Ye Sylvan Archer Publishing Co.

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CONTENTS Still Hunting Wildcats with the Long Bow

By Cassius Hayward Styles

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The Making of an Archery Club

By Clark E. Schurman

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Other States have Red Cedar.

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The Bow .String

By Archibald H. Caldwell, Jr.

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Stan Spencer Has His Say

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Marfa, Texas Holds Tournament.

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Archery Gets Publicity.

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San Leandro Tournament.

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November, 1931

Still Hunting Wildcats with the Long Bow

By Cassius Hayward Styles

(Continued from October issue.)

The result of this meeting was an increase of the bright fascination held by these animals. Much encouraged to find some actual value in my rab­ bit cries, I looked over my tactics and decided it was possible to improve them. More than likely I had been working to a loss, having frightened my subjects by noisy approach, or by my body scent. I traveled far more slowly and quietly and wasted no time on a place into which I knew the wind had taken my man smell. It is just useless to hunt where the breeze blows any odor from you on ahead, as it would be to try hunting behind a brass band.

After this critique with myself I did less stalking. What I did was better planned. Certain places where tracks were not common, I never bothered. Others, unusual for the in­ dications of use by my favorite wild animal, were carefully approached, always upwind and very quietly watched.

At a certain place on the Albee Trail there was a large rock. Below this was very rough fem covered mountain-side, difficult for a man to penetrate, and just the sort of cover liked by wild cats. Very often their tracks could be seen in the vicinity, and Mr. Prior, a neighbor, said it was much used by them. One night com­ ing home this way I stopped at the edge of the timber, near where tracks often showed. There was no wind and rain had made the trail soft enough “ sound of spike-shod feet. nelt, for I now had found that animals have difficulty in identifying

man when they cannot see his two long legs. My offering of rabbit squalls seemed to startle the jellied gloom and sent prickles down my own spine. After a moment or two the darkness answered: from a bramble or manzanita on my left came a deep bass growl.’ It was a cat growl, re­ sembling on a larger scale the defiance of a house pet from which one tries to snatch a piece of meat. this renow was just starting out to hunc ms supper- and saw—or neard— a chance to eat by bluffing another ouc of hrs eaten, 'rhe growl was sent aheaa to warn and give me a chance of quitting the place with a whole skin.

He was nevertheless wise enough to make a slight reconnais­ sance before kicking me off my catch.

He swerved a little to my rear, closer to the trail. Hunter’s luck. There the scent from my tracks .gave him warn­ ing, and no more of him did I hear.

He plotted no row with a man.

Thus far my bow had netted me some very interesting encounters, but no pelts. It was as I liked because I enjoyed the study of wild creatures more than peremptory killing. A gun would have made things so easy that I shortly would have lost interest.

With my long bow I was handicapped and the problem was interesting.

Cats were not the only ones who came to investigate. A coyote slunk to within ten yards. I was sitting down, but in the full bright sun. Owls and hawks looked me over; by these my deception was easily, quickly per­ ceived, since their infallible eyes can­ not be imposed upon for an instant.

YE SYLVAN AR^

4 Woodpeckers flew near and studied my plight, -and of course the blue jay made loud comment.

In the second year of my mountain life I tried deer hunting. Montgomery was camped at Senteny Rock, in fine buck country. I am uncontrollably lonesome whenever I picture the gor­ geous purple forests and yellow moun­ tain pastures of that high paradise.

Life here in Berkeley is just an interlude between outings in the wilderness.

When a puff of wind from our sur­ rounding lulls brings me the tangy odor of a vinegar flower, it conjures up a picture of long tawny slopes where my feet first pressed out this incense. I wonder why I stay here.

At least I can always live over those times, and I hope this poor scribble can take a few others with me.

But to return to Monty’s camp at Senteny Rock. It was over a clay spring, not a mile from Russell Glade, known as a good game pocket. In this place I found myself one morning an hour after sunrise. One should be up and hunting in the cool light of the morning star; dawn was still dim when I had left camp. I had tried all the deer stalker’s technique I knew without seeing a buck. Drifting up­ wind very slowly and quietly through promising thickets, I had had .glimpses of a few does and fawns. Now that the sun was beginning to reach into the gulches and slightly temper the night chill, I knew the deer would be lying down in well hidden beds, whence they could easily see me and foil my plans; so I sat on the bank of a small draw with my bow across my knee, After some time of listening and watching, just at random I made a few mouselike squeaks. There were no results; in a minute I squeaked .again. A wild bull bellowed in a threatening tone a hundred yards away.

Now I have a deep distaste for the

company of bulls; with great pro­ wess I looked for the nearest S tree. As I turned about I notitj movement of leaves in a clump hazel brush below me. Looking e, closely, I made out the wide, mfe lent visage of a large wildcat, not £. ic A

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“Winged Arrow into Grey1,11 bitted teen yards off, eyeing rctual^ Doubly surprised at the a-fori^ ' ' ,of this savage bellowing,-"*; nflt ventriloquially, from a , -nned bull’s throat—I nearly sf my bow. But in an ins >a old hunter’s instinct had i nerves hummed with the dei this animal. Excitement," 1 “1 buck fever”—came the bright P^Pect.h:string-^ 1 ’ ways was ready on t shot> a : couple of seconds1 I d^ . i

November, 1931

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but angrily walked out to look at the shaft. Another miss, to my fathom­ less disgust, and still the cat tarried in the hazel bush.

Here I might call attention to one of the advantages of hunting with the bow. Its near silence, only a low twang of string and a quick hiss of glinting arrow, does not alarm game as will the crash of a rifle. Dead twigs falling on the forest carpet, or acorns dropping from an oak make scarcely more noise. (Wild creatures, ever alert, notice these little sounds, of course, but only for an instant; and they seem to pay only the same amount of attention to shots from a bow.

Just then I noticed a shadowy movement in the leaves of a small oak above the cat. Looking carefully I made out the form of a second wild­ cat. Now, I thought, since this animal has been so kind as to put himself up a tree I shall simply make a dash to it, where, cutting off his escape, I can slay him with deliberation. To the tree trunk I sprinted. My tactics were good, but the treed one saw through them instantly; the perverse little imp scuttled down to the ground and off into the brush. I felt foolish to see my rashness lose such an oppor­ tunity. None of the tom kitties how­ ever had yet smelled my body scent,— that smell which strikes terror to the hearts of all wild creatures,—and the battle was not over. Up the bank to my left I saw the yellow, sulky face of my ventriloquail challenger glaring around a tree trunk. I shot and came quite close. The quiet hiss of the shaft did not, even now, alarm him, shy beast that he was.

Here I remembered Dr. Pope’s tell­ ing of a miss he made shooting at a gnzzly bear, and the point that came to my mind was his phrase, “Too much action.” I realized that I was so stirred up by this very small bit of

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action that all my archery technique had been forgotten. I stopped and thought for a minute, the wild cat still staring; I might as well let him stare, I thought, as to miss him by hasty shooting. He was a good forty yards off, and only his head, about as big as an airedale’s, was showing.

So I steadied myself, tried my foot­ ing, carefully nocked an arrow, and drew. I held, guaging the distance, and then loosed. The shot, though it did not hit him, was a perfectly good one, going not a half inch under his chin. It would have been a .good forty­ yard gold on the range. Before I could shoot again pussy got wind of me from some swirl of morning breeze and instantly made two mad bumping plunges into the woods, and was heard and seen no more.

Close misses are often more thrill­ ing to archers than hits to those who shoot only with guns. That is why we stick to our bows, even though our kills are about one-third what we would accomplish with firearms. ,We know, also, that with persistence we can arrive.

Another autumn, and the hunter’s moon drove me again to my “Mother, the Mountains.” Camp was by a spring on the trail to Red Rock. The vicinity had been hunted thoroughly for a month, so deer were bafflingly wary, and in the week of our stay I had only three shots at bucks. On the fourth day, after circling Red Moun­ tain, noon found me eating my lunch at the head of Murphy Glade, a wil­ low fringed pasture that sweeps down into Freezout Canyon. The sunshine was humid, and I drowsed in it as in a warm pool. My eyes rambled over the lordly slopes below, up the pine covered miles beyond, to Grizzly Peak.

My thoughts were lazy; only sensual enjoyment of this gorgeous jungle filled my consciousness.

A hundred yards below was a flat

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bare rock. I watched it very little, hardly expecting to see deer at this hour. My drowse was so complete that when a long armed figure ap­ peared walking over this big stone, I stupidly speculated as to how a baboon could be here, forty miles from any­ where. Its shoulders swung loosely back and forth as it stepped, just as do baboons, so my sleepy impression was natural.

Suddenly my mind cleared and there snapped out sharply the realiza­ tion that this was a wild cat. My eyes began to work also, and reported a medium sized specimen; when he turned sideways, that he had a squir­ rel in his jaws. Next, another cat popped out of the brush and tried to snatch the dinner from its owner.

Some scuffling resulted, but my first acquaintance kept what he had.

I tried my squeak. Both stopped and looked my way. A third, much larger cat, appeared from the willows, and with no hesitation started rapidly toward me. She did not .gallop, but came with a smooth gliding run.

I now saw a beautiful piece of stalking, done by a professional. This mother was not by any means as cock­ sure as my first tom cat, and did not swagger about in the open. Far from that, her approach was a very perfect and extremely rapid stalk. She used every bit of cover and at times was almost completely concealed, though I could always see a half of an eye and a very small part of her head above it, the ear laid flat. If I had not seen her start, it would have been very difficult to detect her stealthy coming. Of course she made not the faintest rustle of sound.

Indeed this animal resembled a small puff of grey smoke gliding up the hillside, with not an undulation, nor a trickle of noise. The perform­ ance was an example of flawless art.

About twenty feet’from me was a

YE SYLVAN AKCHej fringe of shrubs a few inches hi,' When the big tabby reached it stopped and gathered to spring. lt seemed time to shoot, so I loosed mr arrow, aimed a bit high to meet her in the air. Again I was outwitted, for my stalker read in my eyes the intent and timing of my stroke. She let the arrow fly over her back, then with eyes blazing furiously stepped out of the shrubbery.

The situation suddenly looked much different. A good deal of entertain­ ment might now be furnished me. 1 thought of a local butcher whose physiognomy is well scarred, just be­ cause he casually tapped a wild cat on the head with his trout rod. The . outlook urged me to believe that I might now have my ear chewed or my nose clawed.

I was sitting, and had the bow over my knees. I drew an arrow and tried to place it on the string; of course most of my attention was on the startling figure of the tabby, striding closer with cool, now arrogant steps.

Her eyes looked big as saucers. I fumbled and rattled with my shaft, it seemed as though I never would get it nocked, and I was afraid my body , scent might frighten the animal an lose me this very fine pelt.

But I .got the arrow on the string, drew my bow, and shot. Things w® so dizzily fast that only one detai S now clear,—the sharp “chuck” of winged dagger into grey fur. Ar and cat geysered high into the 11 My enemy lost all her steely con>F sure. A couple of flashing jumps a» she disappeared into an oak thic "C As I took out my watch at noon, I heard a heavy bass w-w.” After my customary ten utes, which gives time for the s W ing daze of shock to take effw up the track. At the edge 0 [ brush where she had disapPeal (Continued on page !■’)

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November, 1931

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The Making of an Archery Club; V MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

By Clark E. Schurman, Seattle, Wash. .When one has stolen time from business to work out a few of his own problems before the target, it seems that all the world is interested in ar­ chery. When has he ever failed to pause, inquire, reach for your bow to toy with, and tell about the winter, back in child-hood, when he kept the family in meat by hunting rabbits with his bow and arrow. (What a wonderful winter this must be for those chaps to repeat their stuff!)

Tell Mr. World that he can get all the answers at such-and-such an ar­ chery club, and invite him to drop in some time. He will ask one more question, and then with a sacrificial air, hurry on, feeling that he has done a good deed for that day by cheering you on your course! The one more question ? “How many members have you ?”

Try to get Mr. World thru a turn­ stile to see archery, and you realize that we have a sport for players, not for spectators, despite the transient gallery at the outdoor range. As players, we are gregarious. And like Mr. World, we are number-conscious.

“How many have you?” becomes “How can we get more members?”

It may be heresy in a land of or­ ganizers and joiners, but the large membership has, I believe, some draw­ backs. True, it permits financing adequate ranges. True, also, it helps gamer that thing most precious to our generation, newspaper publicity.

But these things can be had thru the federation of several small clubs.

And the small clubs have advantages peculiar to our sport, especially in those regions where winter shooting must be done on indoor ranges.

As soon as the word “members” is said, the serpent of definition wrig­ gles into the Eden of archery, One may be an acceptable member of a 400-man golf club, even to a mild enemy, because there are 125 acres and 398 members between the two.

He is something else, something in­ tangible and perhaps only slightly brackish-tasting in an indoor archery club, where all expect to meet each week and one-thirtieth of each per­ sonality affects each other person, in­ stead of only one four-hundredth.

Such a club will attain to 15% of its members’ recreational time. .Why not spend one-sixth of your play­ evenings with folks you LIKE, and whom you try to make LIKE you?

The answer is, of course, another question. Just how are you going to do it, even if you decide to try to match temperments and other inter­ ests, and choose folks that will be fairly congenial.

I have no better answer than these three things: A sensible membership committee; the simple policy of invit­ ing in visitors as visitors, and not as prospects or candidates; and a fairly full application blank, sufficient in itself to deter some, to enhance the desire of others, but which will let all the present members share in the election of the applicant. None of these things is nearly as simple as it sounds.

A sensible membership committee, will try to perpetuate or raise the club’s standards of personality. To be specific, if some of us have managed to curb our betting instincts and to take home the whole pay envelope, a sensible committee will not let in two

8 inveterate gamblers and thus com­ pletely change the temper, hours, and expenses of our club. They wi o tinue to meet those two men at tour­ naments, and to like them. They will cheerfully lose money to them at poker or in a duck blind or at a foot­ ball game. But they will guard thensmall archery club from an obvious change of character, just on suspicion.

A sensible membership committee •gave a very kindly caution to an ap­ plicant some years ago, because he was careless of safety on their range.

He “should worry; go ahead and shoot!” Two weeks later he joined a rival club. Within the year he was caught jay-walking, by a sharp-shoot­ ing auto driver. The first club was saved the expense of a floral remem­ brance, and the second club actually breathed a sight of relief that the tension he created by carelessness, at every match, was finally over.

A sensible membership committee is the only safeguard against all the degrees of “crust” which infringe the equities of a whole club. Having sinned against all the laws of archery, my own self, I may speak. I have handled another man’s bow, unasked, and broken it; monopolized a target when others waited to set their points of aim; borrowed tackle, when I should have bought it; cussed out loud and upset the whole team during a tight match; stumbled into another’s point of aim and neglected to tell him it had been moved or that I was sor­ ry; told a story that was too good to keep and started an epidemic of bar­ room humor which made other men glad they hadn’t brought their boys down that night; wise-cracked at the wrong time, and pulled a lot of stuff that no one else thought was funny at all; and lost money on the proposi■ tion that I could shoot a 'perfect’ on a given end. It has cost two clubs a lot of grief to whittle my style down

YE sylvanaKcB5 to where anyone can live .Sl,. and it can’t have been Wotth ,3' them. A sensible members!™,l' mittee would have held me i' reformed me first, or turned med® The trouble was, I had siJj blank and deposited the fees, ai',' club needed the money.

Had I been a potential asset, S years ago, a month’s trial and waitj would have merely whetted my sp tite for admission.

Had I been asked to tell what tils clubs I belonged to, and to given:? ences with whom I had gone Inti: —to tell what phases of club aft ties I expected to take part in, ar:: which duties I preferred to help c the general job, I would have regiE membership far more highly.

By-laws cannot do this job. Ik can define race, creed and sex; 6. can say “over 21 years old.” But & cannot, practically, say anything 'i'these matters or about money, lare no financial lines in the cocschools, at the polls, in a certain^ troop already too well cited series, nor at the pearly gates. •' can be bought for $7.50 as vel ■

$75. But it must be tough to tee­ the richest or the poorest men an outfit, if the scale runs so so low that one has to l>esjta”Ly offering or accepting ii"®a cause they cannot be repai o on to others. . .

Last year ten of us forl” jopm le:, club. We invited seventy a social evening; Dr. CathH • , films, balloon-shooting. 1 j?-1' tackle makers, a wee bit o , a couple of campfire stun talk on archery by th® Forty members signe® ,4„. id<.

BUT they were carefully before they were i®vlt ' tos’ folks who could be trUS, jitA their targets honestly-. " and picnics and hunting.

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November, 1931

not too good to help set.up targets or do the dishes after a party-folks who would be true sportsmen.

Is all this pother worth while ? Is a little archery club in a loft or base­ ment another marriage, to need such a fuss?

There are two sides even to that.

You can figure them out from this parallel. I used to “register” as a scout, every kid the second night he came to a meeting, if he had the 50 cents and his parents signed permis­ sion. For eight years, my troop had a turn-over or mortality rate comparable only to the results shown in the Flit ads.

For the past eight years, a boy has had huge obstacles put in the way of admission to my troop; 10 weeks un­ failing attendance; six week-end hikes; parents visit to a full evening’s meeting just to know what it’s all about; all the tests he would normally do in the first year as a scout; not 50c and a nickel a week, but a year’s dues, earned in that ten weeks; make­ good and get an invitation from some patrol of eight boys within the troop.

Hurdles! Tough hurdles!

Do they stop the boys ? No, just the bums and mollycoddles and congenital joiners. Do they keep out “poor” boys? No, because the first deposits for summer camp each year are made by those you’d say had the toughest breaks financially, and had to work most hours on paper routes.

Does it limit participation? No, 315 boys .graduated last year from our high school, 12%, or 25% more than our proportion of the whole, had been in “65,” had taken these hurdles. We exceeded the saturation point. They had been in 17 months longer than the national average.

“You set up definite hurdles for the boys. But you leave archery club admission open as a matter of intangibles.”

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You are correct. And for once, per­ haps so am I. There are nine other scout troops in our district, and I have never sug­ gested to any one of them a word about our standards. I know, merely, that they HAVE admission standards, and that no boy joins the first night; no weakling “quits” any of those troops because he is no longer inter­ ested after three weeks. He hasn’t gotten into any of them “on sight.”

Youi- membership committee can be “the making of an archery club.”

OTHER STATES HAVE RED CEDAR Ozro M. Wilsey, Lima, Ohio, says: “The author’s article is excellent and very true because I make a trip into Tennessee every year for cedar- and have a hard time finding what I want but red cedar grows in other places besides Tennessee. In fact there are quite a few trees of it in this section of Ohio. I am told there used to be lots of it here. It is also found in West Virginia, Kentucky and occa­ sionally in Pennsylvania. The most of it now comes from Tennessee and West Virginia. It does make a won­ derful bow and every one who has not tried cedar should do so.”

R. C. Berry, Berlin, Alabama, writes: “We have large amounts of this same red cedar here. It grows all over the lime lands of Alabama.

Around Faunsdale there are cedar forests, nothing but cedar and osage orange, and this cedar is the identical cedar that grows in Tennessee.”

D. E. Ferguson, a subscriber at Coco Solo, Canal Zone, expects to do some hunting in the Panama jungles.

We hope to receive some interesting accounts of his jungle experiences.

YE SYLVAN

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<T7ie CBcw String Archibald H. Caldwell, Jr.

Berkeley, California I have seen many articles on the It may be had at wholesale manufacture of bowstrings but they ■establishments. One ball is usually give the bare outline and not for eight or nine strings. PureuX the details that a person making a wax is another necessary artitlet string for the first time really wants a spool of carpet thread is finet. to know. I am quite sure that there serving the center of the striij,. are many archers who probably will safety razor blade is also very Is: With all these materials atteis' not agree with the exact method here­ in given; but for an accurate, practi­ free end of the flax on the inside i cal string that is easy to make, this the ball is secured and tied to pejk method fills the bill. It is the one with a simple slip knot. Theta!: piece of archery tackle that the Maid taken in the left hand near the e&i and with the end AB resting ran Marion can make with skill. lap the thread is brought fonl The machine like preciseness with around B up to C back toD up:;: which these strings are made depend* and back to the number 2 paHl? upon the implement, the string board.

The process is repeated unbl W: It is made from an oak or other hard­ pair of pegs have been co­ wood slat 27%"xl%"x%". Figure 1 to C, D, and ‘ is almost self explanatory. One six­ taken brought back to A and acron­ teenth inch holes are drilled at A, B, end is secured around toe C, D, D', D", and at 1 through 15 start­ the left hand; the lef ftti. ing at A ’4" from the edge and a the mass of threads blade similar row starting at B and %" threads by passm„ bet«e®'i from the edge. They are %" apart. razor down the A shallow groove may be scooped with a curved chisel dowir the center pegs. Pickup e, hol(i theffi^; between the holes to make the cutting the right hand a Take the entrre of the threads a little easier. One smoothing the end ^0« inch brass eschutcheon pins one six­ each hand. Laying th teenth of an inch in diameter are used board with.one end > for pegs. They are placed t in the end; grasp it »PP „ roU nd A* drilled holes the sharp points being waxed end. ^'Vax^ filed off on the under side of the toe board. The head of peg A is cut off. forefinger The hole near C and E is for hanging end (Fig. 02B).

7the string the board up when not in use. Eight other end c. is left unwaxed to and three-fourths inches from the CE two - more < end of the board draw a transverse Make... t----- strings line and label it “loop.” Fifteen and one: three one half inches from the CE end draw another and label it “waxed end.” Peg Displaced a?D'‘rnid’^flve ^d flax thready and five and one half foot strings.

Number 12 Barbour’s Irish -flax is y satisfactory for string material. y again and ba

November, 1931 pair. Cover ten pair of pegs this time, then over X and Y again and back to A and B. Draw the thread up to X and hold the bundle firmly with the fingers between X and Y. Cut the threads that cross the groove as be­ fore. Wax from the center of this piece to the end. Reverse, then wax the other half, that is the whole piece is waxed. Six of these are made; one for each end of the long cords. (Fig. 2A). They are attached to them in the following manner.

The rein­ forcement is placed with one end at the beginning of the waxed portion of the long string while the other end is at the tip (Fig. 2). They are pressed together with the fingers and a little more wax is applied. Hold the string in the left hand at the joining of the waxed and unwaxed parts, the waxed end to the right. With the palm of the right hand roll it away from you on your right thigh. Pay close at­ tention to the direction of the twist.

Attach all the reinforcements to the ends of the strings in just this man-

11 ner and every thing will come out all right. Now take three of the ends just prepared and place them so the tips are together. Hold these tips at the CE end of the board and measure to the “loop” line. Hold the cords in the left hand firmly together at this place. With the right thumb and fore­ finger twist one cord tightly away from you and bring it over the others toward you. Let loose the first and do the same with the second, making it parallel with one and over three (Fig. 3). Do the same with the third, letting the first slip back under. Now pull one over again making it parallel with three. Pull two over letting three slip under. Pull three over parallel to two. Pull one over letting two slip under. Pull two parallel to one. Pull three over letting one slip under. Pull one over parallel to three. Continue the process until the heavy cord- is two and one half inches long, then give it a twist toward you to tighten it. Loop the corded part so the loose ends are together (Fig. 4). Now

12 take one reinforced end and untwist the strands. Also untwist the strands from the loop to the unwaxed portion of the string. Place these together and twist away from you with the right hand, holding the loop to the left. Attach each end to each string in this manner. Now place the loop over a hook, and proceed to cord the whole together as shown in Figure 5, using the technique of Figure 3. Con­ tinue this through the waxed portion.

Stretch the string a little to get all of the threads parallel and cord the lower end of the string using the technique of Figure 3, also (Fig. 6).

Tie a small overhand knot at the end of the string to secure the ends. Now place the loop over the upper nock of the bow. Stretch the string and give it eight or ten turns to the left mak­ ing all the threads as nearly parallel as possible. Tie a timberhitch in the lower corded portion (Fig. 7). .Slip it on the lower nock and brace the bow, not too tightly. Wax the entire string thoroughly, then rub it briskly with a piece of folded paper until the string is hot. Wax some more and rub again. Take it off the bow and hang it up on a peg with a weight at­ tached to the lower end. Let it stretch several hours, the longer the better, then replace it on the bow. Brace the bow, adjusting the string to the proper distance from the belly, (6 inches for a 6 foot bow). Nock an ar­ row and see that it is perpendicular to the string when resting on the ar­ row plate. Start the serving one and one-fourth inches above this point and make it eight and one half inches long in order to keep the string from fraying on the arm guard should it ^,’hit. To finish the serve (Fig. 8), make a three inch loop, winding the .free end within tins loop in the same direction around the string but toward the serving. Ten turns is enough. .'..-Bring the end under where the serv-

YE SYLVAN ARchej i

ing stopped and continue the servin over it: thus unwinding the loop made and making ten turns over tfe free end. All that is necessary novi to pull the free end and the knot is made. Cut the end off with a razor blade. It is nice to have the noclang place of the arrow located on the string. Color the place with raj crayon and wind dental floss over it.

The floss adds very little thickness to the serving. This string is of thirtysix strands and is right for a forty or forty-five pound bow. Too heavy a string makes the bow a little slug­ gish. Cut down the number of strands to about thirty for a lighter bow and add a few more for a heavier one.

Thus we have a string with no loose ends to be tied down and which can be easily and economically made.

STAN SPENCER HAS HIS SAY ON BOW HOCKS ; To Ye Sylvan Archer: While we are all interested in ; articles written by Dr. C. N. Hickman I was almost tempted last month to carry on the discussion of the effectof different weights of bow strings , to cover a few more points.

I can’t resist the temptation thi> rnonth in regard to bow nocks, a> they are as much a part of a fin's 1 . , bow as the handle is, and in his ® i perimenting- he seems to have o . looked the most essential points I recommend the horn nocks. His a ; ticle simply refers to them as so nW ; added weight and air resistance ■. the end of the limbs; as if the n«^ fit the end of the bow as it » * without the nock, which would a weight of the nock.

I understand that he was just . ing to determine the effect of ® arJf. :| on the tips of the limbs but tie

J

November, 1931 ticle assumes that the nocks add this weight.

The horn nock has three definite uses to recommend it: to beautify the bow, convenience in bracing and un­ bracing it, and to make it possible to lighten the ends. I might also add that it allows the use of a cord to hold the string in place when the bow is not braced.

Where nibs are used the ends of the limbs must be left big enough to make a suitable groove for the string and the shoulders heavy enough to hold it in place and this weight must be carried straight thru, as the wood will split out if it is hollowed out under the string rest, and is much heavier than is necessary to stand the stress other­ wise.

A % inch tapered hole in a horn will leave all the wood necessary for any target bow and the horn is tough enough to allow tapering to a feather edge at the bow. This will permit dressing off enough unnecessary wood from the end of the limbs to com­ pensate several times for the weight of horn necessary to use. And, as only a shell of horn is necessary with a shoulder ridge to hold the string, the tips of flight bows can be light­ ened a lot.

S. F. Spencer

MARFA, TEXAS, HOLDS TOURNAMENT The first annual tournament of the Marfa, Texas, Archery Club was held on October 11th, 1931, with the fol­ lowing results: Double American round; 1st, Frank Gottholt, 153-870; 2nd A. J. Slogeris, 152-842; 3rd, H. W. Brown, 152-808.

Double Columbia round; 1st, Mrs. H. L. Zollars, 112-506; 2nd, Mrs. Frank Gottholt, 42-168.

Double Junior American round; 1st, Freddy Woodhouse (15), 112-498; 2nd, Lawrence Woodhouse (9), 94-410; 3rd,

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Monroe Slack Jr. (14), 86-308.

Double Junior Columbia round; Harriet Soroker (13), 35-139.

Flight shoot, for men; 1st, A. J. Slogeris, 271 yards; 2nd, J. S. Living­ ston, 258 yards; 3rd, W. L. Richmond, 216 yards. For women, Mrs. Frank Gottholt, 184 yards.

W. B. Devolin won the wand shoot for men and Freddy Woodhouse for boys.

The following are a few interesting facts about archery in Marfa: The first archer came to Marfa in January this year. The first bow in Marfa was made in March, by a ten year old boy, Arthur Dean. The Mar­ fa Archery Club was organized and affiliated in June. There are now about forty bows in town with twentytwo members on the rolls, of which fifteen are really active and partici­ pating. Marfa is a border cattle town of 4000, half of which is of Spanish ancestry with recreational habits and desires along other lines. The club has a four target capacity 100 yard green and a club house in the center of town at a nominal rental.

STILL HUNTING WILDCATS (Continued from page 6) deciphered a faintly mussed spot, probably made by the cat’s bounding feet. A few yards farther in was another blurry place; after a couple of moments I found still another.

Sighting along the direction of these it was easy to identify the next two, and looking farther on down into the bushes I saw the cat lying on its side, its hind quarters down hill. Trusting she was by now well drugged by wound shock, I walked to within ten feet and watched for signs of breath­ ing. Her ribs were still. When I skinned off the pelt, I found the ar­ row lengthwise in the body cavity, the rear of the shaft still drawn through the heart.

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A FEW ARRO WS FROM THE QUIVER OF APPRECIATION The following was received by the Marfa Archery Club after a visit to their First Annual Tournament by Mr. H. L. Zollars, Deputy Scout Com­ missioner in charge of Archery for the El Paso Area Scout Council, Mrs. Zollars and Mr. H. ;W. Brown District Scout Commissioner of El Paso, Texas.

YE' SYLVAN ARCHlj Who made our tshort visit so B£o.

Ne’er to forget, a milestone of u, That trip to the far “Big Bend,” ’ And the comradeship of all suits And the clasp of the hand d, FRIEND.

ARCHERY GETS PUBLICITY

Archery “made” the front paJ the Perry (N. Y.) Herald on Otic?

7th with a column writeup, indofe a picture of R. L. Rimer, presfe Down in the “Big Bend” Country, of the New York State Archery n Where the registered Herefords grow, ' sociation.

There’s a bunch of archer fellows (We quote the following which t It will pay you well to know. be of special interest: ’Tis there they raise the cattle “The following statement is lit Which take in the prizes, I’m told, buted to Major Lynn Adams, Supai-, But the hearts of the Marfa bowmen tendent of the Pennsylvania Sis ,Would take all the ribbons of GOLD. Police, after hunting the entire sas son with bow and arrows, ‘I calFriendship ? It blooms like the roses, estly say that I enjoyed the expend Making the pathways they tread more than any excursion I ever nW Happy and ble.ssed with contentment, and am certain that getting a For the blood of these fellows runs with a bow and arrow is nor sub RED. difficult task as it would sees’ those not familiar with the capi'Drawing Life’s bows to the limit, of that weapon. I wish there “Holding” on things that are true, enough archers who could get Each passing day has a “perfect end,” and purchase or lease a large WF good hunting land and close it • Each smiling sky is a BLUE. hunting except with the bo”’ < certain that a crowd like W .

Loosing the arrows of kindness From strings that never are slack; be made up of real sportsm Seeing the score on the Target of Life, companionship thus broil?

Never registering a BLACK. would be one of the fines life.’ x Playing the game by the rules they “Since making the abovtUp know, in March 1930, Major : Square is their shooting and right.

Birds of a “feather,” together they his hopes realized as t e ; Pennsylvania has Purc;a^Tersl flock— “Check” them, and find them all aside a large preserve ofs(j:sand acres of land for “ WHITE. sively with bow and arro • , Bill and Jimmy and Frank and Royce, “Archery enthusiasts _ Brownie and “Doc” and “Musky Jerry”' ested to know that all W / And all the rest of the friendly clan may be taken during t

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November, 1931

15

in New York State with the bow and arrow, with one exception, water fowl.”

SAN LEANDRO TOURNAMENT

I

George W. Lewis, shooting steadily and consistently despite a high gusty wind, won the annual championship tournament of the San Leandro Ar­ chers Club with a single York and single American score of 884. His score of 324 in the York gave him such a lead over R. R. Litchfield, last year’s champion, that the latter was unable to retain his title by shooting a higher American round than Lewis.

G. E. Burks, who broke the world record for the Metropolitan round at the tournament of the Pacific Archery association, was third.

The women’s championship was won

by Mrs. H. S. Eberhard with a com­ bined National and Columbia round of 738. Mrs. George Lewis, who took the lead in the morning shooting with high National, found the pace too swift in the afternoon and finished second. Mrs. M. F. Frandy was third.

The annual tournament this year was divided between two Sunday meetings, the first being devoted to novelty matches. These events in­ cluded the “Elimination” round, shot at 40 yards by the men and 30 yards by the women, in which one ring is dropped from the target at each end until only the gold remains, and all arrows that fall in dropped rings are considered misses and must be dis­ carded. The shooter who finishes with the highest score or the most arrows wins. George Lewis and Mrs. Eber­ hard won this event, a forecast of the tournament outcome.

The wand shoot was won by Mrs. Eberhard and Norris jWalton, the tur­ tle shoot by Mrs. Norris Walton and • Litchfield, the deer shoot at iivi4-41

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silhouette targets placed in an adjoin­ ing field by Mrs. G. W. Lewis and J. M. Kloss and the balloon shoot by H. S. Eberhard and Mrs. Eberhard.

At the annual business meeting, held after the dinner at the Hotel Alameda, officers were elected. F. R. Morrissey was named president, G. E. Burks, vice president, Mrs. M. F. Frandy treasurer, R. R. Litchfield secretary and H. G. Clarke, retiring president, member of the board of governors.

The archery club of Albany College, Albany, Oregon, was reorganized this fall with Winston Purvine as president and Miss Florence Clifford, secretary.

Prof. Daniel Freeman is faculty ad­ visor. Arrangements have been made to shoot in the college gymnasium one night each week and towns-people have been invited to shoot with the club.

We recently received an interesting letter and subscription from John Hom, Praha, Czechoslovakia. Mr. Horn won the archery championship of Europe at the International Arch­ ery Meeting in Lwow, Poland, August 26, to September 6.

——

REG. U. S. PAT. OFF.

The Archers Company, Pinehurst, North Carolina.

YE sylWaEcJ

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CLASSIFIED ADS RATES—5c per word.

New low price of the LAYALLOY— aluminum alloy-—ARROWS, $10.00 per dozen. You are invited to prove that these are the finest target ar­ rows you ever loosed. Money refund­ ed if you don’t think so. Send for de­ scriptive matter. Nat. B. Lay, 2801 Big Bend BL, Maplewood, Mo. Will exchange good Archery Prints with any one from anywhere. Cor­ Dr. respondence solicited.

Dr. L. D. Pfouts, Payson, Utah.

Genuine elephant ivory arrow plates to dress your better bows, 75 cents, something new, limited number, other supplies.

0. C. Lempfert, Stony Brook, N. Y.

Manufacturer of the finest Archery Targets.

Maker for the National, Eastern and Metropolitan tourna­ ments, also for Mr. James Duff of Jersey City. Wholesale and retail.

John Smith, 209 Bowers St., Jersey City, N. J.

THE BEL SHAW FLETCHER Lays feathers par­ allel or on left or right spiral with absolute UNIFORMITY

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A light weight yet ragged all­ purpose hunting point, 25c eat' Satisfaction guaranteed.

Wholesale prices on request. | HUGO BUCKNER 115 W. 8th St., Hanford, Calif.

INTEREST TO CLUBS AND GALLERIES

A full deck of playing- cards In an interesting; arrangement have now been printed on a full SIZ; ,8" square of standard targe* face material. For clubs these are used for novelty shootinf f-lter tournaments, and is ,a? <-vdded attraction for commercial g-alleries. Price $3.00 each.

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: Lime line rock Tenn. < red cedar bow staves backed with hickory .staves Grade A-S5.00, Grade B-$3.00 § Sfevery stave will make an excellent r bow and will .surpass the famous yew. Order now and-be l7-1 " 7 nABRV I'mtKtNS Box 0244. West Paint neaeh. Fiorld"

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mention Ye Sylvan

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BRASS ARROW PILES, SHIPPING CARTONS, FEATHERS, HORN WEDGES for Arrow Nocks

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Raw Material for the Amateur or Expert Archer Hom Wedges for arrow nocks ...........

2 doz> $100; 5°° Flemish Bowstring unserved -........ --3 ®2'00; d°Zen each $1.00 Served ........ _.............. or Beefwood, dozen $1.00; gross $10.00 Footings, round, slotted, Lemon ...dozen 50c; gross $5.00 Parallel Points, rustproof.... ...... .............. ........dozen 35c; gross $3.50 Selected Feathers, assorted.......

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Bows and Arrows for Discriminating

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