Hunting with the Back Quiver

HUNTING THE BACK QUIVER by Greg Ragan

Chances are good that if you ask someone the image they have in their head of a “vintage traditional archery hunter”, most will describe a person equipped with a back quiver and longbow.  Howard Hill, Bob Swinehart, Ben Pearson, John Schulz and other bow hunting legends preferred the back quiver for hunting despite the fact that the popular bow quiver was available in their times.  Many archers like a back quiver for roving, or the 3D range, but dislike them for hunting.  Their excuses are many: My arrows rattle around and make noise. My heads get dull from banging together. When I bend over my arrows fall out. Withdrawing an arrow flags game.  My exposed arrows catch on every twig and branch.  The area I hunt is too thick to go through the woods quietly.  I am not flexible enough to remove my arrows.  Perhaps you can think of more?

All of these issues can be overcome with a properly constructed, designed, and broken in quiver along with the time to become proficient in the use of the device.  In fact, the back quiver provides many advantages once one is skilled in its use and it becomes as an extension of the archer like the bow itself.   

The Advantages of a Back Quiver

The most noticeable advantage of the back quiver is to remove the quiver from the bow.  Longbows are especially very light and delicate in the hand.  A bow quiver adds weight, and does so lopsidedly ruining the balance that the bowyer intended.   Besides, if a bow quiver was more conducive to accuracy Olympic archers would have them on their bows right?  This imbalance can be a detriment to accurate shooting and the proper feel of the longbow.  In my opinion, the fewer things you have hanging off your bow for hunting the better. 

Another advantage the back quiver gets the nod on is speed and capacity. Once an individual is proficient in its use, a second arrow can be smoothly and fluidly back on the string and ready for action without looking.   I have had follow on shots at game even before I exclusively went to the back quiver, and I was never able to get that second arrow out and on the string as easily or as fast as with the back quiver.  The proper use as described by John Schulz in Hitting‘em Like Howard Hill with nocking above, allows a very fast knocking and shooting without having to look away from the game.  I also like to occasionally shoot at deer when squirrel hunting, so carrying more than a dozen mixed blunts and broadhead arrows is no problem for the back quiver.  The quiver equipped with a single strap can also be easily rotated around the body and under the arm while going through thick brush.  When the density does not require crawling or ducking, a skilled user will automatically pass through the brush sideways to protect the protruding arrows with bow arm and foot forward.  This automatically places the hunter at a better shooting position should game appear…with the shoulders parallel and the feet perpendicular to the direction of the game. 

Besides, what other quiver can you put a squirrel, rabbit, or your lunch into?

Choosing and Breaking in Your Quiver

One of the most successful hunters was Howard Hill, and he utilized and perfected a style of backquiver that now carries his namesake.  The “Hill Style” quiver has many aspects that aid the hunter and this is the style and technique I will describe as I feel it is superior in that endeavor. 

 

The single thick strap allows the sliding and rotation of the quiver as I described previously.  The quiver is equipped with a very wide mouth.  This is not only to hold many arrows, but also in order to make withdrawing of an arrow easier.  Once the nock is secured in such a quiver, the arrow can almost immediately be withdrawn and steadily angled away from the quiver limiting movement and maximizing speed.  If the tube was long and skinny, one would have to extract the arrow straight upwards until almost the very end of the arrow before coming forward with it.  The oval bottom helps facilitate collapsing the leather at mid quiver.  As I will discuss this is what holds the arrows and prevents them from “banging together”.  The quiver leather also advances this end with a medium-heavy thickness which gives weight and friction potential to the quiver when collapsed. Do yourself a favor and get a good Hill style quiver.  There are some folks (including Howard Hill Archery) that still know how to build these beauties.  A stiff quiver that will not collapse with large pockets, fancy embossing, and 3 chest straps may seem really cool, but the equipment is putting your hunting at a disadvantage.   Leather costs are high and these quivers are not cheap, but keep in mind that if you treat it well this durable piece of equipment should last a lifetime of hunting.

Once you get yourself a quality quiver it will need to be broken in.  The quiver should eventually conform to your back, the tube collapsing on itself.  This holds the arrows still and securely.  Several products can be used to help this conditioning.  Montana Pitch Blend, mink oil, or even canola or olive oil can be used to soften and condition the leather.  During the summer months put the quiver out on your deck or atop your car and let it heat up really well.  It will readily take the oil or treatment in this way.  It is also a good idea to retreat the quiver thoroughly once a year to help prevent dry rot and preserve the life of the device.  On a new quiver I will fold the top down to meet the bottom and sit on it as I commute to work back and forth every day, some folks put it under their couch cushions but I try to stay away from the couch.  Fold, bend, and re-treat until the quiver readily collapses flat under its own weight around your back.  The arrows should be lying in the quiver at an angle, not straight up and down, gravity helping things to stay put.

 

If the quiver is broken in and adjusted properly you can bend over and almost completely invert the quiver without any arrows sliding out.

 

Using the Quiver

The quiver should be adjusted so the strap is fairly snug, but able to be rotated freely, and as viewed from the front goes from your neck on the opening side to around above the level of your nipple and under the arm of your bow hand.  This places the arrows around the level of the top of your shoulder or a little below. 

If you can touch the top of your shoulder you should be flexible enough to get an arrow out.  To make this easier you can bump the bottom of the quiver with the elbow of your bow arm while at the same time reaching back with the drawing hand.  Once you have the arrow nock you can pull the arrow around your body and the wide mouth of the quiver will help facilitate this.  Trap the string between your thumb and forefinger, guide the string into the nock groove, and slide the nock down the string to your nocking point (nocking above).  Angling the upper bow tip up slightly will assist this “trap and slide” procedure.  Next, guide the arrow to the rest and rotate your hand around the string until you are again in a position to shoot.  With practice this can all be done in a matter of a few seconds and without looking.

 

When loading your arrows do not just stuff them all down the opening at once in a jumble.  Place each arrow one atop the other carefully, laying them in, so that the shafts do not cross deep in the quiver bottom.  This will also help the shafts lay flat sandwiched between the two layers of leather.  This goes a long way to keeping the fletching from twisting together and making noise.  Thusly there does not need to be anything in the bottom of the quiver to keep arrows from “rattling around”.  You do not need to embed them in foam, fill the bottom with oats or anything else, or need sheep shearling around the opening.  The quiver collapses and holds the arrows fast, preventing the broadhead edges from grinding together and your arrows from making noise.  The only thing I put in the bottom of my quiver is a piece of scrap carpeting cut to match the bottom shape in order to dampen the thump of thick leather against arrow when one drops in. 

 

The final thing you need to do with your new quiver is use it!  Knowing how to navigate through brush, knowing by feel where those arrows are in relation to that overhanging branch, not having to look back to smoothly draw and nock an arrow all take time and practice.  The more you hunt the back quiver the more its redeeming qualities become apparent.  Try it exclusively for at least a year of hunting before you discount it.

Similar to the traditional bow itself, the back quiver takes some time and practice to get proficient with, but once you do it will pay dividends.  Plus they just look classically cool. After all, Howard Hill knew what he was doing.