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.
