I prefer a Hill style glove. I believe it's the best type of glove out there....Why?
The HH style of glove is made that way for a reason...and mostly what I hear from shooters all over the place is that how they dislike the HH glove...for the very reasons why it's a HH glove.
So, here goes.
A HH glove has double layer leather and inserts for the express purpose of stiffening the finger stalls so that the fingers cannot bend too much at the first joint. A softer glove can have a tendency to develop a groove in the leather at the area of the first finger joints because the fingers wrap around the string and the fingertips actually face back to the shooter when the string is gripped with a deep hook. The only way to combat this is to use an extra soft leather in the design of the glove....i.e. the deerskin style. It's well known that a deep hook allows the hand to be more relaxed and a better release is the result. So, the double layer leather and stiff inserts of the HH glove allow the fingers to take a deep hook, and the hand stays relaxed but the finger tips will point more perpendicular to the string instead of back towards the shooter. Hill's belief was that this allowed for a smoother release. This was important to him as he shot targets off the heads of live people and he didn't want a string hanging up on a grooved leather stall.
The HH glove also is single seam style, so that the seam is on top of the finger where it can't interfere with the placing of the fingers next to each other on the string, as in a glove with side stitching like the Damascus style or the extra straps like the Stick Tite.
The thin back and straps kept the glove from getting hot and sweaty on his hand. With a properly fitted HH glove, there is no need for the straps to fit tight to hold the glove stalls on the fingers. The stalls shouldn't twist either. As the stall stretches and is fitted to the finger, small stitches can be placed on the top seam to tighten the stall for that particular finger. Baseball rosin or pine pitch can be applied to the finger before inserting the finger into the glove, which will transfer to the interior leather and give a good grip for a good long while. I actually moisten my finger in my mouth before it is slid into the stall....as the finger dries out, the glove sticks to my finger with enough tackiness that I have to really firmly twist the stall to get it off my finger when done shooting. (that trick is from Saxton Pope actually)
A HH glove is never "broken in" in the sense that the stalls are soft enough to "feel" the string. It wasn't designed that way. I would suggest that if a person wants to use a HH glove, get one, rub some pitch blend or baseball glove oil into the leather, and shoot about 1000 shots to form it to the fingers, then adjust the stalls if needed by individual stitches to tighten where needed. Most guys buy one, they shoot about 5 shots with it, maybe 10 or 20 shots, and they say...."wow, what a stiff glove, I can't feel the string" and they never shoot enough shots to get the glove where it was intended to be. Sad. Because if a guy will shoot enough shots to get the glove to become fit properly, and gets used to the glove's feel while gripping the string, he will shoot that glove almost forever. The gloves are phenomenal if they are used as they were designed
I see some pretty good Longbow shots out there with an old, well shot in HH glove dangling from their wrists.....John Schulz is one, so is Steve Schulz, JD Berry, Dan Berry ,Steve Turay, Joel Templin, Dave Miller, Byron Ferguson, Peter Stecher, and humbly, myself. Why? because the guys gave the gloves a fair chance, shot enough arrows to condition the gloves and get used to them....and the gloves work, plain and simple.
Hill was a simple but exacting person in approaching archery. His glove reflects his preferences.
ReplyDeleteNice informative blog!
Fishing Gloves