Bob Swinehart - His Archery Equipment and Methods

In May of 1982, the bow hunting world tragically lost one of its superstars and most famous big game hunters in the world.  Ever Since, the legacy of Bob Swinehart has been fading with only the record books reflecting his accomplishments.  His two book publications are long since out of print, and collectors have put a high demand and price tag on copies.  His African photo collection was titled "In Africa" and his autobiography and accomplishments named "Sagittarius".

Since Sagittarius is so hard to come by, I wanted to recount some of the wisdom in this publication to folks that cannot acquire a copy to read.  Chapter 9 of the book is called "My Archery Equipment and Methods" and I will point out a few things from this chapter that may be contrary to the modern popular movement of target style archery for hunting, but have been proven effective by legends like Swinehart. The advice has much in common with the other proteges who actually lived and hunted with the great Howard Hill such as John Schulz.

Length of bow - Swinehart recommends not using any bow less than 60 inches.  The reason given is a short bow is more sensitive to error than a longer bow.  The most common length are between 64 and 66 inches.  He also recommended to learn on the straight limbed or reflex bow, and going to the "Fancy" recurve only after mastering the fundamentals.

Bob actually recommends that the average archer should not draw more than 28 inches.  He goes on to say that if the shooter is not comfortable bending the bow arm enough to get down to around 28 inches, that a anchor point closer to the front of the face should be chosen to that end.  The reason given is for "technical reasons" relating to arrow and bow materials and "ballistics".  He stated that Howard Hill contended that 27 inches was the ideal length for perfect arrow flight characteristics.

He describes his bow as 6 feet long.

Why does he use a straight-end bamboo longbow?  Because it gets the job done in hunting situations better than any other design or bow material.  Here are the specific 8 reasons given:

 1). Long length means geometrically less deviation potential at distance.  Less error in the trajectory of the arrow.  More forgiveness in the release under hurried or unorthodox situations. A poor release may still kill the animal, whereas with a shorter bow the same error may prove a miss at 30 yards. 

 2). Strength and dependability.  Tempered bamboo Straight ended longbows have 75% of the strength of the bow in the wood and only 25% in the fiberglass.  Other models with hardwood cores and wide flat limbs are just the opposite, and fiberglass is easily fractured.  So if a bow is nicked or dropped on a hunt it is more likely to fail completely if the glass if holding a majority of the weight.  A similarly damaged longbow may survive as there is not as much stress on the glass.

3). Unorthodox shooting.  Shooting from odd or awkward positions is easier with the longbow.  The action and design of the longbow helps in these situations, and if similar shots are tried with a short recurve they would not work "Half as well".

4.) Quiet. The design of the bow makes for the quietest bow of any according to Bob.  This important aspect when shooting at game is often overlooked by folks with "twangy" bowstrings.  If there is any background noise or a slight breeze blowing his bow is hard to detect at 10 feet.  His friend's recurve, "Wow, .....he alerts every animal within 100 yards". Bob did hunt with recurves from time to time.

5). Heavy Arrow. Longbows can accurately propel a heavy shaft  much easier than a short bow or recurve.

6). Stringing. Easier to string without tools, especially heavy bows.  While a recurve is more likely to be twisted or damaged upon stringing.

7). Carrying. the bow does not snag up on foliage like a recurve who's string lays over the curve of the bow.

and un-numbered #8.  He can stuff 3 bows in one tube for transport, whereas only 1 recurve would fit.  

Bob mounted his broadhead vertically, for two reasons. 1). So the back of the head will bite into his knuckle so that he does not overdraw.  and 2). It sights just like his practice arrow.

Bob uses 3 opposing wing feathers on his arrows (left handed using right wing fletch).  His feathers are higher, longer, and have more helical than most bowhunters use.  It straightens out an arrow quicker for shooting through brush and limbs."Better to lose a few feet per second and hit what you're aiming at, then to wiz by a miss".

His bow strings have over 20 strands of Dacron.He also rubs a "great amount" of beeswax on the string and then carefully bakes them in the oven for a few minutes.  This saturates the fibers with wax and when strung hot on the bow results in very little string creep.

Bob also uses dental floss to tie his one nocking point that is 1/8th of an inch above zero.  He wraps the floss crisscross over a loop and pulls the tag end under the nock once completed.  No knots and no loose ends. 

The backquiver.  The large off-the-shoulder quiver serves him the best.  For long trips it holds 3 dozen mixed arrows.  For quick second shots at game or rapid fire trick shooting the quiver has no equal. With any other type of quiver it would take a second or two more. It is also easier to shoot by feel, and easy to slide out of the way when crawling through brush.

Aiming.  Instinctively. He is aware of the arrow tip in his peripheral vision but does not consciously pay attention to it. He gets a feeling things are aligned like pointing a finger. The bowhunter has little time and generally shots are quick and usually not from the traditional upright position.  Shooting at game should be performed without conscious effort and as natural as tying your shoes.

He also advocates strongly for practicing from unorthodox positions "for the archer who desires to hunt - to bring things back once and a while".  Many photos of him shooting from many positions including laying down.

To summarize he also has similar sentiments to Mr. Hill's opinion when learning to choose whether your goal is hunting or targets because the two just don't go together.  Bob states "Seldom will an expert tournament archer make a good hunter and vice versa.  The methods of these two phases of the sport are too conflicting."

I hope you enjoyed reading these jewels of wisdom that are seldom heard, and often scoffed at, in today's popular hunting advice venues.  Mr. Swinehart sure had success using these principles in the not so distant past.  I have been doing the same with great success and so have a small group of other Hill devotees who still carry on the torch that Mr. Hill lit, and those like Swinehart and Schulz helped to promote.  It is a shame that the target mentality is presented today as the only way.... it is not. 

The Longbow - Here Comes The "Pitch", No Silencers

The hunter alert and on one knee struggles to keep the shakes of excitement at bay as the young buck feeds slowly toward a shooting lane through the multiflora.  With a final step, the wait has ended, and the arrow is drawn and smoothly loosed only to lodge in the ground beneath the startled deer.  Turning ends in midair, the buck takes a leap and then freezes.  Minutes tick by as both hunter and deer try to decide what to do next.  Finally, the buck walks nervously over to the where the sound of the arrow impact happened and sniffs around.  By this time the hunter has regained his composure, withdrawn another arrow from his quiver, and this time he does not make the same mistake twice.  The hit is good behind the crease of the front leg and the deer does not go far.  Does this scenario sound familiar to anyone else?  Well, there may be something going on other than just the lack of smarts on the part of a young buck.

I have been dedicated to hunting for many years now with what is known as the American Semi longbow (ASL), also known affectionately to its devotees as the "Hill" style longbow. I have always received questions from others inquiring why I don't have string silencers on my hunting bow.  My answer most times is something like "Well, I never felt the need for them", or "I like simplicity, and I don't want extra stuff hanging from my bow if I can help it".  Since my stint of hunting with recurves for a few years, and then returning to the longbow, I have noticed an increase in follow up shot opportunities when I  do miss.  There may actually be a scientific reason why.

At work I was recently asked to perform some sound level monitoring in the animal housing areas where construction activities were occurring in other parts of the building.  The sounds were not bothersome to the human caretakers or researchers, but they were stressing the animals.  While doing some research on the subject I came across some interesting information with usefulness to the hunter.

Animals can hear high frequency sounds that humans cannot as referenced by the right side of this chart below:

Turner et al., 2005; Adapted from the works of Richard Fay, Henry & Rickye Heffner, and others

This got me thinking that deer might also be affected more by higher pitched sounds that are outside of our ability to detect.  I found a research paper that specified just that. 

H. Heffner, Jr. and H. E. Heffner: JASA Express Letters DOI: 10.1121/1.3284546 Published Online 11 February 2010

Another paper showed how high pitched sounds that were imperceptible to humans can cause a stress response in animals such as an increase in blood pressure on a study of desert mule deer.

So our game animals do notice high pitched sounds in an adverse way that we cannot even hear.  In fact, deer have a better ability to hear higher pitched sounds and a poorer ability to discern low frequency sounds as compared to you or I.   I would have never guessed humans might be able to hear better than a deer, but for lower frequency sounds this is true.

Higher frequency sounds are also very directional in nature.  They are so directional that they can be used in our measuring instruments and by motion detectors that control the door at the supermarket.  Therefore, if an animal does hear a higher pitched sound, it is more likely to be able to pinpoint your exact location faster.  These adaptations no doubt evolved over the millennia to increase the deer's ability to discern the exact location of a predator by the crack of a twig in an instant. Yet this also explains why after a low grunt, a buck will often come in looking around in all directions for the animal that made the sound.

This knowledge has all sorts of implications for the thoughtful hunter.  The clank of an aluminum arrow off the rest, the jangle of keys or change in your pocket while walking, the chatter of our aluminum stand on a branch may be akin to shining a spotlight on your location.  Conversely the deep muffled cough in your sleeve as your allergies react to the musk of decaying leaves in the fall might not be as big a deal.

Then there is my beloved longbow.  Considered slow and inefficient by some compared to modern bow designs, it's long and fat elastic dacron string creates a deep low hum when shot.  It is quiet without the need for string silencers, but it could actually be even quieter to a deer than it is to you or I.  Something to think about now that the current trend in traditional bows is short compact equipment with skinny low stretch strings.