John Shulz - Hitting 'Em Like Howard Hill

[Music] i learned to do that from howard hill and i can teach you to do the same [Music] hello i'm don johnson in his early 20s john schulz was privileged to be introduced to archery by the great howard hill this being the only instruction he received in the sport he has never deviated from that style hunting and shooting the hill style when his busy schedule allows has produced for him nearly all western big game and almost every variety of small game and game birds since the 1950s he has shot exhibitions for business clubs fairs scouts and schools patterning them after his mentor howard hill having learned the art of bow making directly from hill he's been building bows for over 30 years and is best known for his famous american longbow in john's copy of hunting the hard way i penned these words by howard hill to my long time friend and hunting partner john schulz now this inscription would be an honor and inspiration to any truly devoted bowhunter since it came from a man who was undoubtedly the greatest bowhunter ever it would be an uninformed individual who would argue as to who is the all-time greatest bowhunter howard hill's records on film in diary and eyewitness accounts establish him in that capacity to have been his friend was a rare privilege to have hunted with him an unforgettable experience few indeed are those who were personally instructed by him who shot with him hunted with him and drank his campfire coffee even fewer are those who have sat in his home time and again while he related hunting stories and described years of experience john scholes was one of those privileged few what success john has had in shooting the bow he attributes to god and howard hill it is howard's inspiration that has motivated john to present these basics of shooting it is john's desire that the greatness of this legendary archer may live on and that you too will be hypno like howard hill during all my years of traveling across this country shooting the bow speaking putting on bow hunting seminars it's been my observation that most archers would like to be successful bow hunters and yet most of them are frustrated in that desire this video presentation is about the shooting style of the greatest bow hunter and bowshot of all time the legendary howard hill it seems that nowadays there are two howard hills one who's the result of a lot of exaggerated claims and descriptions of outlandish feats the other one provable fact i've read many things and heard many things about howard some of them are disturbing others are humorous i remember hearing about one fellow that said howard could draw a knock an arrow so fast and could shoot so quickly that his second arrow would catch the first one before the first one hit the target let's set the record straight years ago my brother dan and i had a debate with some local target shooters who were telling us that howard hill wasn't much of a shooter as far as paper and scores a few days later we went over to howard's house telling him about the argument we'd had and without comment he called his wife he said libba bring that shoe box in here in just a minute or two mrs hill came into the room with a shoe box about that size howard without comment took the lid off the box and the box was over half full of medals in one sweeping gesture typical of howard he dumped the contents on the coffee table and looking at us said look him over carefully boys there's not a second place in the whole bunch howard hill won 196 field tournaments in succession when he dropped out of competition in the late 40s he was undefeated in that field howard hill shot in three worlds fairs 14 major sportsman shows for years he was a regular feature at the los angeles sportsman's show howard hill was the highest paid performer with the bow and arrow ever when he filmed the last wilderness in the area around cody wyoming at the end of his stay in front of a witness he shot an arrow at a bull elk one arrow over shot the second arrow under the bull the third one a direct hit in the chest witness stepped off distance 185 paces during that same film and recorded on that film he's the first white man to ever take a big horn ram with a bow and arrow in that famous robin hood with arrow flynn howard actually and intentionally split the arrow in the bull's eye in his lifetime he killed over 2 000 pieces of game of which over 430 were big game animals on february 27 1950 archery history was written and howard hill gained the unique distinction of being the first white man ever to kill a bull elephant with a bow and arrow he killed three zip newman former sports editor of the birmingham alabama news once said never has one man so completely dominated his sport as howard hill his native state of alabama confirmed that in 1971 by inducting him into her archery sports hall of fame the single most impressive thing about howard hill shooting style was not his accuracy although he was awesomely accurate the thing that left you scratching your head was his cool casual and fluid style of shooting the bow to best illustrate this style let me tell you a little story that'll describe what i'm trying to show you when we were in utah on my first hunt with howard we spent the night down a little town called beaver the next morning our host gus demas of salt lake was taking us up to camp all the way up to camp he was telling how many deer there were in the area and howard said well if there's that many deer i'll kill one before i get to camp he pulled his car over strung his bow put on his arm guard and shooting glove and laid his broadhead arrows on the duffel so he could pull one out some miles later we were almost a cam came around abandoned three deer ran across the road howard stopped the car got out opened and closed the door a time or two and gus said howard what are you doing he said i want to see how spooky those deer are he said don't spook one shoot one howard said you want me to shoot one of those he said yeah we need some camp me now here's my point in one motion howard turned reached took his bow in this hand an arrow broadhead arrow by the knock knocked his arrow as he was turning begins his draw swings shoots and makes a perfect chest hit 65 steps i stepped it off and i tracked the deer a casual fluid style of shooting the bowl but it always got results this style of his is without question the most conducive to bow hunting under any and all hunting conditions i believe the most important words that howard ever said to my brother dan and me were boys make up your mind what you want to do hunt or shoot target because the two just don't go together it is this style that i want to teach you step-by-step detail by detail if you'll view these scenes over and over again and practice what i am about to show you i guarantee that it will improve your bow hunting success let me emphasize that this is the hill style as he taught me personally and privately [Music] there are some others that claim to represent his style you better check their credentials you will be misinformed one fellow wrote in a national magazine regarding howard's style of shooting the bowl he said that at the moment of release you relax both hands that'll get you a cracked nose and some loose teeth howard held of some unwavering principles in perfecting and shooting to him these were absolute love [Music] he stressed what every athlete knows is of utmost importance and that is proper form [Music] while learning this form which is your foundation you shouldn't deviate from that form for several weeks and don't put any target on the bales to try to hit a target and concentrate on learning your form just won't work [Music] when howard was nearly 60 years old he would periodically go out and shoot anywhere from 50 to maybe 100 arrows for form following into detail the steps that i'm about to show you howard used to say about form if your form is right you won't be too far off at 50 yards now don't dismiss this as too simple it's the foundation for all the hill style of proper hunting shooting technique learn it practice it and it'll get results for you what i want to cover is basic form drawing anchor release knocking arrows and siding let me tell you something static style won't get it you don't walk through the woods with your bow arm extended and yet it amuses me that so many bow hunters when they get ready to shoot they extend that arm and draw the bow back that's tournament style and i personally don't believe that tournament style fits in the woods now you may make some hits under ideal conditions but you know i've hunted since i was a boy rifle and shotgun and then in these last years with a bow and those ideal conditions are few and far between it's a fact that most traditional bow hunters usually shoot lower scores on paper but have a higher bow hunting success in learning this style one of the most important things and i'll emphasize it over and over again is the angle of the shoulder to the target howard faced his pupil at right angles to the target bow hand hangs loosely at the side and as we begin our draw the bow hand will come up in a straight line toward the target the drawing hand will come up across the chest almost to its apex and then take a straight back motion to the corner of the mouth now if you'll watch this it becomes one fluid continuous motion the bow hand comes up the drawing hand comes up finishes in a straight back motion to coordinate this right the bow hand must rise slightly faster than the drawing hand the reason being that when the bow hand is on target this hand the drawing hand should be at the corner of the mouth shouldn't be any unnecessary hesitation when you're at anchor you ought to be on target and ready to release all right now let's watch that again this is just the basic drawing form the bow hand comes up and the drawing hand follows coming in a straight back line to the anchor which is at the corner of the mountain you don't want the straight back motion to be more than about six or eight inches otherwise you lose the mobility of the whole idea in this style of shooting all right we'll do it one more time basic position the shoulder always at right angle to what you're shooting at this never changes whatever else your body position might be that will never change always remember that shoulder the bow arm shoulder stays in line with the target you're shooting at all right we draw up and we come straight back to the corner of our mouth just exactly where you anchor will vary according to your facial structure i try to anchor with my middle finger actually at the corner of my mouth all right then after you've come that far in your basic form you'll notice that as i come to anchor the body takes a slight word slight forward motion the head is tilted at anchor my fingers are at the corner of my mouth and my thumb is below my ear and behind my jawbone if you learn to do that right in reality you'll have two reference points or two anchors so watch carefully head forward body forward the bow cannon it comes up straight back motion add anchor and you're ready for release now at the release this is a very critical part of the shooting you pick up the string at about the first joints the little finger is back you can use your thumb to depress it if you want if you don't learn to keep that little finger back you'll get a soft release i call it if you'll hold it back and out of the way it gives you more resilience in your release now at anchor as we've come up and at anchor there should be no flying away from the face the bow hand should remain in your face it might take a slight backward motion but no coming back no coming away from the face you want to remember you come to anchor the fingers just move smoothly forward all right now look at my bow hand that bow hand stays stationary the first thing if you'll notice when i picked up the bow and began my draw i got a hold of it howard used to say get a hold of it healed the bow that's contrary to tournament shooting but howard healed the bow exerted a little pressure and you'll find that'll work fine for you as you come up and you make your release if you'll heal that bow just a little keeping that broken elbow you won't get any forward cast you won't get any side cast you won't get a down howard's rule was upon release with both hands do nothing in other words be stationary and he would make us hold that position until the arrow was in the target that's proper follow-through the only time that might vary is on moving targets and that would depend on the speed of your target other than that try to keep the hands as stationary as possible let's repeat that and do it again and this time i'll shoot some arrows we're talking about our basic form our feet about shoulder width apart our bow hand comes up straight in line with the leg the drawing hand comes diagonally across the body until it's almost at the top of the draw then it takes a straight back motion until it finds its anchor at the corner of the mouth i want you to watch the fingers as i release how they move just forward the hand stays in the face watch the bow hand no kicking to the side no down cast and then watch my upper body position as i lean forward toward my shot tilting my head just a little all right the bow hand stayed stationary the anchor just let the fingers come forward at release what's this again watch how the bow hand rises just slightly faster than the drawing hand head stays tilted wants the thumb under the ear no motion this hand's steady this hand stayed in the face that's proper form and follow-through to properly draw and knock an arrow you have to learn to handle it right and that's by the knock when we were learning to shoot learning the finer points of handling arrows drawing and shooting a bowl howard insisted that we handle our arrows by the knock that's where you control the arrow the only time that we could handle an arrow anywhere else was if we were carrying an arrow like going through rugged country if you had a broad head arrow or if you were evaluating the arrow checking it for straightness or fracture anything like that other than that howard would have us handle the arrow by the knot the reason for that is and i'm referring to using a back quiver that's the way you ought to handle an arrow most bow hunters today place their arrow on the bowl pass it across the bow over the string draw it back to the string that's a wasted motion needless effort on your part another thing about modern bow hunters the majority of them knock under the knocking point in doing so they have to do just what i demonstrated i knock above howard hill knocked above now there's a reason for it when you draw an arrow out of a back quiver you come to your string these fingers will trap the string the knocking point catches the knock as it slides down you rotate your hand and you're in position to begin your draw now i watch i'm going to do that again and emphasize all those points you come out of your quiver these fingers i call it trapping the string they work as a funnel you come to the string with your knock it slides down the knocking point stops it rotates your hand and you're ready to begin your draw i'm going to demonstrate that and when you practice it you should practice drawing and knocking without looking at first you'll have to cheat and look down if you hold your bowl and drop the string just a little this limb up slightly you'll be able to funnel that arrow to the knocking point in pretty good order now watch draw knock rotate my hand i'm in position to shoot draw knock rotate in position to shoot draw knock rotate position to shoot no knock rotate you're in position to shoot there's an important reason for being able to draw and knock arrows like i just demonstrated years ago i was hunting in utah after a long afternoon hunt i came on two bucks about 60 yards downhill one big buck standing looking away the other one bedded under the edge of a fir tree i got in position to shoot and as i made my shot i elevated a little too much flat missed the first buck he broke and ran downhill the second buck broke to my left and as he did i drew knocked an arrow started my draw swung around and shot and collected one of the biggest bucks of my bow hunting career that second arrow and the ability to get it out of the quiver and on the string will pay off for you in hunting situations it's so important to learn to control an arrow by the knock because really that's where you control it most fellows today when they draw an arrow have a tendency to squeeze it and in doing so you'll squeeze it away from the bow to do it right you let the string roll as you draw with your finger slightly forward when you draw that way and the string rolls it actually exerts pressure which puts the arrow against your bone learn to draw it that way and roll it and you have complete control you don't have to use the finger out here except on rare occasions if you'll practice that and learn to draw letting the fingers come slightly forward in the string roll you will have total control of the arrow from any shot now watch this next shot [Music] one more time now this whole style must be synchronized and smooth you don't draw fast and then come to anchor and hold keep an even rhythm all the way through when we were first learning to shoot howard would actually have us count one two three four shoot if you'll practice this you'll pick up speed and the longer you work at it the faster you'll become until you're finally [Music] fast [Music] so that's shooting for speed shooting for speed is essential in a lot of situations i remember one time howard said that it's shooting at game you can shoot more accurately by shooting fast than by taking your time the biggest buck that i ever killed in my whole bow hunting career today gave me less than three seconds to shoot from the time he came into view and the time that i released my arrow i had to step kneel draw and shoot and i made my shot and one of my nicest trophies hangs on my living room wall speed shooting is essential in bull hunting to cite properly most essential thing is in tilting your head and varying the can of your bow when you anchor at the corner of your mouth as the hill style teaches rather than under your chin you cut the angle of deflection almost in half by that i mean the line of sight from your eye to your arrow tip when you can't the bow you cut that even more when you tilt the head as you begin your shooting that cuts that angle even more the reason that we do this so when you're shooting let's say at 20 yards and you have anchored at the corner of your mouth tilted your head and canted the bow you cut the angle of deflection down so that instead of correcting let's say eight or ten inches your correction is cut to maybe a third so your amount of correction at any distance is not as great as it is when the bow is in a straight up and down position there's some fellows who've taken me to task and said that howard never buried the cannabis bowl but i know better i shot with him hundreds and hundreds of times the closer you are to your target especially shooting downhill the more you would bury the can of your bow howard's style of shooting was called a secondary vision peripheral vision some call it gap shooting it's not point of aim when you do this style of shooting you concentrate on the spot you're shooting at and in your peripheral or secondary vision you know where that knuckle point of the era whatever you'll use as a reference point wherever that is in line to the spot you're shooting at friend of mine up in montana a few years ago came to me and he said i'm having a little trouble shooting a bear out of a tree stand he gave me a few particulars and i said to him now i can tell you how you're missing and then i can tell you why and he got a little bit of a grin on his face and he said all right i'm ready to hear it i said you're shooting down out of that tree stand and you're shooting high and left he nodded his head and he said well you got the first part right and i said all right i'm going to tell you why i said shooting your normal style with a bow straight up and down and you're trying to shoot down at that bear you can't possibly correct enough in that position out of that tree stand and therefore you're shooting high and left i said now the next time that bear comes in or the next time you shoot at a bear if he's under about 25 yards you just lay that bow over flat and look right at the spot you want to hit and you'll kill your bear he didn't tell me for until some time later that he went home he doubted my word he got up on the peak of his garage and he threw some milk jugs out in the yard and he said i was absolutely astonished at how more accurately i would shoot by laying the bow over flat than i would in my straight up and down normal tournament style of shooting and you know just a few days later in a tree stand all about a bow shot distance from his i had the satisfaction of watching a big black bear come in from behind him walking at a pretty good clip walked out at about 25 yards and as that bear came into his view he laid that bow over drew and shot made a perfect shot and collected a nice trophy the bear going hardly distant any distance at all remember though whether you use a gap method whether you use howard's peripheral vision secondary vision the single most important thing that you can remember when you're shooting in a game animal is to concentrate on the spot when a fellow tells me he missed a game animal and shot about that far over his back i tell him you were shooting at the whole animal pick a spot concentrate on that one spot try to black out everything else don't look at his antlers or don't look at the size of the animal pick a hair a shadow whatever you can and how you used to call it bore a hole through it concentrate on it look right at that spot and you'll hit it most of the time my son tom has excellent howard hill form and howard would have been proud of his shooting ability using tom as a student we'll go through the basic form and i'll cover each important step of that form emphasizing that step pointing out the correct procedure and you'll be able to see it with each shot as he executes that form properly he takes the basic stand his feet are about shoulder width apart watch the bow arm comes up straight he's into his anchor the fingers move smoothly forward his hand remains stationary all right do another shot smooth as he comes up into his anchor fingers forward the bow hand never moves all right another shot watch him draw and knock that arrow without looking down he got it on his string he's going to roll up [Music] everything's synchronized watch one more arrow watch the straight line between the point of the arrow and the elbow his hand at his anchor all right shoot one more this time i'm going to have him slow it down just a little so that you can see the straight line elbow to the point of the arrow excellent form well let's see if he learned to do it right i'll have him do a little wing shooting here in just a minute and we'll see how he does on that with my other son james helping tom on his wing shooting let's see if tom can change the dollar for you [Music] [Music] that's great shooting boys with james's help tom shot a silver a half a quarter and a dime for you i think he learned to do it right to transfer this form to moving targets like tom just shot you must stay smooth and synchronized in all your movements again i'm going to emphasize the static style it won't work you can't extend that arm and lock that shoulder in you've got to keep fluid and you do that by keeping the elbow bent draw in rhythm to the speed of your target swing with it don't draw and wait for it don't anticipate it let me illustrate that by talking about natural reactions you're hunting along in thick cover and as you come out into a small clearing on the other side of the clearing you see a buck head down sneaking out to your left natural reaction you would draw move with the animal maybe take a little knee lead and shoot that's natural reaction or you're coming through thick timber and you step out into a clearing and spook a buck he breaks to your leg left running as hard as he can natural reaction would swing the bow up swing with him substantially in front of him and release the arrow natural reaction is what you generally would do unless you've been conditioned otherwise natural reaction is great but natural reaction by itself won't get it what has to precede it is hours and hours of practice of this swing draw howard called it a swing draw or spread draw i like the term swing draw because that's just exactly what you do you swing up on your target or you swing with your target most fellows that have had some experience in shotgun shooting usually pick this style up real readily i've heard howard in answer to how do you do it say well you just point and shoot him where they are other times he would go into detailed explanation and that might sound like an open oversimplification but in reality it's not you draw with your target point and shoot a friend of mine came to wyoming several years ago drew a sheep tag up there and if i remember right the only opportunity he had for a big horn ram he saw three rams coming down off the hill in a pretty good run they were going to go through a clearing at about 40 yards he told me himself that what he did was out of the corner of his eye watch those rams approach draw an anchor and hold on that opening and when the first ram came into view he released and he missed not only the first one but the second one and the last one now i might have missed them too but i believe you would have come a lot closer to collecting your trophy if when those rams came into view you picked the one you were going to shoot at pick the spot swung your bow with it took the lead and shot that's the only way that you can make those moving targets and hit them with any consistency now remember this is called a swing draw howard used to practice it many times without a bow i've seen him walking from his shop to the house and something would catch his eye and he would draw an imaginary bow and shoot at it or a bird would fly through the air and with nothing in his hand he would go through the motions so you can practice it the same way but remember it's a swing draw you want to stay fluid and keep your drawing speed anchor release all synchronized to the movement of your target you'll notice that sometimes when i shoot a moving target my drawing hand just passes anchor i don't lock in necessarily but it passes anchor and then occasionally you'll see my bow hand maybe come away that's follow and that's permissible on moving targets i want to demonstrate some moving targets for you shoot some discs out of the air you watch closely my bow hand watch how i follow the target up with my eye how i swing with it and then shoot according to the position of the target follow it closely and i think you'll get the idea of shooting the moving targets [Music] all right let's do another one you notice i came up with the target followed it from down at james's hand all right all right now watch as we shoot the next one all right [Music] all right this shooting style will work from just about any position and if you've had much hunting experience you know that you can get into some real unorthodox positions trying to make a shot on game you remember earlier in the presentation i emphasize the fact that whatever your body position your shoulder stays at right angles to your target if you'll notice in a sitting down position like this i'll have to bring the bow from behind but it is still the swing gaw as i come up i basically use that form in all these positions you watch and you'll see it's possible to shoot from the most unorthodox positions with the howard hill style [Music] both knees [Music] one knee [Music] seated [Music] [Music] if you'll faithfully practice this form as i've shown you you'll soon be shooting your bow in that same cool casual style as enjoyed by howard hill you'll also be amazed at how accurate this style is on even the most intricate targets let's see what we can do with an aspirin all right that my friends is hitting him like howard hill [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Scott Dobbs

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Id: nMMrSC1mBOY

Length: 44min 22sec (2662 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021