twooldhills

I was recently blessed with the opportunity to obtain a Hill bow from the early fiberglass production period. This is not the truly antique Hill period, pre-war, when he was doing all wood bows with silk thread wrapping for reinforcement, but more a very early version of the bows as they are still being made today. I was approached by the owner, who wanted help selling it. I frankly wasn't sure of the value but told him that if I could afford it I'd certainly like to buy it myself. I discussed some of the prices for really vintage Hills with documented provenance and what older glass Hills sold for. I offered him a price between, and advised that I would be glad to try to get more for him, which I assumed is what I would be doing. To my surprise, and great pleasure, he told me that he wanted to bow to go to someone who understood it and appreciated it more than he wanted to just sell it to the highest bidder, and accepted my offer. Then came the wait...

I had a scheduled trip to Florida and had to leave on that. While I was gone Ann told me a bow had arrived. Now I was really anxious to get home! Getting this bow would be an event in itself, but one of the emails I received while I was gone turned out to be the owner of another early glass Hill! He, too, seeking information. It turned out that his bow was the identical twin of mine! How likely is that?

Unfortunately I arrived home too late and too tired to do anything but collapse. However, the next day was another story. I've now had a chance to gather my wits and deal with this new bow and put together its background and that of the other bow like it. I'm going to try to present all of this kind of as it came to me, using the emails to present the information. I not only learned a bit more about Hill bows but had the opportunity shoot a really vintage example. I'm going to start with the posts that introduced me to my bow, "Golden Eagle", then my introduction to "Little Fawn", then my shooting experience with Eagle.

Here is the information that I received about the bow via emails from the owner:

>>Hopefully you can be of some help? I aquired a Howard Hill "Golden Eagle" longbow from an uncle of mine who passed away. I sent photos of it to the Howard Hill Company and they had told me it is an original that was made sometime in the 50's. I am not a collector so it is just sitting in the basement collecting dust. I do value archery equipment and believe this bow could use a better home than my basement.

>>>I had contacted the Howard Hill company in the past and from what they told me there may be more than meets the eye with this bow. They said it was built by Hill and explained to me how he named his bows by seeing an animal and just naming the bow he was building at the time. So that may be where the Golden Eagle name came from, but another Hill expert told me it wasn’t made by Hill and asked me to send it to him so he could look at it, but I really felt uncomfortable just sending this bow to some guy. The Uncle I got the bow from was Bernie Muscha, he had made bows and was pretty popular, so I've heard around archery circles, and may have even had connections with Hill. I was mostly interested in the beginning about trying to find the point of origin of this bow and get the story on it, Like you said there is no way of knowing for sure. I trust your judgement, and if for some odd reason this thing does turn out to be more than what it is then at least its in the hands of someone who will know what to do with it and appreciate it.

OK... there you have the background of this bow. Now for what you've really been waiting for, some bow pix:

The bow and sock. (The knife, one I made year ago, was on the table from opening the tube, so it got included)	The shelf is bordered by a stiff leather that is noticably higher than the shelf itself, forming a distinct lip holding the arrow in. Note the writing on on the sock flap.
Signature and yellow glass on belly...
Thin green glass on back. Note the visible weave. I may be wrong, but I think this is actually fiberglass roving, applied to the finished bow, not the stiff manufactured pieces we use today. It follows the curvature of the outer bamboo lam and even the swelling of what was left of the bamboo nodes.	Riser appears to be maple or possibly myrtle. Typical deep grip that Howard liked.
Upper tip is elongated for easy stringing with a bow stringer. Again, not the visible glass weave.	Bottom tip is stubby.
Strung, nice curve... This was taken after my shooting session and the string has stretched, leaving about a 5" brace height, which will be corrected when I twist the stretched string up and serve it.	Bow is 69 1/2" nock to nock, 71 1/4" overall.
This marking turned out to be not magic marker, but black paint, and came right off with steel wool.	Here you can see the lams. The back and front lams are heavier, but there are four all together. Nodes are ground off of the belly lam but are still detectable on the back.

Now, here is the post I sent to the Howard Hill email list today, right after shooting the bow:

I just came in from shooting a Howard Hill bow that I really think was made by him. There is even a possibility that it might have been his own. I'll be writing much much more on this story, but right now I'm just vibrating and had to share. Please bear in mind that this is surmise, speculation based on the background information on the two bows and personal belief... no museum acceptable provenance. However, the information has come my way that at least opens this possibility.

The bow came to me marked "60 29" in very ugly magic marker. No string. It's in good shape, obviously old. Thin green glass with visible weaving on the back, yellow glass on the belly. Has four lams of bamboo. The front lam is way thicker than the other three and still has, if you look carefully, raised nodes and a visible surface arc. It's apparent that this lam was not machine processed, but scraped or sanded down to the finish they wanted... kind of a "we made a bow board, but we laminated the board out of bamboo, then we backed it with full natural bamboo, just as others do with board bows". It's a full 70" long, maybe a bit more. The old canvas and leather sock is marked "Howard Hill" in the leather, as I've seen before, but is also marked in black stencil ink on the flap "King 72".... possibly designating a model before the Big Five? My best guess on age is circa 1952/53.

Query>>> Was Howard glassing before Africa? I'll look it up later, but I figure someone here knows... Bob?

First thing to do was make a string. I enjoy making strings but man, I suck at it! Took me three tries to get the right length. I strung it up and went through the stretch it (the bow, not the string) and let it rest, then stretch it more and let it rest again routine for a bow that hasn't been shot for a long time. I took an hour to get it to full draw. It showed up as 50@28 on the scale (Yeah!!! Not 60!!!) and 43@25. This means a couple of things... first, it is, barely shootable by me (!) and second, since it obviously lost only 7 pounds for 3" of short draw, the original power curve was tillered to come in early and settle down some toward the end. This means that for my short draw, I should still get a goodly portion of the bow's built in power and speed.

So, OK, no serving or nock yet (I never serve till the string has stretched overnight) but I slipped a piece of masking tape on, grabbed some arrows and went shooting!
Started in the driveway... Whew! That is a heavy draw for me... I took five shots, using my old 1916 arrows. It was obvious I need to stretch the muscles and warm them up to draw this bow, but I still kept all five shots in the red at 12 yds. the arrows seemed a bit heavy, so I grabbed some 1816's and took both sets out to the back.
First target was my deer at 13 yds.... I decided to try the 1816's. First two were about 2" right of the kill zone, but correct elevation. OK, spine a bit light but I can adjust. I pulled those two and went back... five straight in the zone! However, they did show definite light spine kick.

Second effort... moved over to the bear from 18 yds. and to the 1916 arrows. What's this? Two shots in the neck, well centered but high. Hmm... OK maybe these arrows aren't as heavy for the bow as I thought, once I'm warmed up. I pulled those two and stared over.... five straight in the kill zone. This is fun!

Third effort... out to 30 yards, my ultimate test... ooops... pride goeth before a couple of arrows in the dirt! It took me two five arrow rounds to find myself at 30, but I finally put five arrows in the bear's body... all below the kill zone, but not bad. By this time, the string had stretched a good 1 1/2", making for a way low brace height, and I had noted that two of the arrows were ok on the masking tape, while the other three were clearly too tight. Time to go in...

Well, not really, let's try a couple of "in the brush" animal shots... Howard would... So it went to the back under the trees and bushes and took two at my javelina... a nickle and a kill zone. Then three at my coyote... all good shots and together, but all a little high. First two in the neck and third just above the zone.

This bow is something else, and shooting it is an indescribable feeling. I told Ann that while I hadn't planned to go, I might have to take this bow to the Safari.

What's next? Well, influenced by that 60 on the riser, I made my strings 14 strand... no need... I'll make another 12 strand and it will fit my nocks better. I'll carefully sand or steel wool off the magic marker marks and refinish just the riser, leaving everything else as is.

... and here are the shooting pix.. This isn't great shooting, by any means, but remember, this is with a new, untried bow, a bit too heavy for me, no nock point, no tuning to speak of and a stretching string (is that enough excuses?):

13 yds with 1816's	18 yds with 1916's
30 yds with 1916's... obviously this needs work...	about 14 yds... these were nice, pleasing shots...
18 yds

Yesterday afternoon I made up a new 12 strand string and left it stretching overnight. Today I served it, nocked it properly and put it on, giving the bow a brace of 6" I'm really pleased with it; it may be the best string I've made yet. The brace could maybe be a bit higher but I'll try this for awhile. Might be fine with my short draw. I had picked up a set of new 1916's, beautifully fletched, a couple of years ago and still had them. I put 100 gr. tips on six of them and went shooting. Whee! Much better results... really promising. At 20 yards, holding all shots in the kill zone on my bear was pretty easy. I had a couple of three arrow 3" groups. At 30 yds. I still dropped several low before getting the feel of it but finished up with a flight that had four out of six arrows in the zone. I can tell this bow is heavy for me, my shoulder hurts a bit, but I'm really working on trying to get my back to come more into the picture again. Overall, what a thrill to shoot.

As I mentioned, among the emails waiting for me was one asking for identification help on an early Hill, which appears to be nearly an identical twin to Golden Eagle. Here's the email info and pix I got on that:

>>>Good Morning:

I wonder if you could please help me? We first met Howard Hill by invitation at a hunting camp in the mountains above Beaver, Utah, in the early 1950's. After the supper he fixed for Mom, Dad, and me we sat around the fire and the grownups swapped hunting stories (I was only about 11-12 at the time). Mr. Hill was kind enough to write a sentiment and autograph it for me . . . I still have it.

A few years later a gentleman from Hollywood showed up on Mom's doorstep with a longbow in hand. Seems he regularly read her column "Outdoor Wife" in Archery Magazine. He remembered the article in which Mom related the meeting with Mr. Hill, and asked if she would accept the bow given to him personally by Mr. Hill. He explained that he and Howard had become friends while making Mr. Hills movies, but that the bow would probably mean more to her than him..

Would you have time to review the attached photos and volunteer an opinion about the authenticity of the bow. Thanks for any opinion you can offer.<<<

>>>I forgot one important bit of info in my e-mail yesterday with all the pics for identification. The gentleman who gave the bow to Mom said that it was one of Mr. Hill's personal bows. I can find no production markings on it anywhere that would indicate otherwise.

>>>Craig e-mailed me confirming that he had heard of "Little Fawn". That plus his statement that Hill never put production marks on his personal bows is what has me believing I have one.<<<
<<<

Shelf is very similar to Golden Eagle, no strike plate, but it looks to me as if there was one at one time... note what appears to be a circular glue stain on the shelf.	Note the glass grain. This appears to be slightly later manufactured glass, with a linear construction rather than roving, and that the glass is flat, not applied over a curved bamboo surface. This makes me think it may be a bit later than Golden Eagle.


Appears to be an old linen string... Is that neat, or what?

Comments: What a wonderful opportunity to see and compare two bows of this vintage. I've seen, and had the opportunity to buy, much older ones, but passed because of the price and the fact that I wouldn't be willing to shoot them. Shows what a wonderful thing the introduction of glass was to those of us who like old bows.

I've read and thought and analyzed and talked with folks whose opinions I value, and while I know it will probably never be provable, I believe I actually do have a true Howard Hill bow. I think that with Craig's input on Little Fawn and the obvious similarity between the two bows, a strong case can be made that these bows were made by Howard, and quite possibly used by him. Unless someday a photo or letter or something comes along, this will remain a belief. I'll keep hoping that someday there may be proof. Meantime, ask me how much I enjoy shooting my "Hill bow"?