The discussion of how to shoot Howard Hill bows seems endless. You can tune in to almost any of the traditional lists and find almost any information... about half of it directly contradicting the rest. Since becoming involved with HH bows just over two years ago, I have tried very hard to pursue the best information i could get and to share it. One of the things I wanted to do was to visit Bob Wesley's "Whispering Pines" shooting school and take his instruction. I feel Howard Hill established a level of shooting and a way of shooting. Then there was a generation or so of folks who actually learned from Howard. Howard's gone, but that generation that he taught directly is still with us. Bob is the only one of them that I know of who is teaching. Bob is 72. If "Howard's Way" is to be passed on, it will be by those who learned from those who learned from... if you follow that. My friend Tom Ireland and I went to Bob's and we both feel that we are very privileged to have learned from closer to the source than will be possible not too long into the future. This set of pages will be a record of our trip. It is not meant to transer our instruction... that may come at another time. For now, just take my word that the trip I am about to show you was very worthwhile, an experience that I will treasure and that I am confidant it will be relfected in my improved shooting from now on...
Dick
Beginnings and Arrivals
All trips have a beginning. This one began early this year (2007) when Tom Ireland discussed going to Bob's shooting school on the Howard Hill Longbowman's email list. For Tom, it isn't that long or difficult a trip. The school is in North Carolina and Tom is in Maryland. I had considered it and really wanted to, but for me, living in Washington, it was a far longer and more expensive trip. However, when I saw Tom's interest, something sparked and I responded that if he really went, I'd go, too. Tom agreed and made the arrangements for us to go in October. October seemed a long ways off, but somehow, it was suddenly looming on the horizon and I was packing. I was very worried about all the reports of bad airline service... rightly so... so I did not even consider trying to take my bow and equipment with me. I packed my take down Hill Redman, a Lakota quiver and two dozen arrows into a 6" X 36" long pvc tube and mailed it to Tom.
One dozen arrows in a plastic tube, one 60" take down Hill Redman bow in a folded sleeve (with armguard and tab bungeed around it, one Lakota quiver with another dozen arrows in it, one 36" x 6" pvc tube with end caps.
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Previously listed contents neatly inserted into tube. A layer of dacron upholstery fluff was put in first, to pad the bottom. |
Another layer of fluff pads the top, and the end is put on and taped...
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Ready to ship. It went priority both ways for $37 a trip, insured. I mailed it on a Saturday and Tom got it on a Tuesday. On the return trip, he mailed it on Saturday morning and I got it Monday. |
Come the morning of October 8, Ann dropped me at the airport for my flight. I'll let that day be described by the following post that I sent to the list the next day...
"Hi, guys.... Dick here, from Tom's place in MD. Yesterday was
really, truly the day from Hell!! I left home at 4 am and we finally
arrived at Tom's house at 1:30 am this morning. The plane from Seattle
sat on the runway, fully loaded, for over an hour and, of course,
everyone missed the connections in Minneapolis. Once there, they couldn't
get me on a flight to Baltimore... all full. Finally, one person said
they had set me up and gave me a ticket... to Philadelphia via Chicago!
I spent several hours chasing back and forth through the MN airport
fighting the bureaucracy. Of course, all day I'm playing phone games
with my wife and Tom as we tried to keep track of what was going on.
At one point, I really was considering whether, if they couldn't get
me to Baltimore by at least a reasonable time today, we wouldn't make
our schedule for Bob's class, so maybe I should just go back to Seattle.
Anyway, they finally got me on a flight out of MN to Baltimore at
6:30 pm. That flight sat and ran late, too, but finally took off.
We got into Baltimore about 10:30 pm then, so help me, they couldn't
get us off of the plane! Something electrical went wrong with the
Jetway machine that comes up to the door. So, we were kept in the
plane for another 45 minutes. They finally did fix that and we got
off. Then came finding my bag... which had, at least theoretically,
gone out from Seattle on the first delayed flight in the mornning.
Of course, no bag. Somehow, and I have no possible explanation for
this, it finally came off of the carousel as the last bag unloaded
from the plane I actually flew to Baltimore on! Tom was there and
saw this. Neither one of us can figure out any way other than the
supernatural for that bag to have ended up on that plane. Then we
left for Tom's which was a long drive from the airport. Halfway there,
the freeway is stopped, for a long time. Turned out that they were
installing huge I-beams to support a new freeway ramp. So we sat on
the freeway while they juggled I-beams with cranes and got them into
position before letting any traffic move again. So, that was the adventure
of the trip to Tom's... hopefully, the trip to Bob's today will go
a lot better!!!
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As I said, a trip that starts that badly can only get better, right? Actually, for the most part, things did. I had a great time seeing Tom's home. His collection of Western memorabilia, posters and photos is awesome. He is very active in not only traditional archery, but also cowboy action shooting and single shot rifle activities. Here are some pix of Tom's "environment":
Living room, oak Mission style, Remington and early arms company prints, leather... I could definitely be at home here... |
Some of Tom's bows... They're on a wall at the bottom of a stairwell and I couldn't get back far enough for a full shot...
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The den... Tom at the computer... more western posters...
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The other side of the room... |
and the back yard. Tom's land goes over to the trees. A farmer tills the side acreage. Note the deer down in the yard... you'll meet him again later.
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After morning coffee on Tuesday, we left for NC in Tom's Jeep. The drive itself was uneventful... until we arrived. The MapQuest directions we had and the directions we got from our hotel were both way bad and we spent an hour and a half driving up and down the same road looking for the right turnoff to the hotel. I still say we finally found it by accident... but it was a nice hotel...
The Whispering Wind Shooting School Experience
The next morning things started to shape up... we got up, found our morning coffee and biscuits and drove to Bob's with no trouble. Bob lives at the end of a cul de sac, with just enough land for a really tight little 3D range with maybe a dozen and a half animals. I'd give my eyeteeth to be able to have that here, though my own range is nice... In addition to the 3D range, there is a small practice area. In actual fact, we moved constantly from the range areas to the house and even to Bob's club range over both of the two days. Time was divided between Bob giving us information, watching his collection of videos which covered both training elements and just Howard memorabilia, and shooting. After looking over all the pictures, I decided that organizing by location, rather than time sequence, made the most sense.
When we arrived, Bob welcomed us into the house and took us straight up to his studio, which is about as awsome as one room can rightly be. Here are some pix:
Bob's Studio
This is the upper floor of Bob and Fran's house, and simply a room full of treasures. The pictures below were shot at various times during the two days we were there, but when I got home, I found that organizing things by area seemed to make more sense than doing so by time sequence...
The window end of the room. The ceiling is high and, if you pay attention to the ceiling fan, you can shoot up here... we did. Bob had us try various bows into that target bag.
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This is the side wall (to the right as you face the window). These are old photos of Howard, Bob's match arrows and one of Howard's bows. The uprights that suppot the bows once supported the tusks from Tembo. |
Opposite end of the room, to the left of the stairs that you come up. This is Bob's work table with his three Bitzenbergers, more racks of bows to the left.
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We pulled that chair out of the way to show this bow rack behind it.... nice bows... a bit of this and a bit of that and a couple of really nice all bamboo bows made by Bob's good friend Wally Renner. |
This is another work area, just to the right of the window. You can see Bob's spine meter and various tools....
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Bob set up his chronograph and we both chrono'ed our bows. We both got 150 fps, which is normal for a hand released bow of the weight and draw we were using. Both Tom and I being properly built fellows, i.e. of good, low to the ground balance and some sturdiness, neither of us has a very long draw...
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and here is a nice shot of Bob. His home is full of many treasures. You are looking at two longbows made by the Official Bowyer to the Queen of England. The Queen has an historic company of Scottish archers, and the gentleman who made these bows is responsible for making theirs.
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Bob's video starts out with his hunt for a wild Russion boar. This is that boar... Nasty looking fellow, isn't he? |
The Whispering Pines Shooting Range
As I noted earlier, the range is extremely compact, a system of interweaving trails with shots at different angles as you go.
Here is a tour:
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Sherwood Forest is a cool, shady woods, compact, but with lots of game...
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These shots actually show only maybe a fourth of the targets placed in this little glade...
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At the front of the woods, there is a flat area with a target box and a big target, plus the free-standing backstop for bow bird shooting. |
Here Bob is preparing our "work sheets". He emphasizes recording all your shooting sessions, scoring them and making a record of what went wrong and what you'll work on next.
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Here Bob and Tom are weighing the draw on Tom's bow. |
The early shooting sessions were based on developing form. I took pictures of Tom to show what I'm talking about. It's probably a good thing that Tom didn't take pictures of me!
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Here Bob has Tom set up to his satisfaction, so, finally, Tom gets to shoot...
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Oops... Tom's main "work on" turns out to be controlling his hand after release. He tends to drop it or move it outwards. (Just for the record, my main work ons were/are too fast releasing and failure to reach full draw.)
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Hey! I think he's got it!! |
Does Bob's system work? He started us out shooting at the target box to the left in the photo above. Once he was satisfied with our form, he moved us over in front of the big target, which had a pristine, new face on it. He then reviewed "indirect aiming", told where to "indirect aim", and had us each take two shots. I have to say that coming from having spent two years learning to shoot what I though of as "purely instinctive" I really had doubts that indirect aiming would work for me very easily. I had psyched myself that I would have to make more adjustment than most folks, or that my adjustment would be somehow different. Well, above you see Tom's and my first two shots each. Note, I said first two... there are no other holes in that pristine target face. Bob told us where to indirect aim, and this is the result. I wish i'd had someone down range to get photos of our grins...
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This is later... there are quite a few holes in the target face, but this is one of my indirect aiming groups after just a bit of practice. Mind you, this is still the first day, early afternoon... |
Both Tom and I kind of politely declined to get involved with learning/trying any moving target training. We wanted to concentrate on what we felt were beginning to grasp. Bob was a bit disappointed by this. We could tell he likes moving/aerial shooting. He does have this "running boar" target in the woods and put a balloon on it. I thought I was going to shoot it still, but he pulled the rope and made it move. I can't in honesty call it a running boar... more of an ambling boar... but hey, I'll take that arrow where it's sticking in the broken balloon at any shoot, any time, anywhere.
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No story of Whispering Pines would be complete without Fran Wesley, Bob's wife. Fran was warm and welcoming to us as guests in her home, and prepared delicious lunches and dinners for us. She, like Bob, is an archer. At one time, they held a husband/wife tradtional title. |
Visit to Broken Arrow Archery Club Range
Part of each afternoon was spent in a visit to Bob's local archery club range. This is the Broken Arrow Archery Club, the oldest in North Carolina and only a couple of miles from Bob's home. It's a beautiful facility and we really enjoyed our time there.
Two handsome archers... Tom and Bob
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Bob and Tom pulling arrows... Hey! One of those in in the kill zone.. |
Me and Tom on the same target. Now see, If I weren't an honest man, I wouldn't have shown the previous picture... Yeah, there were more arrows showing in that one.
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A fine archer and a fine gentleman... Bob Wesley |
We spent more time with Bob and Fran after our second visit to the Broken Arrow range, but I somehow knew when I snapped this shot that I would want it to be the final picture of Bob that I would post as part of this display... There's a lot of history behind this man, and he's still moving forward... I'd like to think this pictue shows that. Many, many thanks to Bob for his help and knowledge and to Fran for her gracious hospitality and good cooking. My apologies, Fran, for gettng so taken up in the archery that i never got a picture of you for this story.
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Folks seem to have a somewhat difficult time finding info on Bob's school. It doesn't come up on Google for me. Sometimes it's called Whisperin' Pines and sometimes Whispering Pines. Either brings up hundreds of camps and resorts. Here are some direct contact links to Bob and to his homepage.
Contacting Bob Wesley about Whispering Pines:
Bob Wesley,
Web Site: http://hometown.aol.com/weshood/
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Back to Tom's
After our final dinner with Bob and Fran, it was back to the hotel. The next morning, we drove back to Tom's in Hagerstown. We were pretty tired guys, but just had to do a little more shooting before I packed everything up and got it ready to ship back home. We went down to the deer target in Tom's yard and I decided that I would try, on my first shot, to put into practice everything I had learned. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate....
and shoot...
Indirect aiming... as taught by Bob Wesley at the Whispering Pines Archery School
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And, again in the interest of honesty, no, I can't do that every time... but when I do it right, I know it, and I'll practice, as Bob taught me, and I'm confidant I'll shoot better tomorrow than I can today, and better still the day after that.
Thanks, Bob.
Dick Wightman
Captain Dick
My Progress
If anyone should be interested, I built another set of pages documenting my progress in applying the lessons learned at Whispering Pines. It covers my first month home and shows just how I went about my practice routine and the results. Here's a link: