Doug McCoy Traditional Archery.
Copyright 2009 Doug McCoy
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* I shoot entirely instinctively and I’m not concerned with the distance to the target in terms of yards. I’m only concerned with the distance
to the target in “feel.” My bow is canted at 15 or 20 degrees at whatever angle is required to get my eye directly above the arrow. I use a
shooting glove with heavy, soft tips, and a three-finger release, the arrow between the first and second fingers. (Author’s note: Fred
invented the shooting glove and filed for his patent May 18, 1936. Prior to that, archers simply wore leather “stalls” on their fingertips,
which could easily be lost or flipped off. The modern shooting glove is covered by his patent #107,294 granted Nov. 30, 1937.)
* My anchor point is always the same, and I have never since its invention, used anything but a bow quiver. (Author’s note: The bow quiver was another Fred Bear invention and was filed Jan. 16, 1946 and granted March 8, 1949. Patent #2,464,068. It originally held just three arrows, but he later improved upon this design to hold eight arrows. You’ll note that in mentioning both the shooting glove and the bow quiver Fred never mentions that he was the one who invented them. A real insight into his modest and unassuming character.)
* When you are standing erect pulling back to anchor alongside your face (and my anchor is the second finger on the corner of my mouth), your eye will be beside the arrow from a vertical point-of-view. I have to stoop. I stoop from the waist, sort of a bending of the shoulders, I should say, until my eye is right above the arrow. And now I have to usually build out on the side of the bow until the arrow is going in the direction it is pointed. I do this temporarily when I’m testing a new bow just by taping pieces of leather or wood until I find the right distance that the arrow should pass the bow, and then I make a piece of leather that thickness and cement it permanently to the arrow plate.
* You mentioned in your tape (Bob Learn) that I am a snap-shooter. That is true, except that I want to point out that there are two kinds of snap-shooters. Snap-shooting, as a general rule, develops from an attack of what is called “freezing,” and freezing is a triggering of the release hand by the eye. It is an involuntary triggering of these muscles that releases the arrow before you want to. The difference between the snap-shooter who has this affliction and one who does not is that if a full draw is not reached, no accuracy can result.
* In my own case, I always come to a full draw. There is no pause when I get there; the arrow is gone. If I try to hold, I cannot hit the target. I have suffered from this business of freezing. I went through three years of agony with it. A tournament shooter can use a clicker and in most cases eliminate the problem. But for the instinctive shooter, it is a problem. It took me three years to lick mine. But I differ from most snap-shooters in that I always come to a full draw. And I have to, at almost every shot, discipline myself to do this.
* I seem to have a system that on a long shot, I will draw the bow just a little bit farther back. And, also, when I am shooting at a really large animal, I seem to have a tendency to pull it back farther, which I guess is understandable.
* My anchor point is always the same, and I have never since its invention, used anything but a bow quiver. (Author’s note: The bow quiver was another Fred Bear invention and was filed Jan. 16, 1946 and granted March 8, 1949. Patent #2,464,068. It originally held just three arrows, but he later improved upon this design to hold eight arrows. You’ll note that in mentioning both the shooting glove and the bow quiver Fred never mentions that he was the one who invented them. A real insight into his modest and unassuming character.)
* When you are standing erect pulling back to anchor alongside your face (and my anchor is the second finger on the corner of my mouth), your eye will be beside the arrow from a vertical point-of-view. I have to stoop. I stoop from the waist, sort of a bending of the shoulders, I should say, until my eye is right above the arrow. And now I have to usually build out on the side of the bow until the arrow is going in the direction it is pointed. I do this temporarily when I’m testing a new bow just by taping pieces of leather or wood until I find the right distance that the arrow should pass the bow, and then I make a piece of leather that thickness and cement it permanently to the arrow plate.
* You mentioned in your tape (Bob Learn) that I am a snap-shooter. That is true, except that I want to point out that there are two kinds of snap-shooters. Snap-shooting, as a general rule, develops from an attack of what is called “freezing,” and freezing is a triggering of the release hand by the eye. It is an involuntary triggering of these muscles that releases the arrow before you want to. The difference between the snap-shooter who has this affliction and one who does not is that if a full draw is not reached, no accuracy can result.
* In my own case, I always come to a full draw. There is no pause when I get there; the arrow is gone. If I try to hold, I cannot hit the target. I have suffered from this business of freezing. I went through three years of agony with it. A tournament shooter can use a clicker and in most cases eliminate the problem. But for the instinctive shooter, it is a problem. It took me three years to lick mine. But I differ from most snap-shooters in that I always come to a full draw. And I have to, at almost every shot, discipline myself to do this.
* I seem to have a system that on a long shot, I will draw the bow just a little bit farther back. And, also, when I am shooting at a really large animal, I seem to have a tendency to pull it back farther, which I guess is understandable.
Fred Bears Shooting Style