In past few years I have made the transition to shooting left handed after shooting righty for about 35 years. I am right eye dominate. I have always been intrigued by Howard Hill's side of the face anchor. Now shooting lefty, I think I have gained some insight. I am finding that my better shots that are more down the middle are shot with the bowstring and anchor to the left side of my face also. It makes me wonder if drawing anchoring at the side of the face actually allows the dominate eye to "perceive" the arrow point in secondary split vision. It seems counter intuitive to have the nock end of the arrow so far to the left side of face anchor.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/7FOOeQs.jpg[/img]

"It makes me wonder if drawing anchoring at the side of the face actually allows the dominate eye to "perceive" the arrow point in secondary split vision."

Nah! Left/right alignment is always going to be more exact when the arrow is closer/under the dominant eye, a "primary reality".

Howard said,,split finger anchor at the corner of the mouth brings the arrow into alinement with the eye cutting the distance to the target,,then canting the bow in 45 degrees brings it in even more cutting your alinement distant as far as sighting into the target,,,,this is compared to a tournament style of anchoring below the chin Here again Howard Hills style of shooting is a hunting style not a target or tournament style and thats what it was drsigned and in my opinon perfected for Standing with your shoulder pointed at the target and drawing acrossed the chest combined with the string drawn close to the body lines the while body up to the target not just the eyes Its the whole stance,,,the form is as important as the arrow alinement as related to the eyes If you practise the whole Hill style,,stance,draw,alinement,form and release and try to make it fluid and smooth i think youll see an improvement not matter the eye you sight with Here again watch John Shultz video its our best exsample of the Hill system Pick up a copy of "Hunting the hard way",,Howard explains this in detail

Of course this in my opinion,,,good luck,,,,paitents pays off

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rel4Q_VT_Fo

I suppose you can train your non-dominant to take over the aiming process. Howard Hill's anchor isn't much different than most of that time, which was more of an aid for reaching longer targets and still shooting down the middle. I think we tend to overthink things, especially when on discussion boards like this. A lower anchor simply gives more angle for reaching out....a necessity for those back then shooting the York Round. They also had an aiming system, usually point of aim. Hill used what he called a secondary system.

Some of us grew up with the barebow style of split finger, corner of mouth index finger, with back of hand up and against the cheekbone. With that anchor, your rear sight is set and doesn't move, and allows a wide parameter for distance and close shooting. When I shoot left handed, I will partially close my right (dominant) eye to get alignment, then I can open it and the form will take care of itself. Part of that keep it simple thing. Mostly I shoot right handed since I've done that since I was old enough to pull a bow string. I can shoot left well enough though if the need arises.

"Some of us grew up with the barebow style of split finger, corner of mouth index finger, with back of hand up and against the cheekbone. With that anchor, your rear sight is set and doesn't move, and allows a wide parameter for distance and close shooting."

Perfessor Stout nails it again! That is PRECISELY the method I teach all my students. Especially the "Back of the hand UP AND AGAINST THE CHEEKBONE." - although I narrow it down to the upper/outside part of the proximal thumb joint. On my face, (my particular anatomy), that pulls my middle finger 1/4" past the corner of my mouth, which works perfectly for me. Some of my student don't feel right going quite that far; so- within acceptable limits- we adjust for individual differences.

I do this for shooting either RH or LH. After 32+ years, I've found that for me, dom. eye doesn't matter nearly as much as the identical correct form whichever side I shoot from. Some of my shooters feel like they absolutely cannot shoot against their dom. eye, and an equal or greater number cannot shoot against their dom. hand. I have found it much more productive in the long run to allow people to try both sides while in their first year or so of learning rather than to force one side or the other.

I started RH because of dom. hand, switched to dom. eye within 2 years, then started up again w/ RH and it's all coming together slowly but nicely. Teaching others REALLY makes you examine all aspects of shooting; a good teacher often learns more from teaching than his students!

Other shooting styles present interesting perspectives: The author of "The Way of Archery" by General Gao Ying, 1637, (Trans. into English by Jie Tian & Justin Ma) also started RH, switched to lefty when he ran into problems, and finally went back to RH over the course of his archery career.

Adan Swoboda in "The Art of Shooting a Short Reflexed Bow" describes an old Middle Eastern thumb release aiming style that REQUIRES the archer to shoot against the dom. eye! IOW, one had to be cross hand/eye dominant to easily master that one particular aiming technique. (Adam's book, by the way, is full of many, many interesting & different ways to learn & shoot the short reflexed composite bows in some of their traditional methods. Great for reference and DIY learning.)

Jeff kavanaugh is quiet the archer, and is left eye dominant, and shoots right handed bows.As he explains it he shoots two eyes open, and trains his non dominant eye.I saw him on utube and had an interest as to what he was saying because i am left eye domimant also.I have been shooting right handed bows since back in the 1960,s,and have adapted quiet well.Now i would never be able to shoot left handed,and i know in some hunting situations can be a real advantage.For more watch him on utube he is one heck of an archer.

Didn't know Jeff was cross dom., very interesting! One of my heroes, esp. as a consummate "snap' shooter (OR he just "acquires the target" virtually instantly- to those who hate the term snap shooter if it's applied to someone who knows what they are doing!)

One of my young archers came to my classes already a hopelessly incurable snap shooter- not PT, just sheer habit & unbreakable. So I turned him on to Jeff's videos- he still snap shoots; but with far better control and accuracy; sometimes in recent months he now looks so hard at the target that he actually does hold for a discernible 1/2 second.

So many ways!

I need to clarify. My understanding is Howard Hill was left eye dominant. He shot right handed. In his shooting style, the bowstring is not in front of his face, it is on the side of his face, the anchor is further back on his face.

I have always found it interesting that the nock end of the arrow is not under his eye, but off to the side.

I am right eye dominate and having switched to lefty because of TP, I find myself with my anchor feeling intuitively best more back and with the bowstring more on the side of my face, touching beside my eyebrow.

Actually the string is in front of his face:

Actually that is the only photo showing Hill with that anchor that I've see. Not his usual bow.

In that excellent photo HH was probably AIMING with string blur, or using the string and riser as a rear peep sight.

Note that he's not squinting, may not have cared about eye dominance (despite legends).

As well, his prominent schnozola may have helped.

"Howard Hill's anchor isn't much different than most of that time, which was more of an aid for reaching longer targets and still shooting down the middle. I think we tend to overthink things, especially when on discussion boards like this. A lower anchor simply gives more angle for reaching out....a necessity for those back then shooting the York Round."

This concept is completely unknown to, or ignored by most modern day "traditional" archers, and that's a shame.

With today's equipment, a split-fingered loose is almost completely unnecessary and in fact, a disadvantage at modern "traditional" distances because of the angle of the arrow.

"With today's equipment, a split-fingered loose is almost completely unnecessary and in fact, a disadvantage at modern "traditional" distances because of the angle of the arrow."

LOL

Can you imagine how much better Byron would be if he would just take all of his advice from some of the guys on here. I had a VCR tape that someone sent me of Byron shooting small wood discs that he was throwing himself and getting them out there. One of the most remarkable shooting sequences I have ever seen. That feat of throwing ones own target was only ever out done one time by me. I was on ground squirrel patrol at the area golf course. I found an orange golf ball threw it hard and high out towards the empty pasture and in front of my archery buddies, hit that golf with a blunt with my Big 5 longbow. I am currently doing 100% on hitting self thrown orange golf balls out of the air that are over 25 yards away. I will remain at 100% as well. All done with that out of date middle finger past the corner of the mouth split finger anchor.

One photo that I do not have and is hard to find is the one with Hill standing by a pick-up truck with a bow string filled with rabbits and game birds. If Hill shot them all, that is the greatest trophy picture of all time.

I can hit soda pop bottle caps at ten yards with my split-finger anchor. I can also be point-on at 50+ yards. Yes, you can make it easier by cutting down the sight radius with a 3 under anchor. But some of us can do it split; that's the way we learned and we got pretty good at it.

Today with the short shots, everyone is told to shoot 3 under or walk down the string so they can sight down the arrow...using it as a sight pin as well as projectile. Yep...it works..at short distances....even long distance if you have ape arms, but for us old farts who learned otherwise, it ain't necessary.

That is what bowhunting has become, chip shots at deer from blinds and tree stands, often with a feeder to get the deer in range.

"I can hit soda pop bottle caps at ten yards with my split-finger anchor. I can also be point-on at 50+ yards. Yes, you can make it easier by cutting down the sight radius with a 3 under anchor. But some of us can do it split; that's the way we learned and we got pretty good at it."

When I shoot one knee down at a 40-50 yards target I like shooting split even more. These are traditional distances for some 3D competitions that are not following the IBO rules around here. Limiting myself to 28 m / 30 yards because some committee decided is stupid.

Buncha' BS. Old men bragging about fake accomplishments.

Still, I guess that's been "traditional" since they got online.

Some folks can and some cannot. I am betting jk is in one of those two categories.

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