Hunting the Hard Way

I am a budding traditional archer, and like reading old texts like The Witchery of Archery and this book. I really enjoyed the hunting stories and find it an entertaining read. Its important to understand that this was written in a much different time, when taking long distance shots or harvesting large amounts of game were more the norm. I recommend this if you are looking to understand how archery started and grew in the United States since the early 1900s. There is info about bow/archery supplies but its very dated and if you are just looking for technical books there are more current books that will do that better.

I bought this book the moment I discovered it existed, and it is honestly one of my favorite books. It is approximately 70% old-school hunting knowledge (foot-stalking, animal habits, etc) and 30% stories of Howard Hill's exploits plus a really nice explanation of how he chose to hunt with a longbow vs other traditional designs, complete with what each type is good for and a very thorough talk-through of his way of shooting and how to properly learn. The best practice advice floating around today mirrors what Howard suggests almost exactly, and what he does works extremely well.I discovered the legend of Howard Hill on Youtube during my early days of traditional archery self-education, I immediately wanted to know more about his story and to learn how to shoot as well as he did, both exhibition shots and hunting. This book has helped tremendously, and has been a fantastic firsthand account of a fascinating man. Highly recommended.Other resources I recommend for traditional archers:Become the Arrow by Byron FergusonBarebow 101 by Byron Ferguson

Good, old fashioned hunting stories. Howard Hill has a reputation as a trick archer, and for a part that was, of course, true. But he was also an excellent hunter and that is where this book is all about. It contains a few chapters on both his technique and his equipment, the rest of the book is then filled with entertaining stories of his many hunts.

This is a very enjoyable read, written from a mid-1900's sensibility and perspective. It does a wonderful job of both storytelling (Howard's various amazing exploits) and education (Howard's shooting and bowyery techniques). I found the explanation of his method of "split-vision or secondary aiming" to be particularly helpful.Only traditional archery enthusiasts would most likely be reading this book, so there probably isn't a need for a "reader beware" disclaimer. But I'm certain that there may be those of more genteel constitution who may find things in this book with which to take offense. Those individuals would be best served by looking elsewhere.I read this book on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with the Kindle app. I found that the photo captions would not persist under the appropriate photos, but rather would shift over to the following photo. This made things confusing at first. Also, the photos either did not reproduce well electronically, or originally had poor resolution. For these two reasons, I docked the rating 1 star.

The stories are exciting explained through the words of the author. It’s a must have for the bow enthusiast.

Howard Hill is the father of modern American bowhunting and traditional archery. Back in the 30s and 40s he was a movie star, too, featured in dozens of shorts, and acting and performing all the archery stunts in the great Errol Flynn version of "Robin Hood."In this volume Hill describes how he made bows and arrows and his methods of shooting, as well as several stories of hunting game around the world- including shooting sharks underwater with bow and arrow. It's been a favorite with archers and bowhunters for decades, and no doubt will be for many more.

My late husband was a nephew once removed from Howard Hill. Stories have been passed down to him over time and he had a very real interest in reading about his exploits. Also my son has read it and loved it. We had the movie he stared in, but it is has a lot of static so it is hard to really get interested in it. But reading proved to be interesting. I really thought my husband and son were going to fight to see which one read it first. Howard grew up about 25 miles from where I live.

I have been a traditional bowhunter for over 30 years, I bought this for my nephew. Mr. Hill is a legend and this book is a classic. If you have someone who is interested in Archery/bow hunting, get them this book and watch their eyes light up with the true real adventure. I had the privilege of learning to shoot "Hill method" by a student of his and he said "this book is like sitting down with him".