About Howard Hill

Howard Hill devoted his life to archery and is still considered the greatest archer and bowhunter of all time. He was often called “The Babe Ruth of Archery,” “Mr. Archery,” and “King of the Archers.” No one else has so completely dominated the sport.

A record that still stands

• Won 196 field archery tournaments in a row.
• Won the Florida State Target Archery tournament in 1928, wrote the first set of archery golf rules that year, and went on to win seven National Archery Golf tournaments.
• Set a flight record of 391 yards, 1 foot, 11 inches at Miami, Florida, on February 26, 1928.
• Pulled a 172 lb bow, the heaviest bow drawn by any man on record for many years.
• Won the International Field Meet at Milwaukee in 1942.
• Drew 35,000 spectators to Grant Park, Chicago, in 1941.

Hollywood and the screen

Howard did all of the shooting in The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, They Died with Their Boots On, Dodge City, Virginia City, Buffalo Bill, and Bandits of Sherwood Forest. He produced 23 short subjects for Warner Brothers and filmed Tembo in Africa, an RKO release shown in 57 countries and seven languages. He also shot exhibitions at three world’s fairs, five wild west shows, and fourteen major sportsman’s shows.

The hunter

Hunting appealed to Howard far more than target archery. From his first moose and whitetail in Canada in 1925 until he passed away in 1975, he hunted in twelve countries and took well over 2,000 animals with a bow and arrow. His field notes list lions, leopard, Cape buffalo, crocodile, and cheetah in Africa, and grizzly, black bear, elk, moose, cougar, and jaguar in North America.

On February 27, 1950, Howard became the first modern hunter on record to take an African elephant with a bow and arrow. He took three in all, with four arrows, using a hand-drawn 115 lb bow, 41-inch arrows, and a 1,700-grain broadhead, with no poison or explosive tips.

Books

Howard wrote two best-selling archery books, Hunting the Hard Way and Wild Adventure. Both are still available from us.

Honors

• Plaque from the Archery Council of California for outstanding achievement, 1959.
• Honorary Life Member of the Professional Archery Association, 1962.
• Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, 1971.
• ABC Bow Hunters Hall of Fame, 1975.
• The Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame in Los Angeles displays arrows he shot in Robin Hood, his two books, and photographs.

Why he shot the longbow

“Being first of all a hunter, I wanted a bow that would throw a heavy hunting arrow with as little arc as possible. I have always said and still maintain that no person should shoot a bow he cannot draw with ease.”

Howard never used sights or other attachments on his bows. He considered them crutches that took away from the challenge, and he wanted a bow clean and free of anything that would hinder a moving shot. Even at 62 he shot a 75 lb hunting bow two or three times a week, 110 to 150 arrows at a session.