I invested in an arm guard shoryly after getting into archery back in the early 90's. The reason was simple.....PAIN. While first practicing and trying to figure my form for shooting I made the mistake of not bending my elbow enough, and as you can figure slapped the forarm with the string on release. yeah it stung a little but I went on shooting and again did the same thing. The pain came the a few hours later when my whole forarm turned literally dark purple from some nasty bruising. I also definitly use an arm guard when hunting. More so to keep the sleeve of my jacket out of the way when shooting, but you never know if that string slap will happen again in the heat of the moment. Godd hunting to all and be safe.