Trigger Punchers
 

So yesterday, I pulled my bow out of the case for a quick round of practice. The first shot out of the gate, perfect. Second shot, perfect.This trend continued, and itrounded out to bea prettydecent round of shooting, with a couple fliers scattered through the routine.



After this many years,and probably tens of thousands of shots - it'slike riding a bike, but I STILL have to be cognizant of jabbing at the trigger. I continue to get occasional fliers because I'm a habitual trigger puncher.

I just don't know where this impulse comes from.

Not blowing my own horn or anything, but I'm a really good rifle shooter. Give me a gun that can do it, and I canmake Mickey Mouses all day long. I have an excellent trigger squeeze, and am super-finicky about my triggers. Honestly, I could shoot 100 shots out of my long range rifle, without a single trigger punch.



If you take the rifle out of my hands and hand me a bow,I punch one out of every15. Maybe one out of 10 (not horrible whiffs, just enough to make it frustrating). I've been this way all my life. Why the increased tendency to punch? I could shoot 200 arrows a day, for 10 years straight, and still do it. It's almost as if I'm doomed toa lifetime of7-10% of my arrows consistently floating a couple inches off center. I practice a lot, practice a little bit - same results. Maybe Jewell or Timney needs to start making bow releases... I don't know.

Let's be real here. These aren't horrible misses. They're just outside the diamond. Just off the pin. Just bad enough to piss me off. Just good enough to still walk away happy. It's not the equipment.

Maybe that's simply the difference between being a world-class competitivearcher and not being a world-class competitive archer.

What is it? What is it about the bow trigger that makes me want to punch it? Why is it worse in the field? I never punch the trigger on my rifle in the field. If the biggest buck of 10 lifetimes is standing there - it's a tale of two weapons...If I've gotmy rifle in my hands, there's a 1000% chance that he's dead on his feet... With my bow, on the other hand, I actually have to pause and remind myself to make a good pull.

With the gun, it comes naturally. With the bow, it just doesn't. It never has. No matter how much I practice. What is the difference? Why can I pull one trigger so cleanly,and not the other?



Maybe it's just me, but every release I've ever had - the trigger never seems to be in the right spot - the ergonomics are always weird. They just never seem to break as crisply as a good, custom rifle trigger. Invariably, I feel as if I'm never getting a solid, soft squeeze-off on the trigger.



So what's the difference? Why can one guy shoot a gun, but not a bow (or vice versa)? What tips do you guys have to help the twoskill sets translate between the two weapons?

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Shooting archery, competitively indoors, has made me a better rifle/pistol shooter. The use of triggerless back tension releases, carter thumb trigger releases and perfecting the "hook and pull" method of using a caliper release has taught me to squeeze WHILE AIMING until I get off a surprise shot while using a firearm. I'm the opposite of you though, I may jerk the trigger once in a while with a firearm, especially one with heavy recoil. With a bow though, I can go for thousands of shots without jumping on it. It took a lot of training. I spend way more time with a bow than a firearm also.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Any chance you're not trusting your float (I know...buzzphrase of the week) and you're"punching" when you think you have thepin over the bullseye?

Wouldn't be a need for this with the rifle. ONLY way I know of to test this theory (rifle v. bow) is to shoot 100 shots with each......OFF HAND, only.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Mental checklist for each shot. Sounds like you get comfortable and forget the checklist.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Exactly what I was thinking.

I am much better with a bow than I am with a rifle. Admittedly I spend about 100 Xs more time practicing and shooting my bow than I do a rifle, but off of a bench with my rifle I'm pretty good. Out in the field, not so much. When it comes game time with my bow I kind of go into auto-pilot and everything kind of happens on its own during the shot. With a rifle I come unglued. I think it is because rifle hunting in PA you rarely get a standing shot and I rush my shots becuase of this. With a bow there is no need to rush because if you did your job right that deer is completely unaware that it's about to be deflated.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

I hardly ever shoot guns anymore. And when i do, its a shotgun. Here in Ohio, you can't hunt deer with anything but a shotgun, muzzleloader, crossbow or bow....so i don't really have much rifle experience. That being said, i shoot well enough with a bow to make myself confident. I always use the technique of aiming WHILE squeezing the release. And im working on shooting with both eyes open.

BTW,awesome Favre reference Fran :D

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

IM on the rifle team so I knowhow to use the trigger of anything, same techniques are used in both cases. 5 o'clock is trgger on a rifle but might not be the same on a bow.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

On a bench I can do fine with a rifle. I'm not the best "practical" rifleman out there though. I would consider myself to be a much better bow shot than rifle shot.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

I think you're right, Jeff. I don't "float" at all with the gun, just get into a position that allows me tohold solid center and squeeze it off. Keep your head in there and let the gun recoil the way it wants to. Minimum points of contact. Put a bow in my hands, and I just naturally duplicate what works so well with the rifle. 90% of the time, it works every time - just like Sex Panther. No float. Just hold center and squeeze. When I do "punch," theflyers aren't too bad. . . but they do occur.

Since the bow is harder to hold steadycenter,ithas amore pronounced tendencyto float away - and I catch myself punching the trigger to hurry up and get the arrow out of the chute before the pin drifts off-center. As we all know, even a pretty crisp trigger pull, and you'll still wind up a couple inches off your aimpoint.

I've tried to use the float-toward-center technique, but 16 years of point-and-click is hard to break . . . and I'm all over the place when I do try it. Also, it seems like it would be a technique that I would subconsciously abandon the second a shooter buck walked into a lane. Just being realistic, I have to practice with the aiming technique that I'm going to use in the field. If that makes any sense at all...

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Makes perfect sense. Even Matt/PA said the other day that there are times in a hunting situation that you WANT to punch (or "quickly deploy";)) your release. If you practice that....what more can you do?

Not too many "advantages" I can think of to a surprise release in a hunting situation.;)

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

You need to stop thinking about your pin float, and the trigger and start to focus on the spot you want to hit. Trust your float, and trust your shot execution and leave them to your subconsious.......easier said than done but that's what you need to change. The reason you experience this with a bow and not a gun is because the gun doesn't float, your likely on a solid rest with no sight picture movement.

If you need a quality trigger that youwon't anticipate or feel creeping, and if you need to have anindex finger trigger I would recommend the Carter Two Shot.It's the only triple sear index finger release thatI know of and will break as clean as the 1.5lb accu-trigger I have on my 10FP in .223. That Carter release will feel like glass breaking.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

And to add to this, you can still get a shot off when you want it gone while shooting with proper "target" type of execution. You simply get a bit more aggressive pulling through, you don't have to mash it with your finger/thumb tosend an arrow on it's way on command. You are still going to be more accurate this way than mashing it as well.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

I think it may be the fact that your holding weight back with the bow and not having to with the gun which makes you more prone to just let it go and not take your time. I think every one punches from time to time for this very reason.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Im just as good with a bow as i am with a rifle, just have a hard time making that 200 yard shot with my bow ;)

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Quick, Some really good advise above!!! I am in the same boat as you I punch about every 20-25 I will punch and from my experence I find it is because I really start to try and watch my arrow fly to the target and that cause's me to punch because I start antisepating the shot. When this happens the fastest way for me to get rid of it is to get on my deck and nock an arrow close my eye's and draw and shoot down into the grass, I do this about 5-6 times and I am cured for a while. When hunting I neverpunch because I think I am thinking about all the right stuff andnot the arrow flight it's only when I get to shooting alot like 25-50 arrows a day like I have been for about 4 months now!! Walt

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

With practice it will come.

Don't get discouraged!

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Saved me some typing,thanks.

It sounds like you are happy with your results from a hunting standpoint,if you want to achieve more,then a back tension release might get you over the hump.You can use it as a training tool to get you where you want to go.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Interesting, I'm a good rifle shot (trigger squeezer) but a habitual bow trigger puncher. My tru ball trigger seems to bear no relation to my gun triggers, at least as far as my finger is concerned.

I blame it mostly on the fact that I'm really a finger shooter.The fact that my shoulder is screaming at me the whole time I have the bow drawn back doesn't help the situation either. On the upside... my shooting is actually better than myform. [&o] Maybe I should look at a different release?

I've been trying to learn to squeeze the trigger on my releasebut I probably still punch the trigger more than I squeeze it. Old dog, new tricks I guess.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

I always thought of trigger punching to be a result of anticipation of the shot, as someone already mentioned.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

I tend to have the same problem with a bow after shooting for a while. I start to anticipate the shot and then punch the trigger. Never have hadtheproblem witha rifle though even shooting offhand.

RE: Trigger Punchers
 

Matt,hit's the nail on the head with his description and advice.I am a better archery shot than rifle shot because of the much greater amount of archery practice that I participate in.