muzzyman88

I consider myself a pretty good shooter. I still of course look for more improvment. I ' ve noticed that I find myself at times gripping the handle of the bow a little differently than other days. This obviously effects my day to day consistancy some. What are some good methods for establishing a more consistant grip? I have all year to perfect it, and I willing to change my grip all together to find a better one.

Kevin Garceau

Well I have noticed the same thing when either shooting spots or 3-D. What I found to be the best is to not grip the bow at all. I place the handle in my hand and just kind let me fingers curl around the front with no pressure on the bow. There are alot of muscles and tendons in the hand that can effect consistency. I have also found and noticed that the smaller the handle the more consistent. I cannot shoot a big fat handled bow very effectivly.

muzzyman88

I basically do the same as you Kevin, but I still can' t get totally comfortable. I notice myself placing pressure on my hand at different spots.

Kevin Garceau

Well noticing it is the first sign to be able to fix it. I do not extend my fingers this flexes too many muscles and tendons.

If you notice it you are conscious of it, so you can correct it easy enough. its the stuff you dont notice that is a pain in the rear to fix!

Danny45

I use a high wrist, open hand " grip" w/ wristsling. With so much pressure on just the web of my hand, I at times had problems (especially on warm days) with getting my hand into the right position due to sweat, etc.

I solved this problem with a simple Jersey glove. It allows my hand to slide into position no matter if it' s soaking wet, or dry. I' ve been wearing one since 1987.

The only problem I now have is, what to do with the 162 right hand gloves I' ve got piled all over the house. [&:]

Kevin Garceau

Danny, funny about the extra gloves...I was thinking the same thing ou answered yourself.
question maybe something for you to think about.... when you are using that grip, what are your fingers doing. I seen many people do this and they put the fingers out real rigid to put the grip right in the crotch of their thumb/index finger. Any movement of any finger will move that " crotch" around.

You can simulate it with your finger, put pressure on that part of your hand with a finger, now wiggle or move a finger just a bit. I can feel it move on my hand. This really isnt something most need to worry about when shooting at an animal though. Too many other things to be thinking about, just grab the bow and shoot, so what if your 1/8inch off.... you got more room than that.

Danny45

I relax my fingers, as much as possible with the amount of pressure applied to the hand. My first bow was a Browning Xcellerator. It had a laminated wood riser with a fat grip. Opening my hand was the only consistant way I could come up with. With the Jersey glove, it slides to the center of the web every time. With a sweaty hand, it wouldn' t. It would drag on one side or the other causing the shot to go that direction too.

Kevin Garceau

I hate them big fat grips. I think the current trend on bows mirrors my thoughts. I have shot many bows which I liked with them big grips and just took them off and shot with nothing.

Raymond van Halm

The grip on your bow is the one you got to deal with anyway.
Unless its enough reason for you to go visit your dealer.
If your hand changes position due to wet hands, use chalk or a glove.
If its just you, you might consider to put something on your grip that gives you a lead to remember.
I think about a piece or leather or maybe a piece of leather string.
I had a Darton once with a nice soft rubber platted grip.
This bow was very stready in my hand.

Torgue is a nasty problem we all face.
To see and feel what your bow really wants to do when pull the string i sugest you you grease your grip with some butter or oil.
You can easely remove this afterwards with warm water and soap.

Arthur P

If your bow has one of those tacky rubber grips, get rid of it. Some manufacturers have wood replacement grips or, if you' re lucky, one of the aftermarket outfits might make a wood grip for your bow. Or you could do like Kevin and not replace it with anything (though a piece of leather trimmed to shape and glued onto the grip area with Barge cement is more comfy than bare metal, at least to my hand).

I like Danny' s solution, because I do the same thing. The more hand you' ve got on the grip, the more likely you are to grab the handle differently each time. The high wrist takes most of the hand contact off the grip and leaves not much more than the web between the thumb and forefinger. It does wonders for getting rid of torque too, for the same reason. Your wrist feels pretty weak when you first start using the high wrist, and you might need to come off the draw weight a bit at first. It doesn' t take long to strengthen up though.

What I look for is a grip that forces my hand into exactly the same position each time I grab the bow. You just don' t find many grips that will do that nowadays. If you' ve already got a wood grip, a little judicious work with a rasp and sandpaper might can fix it right up. At least, if there' s enough wood to work with.

Oh, by the way... I carry a small bottle of baby powder in my quiver to dust my bow hand so it won' t stick to the handle in the wrong spot.