Grip Advice

[Briar Friar]

I grip the bow and curl the pinky and ring finger to my palm to close the synaptic loop. My ring finger and index tips touch the back of the bow and grip it to some extent. The closing of the bottom two fingers does not allow the hand to close and torque the bow upon release.

I was showing Jr this last night during our FSC range session. He has problems with string slap and it makes him not want to shoot. I had major string slap problems before Rat showed me this technique for my compound bow and I adapted it to my trad bows. Its difficult for me to use this grip technique on certain recurves with a deep grip and are fashioned for a high wrist.

Closing the synaptic loop was a game changer for not torqueing the bow.

Good skilling FnD.

[tradtiger]

The grip may actually vary somewhat, depending on the bow. With my recurve, which has a deep pistol grip, I keep fairly light pressure in the web between thumb and index and lightly gripping with middle finger and thumb.

With a much more straight-gripped Sarrels Blue Ridge longbow, I found that I needed to really hold firmly to maintain consistency. Took me about 150 shots to figure out that it worked better if you actually hold onto the bow LOL instead of just letting it rest there.

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[Fishndude]

Y’all are awesome. Lots of great advice. My bow is a custom long bow made in Oklahoma by a guy who makes 3-on 5 a year for friends. I’d call the grip a typical pistol type grip that’s on the chunky side. I’ve tried power gripping but my arrow flight sucks. The low meaty grip with three fingers gently touching front of riser seems better than anything else I’ve tried.

[Trumpkin]

Y’all are awesome. Lots of great advice. My bow is a custom long bow made in Oklahoma by a guy who makes 3-on 5 a year for friends. I’d call the grip a typical pistol type grip that’s on the chunky side. I’ve tried power gripping but my arrow flight sucks. The low meaty grip with three fingers gently touching front of riser seems better than anything else I’ve tried.

Sounds like you got it figured out! Glad to hear it's working for ya. FWIW, I've never had a bow shoot better with a hard grip on the handle.

[Fishndude]

Jake Kaminsky's YouTube Channel is the place to go! He's shot everything from olympic recurve to simple stick and string, and he won silver in the Olympics. Great free trad content there. Don't be afraid to watch the Olympic recurve stuff. Most of it translates directly to hunting if you are willing to look past the stabilizer and sights on the bow.

Thanks for the YouTube recommendation. Been soaking it up.

[Trumpkin]

Thanks for the YouTube recommendation. Been soaking it up.