How do you hold your release?

[Grouse]

I shoot right-handed and hold my release with my thumb to the left against my right-side jawbone.  I press the trigger with my right index finger.

I see some archers that hold their hand upside down with their thumb on the bottom and the back of their hand against their cheek.

I cannot shoot a bow like that and wonder why some archers do.  Is there some advantage to it?

 

[grampy]

5 minutes ago, Grouse said:

I shoot right-handed and hold my release with my thumb to the left against my right-side jawbone.  I press the trigger with my right index finger.

I see some archers that hold their hand upside down with their thumb on the bottom and the back of their hand against their cheek.

I cannot shoot a bow like that and wonder why some archers do.  Is there some advantage to it?

 

I started out shooting trad bows, and shot with my fingers using a glove. After switching to a compound, I still shot with fingers for many years. When I went to a release in the 90's I learned just like you do. Right hand thumb up, palm facing in, anchored to my jaw, just below my ear. I've tried the other way with my palm facing out. But never could get comfortable with it.

[Grouse]

I'm of the same old school trad bow style with my fingers and a no nock on the string so I don't even need a glove.  But I modified my release hold for the Onieda lever bow I shoot.  My palm faces down towards the ground, unlike the palm in towards my cheek style I use to shoot trad bows.  I find that palm down release hold gives me more strength with a mechanical release.

The upside down hold seems to sap the strength in my hand when I use a release.

[Doc]

I use a wrist strap style of release and my palm is down and I trigger the release with my middle finger and my forefinger laying on top of the barrel of the release.

[genesee_mohican]

I use a leather glove with my trad bows, three fingers under the arrow.  For my 22 year old Parker compound I use a just as old Scott wrist release and hold under the chin.

[Moho81]

Call me weird but with the wrist strap release that I use my thumb acts as an anchoring point on the back side of my neck my index finger is run along my cheek and is used as the trigger finger. The rest of fingers are held loose in a natural positions and the palm faces more down than anything. 

[airedale]

18 hours ago, genesee_mohican said:

I use a leather glove with my trad bows, three fingers under the arrow.

I purchased a release a few years ago after breaking the top joint of my third finger, it will not bend and stays straight so I am pulling back on my string with two fingers. I did not think I was getting quite as smooth of a release but as time went on and with practice I got used to just two fingers, shot good enough and never used the release.

I utilize the split finger draw but I am going to give the fingers under the arrow a try when I start shooting later in the summer. They say you can not teach an old dog new tricks but I have found that not to be true.

Al

Edited July 10, 2023 by airedale

[cas]

I shoot that way, palm out. For me it has to do with the muscles and tendons, it feels much more relaxed. Palm in pretty much makes everything hurt from my wrist on to my bicep hurt. (just doing it empty handed, no bow, it actually hurts.) Years ago it was less so, I shot with a trigger release, more palm down. When I started shooting again recently there was all this new pain (different from the old pain, which is still there lol) But upside down feels better now.

Man I wasted some money recently. My plan to use all my old accessories  fell apart quickly. My old wrist strap trigger release still works great and I like, but it's made for grabbing the string. I need the tiny bit of added draw length the loop gives. My last bow I used a metal loop. (yes they ones everyone says are awful and break and never use. Well mine's near 30 years old and still fine lol) Worked fine with that. String loop I quickly learned it did not like. Kept slipping through on me. No fun.  

 So I bought a newer style trigger release, but for a number of reasons I couldn't warm up to it.  Plus I found "upside down" much less painful, and the trigger wasn't working so well for me like that. Always felt like I was going to accidentally set it off.  Since I was shooting that way, I started messing with my original near 40 year old thumb activated release. Three finger one with a rotating head... made me wonder why they don't make them like that anymore?  (I don't think).  Only it too was made to grab the string, and is extremely fussy and slow to use with a loop.  But I was really liking it. So I bought a modern three finger , thumb activated release, with strap. Kind of the best of both designs that way. 

It's funny, I liked the wrist strap release over the hand held one because I didn't have to worry about dropping it out of my tree stand. In reality, the only one I ever did drop was the wrist strap one. Go figure. 

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by cas