I hunt mostly from tree stands. I have used both the screw in hooks, and the gangly arm hooks. If you walk through almost any sneaky place around my house and look up, you are likely to see one of these forgotten accessories rusting in abandonment.

I was forced, through the loss of my extra hooks, to hold my bow. After a while I got comfortable holding it. Now I don’t use hooks anymore.

I have three common postures with the bow.

The first is what I do when standing (which hopefully is most of the time) I rest the lower nock on my boot toe. Then I either hold the bow against my body at the grip, or I lean a bit on the bow by grasping it toward the top nock.

The second two are when I am sitting. I can either lay the bow across my lap, or I stand it between my knees and lean it (the string) against my right shoulder, with the lower nock on my boot toe.

I have found it surprisingly comfortable to just keep my hands on my bow all the time. As a result, when deer do come by, I am always prepared and don’t need to move to grab my bow. And I don’t leave any more metal hooks lost in the trees…