Hi, Nick… I rarely hunt from treestands anymore. But I think the Easy Hangers are more ergonomic from a reachability-accessibility perspective. Rather than having to completely turn to grab the bow on a small hook. I would leave the arrow in the bow quiver until needed. Only because the gremlins always seem to make the arrow fall off the shelf! 😆

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…

I have tried several different styles of bow hangers, and no matter what I use my arrow either will slide off the shelf when a gust of wind blows, or if I just accidently “nuge” the bow a little.

I have stopped using them ,and now just keep it in my lap. I used to hang my bows up all the time in my 18 years of hunting. Its not so bad to keep it in your lap, and soon you hardly even know its there.

When on stand or ” watch ” the bow is on my knees, knocked and ready for action, when seated. When standing, one end of the bow is on my toe with grip held in bow hand and arrow in a side quiver, readily accessible to my string hand.

When I was stand hunting I had some bow holders that fastened to the side of my stand. They could be mounted right or left handed. I also used the screw in hooks for hanging my pack which could double as a hanger. Truth is I only used the hanger/holder for when I needed to answer nature’s call into the bottle I had handy in my pack. The rest of the time I held my bow with an arrow knocked.
When ground hunting what Steve Graf describes is pretty much what I do too. I’d rather have the bow in my hand. I use weather rests on my recurves and don’t shoot off the shelf like many of you do. The arrow seldom falls off the weather rest, so that is not a problem. On one of the recent threads RRZESCH posted a neat home made bow holder for ground hunting. But I don’t remember which thread it is on.
Duncan

Nick D wrote: Thanks Steve and Steve,
Steve G. I took interest in your three postures. But you did not indicate whether you have an arrow nocked or still in the quiver while in these three waiting scenarios.
Thanks,
Nick

I always keep an arrow on the bow. Since the bow is always in my control, I don’t have arrows fall off. Well, ok, the first year I dropped 2. But the learning curve is fast.

Hint – I found that adding a nock set under my arrow helps keep the arrow on the bow, among other good things.

I use the same bow holder that mounts to the side of my treestand that I used when I hunted with my compound. It works just fine and I haven’t had any problem with my arrows falling off the shelf. But the holder is mounted on the shooting rail part of my stand so the arrow is about eye level so maybe it being in my face makes me pay attention to it and not let it fall off. Who knows sorry for the useless information. haha

I’ve found it almost impossible to hang my longbow with an arrow on the string. The shelf just isn’t wide enough. When I used to shoot recurves, that was not so much a problem.

I don’t typically hang my bow…if it’s not in my hands, I have it laying on the ground in front of or beside me. I don’t treestand hunt, just due to preference. If I’m on stand or stalking an animal, I’ll have an arrow on the string. If I’m just going through the brush, or walking a trail, I usually don’t have an arrow nocked.

Michael

I spend nearly 60-70 days bowhunting mostly twice a day 3-5 hrs per sitting. Spend all my time in a tree either on portable or small ready built stands. Use mostly all the smallest screw in bow hook I can and use these about 99% of the time. Seldom ever hold my bow or even pick it up until time to shoot, otherwise it’d be too darn hard to hold my book! My whole premis is comfort first. If I’m not comfortable I can’t sit still for very long and the longer I’m in the woods I figure the better my chances are. Can’t even imagine not hanging my bow up or trying to hold it for very long.

For hunting out of treestands, I use one of the short EZ Hangers. A Kwik-Loc keeps my nocked arrow from falling off of my bow. All in all, it’s a simple and foolproof setup.