I broke the fingers on my left hand. It was six weeks before I could shoot again. I hope this helps.

I have arthritis in both hands. It’s so bad you can see the bone spars. I just take a couple of Aleve and ignore it.

What a bummer. I think it was Ron LaClair, who broke his arm or something like that, and actually hunted using his legs, and one arm! He was an amazing shot even then! It’s on a video I have, but don’t recall which one.

Fortunately I have not broken anything since childhood, but I have had back problems from shooting too much weight. This combined with a severe strain in my left forearm caused me to abandon the compound bow and return to my recurves in the early 1980’s. I had a 47 lb recurve that I could shoot. It was like starting over but I killed some deer and now that compound is a relic in its own right.
Hope you get better soon but a break in the hand can take months to heal. You may be looking at starting back with a lighter weight bow and some physical therapy.
Did you have to have surgery on it?

Jarrod — I once broke my left wrist, my bow hand, rock climbing. Simple fracture. Fortunately it was fall, after hunting season, and by summer it was history. At that time we had no turkeys here so spring wasn’t an issue. I also broke my right ankle on April’s Fools Day (night), and within two weeks, with a boot cast, was out hunting turkey on crutches. Within a month, by which the last snow had melted and the ground dried enough that my crutches didn’t sink in 2′, I was able to do a slow 2-mile circuit. “How long until I can, say, jump over a small creek and land on that foot?” I asked my doc (Dr. Dave Sigurslid). “A year,” he replied. I’ll try to get Dave on here to offer expert advice. With a broken bow hand (where, exactly?) you’re talking about applying push-pressure. With a broken string or drawing hand, you’re talking about pull-pressure. The sort answer from my experience is that you can do remarkable things real soon if the break is only a simple fracture and it’s correctly reinforced and you know what you’re doing and are careful. But for full “forget about it” healing it takes about a year. A friend in AK pushed his luck and now will likely limp flat-footed the rest of his life. Just not worth it. dave (not doc).

Jarrod,

About 4 years ago, I broke the bone in my hand that my ring finger connects to. I shoot a one-piece bow. A Bear Grizzly, to be exact. I was not able to shoot that bow for a month, at the bare minimum. As it was, I was in the middle of a winter 3-d shooting league. That sucked. I was, however, able to shoot my uncle’s take-down recurve. I don’t know if the vibration was simply stopping at the limb bolts, or if the weight of the riser eliminated the vibration. I do know that the vibration/hand-shock from my Grizzly was entirely unbearable to deal with. I was able to draw the bow, and shoot it, but when the vibration hit my hand, I wanted to scream like a little sissy. LOL. I was trying to shoot my bow right after it happened, and about once a week, I would shoot an arrow to see how my hand handled the vibration. I never actually WORE my cast. Maybe for a week, then I cut it off in such a way that I could slip it on if I had to. Good luck with your healing process. Just remember that bones are continually healing, from the initial time of the break. It just takes time.

Michael

This past June I broke my middle finger on my shooting hand. Just a fracture. Enough to swell up and be disfigured. After I got off work,( I drive for a living so I finished my route first) I went and had it looked at. The splinted it and told me it be about 6 to 8 weeks or so. I was worried about being able to shoot for hunting season coming up so I went down to the bow shop to see if I could even draw back. When I got there I talked to Sally and got a lane to shot in. I didnt say anything about my finger and she didnt notice it. She noticed after the first shot was about 3 foot high. When she asked me when I broke it I told her about 7 that morning. She just laughed and called me crazy. We worked on form and got it to where I could shoot. I had to learn to shoot 2 under instead of 3 under,(not all in one day mind you). I was able to take off the splint about a week before season started and shoot with very little pain. I guess I was lucky or stupid and lucky. The bow shop thinks I’m nuts.

A few years back I broke both bones in my bow arm, right at the wrist. They did surgery a couple days later, and from the x-rays it appeared that they installed a garden rake in my arm (plate, a few screws, and several rods going into the hand). The break happened on July 11. The funny part was, I always had shot bows in the 60# class, had wanted to bump up my weight, and had actually just made a trade with a gentlemen on another site. The day after I had the accident I took delivery on a Hill Big Five that drew around 83# at my draw length. Within a couple weeks of my surgery they took the splint off, and within a week of that I was already secretly test drawing my bows (wife’s a nurse, and would have killed me!). I was actually shooting that bow within a couple months of my surgery. All I can say is be dilligent about your physical therapy… do what they tell you to do, even when it hurts, and do whatever else you can on top of that. I remember constantly moving that hand as far as I could move it in all directions, while I was sitting around at home. And this started while I still had the splint on. When all was said and done I got 100% of movement back in that hand, even though I had been told by the doctor that I would most likely only end up with about 90% of what it was. KEEP THE FAITH, work hard at it, and you’ll be back shooting before you know it.

Two years ago, I broke my string hand and sprained both my wrists. That was on a monday. I was shooting in the league with wrist braces on Friday evening. I was really glad it was only 60 arrows. That was some of my best shooting actually. I think the braces really helped. Kept me from gripping the bow, too.