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Bow grip preferences are obviously a very subjective thing. As the interface between your hand and the bow, they might be the most personal part of a bow, period.
With time and practice, I believe most of us can probably adapt to a lot of different grip styles. I find I’ve gone through quite the evolution in my bow grip preference over the past several years, from a time when I primarily shot recurves with a ‘high wrist’ grip and an open hand, to hybrids with varying degrees of locator grip, to what is now the grip style that feels more ‘natural’ to me than any other type of grip I’ve used previously:
What’s surprising to me about this is that just from looking at this type of grip, I never thought it would be my preference, nor particularly comfortable/ergonomic. I also had it in my head that a locator grip ensured consistent hand placement more so than this type of ‘classic’ longbow grip did. However, I’ve found that this isn’t necessarily the case (at least for me personally) – my hand still goes to the exact same location every time, no problem.
I’m truly amazed at how comfortable this grip is in my hand, and to shoot, and I think I’ve finally found ‘the’ grip for me. In fact, I picked up one of my hybrids the other day with a deep locator grip, and it felt really odd in my hand and took some getting used to in order to shoot it well again. All of the above, of course, is just stating my personal preference, and how it’s changed with time.
So what’s your grip preference, and why? Broomstick? Deep locator? Do you prefer a bare wood grip? A leather wrap? Rubber/Posi-type grip? How many different grip styles have you experimented with in order to arrive at what you shoot now?
(pics please, if possible :wink:)
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I too came to a dished straight grip as the best grip for me. It’s been about 2 years now.
I used to put leather wraps on my grips, but over time gave that up. I spend a lot of time scraping/sanding the grip to get it “just right”. Why muck it up by adding a thickness of leather?
I also add a contour for my index finger. That serves as my “locator”.
Yesterday a friend who I haven’t seen since last year came over with his family for dinner. We went out to shoot and he took a look at my bow and said, “what a funny grip” I asked him if he wanted to try it and he said he would, but that he doesn’t like the idea of straight grips.
He shot the bow and got a look on his face. Then he asked if I had another bow… I got him one, and he shot it the rest of the night. His reflex/deflex bow remained on the bow hook. He then asked if he could take it home to do a little more “testing”.
I’ll be lucky to see that bow back, at least before deer season is over I expect 😯
Nothing beats an american semi-longbow with a straight grip, imho.
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This is my favorite grip. I definitely prefer leather grips too. The straight handle doesn’t lend itself to ‘creep’. Meaning, my hand doesn’t move, or even want to slide up. It just stays put. I like leather for its warmth and its subtle grip when wet. (With all that said, the Elkheart I should have shortly will be WAY different: Wood handle and grip shape/angle. We shall see. 😉 ) The “reversed handle” on my Northern Mist Whisper:
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Thanks for reviving this thread, Patrick. I hope to see more of people’s favorite grip designs, and hear why they like them.
This is my other favorite grip – a low-wrist locator from Big Jim. In fact, I like it so much that when Jim built a new bow for me, I had him do it the same specs as the Thunderchild I already owned:
It fills the hand nicely (I’m not a fan of really narrow grips), allows for good palm contact while maintaining a loose grip, and a positiven hand location every time:
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“Get a grip,” indeed. Yesterday I had a little light bulb go off with this.
I’ve shot bows with more pronounced locator style grips for years, and a loose grip, with most of the pressure in the webbing between my thumb and forefinger, and my lower fingers hardly even touching the bow, works well. On the other hand, since I started shooting ASLs, like the one in the original post above, I’ve frequently heard and read that they require a different approach – more heel pressure and a more firm grip on the bow. And I always thought I was doing this, but last evening’s session I realized I wasn’t doing it anywhere near enough. Not sure what posessed me, but for some reason I decided to change my grip and really get ahold of the bow with my whole hand, more firmly than I ever have in the past (though not a “death grip”) . More like this:
And as soon as I did this, the difference was immediate – my groups tightened up considerably.
Now, I know some will disagree that different styles of bows should be gripped differently, and believe that you should shoot all bows the same, and I think I used to be more in this camp. But something definitely clicked when I changed my grip last night, and I thought I’d share the experience. There are so many things to love about this sport, but one of them for me is that there is always more to learn…
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Steve Graf wrote:
I heel my ASL and put the lifeline sort of on the left edge of the handle. I break my elbow just a little bit. I think people overdo the broken elbow. Just break it a bit. I loosely wrap my fingers around the grip. Not tight. Just enough to keep it from getting away from me. And I really try to keep the push/pull thing going so that the bow arm isn’t being lazy, and my release hand snaps back (just a bit) on release. I don’t like a dynamic release and tend toward a more dead release. Freshly dead. Still twitching.
I shoot with more of a closed style. Say 90% closed.
That’s a pretty accurate description of what I’m doing now as well, Steve. I’m not gripping the bow tightly, but I have dropped my wrist more, and I’m getting all of my fingers on and around the grip, which I never used to do with my more pronounced, D/R bows. Though I think I’m a little more centered in the fleshy part between my lifeline and my thumb than it sounds like you are. And yeah, continuous pushing with that heel pressure is key.
Agreed about the overly-exxagerated broken elbow as well.
As I release, my string hand moves back against my face slightly, but only as a result of the release of tension – not a a big sweep backward past my ear, as I see some do.
And man, do I love shooting this bow. It’s as comfortable as an old pair of jeans, lighter than my hat, and delivers an arrow with authority.
Steve Graf wrote:
The most important thing that I do is I only make a good shot once in a while. mostly I like to keep the arrows sticking out of the target in all sorts of strange places / angles. Otherwise I might not be the wonderfully humble bloke that I am 🙄
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