Every once in a while, you discover a product that’s sold under a certain category, but you find a use for it in a completely different manner than how the product is marketed it to be used. And in addition, there’s those oddball occasions where you come to find out that actually, the product was originally designed to be used in the same manner that you “discovered” it to be so useful for. Case in point: the AGrip, produced by Brooks Tactical Systems.

I worked in the firearms industry for over a decade, and so of course have become familiar with a vast number of products, as well as having met a lot of the people behind the scenes. I became acquainted with Brooks Speier during that time and have kept in touch with him via social media. He had recently commented on one of my Facebook posts, and then a conversation ensued. During this conversation, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Brooks was a bowhunter! And besides that fact, he informed me that his AGrip product was originally designed with an archery application in mind. After he told this to me, it struck me: “Well, why not?!” It’s a great product that’s commonly used on the grips of pistols to offer a comfortable grip that doesn’t slip in one’s hand. Brooks mentioned that back when he first came up with this product, he was using it to wrap the sight window and shelf of his compound bows to dampen any noise, as well as applying it to the grip of his bows. He offered to send me a package of 5”x 8” sheets (item #58SF) to see what I could do with them. I of course took him up on the offer.

Every configuration of the AGrip products are adhesive backed and cut to form. In this case, it’s just an uncut sheet that’s open to whatever your imagination can conjure. Once I received my package of AGrip sheets, I immediately started looking at all of my bows, desperate to find an immediate use. I realized that the Velcro strike plate and shelf plate needed to be replaced on my Stalker Coyote longbow. I grabbed my sharpest pair of scissors and went to work. Things turned out beautifully, and the material that AGrip is composed of, molded perfectly around the piece of wooden matchstick that I used to bump out the strike plate, as well as the matchstick pieces that I used to elevate the shelf plate. The arrow slides across the material smoothly and the adhesive backing seems to be holding up great. Now, my next project is to find a bow that needs a grip wrap! One of the marketing taglines used is: “works even better with sweaty hands!”, which is one of the main reasons why anyone would want to wrap their bow grip. This seems like a great solution for that problem.

Currently these AGrip sheets are only offered in Black; but perhaps if the archery community discovers how great this product is and prods enough…Brooks will consider offering other colors. Be sure to give the AGrip line a solid look and let your favorite supplier of Trad archery products know that they should be carrying it.

A quick note: The Brooks Tactical site is 1990’s terrible and is set up more as a product info page, but they do sell direct. Brooks relies primarily on their dealer network, and you’ll find AGrip products on virtually every website that sells firearm accessories. Here’s a link to their preferred dealer list.