3D Hunter

I am a finger shooter and have been shooting fingers for about two and a half year. Yes, shooting fingers takes a little more time to learn than mech. I draw with three fingers and I drop the top one off when I get to full draw.So I shoot with two fingers bellow the nock.I also put my thumb behide my neck.What ever you chose it should be with what you feel most comfortable with.Let me know with what you go with.Good Luck

Arthur P

Primarily because the release is the most expensive and most expendable technological gadget that most compound shooters decide to saddle themselves with. Sights, rests and even stabilizers are all far more beneficial than that release. Of those, the arrow rest is the only critical, must have part that you cannot do without on a compound.

So, for someone that wants to simplify their setup, the release is logically the first thing to go. With a little practice, your fingers are quite capable of doing the job. Yes, a release gives you a bit better accuracy in absolute terms. But I've seen very few hunting shots where 1/4" in accuracy at 20 yards made the difference between a quick kill and a wound. To put it in 3D terms, it doesn't matter whether the arrow is sticking dead center or off by the line, a hit in the 11 ring still scores an 11.

I shot a release, of and on, for about 5 years. Now, I shoot far more than the average bowhunter does but, over those 5 years, I had one release break and two others malfunction. Going to my backup releases, I found NONE of them shot exactly the same as my primary release. Even identical releases shot to a slightly different point of impact. So, someone that carries a backup release needs to practice with it enough to learn how it shoots before relying on it in the woods.

Frankly, as long as I've got functional fingers on my stringhand, I'd rather micturate in my own mug of beer than ever shoot a release again.

sho-me_bhntr

shadowace,



and there it is! the exact reason why i'm wanting to switch. i was trying to state that earlier in my second post in this thread. it's not about the release actually "failing" so much. its more the "hassle" factor associated with shooting the release. the majority of my hunting is spot and stalk. shot opportunities can arise in the blink of an eye, and they can be gone just as fast. i don't want to have to be fumbling with my release when the shot presents itself. so, fingers gets rid of at least this part of the equation. like i stated before somewhere, it simplifies things, doesn't it? the answer imo can only be "yes." and if that isn't benefitting enough, i also cut out all the i-forgot-my-release, i-dropped-my-release, my-release-doesn't-seem-to-be-working-right kinds of scenerios. again, it simplifies things, doesn't it? finally, your fingers will work everytime (i haven't dreamed up a scenario yet where my fingers would actually fail .) a release?...well, it can and (at some point) will have a failure imo.

Deerslayer_37

I didn't know there was that much fumbling around with a release. its on your wrist. you click it onto your loop and you're ready to go. there isn't a whole lot of hassle with a release. switching from a release to fingers would be a step down in accuracy and shot consistency.

slayer

Arthur P

You seen those Ronco commercials where Mary Homemaker is shredding a carrot on a hand held grater and acts like she dang near took her hand off with the blasted thing (whilst the announcer says OUCH for dramatic impact) to make the Ronco Automatic Carrot Grater look SO much easier?? That's about the same kind of marketing foolishness that's gone into brainwashing people into believing that you can't shoot accurately without a release.

Take a grain of truth and blow it thousands of times out of proportion.

Yeah, some people's shooting flat sucks with their fingers and it's a release or nothing... for them. There are some folks that literally can't walk and chew gum at the same time, too. Most 'normal' people have better coordination than that.

Some people actually shoot BETTER with their fingers than they do with a release. Many people that are struggling with their shooting might be better off getting rid of the release.

And, like I said before, what's the difference between a pinwheel 11 and one that's inside the edge of the 11 ring? They both score the same.

If anyone thinks there isn't any fumble factor involved in shooting a release, I'd be happy to challenge them to a test. Deer target at 15 yards. Start out with your arrow in the quiver. Get someone to work the stopwatch and holler GO. Load the arrow on the bow, draw and shoot. You have to hit the 10 ring for the time to count. 8's are NFG.

My best time to get an arrow from my quiver to the 10 ring with fingers is 7 seconds with my compound. 4 seconds with my recurve. Since we're talking releases though, we'll stick with the compound. 7 seconds. Beat that time and I might accept your notion that a release has no fumble factor.

sho-me_bhntr

yeesh.... haven't we covered this already? i realize i asked in my original post if making the switch was a bad idea. losing accuracy wasn't really what i was looking for. i was searching more for opinions like what bigpapascout and arthur suggested. thanks for your opinion, though. maybe i should have been more clear and asked "other than losing a minimal amount of accuracy, is switching a bad idea?" i apologize for that. my fault. so, i really don't think there is an accuracy issue when we're talking about hunting yardages...the guys i know that shoot fingers are very, very good out to 40 yds. (beyond that, i can't tell you because i've never seen them shoot past 40yds.) plus, with the style of hunting i do and type of area i hunt (i.e. swamp) a release isn't as advantageous as one might think, at least in my experience. that's why i'm wanting to change. do you think if i thought it was a "step down" i would be willing to do it? of course not. i have seen the mech release side with the way i hunt and the areas i hunt. switching to fingers will only help me, i'm sure of it (as long as i can be accurate .) besides, arthur made a good point i hadn't thought of at all...shooting fingers i won't have to worry about buying/maintaining releases every so often, which equates to more money in my pocket to spend on other things (hunting gear of course .)

okay, moving on...(i hope i'm not making this thread seem really boring/monotonous/etc., but man, shooting with your fingers is definately a whole new world to me. also, my wife says i have a tendency to obsess over things. )

a peep. yeah, that's one piece of gear i'm not ready to give up. ...i've been using a rubber-tubed peep for the last few years. i've never really liked it. why haven't i gone to a tubeless peep you ask? good question. i always ask myself that when i hear that stupid tube go "slap" with every shot. anyway, seeing how my set-up will be changing with the switch, i thought now is the time to change. what do you recommend? i've thought about the tru peep so i won't have to worry about seeing strands through my peep as what might happen with the peeps that seperate the strands into 3 bundles. but, it occured to me now that i'll be using fingers, i might have to worry about the tru peep always aligning correctly. will the string "twist" in my fingers the same each time i draw? i don't know that the peeps that seperate the strands into 3 bundles are bad. heck, they may not bother me at all, i just thought that if i could eliminate that i would. any suggestions on a peep are MUCH appreciated!

airborne archer

Ever heard of a guy named Chuck Adams?

Arthur P

sho-me, you just have to orient the peep in the string so that it rotates back square to the eye every time you draw the bow. A portable press like the Bowmaster sure makes life a lot easier when it comes to peep adjustments.

I used the Fletcher TruPeep for many years on my tournament bows and they're darn good peeps. But, in the last few years I used sights, I came to like the Shurz-a-Peep 2X2. It's made by the same outfit that makes the 3-way peep, but this one splits the string into 4 strands, with 2 strands on each side. It seemed easier to get aligned than the Fletcher.

That 3-way Shurz-a-Peep always bugged the devil out of me. Always seemed to have a strand in front of my eye, no matter what I did. With my eyesight, I was having a hard time seeing the pins anyway and that strand kept me from seeing them at all. Maybe younger eyes don't have that much problem with it.

JOE PA

I would totally agree with Arthur on the 3-strand Shurz. Never could shoot them well. Just when I thought I had myself trained to just ignore the little string in between me and the sight pin, I would catch a glare in the sun and it would be too tough not to see, LOL.

I have quit shooting peeps altogether. I put a small wrap of orange thread on my string that I can see as a blurry dot that I line up with the bottom of the pin guard. I try to put the fuzzy dot on the riser just to the right of the pin guard. My accuracy is just as good as when I used to shoot a peep under most conditions, and in low light, when a bright pin can make it very difficult to see the deer beyond it, especially through a peep, there is plenty of brightness left that the deer is still quite visible. Might be worth a try.

sho-me_bhntr

wow, lots of great suggestions here from using kisser buttons with peeps to no peeps at all!

JOE PA,

so, when you're shooting, it sounds like you're not lining your eye up with the bow string and your pins as you would when using a peep. there is a slight offset from your bow string to your pins, is that correct? it sort of creates a triangle, with your eye, pin, and bowstring being the vertices of the triangle. am i understanding you correctly?

anyway, i've still got some questions...i've been doing a lot of shooting in the yard trying to find a good anchoring point (which i think i have found.) should the string nestle in the bend of where my first joint is on my string hand or should i be shooting with the string more toward my fingertips, or heck, does it even matter? i just want to make sure i am learning correctly because once a habit is formed they can be hard to break if it needs to be broken. any help is appreciated...