Grab the bow with your non-dominant hand.
OK, that was pretty straight forward. By determining your proper bow size you now know exactly what size bow you need. Before you head off to purchase your new bow you should understand that there are two kinds of sales people that you will encounter. The salesperson that really wants to help you make the right purchase. Now string your bow. If you plan on using a front stabilizer, install your stabilizer now. To check the alignment of the string with a stabilizer, put your bow in a bow vise or rest it vertically on on the back of a chair. Stand directly behind the bow and cover your non dominant eye with your hand.
The grip should rest inside the pocket of your non-dominant hand. This pocket is the natural gap that lies in between your palm and your thumb. Check to see that your lifeline is straight up and down.- If you cannot find the pocket of your hand, try to relax the muscles in your hand more. Oftentimes, tense muscles can cause this pocket to disappear.
- Note that if you fail to grab the bow with this portion of your hand, you may not have enough stability to control the bow as you draw it back to shoot.
- Ideally, the force of your hand should be at the lateral center of the bow grip and just slightly below the vertical center of the grip. The grip usually lies at the center of the bow. If your bow does not have a grip built into it, grab it near the center and adjust your hand placement accordingly until you can get a firm enough grip to prevent the bow from swaying as you hold it.
- You may need to test your hold on the bow by drawing the string back. The hand should feel comfortable, and the center of your hand should come into full contact with the center of the bow grip. There should also be no pressure or force on the wrist during a shot.
- This is a good time to check that you have the right bow. If you are drawing the string with your right hand, you should buy a right-handed bow and the arrow/arrow rest should be on the left side of the bow. Vice versa if you draw with your left hand.
Archived
How do you guys hang your bows? (particularly recurves)
I've been taking the vertical approach with my traditional bows, my olympic recurve and my compounds. I've heard some say keeping bows vertical and hanging them by the loose string towards the top will warp the limbs.
What are your thoughts on this? Storing them vertically has allowed me to save a LOT of space, but I definitely don't want my bows to warp. I don't worry so much about the metal bows, but the wooden ones I do worry about some.
91% Upvoted