# Release?



## tmitchell91 (Jun 10, 2014)

How many people use release when archery hunting? I have used both the release and just a shooting glove. i was talking to a coworker and he says he has never used a release. So that got me thinking about how many people prefer the more "traditional" style of archery.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

I used to use a release until I switched to a crossbow!


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

I shot with a glove and fingers for many years. Tried a tab, but just couldn't get it to work. I was pretty good too, even with the old style equipment, but every once in a while I'd have a clunky release. Just fluff it, and miss the target badly! Mechanical releases had been introduced, but the ODNR forbid them for years. Once they OK'd them, and they started showing up in stores, I tried one. A wrist strap style, Scott Shark to be specific. No more fluffed releases! Then more recently I tried a T handle thumb trigger release. Wow! Tightened my groups up even more. 

I figure that If I'm going to try to kill a deer with a bow (the only reason I engage in archery, I'm not a paper puncher except to practice for hunting season), then I owe the animal the best, most accurate shot I can take. For me, that includes a mech release. For those who wish to shoot fingers, that's fine. Heck, every archery forum I've ever visited has a "tradbow" page for those who still shoot the old style English longbows or recurves. 

It always amuses me when compound bow shooters look with disdain on those who shoot crossbows. By that logic, tradbow shooters should look down on compound users! Different strokes for different folks!


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

I switched to a crossbow because I didn't always have time to practice and didn't want to risk a bad shot...


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

Went from longbow using finger release, to compound FR, to compound mechanical release to crossbow due to shoulder/neck operation.
Like has been stated, I shot better with a MR as well.



> Orig. posted by *buckeyebowhunter*:
> 
> It always amuses me when compound bow shooters look with disdain on those who shoot crossbows. By that logic, tradbow shooters should look down on compound users!


I've been around plenty of guys with this attitude as well. Never much cared for that attitude even when I was able to draw a bow. Not able to today(although with therapy I'm getting closer) and using a crossbow has kept me in the field enjoying what I like to do.
Have seen the same attitudes with muzzle loader shooters. Clear back when guys shooting flintlocks looked down on those shooting cap locks. Now the cap lockers talk trash about the inliners.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

fastwater said:


> Went from longbow using finger release, to compound FR, to compound mechanical release to crossbow due to shoulder/neck operation.
> Like has been stated, I shot better with a MR as well.
> 
> 
> ...


Amazing, isn't it? We're all hunters, aren't we? Just a couple of days ago I realized I needed to crank my bow down a few pounds after spending a very cold afternoon in the stand. One trick I've used over the years to warm up is to draw and hold my bow several times. Well, my first couple of draws would have spooked any deer within a hundred yards. Man! They were hard! On a warm day in a t-shirt and jeans is one story. After several cold hours immobile in a tree stand is quite another! The older and creakier my shoulders get, the closer I am to saying YES! to a crossbow.


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## fastwater (Apr 1, 2014)

> Orig. posted by *buckeyebowman*:
> The older and creakier my shoulders get, the closer I am to saying YES! to a crossbow.


I blew my shoulder out years ago when I was younger power lifting. Put off getting it operated on for many years. It popped and creaked for a long time. Kinda finished it off at work. I was very foolish for not getting it done when I 1st injured it. Only thing I did was turn a surgery that would have taken about 8mos. to a year to completely heal to a much more serious oper. that I've been almost two yrs. recouping from. By Jan.1 I hope to be pulling a bow again with Dr's. ok. Been wearing out some therapy resistance bands. 

And you are so right about it being harder to draw after sitting in a stand on a cold day. Things sure stiffen up in all the wrong places. Heck, anymore it's a whole lot harder to come down out of the tree after a long cold sit.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

A release gives you a cleaner release (no pun intended) than a glove or tab. The reason is because with a release the string is just released (again no pun intended) with a tab or glove the string rolls off the fingers wiggling back and forth as it propels the arrow. There is a great slow motion video online somewhere i saw years ago and I grew up shooting with a tab until I saw it. Then I switched to a release. I really did notice my grouping get tighter.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

im with ezbite on this one. I used a tab for the 1st few yrs I shot then switched to a release and my group got much tighter. and it was even easier to draw my bow.
sherman


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

ezbite said:


> A release gives you a cleaner release (no pun intended) than a glove or tab. The reason is because with a release the string is just released (again no pun intended) with a tab or glove the string rolls off the fingers wiggling back and forth as it propels the arrow. There is a great slow motion video online somewhere i saw years ago and I grew up shooting with a tab until I saw it. Then I switched to a release. I really did notice my grouping get tighter.


Absolutely! I just remembered that it's called "shooter's paradox"! I was amazed the first time I watched a super slo-mo video of a bow being shot. It made me wonder how we hit anything at all! The arrow comes off the string flexing like big, wet noodle! When you shoot with fingers the flex is in the horizontal plane. When you use a release the flex is in the vertical plane, and much smaller in amplitude because the string comes out of the release so clean.


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## Mr. A (Apr 23, 2012)

I just saw a re-run of a Marvel super humans" show that used to be on. (Not sure it still is though) they showed a guy that was allegedly the best long bow shooter in the world. He was shooting with his fingers at DROPS OF WATER falling out of a jug from a good distance away. Quite amazing shots IMO. However, they showed many super slow motion shots. I knew that the arrows flexed when shot but after seeing that I have no clue how that dude was able to hit anything, let alone a drop of water at distance.


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## mmukav (Nov 15, 2013)

If I shot a recurve I would most likely use a glove. Tradition, I guess. 

I shoot a compound, and I always use a release. Much more accurate.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

mmukav said:


> If I shot a recurve I would most likely use a glove. Tradition, I guess.



I still use a glove when shooting the recurve or bowfishing.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is this. When compound bows sort of "took over" the market, and so many hunters were using them to hunt from tree stands, the bows started becoming shorter in what is called ATA, or axle to axle length! This introduces a much more severe angle of the bowstring at the nock point when the bow is at full draw. This introduces another phenomenon known as "finger pinch" into the equation. The obvious solution to finger pinch is a D loop and mech release!


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

buckeyebowman said:


> The older and creakier my shoulders get, the closer I am to saying YES! to a crossbow.


This is my 3rd season with a crossbow and I have noticed my shoulders don't ache any more for months on end. The practice sessions aren't as much as shooting a bow.

I started shooting longbows with a tab back in the 60's. In the mid 70's I switched to a recurve and a glove and I think it was probably in 1980 I switched to a compound with a glove. 
Once releases became legal and more popular it became harder and harder to find good quality shooting gloves locally so I eventually made the switch to a release after someone stole my fanny pack out of my truck at my daughters soccer game probably in the mid 90's.
Until I switched to using a release I had always shot instinctive. My groups definitely got better shooting a release probably in part because I also added a sight to the bow. 
I don't think adding the sight and release helped me kill any more deer. My success ratio stayed about the same.


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## tmitchell91 (Jun 10, 2014)

The bow i hunt with is called a super brown bear and its from the 80s-90s. I still use the d loop and release and it does give me better grouping. If Im not hunting or getting ready for hunting, I prefer to use my shooting glove or a tab. I am pretty sure I am going to follow with what a lot of other people have done and switch to crossbow next year. But I will always prefer shooting my recurve the best for recreation.


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## tmitchell91 (Jun 10, 2014)

A while ago my dad came home from a garage sale with an old crossbow .....I didn't think it was anything special or something I could hunt with so into the garage it went ....now 2 1/2 years later my parents are moving and I found the old crossbow and looked into it some more ...it's actually a pretty decent crossbow been practicing with it and I love it ...and he only paid 20 bucks for a complete crossbow package lol I think I found my new hunting bow


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

tmitchell91 said:


> A while ago my dad came home from a garage sale with an old crossbow .....I didn't think it was anything special or something I could hunt with so into the garage it went ....now 2 1/2 years later my parents are moving and I found the old crossbow and looked into it some more ...it's actually a pretty decent crossbow been practicing with it and I love it ...and he only paid 20 bucks for a complete crossbow package lol I think I found my new hunting bow


That looks like an old Horton to me.


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## tmitchell91 (Jun 10, 2014)

It is, its a horton explorer from 1993-1995 I kept missing with it originally that's why I put it away ..come to find out I need flat nocks and I need to leave the dial alone on the side (I didn't know it adjusted the sight )


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