How to stop butchering my hands?

[Tom Alker]

Hey y'all,

Made a fresh batch of arrows and strung up my pvc bow for some roving this morning on the beach and by 2 hours my hands were minced, Am i shooting wrong? Sometimes i shoot fine so i know it must be something to do with my technique.



Other pics

[Goatchaser]

Are they vanes or feathers on them arrows?

[Tom Alker]

just normal trad feathers aye

[bigbob]

I am assuming your pvc bow doesn't have a shelf or a minimal one.You need a leather 'glove' for want of a better word that wraps around the fingers at the base of thumb and can have a thicker piece added at the thumb base. Mine is just a piece of leather that wraps around and fastened with velcro. One shoots off this piece of leather and it prevents those feather cuts. Also check your feathers at the leading [front] edge and make sure they are tapered down to a point and not have an abrupt vertical edge to them as they will slice some thing awful if they do.

[Tom Alker]

Yep correct, no shelf -straight off the knuckle, thought maybe i could maybe avoid a glove but a gloves gotta be better than this stinging hand.

[Tom Alker]

Got these out of the tool box, Fingerless gloves originally got them for kayaking but these might work ok.

[longbowinfected]

Been there.
Fixed it but really cannot say if what I did was the only way but it worked for me.
Others may be able to tell you the whys and wherefores.
When I used to shoot my best in the zone scores with arrows touching on the butt I had one cut in one line where that happened. I just kept re opening this rough cut. I have never developed callouses or blisters or even bruised myself on either hand or arm except for that cutting on the bow hand.
When this happened I knew My form was exceptional and I hit and broke a lot of my own arrows. I could not afford that so I simply gave my arrows more clearance on the string and my hand more clearance on the bow.

I resolved this by raising my string nock to 5/8th inch above square, making sure my brace height was exactly 3 mm above fiestmiele and putting my bow hand in the same sculptured place a quarter of an inch below the highest point. I did this by buying self amalgamating tape. I cut a long piece half width a wound and stretched it till it was thick enough to slot my hand next to. Great for wet weather too. Also at the same time I went up in poundage and bowspeed. Your body releases better and crisper the harder the draw and shoots better if you can handle it all day.

Never done it since and have shot well. It really got messy if feather spine got caught under my skin but it spurred me on when shooting because I knew I was doing everything the same.

It looks like you move your bow hand a bit to get lots of cut lines. Perhaps you tense up your bow hand and torque your bow a bit. I use a bow sling and my handle is shaped so that I do not really grip the bow. It sits in line with my bow arm bones right at the base of my thumb a la Ray Axford's great book "Archery Anatomy"

Another thing you can tie on the front of your flights. That is what I did with my ELB arrows. I did the same thing [amalgamating tape] on my elb and do not need a glove or tying arrows any more and consistency has been improved as everything is the same each time..the tape kept my hand away from the arrow.

Hope this helps

Kevin

[Tom Alker]

Yeah my hand started with one small cut and ended with a proper cut, I had to pick small bits of feather out of it as well as sand, it was ripping over the cut due to the sand being on the arrow shafts

I may be torquing the bow but for horse bows i always try to keep a loose bow hand to try to keep the style somewhat elegant. Video attached if you want to see. I remember shooting with perry at the club one day and he told me i tend to lean and try to look at the arrow right after the shot, could it be that too? you can see clearly in the video i pivot forward when drawing, i can't un-do that habit it seems

Video of my Form, Wearing a glove this time though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3uFvCR ... e=youtu.be


Also while i have a few of you here, Check out my new arrows, I have no spinejig so dont ask, but they're a light spine, i recently got employed at bunnings and i went awol after work one arvey and got a bunch of 8mm-9.5mm dowels so i could make more arrows, my arrows arent consistent in spine and weight but i just really enjoy making them i guess and i cant destroy them, they're super tough. I crest them, varnish them and hand fletch them as i don't have a jig. I've got it going pretty well, for now. Only 1 of 6 misbehaves and it's spine must be somewhere in the noodle range so i dont even shoot it.

[Stickbow Hunter]

IMO you shouldn't need a glove or bits of leather to protect your bow hand if you have reasonable form and you have your bow set up correctly. The two most common causes of cuts by feathers to the bow hand are nocking point too low and the leading edge of your feathers not glued at the front.

It could quite possibly just be the video angle Tom but I paused the video numerous times and it appears that the nock end of your arrow is low when you are shooting. I would try a higher nocking point. I set mine ⅜" above right angle to where the arrow passes over your hand and I nock under the nocking point.

Looking at the photos of your arrows one can see that the fronts of the feathers are quite high and rough and it doesn't appear as though you have put a dob of glue on this area. By putting a dob of glue on that leading edge serves two main purposes. It stops the front of the feather getting ripped up by grass etc in case of a miss and secondly it forms a smooth ramp up and over the high rough front leading edge of the feathers.

Also I think you would be well served by making yourself a spining jig ASAP so you can better match those arrow shafts.

Jeff

[GrahameA]

Morning.

This says it all:

IMO you shouldn't need a glove or bits of leather to protect your bow hand if you have reasonable form and you have your bow set up correctly. The two most common causes of cuts by feathers to the bow hand are nocking point too low and the leading edge of your feathers not glued at the front.

I would suggest that:

... nocking point too low ...

Probably accounts for 99% plus of these issues.

Read this: http://www.eastonarchery.com/img/downlo ... _guide.pdf

Take note of this.

Image1.jpg (66.79 KiB) Viewed 5166 times

I note that you have decided not to shoot with a nocking point on you bow. I would suggest a tied nocking point not a clamped brass nock set.

Image2.jpg (12.78 KiB) Viewed 5166 times

[Tom Alker]

Ah yeah what you guys are saying now reminds of what perry was teaching me at the corrival, if he got bit he'd just say "bad form, that's why it cut me" Didn't exactly realize what that meant till today.

Also ill redo the knocking points and do proper knocks, Just so you guys know im still trying to learn all the ins and outs and i really do appreciate the info. helps a lot.

[Tom Alker]

and i have a post in the trade blanket, im trying to find a spine jig!

[Stickbow Hunter]

Also ill redo the knocking points and do proper knocks, Just so you guys know im still trying to learn all the ins and outs and i really do appreciate the info. helps a lot.

No probs mate and I'm glad the info helped. There is much to learn but you are doing very well. All the best and enjoy!

Jeff

[Nephew]

Tom, this wont help your cuts mate, but what type of clamp do you have on your fletching jig? Looks like a straight (2degree offset) to me. Once you have a spine jig, try a helical clamp, probably in right wing as most feathers in Aus seem to be) and see how the arras go.

[Tom Alker]

will do, ill see if i can use perry's fletching jig next time i make a set. cheers nephew