# Nerve damage to fingers



## penumbra (Aug 23, 2016)

Not trying to be a wise guy, but has anybody here ever had nerve damage to their fingers from shooting bare finger? Or is this just something so many people have just heard about? I ask because I seldom wear a glove but I shoot only 30 to 40# bows. I seldom shoot more than about a hundred or so arrows at a time and that is usually 30 to 35#. When I am going to shoot quite a while with 40# or more, I generally wear a glove. I never developed a taste for a tab. I shoot about every other day on average and I have been doing so for quite some time. I have not experienced any nerve damage but have developed calluses. Of course I started doing this decades before I heard about the nerve damage scenario.


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## rembrandt (Jan 17, 2004)

I don't know how old you are but I wouldn't take the chance......it has happened to some folks out there or this wouldn't be an issue.....Don't encourage nerve damage.....I only use a tab and I love it.....took me about a month to get use to it but I wouldn't go back to a glove.....BTW....why would you want to bare the pain of a 40lb bow drawing it back with bare fingers?


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## motarded (Nov 16, 2007)

it happened to me. It took about 3 months for my finger to come back. I just lost feeling in it, no real big deal. It was just more annoying than any thing else. I just switched over to the compound until it fixed itself, and used a sightly thicker glove/tab after.


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## penumbra (Aug 23, 2016)

I will be 68 in a few weeks. There is no pain drawing a 40# bow unless I shoot more than a few dozen arrows, and then it is just a bit sensitive and I will wear a glove.


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## MBG Hunter (May 17, 2017)

motarded said:


> it happened to me. It took about 3 months for my finger to come back. I just lost feeling in it, no real big deal. It was just more annoying than any thing else. I just switched over to the compound until it fixed itself, and used a sightly thicker glove/tab after.



WoW, I never heard of anything like that before. I've shot 55 pound longbows for 4 years with a thin glove or bare finger and lighter bows for about 10-11 years. But I work with rope and fence wire on a farm and a little blacksmithing. So I have tough hands already. I think it is like folks shoulders going out on 'em. It happens to some people and not to others.


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## penumbra (Aug 23, 2016)

From the lack of response to this question I gather that while nerve damage is possible for someone, it is primarily an urban myth. There may be a slight lack of sensitivity due to callus formation, but no actual nerve damage in all but a few rare cases. At least I find this to be the case for me.


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## Bender (Dec 6, 2006)

I experienced temporary nerve damage in my fingers. I was even using a tab. My mistake, as I was trying a 2 finger release. Took about 6 months to regain feeling. Rather problematic for me as I'm a mechanic. 

It is true, that it doesn't always happen to everybody every time. However you are certainly doing nobody any good by proclaiming it an "urban myth" based on your own personal experiences. It can and does happen.


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## penumbra (Aug 23, 2016)

OK. Thanks guys. I guess I have been lucky. Still, with a range in my basement I can't imagine putting on a glove every time I fling a couple dozen arrows. Beyond that I will try to be more diligent about wearing a glove. I have very wide hands with short stubby fingers like a gorilla and I have many costly gloves that don't fit right. Still, I am going down to shoot a bit now and I will wear the glove this time around. BTW Bender, I shoot two finger split. Was shown this way when I was 13 and have been doing it since. The ring finger just doesn't want to be involved in the process.


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## dragonheart II (Aug 20, 2010)

There are some bowhunters that shoot with bare fingers. They use "no glove" on the bowstring or triple serve the bowstring to make it much larger where they place their fingers.


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## Sanford (Jan 26, 2009)

Yes, with thin tab. Finger would go numb and stay that way for a few days. Threw it away and went back to regular tab.


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## nrhoffman93 (Sep 18, 2016)

I shoot with a glove and I have had the tip of my ring finger go numb for a couple of days. I think it was mainly due to pulling with uneven finger pressure.


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## Hank D Thoreau (Dec 9, 2008)

I have pretty sensitive finger tips. Even though I shoot lighter bows, I need thicker protection. I am also a rock climber and guitar player so my finger tips get a workout. You would think they would be tougher after all that. My guitar callouses are not as thick as they used to be because I spend too much time playing with a slide.


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## fallhunt (Aug 2, 2013)

I never shoot bare fingers. Even a thin tab or thin glove will result in soreness of my fingers for a day or two.

Years ago I was shooting at a public range in Illinois Eldon- Hazlet State Park. The range had a design flaw (at least at that time). The bag targets were set in front of an expansively wide plus about 20 yards (or more) deep impenetrable mass of densely entwined briars as the safety backstop.

A scruffy bearded old guy wearing grungy dirty worn-out clothing showed up with his old drab looking one-piece wood bare bow (recurve I think) accompanied with a quiver filled with a strange eclectic assortment of arrows. He immediately ridiculed my use of a tab for my Bear Black Bear Compound. He said tabs weren’t needed. He indicated that he had been an archer forever and had never ever used a tab or glove. He advised that my fingers would naturally toughen should I just stop being such a sissy. He boasted that he had also not purchased any arrows for many years even though he practiced extensively each day. He said that he just regularly scrounged lost arrows from the briar patch. This explained why the arrows in his quiver were of all different lengths, diameters, had different fletching, and the shafts were made of different materials.

I had been shooting at 20 yards. He asked whether I would stop long enough to allow him to practice much farther back. He backed up farther than the maximum intended distance for the range. I am guessing 50 to 60 yards, but possibly further. He then emptied his quiver (many arrows!) into a bag target. The group was tighter towards the bag’s center and no arrows missed the bag. He proudly told me that if I kept practicing that I would someday be able to shoot like him. He retrieved his arrows and then drove off in his clunker of an old car. I have not returned to that range since, so I never saw him again.


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## maddog20/20 (Oct 13, 2015)

Meh...I use a thick glove because I don't want to take the chance. What's the point?


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## fallhunt (Aug 2, 2013)

fallhunt said:


> I never shoot bare fingers. Even a thin tab or thin glove will result in soreness of my fingers for a day or two.
> 
> Years ago I was shooting at a public range in Illinois Eldon- Hazlet State Park. The range had a design flaw (at least at that time). The bag targets were set in front of an expansively wide plus about 20 yards (or more) deep impenetrable mass of densely entwined briars as the safety backstop.
> 
> ...


Addendum

In retrospect I suspect that all his arrows were aluminum shafts. This was prior to carbon arrows and at a time when fiberglass arrows were rarely still encountered. I doubt that any were wood shafts.

But, of course, my main point was that this guy was apparently a longtime bare finger shooter.


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## Brian N (Aug 14, 2014)

Why risk even mild numbness or something more serious, when using a tab (or glove) is so simple a solution? There are so many styles and brands, you'll find one that will suit you.


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## j.conner (Nov 12, 2009)

Nerve damage in the fingers is definitely a thing. Another big reason for using finger tab or glove is that it provides a smooth and consistent surface for releasing the string. An armguard and bow stringer should also be considered standard equipment for recurve and longbow.


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## Wobbley (Sep 26, 2014)

motarded said:


> it happened to me. It took about 3 months for my finger to come back. I just lost feeling in it, no real big deal. It was just more annoying than any thing else. I just switched over to the compound until it fixed itself, and used a sightly thicker glove/tab after.


This was my experience as well. Couple months on the wheel bow, thicker tab sorted it out.


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## Bender (Dec 6, 2006)

penumbra said:


> . I have very wide hands with short stubby fingers like a gorilla and I have many costly gloves that don't fit right. Still, I am going down to shoot a bit now and I will wear the glove this time around. BTW Bender, I shoot two finger split. Was shown this way when I was 13 and have been doing it since. The ring finger just doesn't want to be involved in the process.


Hey, if I could do a 2 finger release I would. Its very clean. But we gotta be smart, and not everybody can do that, just like not everybody can shoot without finger protection.

I myself have very big hands, WITH fat stubby sausage fingers. Gloves that fit were a problem. Also I wear them out very quickly. There is no denying that they are more convenient than a tab. But when my last glove I bought cost $80, "guaranteed" to never wear out, and less than a year later it was done for, that was enough for me.

I forced myself to learn how to shoot with a tab. I found a style/pattern of tab that I liked. Then I figured out how to make my own. So by going to tab I get a better release, and I get that at near zero cost, and never have to worry about losing it, because I always have spares.


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## GrahamVT (Jul 5, 2017)

It happened to me, feeling came back after a few weeks. After I just used an old glove and had no problems.


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