# Do any of you still shoot trigger/wrist releases?



## kwood

Hi -- 
I started shooting last fall. I have been reading some archery books now, talking to some folks at the range, and hearing all about "BACK TENSION." and it is making me want to try a BTR. However being strapped for cash, and having recently purchased a nice trigger-style wrist buckle strap type release, I would really like to find a way to achieve this technique with the equipment I currently own. 

For the record, my primary purpose is Hunting. I might join a recreational league at some point, but basically I care mostly about hunting. 

Do any of you shoot regular wrist strap trigger releases? 
Are there those of you who use one type for Hunting and the other for target/why?

When I pull my hand back as if pulling a bow back holding a BTR, I can feel the back muscles contract - the ones that Larry Wise and Bernie Pellerite talk about. I am just an aspiring hunter, but still, I want to have the best form possible. 

How, if at all, can I achieve this proper Back Tension Form consistently, using my current wrist-buckle type trigger release? What are some things I could be focusing on?

Thank you sincerely for your input.


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## aread

Bernie's book describes how to use a wrist release with back tension.

I don't shoot one, so I can only tell you what's in the book.

First buckle on the release at exactly the same every time. Find something on your hand or wrist as a maker and align the release with it every time.
Second, make sure that the strap is short enough that you can make a hook with your index finger over the trigger
Third, at full draw, keep the tension of holding in your back and only in your back. 
Fourth, to release, relax your release hand so that the trigger slides down into your finger. Don't move your index finger, let the release move into it.
Then follow through to a conclusion.

There is a lot more to a good shot than this. I've just focused on the part of for that deals with the wrist release. 

There are a couple of top pro's who use a wrist release. So it's not necessarily a handicap. 

The key to using either a thumb trigger or wrist release release is to let the trigger move into your finger or thumb.

Hope this helps,
Allen


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## kwood

Interesting stuff. I will have to find that part in the book and review it some more...(hopefully Idiot Proof Archery?)

I'm just wondering too...if using a BTR would maybe help me learn the step #3 better (hold wiht your back and only your back).


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## da white shoe

Although shooting a wrist strap-index finger type release while using back tension comes second nature for me now, I had a tough time trying to learn back tension with one... it is just too easy to cheat! I may never have learned to do it the right way had I not bought a pure back tension release. With one, you have no choice but to use back tension, all the while completely focused on the target, until the shot breaks. If you don't do it exactly that way every time, you're going to know it right away... your arrow won't even be close!

I was going through a bad case of target panic at the time I was learning though, so you may do better trying to learn on a index finger than I did. To do it right though, you need to follow these steps.

It's tempting to just go right out and try it on a target at 20 yards, but DON'T DO IT! When you start trying all of this for the first time, it is very important, and it will speed up the learning process... if you completely eliminate the aiming part of shooting the bow. Work on relaxation and a surprise release before you ever have to worry about aiming. You need to ingrain the feel of the shot process so that it becomes automatic... as in the term, "muscle memory." You do this with your eyes closed at first. Your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow. I hang my target from a rafter and stand close, so that the tip of my arrow is about 3 1/2 feet away from the target at full draw. After you reach full draw and have lined everything up, close your eyes, relax and think through every step of the shot. 

At full draw, your release hand as well as your bow hand, should be completely relaxed. You don't want to be grasping or squeezing the barrel of the release or the grip of your bow handle. Also, do not force either of your hands open. Your fingers should be hanging limp and relaxed. I lightly touch my first finger and my thumb together around the bow handle, but some like to use a wrist sling. Use the bones in your arms and the muscles in your back to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can. Relax every muscle in your arms that you don't need to use to stay at full draw. That goes for the muscles in your shoulders, torso and legs, too. Remember; tension in your muscles is what causes your sights to wobble and jump around. If you can learn to relax everything that isn't needed to hold at full draw, your sight pins will barely even move. Almost like a bench rested rifle! It is very important that your bow is set at the correct draw length. If it is too long or too short, you will have a very hard time relaxing fully.

Once the shot is feeling good, you move to a target that is close... like 3 yards, with a fairly big spot on it. When every single shot is hitting the spot, your sight pins are always very still while aiming and you are surprised at the release on every shot... only then are you ready to move back and shoot at a longer distance. 

To aim, reach full draw with perfect T form, line up your bubble level, pick the right pin and center it all in the peep. Next, move your whole upper body to get on target. You don't want to just move your arm up and down or side to side. That introduces torque. At full draw, your upper body and arms should at all times form a perfect T shape. When everything is lined up, start consciously relaxing muscles. Hold the bow back with your back muscles. Start with relaxing your hands and work your way up your arms and through the shoulders. When you've shot this way enough, you won't have to even think about this step. Then go into aiming mode. Your full concentration switches to the spot and only the spot. The pin is blurry and it will still seem to float around the spot, but you need to forget about the pin. You will naturally try to keep it on the spot without even thinking about it. You should be focusing on the spot and nothing else. Put as much pressure on the trigger as you can without making it fire and then squeeze just your back muscles until it goes off. Keep your concentration on the spot while squeezing through the shot, making sure to follow through after the release. It's important to never be able to anticipate the shot. No cheating! Focus... concentrate on the spot you want to hit and just squeeze through until the shot breaks.

In hunting, this is definately the best way to shoot a bow, so in learning this, you're on the right track for sure! When I was faced with target panic, I realized that I was going to have to change my thinking. I had always felt that I needed to "shoot the bow." Instead, I came to the conclusion that I needed to let the bow shoot itself! You'll find out that, if you train yourself to just stay out of the bows way and allow it to launch the arrow uneffected by you, you'll be much more consistant in hunting situations. That's the purpose of shooting with back tension and a surprise release... it keeps us from goofing up the shot! Good luck!


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## AJ the TP Guru

Yes, I shoot a wriststrap-trigger release, and I'm primarily a hunter. Most of the guys I've worked with on their TP (see link below) had gone to a BT release thinking that was the "answer." It was not, and a majority have gone back to what they felt most comfortable shooting pre-TP, some of those now shoot fingers.

Moral to story: it really doesn't matter what you releae the arrow with so long as you're comforable with it, *and *you are in a good place mentally and psychologically regarding the shooting of the bow.


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## kwood

Thanks for the comments guys - 
Yeah I think the issue for me is developing proper form. I think I would want to use a BTR as a sort of "teaching tool" for developing proper technique, more than what I would want to use in a hunting situation where having the release "surprise" me might not be ideal timing (e.g., what if the deer moves?)


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## da white shoe

kwood said:


> Thanks for the comments guys -
> Yeah I think the issue for me is developing proper form. I think I would want to use a BTR as a sort of "teaching tool" for developing proper technique, more than what I would want to use in a hunting situation where having the release "surprise" me might not be ideal timing (e.g., what if the deer moves?)


You're right. When hunting, sometimes you don't want the release to completely surprise you. With a wrist strap release... *and while still using back tension,* you can get off a timed shot without resorting to controling the trigger... something you *NEVER* want to start doing! You do everything the exact same way... you just use a very fast squeeze. With practice, you can become very fast and very deadly shooting this way!


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## FLORIDA GATOR

the way i build back tension is practice ,practice, practice


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## AJ the TP Guru

FLORIDA GATOR said:


> the way i build back tension is practice ,practice, practice


Excellent method!


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## Stubby'smom

I am not a hunter but would like to this fall. I am a paper shooter (and foam). I shoot a trigger release using bt to set it off. I have a couple friends who are pretty good target shooters also shooting this way as well as some of the pros. Yes, most are using a true bt release but some are still using triggers.


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## mike 66

great post from the white shoe..... good advice..:thumbs_up


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## kwood

What da white shoe said... Re: controlling the trigger.
honestly, that is something I've never really thought about not "controlling" the trigger. 
It seems counterintuitive to me (I mean, a trigger seems a lot like a gun trigger, so I assumed it was kind of like that)

Can you elaborate on that a little more? You said real fast squeeze, but still trying to piece together HOW/WHY it works that way with a TRIGGER. I get how the BT release works bc I can just feel how my back muscles tighten when my hand pulls a bow back in that position. It like forces me to use my back/shoulder blade muscles. 

With a trigger I feel like I CAN use back tension, to pull back, but my biceps/shoulders work more comfortably from my hand being in a position where the weight is anchored around my wrist and it is especially tempting to use those muscles since I have a very short draw and can pull back a LOT more weight with the "wrong" muscle groups engaged. 

Also -- thoughts on thumb-style releases?


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## da white shoe

kwood said:


> What da white shoe said... Re: controlling the trigger.
> honestly, that is something I've never really thought about not "controlling" the trigger.
> It seems counterintuitive to me (I mean, a trigger seems a lot like a gun trigger, so I assumed it was kind of like that)
> 
> Can you elaborate on that a little more? You said real fast squeeze, but still trying to piece together HOW/WHY it works that way with a TRIGGER. I get how the BT release works bc I can just feel how my back muscles tighten when my hand pulls a bow back in that position. It like forces me to use my back/shoulder blade muscles.
> 
> With a trigger I feel like I CAN use back tension, to pull back, but my biceps/shoulders work more comfortably from my hand being in a position where the weight is anchored around my wrist and it is especially tempting to use those muscles since I have a very short draw and can pull back a LOT more weight with the "wrong" muscle groups engaged.
> 
> Also -- thoughts on thumb-style releases?





You shoot *exactly the same way *with both a back tension and a trigger release.... but with the trigger release it's easier to cheat! :wink:

To make a trigger release work the correct way, you have to have your "mind right"... and getting "there" can be very difficult when all you have to do is move your trigger finger to fire the bow! That's why I recommend starting off with a hinge or some other kind of back tension release.

To do it right with a trigger, you have to adjust the release so that the 2nd pad back from the tip of your finger is touching the trigger. Now, think of your entire release arm as dead wood, lifeless from your elbow to your fingertips. Now, with that dead hook of a trigger finger, you put as much pressure on the trigger as you can without making it go off. Then squeeze your back muscles.... squeeze.... keep squeezing... bam!

None of this will work if you have a grip on the release. You have to let your release float freely from the wrist strap to the string. It is also helpful to adjust your trigger so that it requires more pressure to fire it. With a harder trigger pull, you can really get into it with your finger and, with practice, know that it isn't going to fire prematurely. 

I suspect that a lot of guys are actually just squeezing the trigger slowly to get a surprise release. This does work, but it is very easy to be inconsistant using this method. For example... one of the huge advantages of shooting with back tension is that you become very consistant with the pressure you have against the "wall" at the instant the bow goes off. That is really the most important key to accuracy in archery... being consistant with everything! Firing your release by just slowly squeezing the trigger would work great... *if* you could keep *everything* about your form exactly the same from shot to shot.... at the precise moment the bow fires. That is very tough to do while controling the trigger. At least it was for me!

What I mean by using a very fast squeeze is... doing everything the same way I've described it above, only faster!
Here's a story as an example. 
I see a doe coming toward my treestand. When she gets to my shooting lane I try to stop her with a mouth-bleat, but the wind is blowing pretty hard and she doesn't hear me at first. On the 3rd call, she hears me but, by the time she stops, her chest is behind a small tree. I have one last opening, 2 feet wide that she will cross when she starts walking again. Having already been at full draw since she got close to the first shooting lane, now I start actually aiming for the first time. The pin is on the opening and at the right height for her chest. My back muscles are tensed, not pulling through, but locked at a point very close to triggering the release. I relax all other muscles as much as I can and focus on aiming.
In short order, I see what I've been waiting for. She turns her head toward the opening, flicks her tail once and starts across. At that moment, I start the back muscle squeeze that fires the bow. The arrow is gone in a flash, hitting the deer perfectly... and all without ever moving my finger!

There is a lot more to shooting with back tension and a surprise release than the type of release you use.
Learning to trust your arrow when your sight pin is floating around the spot a little bit and on top of that, you do not know when the shot is going to happen.... that takes a lot of training!


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## MikeHarmon42

Very informative! Thanks guys. Some of you should be writers.


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## kwood

I still am shooting the trigger. The reason why is I can't afford a BT release that fits me yet (small hands) and I have started shooting well with my cheapo (ok just a standard trufire) trigger. 
I have started to get to where I am shooting consistently in the 280s in 5-spots (reacreationally for practice, no league) and just got my first turkey, and for me I feel that's pretty good having started last fall. I was all over the place before, and now I am really pretty consistent every time.

Weird thing is, I have to GRIP the trigger. I have already cut the release down twice. I have put another hole int he strap to get it on my wrist tighter. I cannot get it so that my finger pad is on it without gripping it. BAD NEWS?

This seems to be working relatively well, but I don't want to settle for good not great. Afraid I want to be good in 3D, so I can be really good at hunting someday. This is somehting I want to be really good at. Am I cultivating a BAD BAD habit?


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## da white shoe

kwood said:


> I still am shooting the trigger. The reason why is I can't afford a BT release that fits me yet (small hands) and I have started shooting well with my cheapo (ok just a standard trufire) trigger.
> I have started to get to where I am shooting consistently in the 280s in 5-spots (reacreationally for practice, no league) and just got my first turkey, and for me I feel that's pretty good having started last fall. I was all over the place before, and now I am really pretty consistent every time.
> 
> Weird thing is, I have to GRIP the trigger. I have already cut the release down twice. I have put another hole int he strap to get it on my wrist tighter. I cannot get it so that my finger pad is on it without gripping it. BAD NEWS?
> 
> This seems to be working relatively well, but I don't want to settle for good not great. Afraid I want to be good in 3D, so I can be really good at hunting someday. This is somehting I want to be really good at. Am I cultivating a BAD BAD habit?



Gripping the release is *not *the worst thing you could be doing. People using T-handle type releases have to shoot with some tension in their release hands... just concentrate on relaxing everything else that you can and you will do fine. 
At some point, you will be able to buy something that fits you better. Until then, you can slowly squeeze the trigger to get a surprise release.


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## aread

Here are several videos of a guy who uses a wrist release pretty good:

http://www.dietmartrillus.com/videos/

However, even he frequently trains with a hinge release.

Allen


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