Compound Bow Release



Recurve bow shooters on occasion will argue with compound bow shooters about whether or not the compound bow release is justified in competition. The release comes in a variety of forms and some claim the release gives an unfair advantage to the archers who use it. Nevertheless, it is still a popular component of bows for releasing the string smoothly to provide an improvement in accuracy of hitting the target with the arrow. The release devices come in one of three main designs, including the rotary release, the tension release, and the trigger release.



The methods to trigger the release depend on the type of release. In the rotary release, rotating a part of the release with the hand will trigger it. With the tension release, increasing the force between the release and the bow will result in triggering. This must assume that the release has to be first 'set' at a certain trigger, then the force on the string has to be increased, either by pushing the bow away form the string, or pulling the string a little further back. With the compound bow, this does not make a lot of sense because the tension decreases due to the let-off. But shooting a bow with a bent bow arm that is required if the bosis pushed away is considered bad form. The trigger release can be triggered with either the thumb, pinkie, or index finger. The pinkie is considered unusual, and the thumb trigger is considered mainstream. As already stated, the index finger trigger is considered unsuitable for target archery.

Good form trigger activation can be one of several varieties, including grip deformation, whole hand or finger squeezing, pulling which is a type of grip deformation, and expansion which is considered to be an advanced form used by some of the best competitors in the world.

The techniques for activating the release are dependent on the release style and the preferences of the archer. Breaking the shot is best done with surprise, that is, an element of surprise is introduced so that the archer does not know exactly when the string will be released. As he aims, the bow moves a bit here and there, and it would be nice if the the shot could break when the arrow was aimed precisely at the center of the target. However, this rarely happens, and one can only hope for the arrow to be aimed at the center on average, with the aim being very close to the center during moments around the average . A good archer will have improved accuracy by using a surprise break, much like when a trigger is squeezed on a rifle, the shooter not knowing exactly when the round will be fired.