# Grip Pressure and arrow flight



## Kris87 (Aug 14, 2014)

Since I had an Elite E32 in to tune, I thought it would be a good time to show some different grips, and how they affect arrow flight.  Grip is a very overlooked thing when shooting and tuning a bow, and certain bows definitely shoot better with certain pressures on the grip.  You will see in the pics, I took a marker and drew a line on the top of my hand.  This line runs parallel with the big thumb muscle on your palm, or your thumb pad.  This line does not run parallel with the lifeline on your hand, I did this on purpose as you'll see.  

Ok, first grip I tried here was with the center of the grip dead down my lifeline in my hand.  This is probably the most common grip I see guys use.  Its often thought that if the grip rests in the V of your hand, you're less inclined to torque it....that's not always the case.  You might not torque the grip, but you're applying pressure on the right side of the bow.  You can see here, the line of my thumb muscles is point to the right, so there is pressure from it on the right side of the grip.  Here's how it would look:



 

^^This grip produced shot #1 in the coming bareshaft results picture.

Next, since I know that one didn't really work, I tried the grip I normally use on my Hoyts.  Typically I line the thumb muscle up dead down the back of the grip.  This allows it to act as a fulcrum, and rotates the knuckles toward the target, and downward at a 45 degree angle.  I can shoot just about any bow with this grip as it produces very little right or left pressure using the fat thumb pad.  You will notice also my hand was lower on the grip here, and that's important.  Using this grip, there is a definite gap to the V in your palm at your wrist. Here's how it looks:





^^This grip produced shot #2 in the coming bareshaft picture.

Next, after seeing what was going on from the first two shots, I knew I needed to move my grip up toward the shelf, and rotate it just a tad back to the right.  I thought this was a fairly neutral feeling position, one that I was comfortable with right away.  Here's how it looked, and although not a lot different than #2, you can see I moved my hand up close to the shelf, and moved the line of my thumb pad to the right center of the grip.





^^That grip produced shot #3 in the bareshaft picture.  





As you can see, shot #1 was a nock left tear.  I had too much pressure on the right side of the grip as seen in the first grip picture.  Normally when you move pressure to one side of the grip, the tail of the arrow moves the opposite way. i.e.  Move grip to the left, the tail of the shaft moves right.  You can see shot #2 wasn't that bad, a tad tail low.  So that told me I had too much palm or I had too much pressure lower on the grip.  Easy fix...I just moved my hand up toward the shelf.  You can see in grip picture #3 I moved my hand up flush with the shelf.  This brought the tail of the shaft up.  I was satisfied with that hole, and shot it a few more times to confirm that was where it was going to shoot best.  This was a comfortable grip.  If I had to shoot a grip that was way out of whack, then I would have probably gone back and looked at the tune, but since this bow was already at correct centershot, and cams sync'd perfectly, I felt good about it.


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## Kris87 (Aug 14, 2014)

Couple things.  I shot these holes at 10 feet.  In reality, all of these grips would produce good flight, since the bow is in tune.  The nock left tear might have shot broadheads to the right, just wouldn't know unless you shot them.  I just thought it was good to see how some bows like certain grips and if you get to a certain spot where you can't get a specific tear out, then try a different grip.  If you follow tournament archery, it was well documented how much Levi had to adapt his grip to the Elite from the Mathews.  If you have this type of equipment already setup, don't be afraid to try new things to see if your shooting improves.


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## Cole Henry (Aug 14, 2014)

Awesome thanks kris! Going to be messing around with this.


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## riskyb (Aug 14, 2014)

Nice write up...lot of people looking at their setup now I bet


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## hoytslanger87 (Aug 14, 2014)

I have learned a lot in the past two weeks about how much grip can effect arrow flight. I knew my bow was in tune, but the bareshaft was nock low and left. After a few days learning about grip pressure I shot a perfectly straight bareshaft at 15 yards just by changing the grip.


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## Stonewall 2 (Aug 14, 2014)

Thanks Kris, I was playing with my grip shooting my new Elite E32 I just brought home last night. A lot of difference fom the Matthews bows I've been shooting the last 15 years. Can't wait to try this out tonight.


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## C Cape (Aug 14, 2014)

Great thread here Kris!


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## gcs (Aug 14, 2014)

Kris,
Can you show how you grip your Hoyt's? You said you had to grip the Elites different than the Hoyt's, I would like to see the difference. Thanks


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## Deerhunter12454 (Aug 14, 2014)

Grip is everything. I had a messed up grip and my arrows would be all over the place. Now that I relaxed my grip, I'm afraid to bust an arrow.


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## Brewskis (Aug 15, 2014)

Posted this over in the Bowhunting forum where Kris had posted about the E32 he was tuning. I mentioned that my BHs and FPs where hitting fairly close (within an inch or two of each other), but that my bareshaft arrows were several inches to a couple feet to the right of fletched FPs at 20-30 yards. Although, I was glad that my FPs and BHs were grouping fairly closely, I was still not satisfied that the bareshaft arrows were hitting so far to the right at 20 yards. 

I've been working on my grip with the E35 for the past eight months. When I first bought it, I'd been using the grip shown above for shot #1. I quickly found out this wasn't going to achieve consistent results. As I just mentioned, I was having fairly good success with the grip Kris used for shot #2. However, I drew a line along the top of my hand paralleling the thumb pad, and gave grip #3 a shot yesterday evening. Wow! That instantly put my bareshaft arrow, fletched FP arrow, and and fletched BH arrow together at 10 and 20 yards! Thanks again Kris for the help!

These DIY threads are great!

First group at 10 yards






Second group at 20 yards





Third group at 20 yards


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## jawja7 (Aug 18, 2014)

Ok, so I needed to vent off a little frustration after having to dump nearly 2k into my truck today. So I got home and broke out the Phoenix to shoot my newly wrapped hunting arrows Blazer21 did for me. I remembered this thread and the lines Kris showed and realized my grip was just a touch off. I had a little more of the life line side than the thumb pad. I adjusted slightly and shot 5 arrows from 32 yards. This was one of the best groups all year from that distance. Thought that it was a fluke and walked back to 38 yards and shot again. Even better group. I think I've found my grip. It was exactly like the 2nd pic from Kris. I can't get pics to post for some reason, but thanks to all for the help in this thread!  Stuff like this can and will make all of us more aware of small mistakes in form and possibly help us become better archers.


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## Kris87 (Aug 18, 2014)

jawja7 said:


> Ok, so I needed to vent off a little frustration after having to dump nearly 2k into my truck today. So I got home and broke out the Phoenix to shoot my newly wrapped hunting arrows Blazer21 did for me. I remembered this thread and the lines Kris showed and realized my grip was just a touch off. I had a little more of the life line side than the thumb pad. I adjusted slightly and shot 5 arrows from 32 yards. This was one of the best groups all year from that distance. Thought that it was a fluke and walked back to 38 yards and shot again. Even better group. I think I've found my grip. It was exactly like the 2nd pic from Kris. I can't get pics to post for some reason, but thanks to all for the help in this thread!  Stuff like this can and will make all of us more aware of small mistakes in form and possibly help us become better archers.



Man, that's what I like hearing.  Good seeing you today.


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## C Cape (Aug 19, 2014)

jawja7 said:


> Ok, so I needed to vent off a little frustration after having to dump nearly 2k into my truck today. So I got home and broke out the Phoenix to shoot my newly wrapped hunting arrows Blazer21 did for me. I remembered this thread and the lines Kris showed and realized my grip was just a touch off. I had a little more of the life line side than the thumb pad. I adjusted slightly and shot 5 arrows from 32 yards. This was one of the best groups all year from that distance. Thought that it was a fluke and walked back to 38 yards and shot again. Even better group. I think I've found my grip. It was exactly like the 2nd pic from Kris. I can't get pics to post for some reason, but thanks to all for the help in this thread!  Stuff like this can and will make all of us more aware of small mistakes in form and possibly help us become better archers.





That is what it's all about!  Good shooting!


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## jawja7 (Aug 19, 2014)

Kris87 said:


> Man, that's what I like hearing.  Good seeing you today.



Yep. Good to see you too. My wife said we act like kids in a candy store when it comes to bow hunting.  She said I couldn't go on another business trip with her and talk deer hunting. I thought we were handling business.


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## jevett (Sep 4, 2014)

Wish I had this information 9 months ago when I first purchased my E32! I struggled with my grip changing over from a Bowtech captain. I ended up shooting my best with the #2 pic of your grip test. Thanks Kris!


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## Kris87 (Sep 4, 2014)

Thanks.  I spend a lot of time manipulating grip to see how it affects arrow flight.  Its easy to see when shooting a bareshaft through paper.  But in the end, you gotta be comfortable.  That grip in #2 while is comfortable to me, seems to feel very odd for most guys I get to try it.  But it works!!!


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## SemperFiDawg (Sep 10, 2014)

Kris I didn't shoot bare shafts yesterday, but I did try the 3 different grips.  I shoot and Elite Answer and found the number 3 grip photo shrunk my groups by roughly 50% over all yardage ranges.  All I can say is WOW and Thanks.  I had no idea until reading this that grip could have such a profound impact on accuracy.


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## BigCats (Sep 19, 2014)

Well I'd like to say this helped me I bought a e32 and finally got out and shot it some today after having it for a week , I started getting a little slap on arm nothing crazy just barely but it was driving me crazy.  I remembered the thread so I looked it back up and tried things out and for sure I ended up like grip 3 . I have been shooting a Mathews z7 extreme tactical for 2 years with there torqueless grip and this 32 has to be gripped different took a few shots to get used to but I feel better at full draw groups better, and it's not skimming my arm.  The more I shoot this bow the more I like it.


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## tgw925 (Oct 8, 2014)

Im shooting an Obsession Evolution and I can not get my broadheads to hit with field points. Possibly my grip? Bow is in tune but broadheads are shooting 2 inches right.


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## Kris87 (Oct 8, 2014)

Could be.  Where is the centershot set?


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