QUICK TIPS

Shooting Fingers with a Containment Arrow Rest

One of the great things about the new crop of full-containment (also caller capture) arrow rests, such as the Octane listed on this page, the Whisker Biscuit, and the NAP 360 (to name just a few), is that they can be tuned to shoot just as well with fingers as with a release aid. It is true that these rests were designed with the release shooter in mind and the vast majority of full-containment rests are used with releases, but finger shooters are using them with great success also.

The only real difference between tuning your bow for a release aid and tuning for shooting with fingers is that with finger shooting you must compensate for finger roll (the rolling of the string over your fingertips as the string is released) which doesn't happen with a release aid. Finger roll is a highly individualistic thing and can very from a lot to hardly any depending on your form and the smoothness of your release. Consequently it will require a bit of practice to get it right.

Right-handed shooters should start with the arrow slightly to the left of centre shot. The standard is to have the string lined up with the right side of the arrow while sighting down the arrow with the bow at rest (not drawn) and the string centered on the riser. If you are using a sight, the pins should also be centered on the string. This will give most of us a good starting point from which small adjustments will soon have us dead on. Of course, for this to work, you must have your arrows spined correctly, which can be determined by bare-shaft testing.