Sore Finger...HELP!!!!

[A.S.]

I recently swithched to 3under, and am shooting better than ever. The only problem is that my ring finger is taking a beating. If I shoot much at all it gets very sore and turns stiff in the middle of the night. I'm hoping someone has had a similar experience and may have a tip or two.
I'm not getting any callouses at all on any of my fingers, but this soreness has to go!

I've tried shooting just 2under, dropping my ring finger. This works good but it feels like I'm pulling almost all the weight with my middle finger.

Also, I'm shooting a Big Shot glove, and it's showing wear on the middle finger, on the side next to my ring finger, maybe this will tell someone something???

[nine]

First steep : cut this finger and call for steep 2  

[nc recurveman]

I thing that helped me was time sooner, or later they go numb!!!

[bow'narrow]

You might try a thumb ring.  Lots of how-to lit out there..   Bow'narrow

[Molson]

Sounds like an alignment issue with your drawing arm, elbow, or wrist. Could be creeping too. Have someone take some pictures of you at full draw or better yet, a video of you shooting.  You'll probably be able to identify it pretty quick.

[A.S.]

Molson, that's what I'm planning on doing today.

Forgot to mention that I broke my draw arm wrist 1 1/2 years ago. I have lots of hardware in there, and my wrist's range of motion is about 80% of what it should be.

[bowhntrct]

You are not alone I too suffer from sore ring finger the next day it will be so stiff it's hard to bend it. I'm a machinest pulling on a lathe chuck wrench does the same thing and shooting makes it worse. I also get callouse's on the ring finger is this bad?

[Terry Green]

If you are shooting correctly, no fingers should be sore uless you are shooting a whole bunch.  A sore finger is a sign of torquing the string/and or a too high an elbow.

[Tim Fishell]

What length bow are you shooting?  Maybe you are getting string pinch on a short bow and going to 3 under is making the string pinch that much worse?  Just a thought.

[A.S.]

Tim, I'm shooting a 60" BW PGA. I'm pretty sure my problem is coming from my broken wrist/surgery. I put together some simple book cases for my kids the other day and my ring finger felt the same as if I had been shooting. The surgeon who worked on my wrist told me I would probably get arthritis from my accident, I guess that may be what is happening.

I tried shooting 2 under today, dropping my ring finger and everything feels fine-guess that may be the way I have to go.

Terry, I had been shooting a LOT when this first started. I'm just too stubborn to take a few days off and let things heal!

Thanks to everyone for the input.

[Missouri CK]

A.S.

I agree with Terry.  I had this problem after trying to be a tough guy (read.. stupid) and shoot without a glove.  Then it gave me problems even after going back to the glove.  I still get it now and then but its only when I am screwing up with my hand position and torquing like Terry was mentioning.  My elbow drifts up and my hand pitches down to the point that my ring finger is the pivot point on the string and the other two fingers are not sharing the load.  

The tough part is that its going to be hard to figure out what your doing at this point because your finger and the nerve inside it is so irritated that it's going to hurt no matter what you do.  Make yourself a thick tab and use that for a while until you can go back to your glove.  Focus on pulling with your shoulder blade so you keep your elbow down and wrist neutral.  If you were not having problems before all of this then I bet you can get back to shooting pain free again.

Hope that helps.
Chris

[AnointedArcher]

I shoot 3 fingers under and had the same problem. I know this sounds silly, but I tried using a Black Widow 3 under tab instead of my Damascus glove and I have not had one problem since?

[A.S.]

Thanks guys, I just ordered a Cavalier tab. I'll give this a try for a few days. I do think that my elbow was getting a little high. Thanks for all the help.

[Finn]

Yes, keep the elbow down.  It gives me a better release because I get better back tension with an inline elbow.  Sometimes I have to think about it.  Also get a good deep hook and relax the hand and forearm.

[gobbler10ga]

I got this problem too, along with about 50 more

[Al Dean]

Elbow to high.  To me this is an ongoing problem.  When my ring finger starts to get sore, I have to make myself put my elbow back down some.  And here is the catch.  My shooting improves as soon as elbow is lowered to proper angle.

[dan ferguson]

What is your bow poundage? Something that helped my fingers alot is I reserved my fastflight string with 25# berkley xt fishing mono line. Its alot slicker release, fits my nocks well and is holding up good, but took alittle time to get used to, about like going from a 5 lb trigger to a 2 oz. trigger, few premature releases until I got used to it, sure helped my fingers out though. My bow is midrange on poundage 72#@28

[Haldir]

A.S.

I'd be interested in what you think of the cavalier tab once you get to use it.  I've been thinking about getting one of those myself.

[A.S.]

DF, my bow is 50@27". I've been shooting lately with two fingers under (not using my ring finger). I'm shooting as good as ever, but I know I didn't fix the problem. I'll still work on the high elbow.

Haldir, I didn't care for the Cavalier tab. The palm plate seemed to get in my way, especially shooting with just 2 fingers. I even cut it, so it was more of a 2 finger tab-still didn't work for me. Oh well, another $25 down the drain!