Am I the only one ?

[njloco]

I have been shooting on and off for a long time, initially with a recurve. When I came back to Trad in 2008-9, I decided I wanted to try a long bow and noticed right off that I could draw a heavier long bow than I could a recurve as long as the long bow had a low wrist grip. Is it just me or are there others like this also ?

[David Mitchell]

Not too surprising since the low wrist allows the weight to be drawn in line with the bones of the arm in a more straight line therefore giving more support.

[Rock 'N Bow]

I have a friend who started learning how to shoot with a recurve. It caused him great pain in his shoulder so I gave him my brother's longbow of the same weight to try. Not nearly as much pain as before due to more of the weight being spread out across his entire arm and shoulder instead of mostly on the shoulder. He can shoot all day now.

[njloco]

Rock 'N Bow,

I have a bad shoulder also and I have notice that I can shoot a low wrist bow all day but a medium to high wrist gives me a little to a lot of shoulder pain.

[Orion]

NJ:  No, you're not the only one.  The low wrist design enables most people to handle more weight more comfortably.  What Dave said.  It's much easier on the wrist than a high or medium wrist grip.

[Moots]

Also, a low grip shortens your draw length.

[Mike Bolin]

Same for me. I had some neck and shoulder issues and thought I was going have to give up shooting. Fred Asbell suggested that I try a longbow. I can shoot my longbows virtually pain free. Fred told me he has to switch from time to time due to shoulder pain in his bow arm. Just today, I packaged up my SAII to send back to Widow to have the grip converted to a low wrist and have a few pounds shaved off.

[stujay]

??? Moots can you explain how low wrist grip shortens draw length?

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Originally posted by stujay:
??? Moots can you explain how low wrist grip shortens draw length?

Hold your hand out and pretend you are holding a pole upright. then tilt it forward and see your hand push it out an additional inch or so.

[njloco]

Charlie your correct, but there are a lot of people that don't use the webing of the thumb and index finger to hold the bow. I always use the bone along the base of the thumb. I do think it's that outward movement of the wrist on a med or high grip that puts extra pressure against the tendons or muscles that run up to the shoulder and give people shoulder pain or tendonitis.

I discovered this quite by accident when I went to a shoot and had forgotten to bring my bow. I ended up shooting friends bows  and they were both real high wrist. By the end of the day, my shoulder was killing me. Another friend had a LB he wanted to get rid of. So after the shoot I went to the friends house to try the LB and shot it for about an hour, my pain in the in the shoulder was gone ! and the LB was a heavier bow than the two recurves I had shot earlier.

This is how it worked on me, so I think I'll shooting my LB more often now.

[Tom1954]

Funny, I thought it was the other way!  I met with a local bowyer and was surprised that his 50lb recurve seemed to draw "lighter" than his 45lb longbow.  Now to me, his grips aren't as different between the two designs as they seem with some bows.  And both bows were in the 60' - 62" range.  Maybe that had something to do with it ... or maybe I'm just goofy.

[RecurveRookie]

I shoot recurve and switched from high to low wrist at the advice of Coach Arne Moe.  Way better all around!

[wetfeathers]

This is an interesting thread.  As a recurve shooter with minor shoulder issues, I'm reading every word of this thread.  Both my bows have high grips, which I feel most comfortable with.  I have a hard time shooting for more than 30 minutes solid, 50 arrows or so. Perhaps a medium grip or longbow should find its way to my bow rack?    

[goingoldskool]

I just read G. Fred Asbell's 'Instinctive archery II' and he has a couple chapters on the differences in recurves vs longbows.... he discusses how a low wrist makes it easier to draw in cold weather and draw heavier.  Good read!

[xtrema312]

I find  a higher grip than I am used to will cause either a little bit of an elbow or a shoulder issue when I shoot one very much. I am sure some of it would go away in time, but I usually don't shoot it that long.  A low recurve grip or type grip found on a lot of TD LB's works well for me.  The BW low grip on their bows works real well for me. The standard BW is not bad, but if I go to something like the Tall Tines recurve grip I will feel that before too long.  I also will feel some issues shooting a straight grip, but that has more to do with the bow than the grip most times.

[threeunder]

I use to prefer hogh wrist also, but, after a while, realized it put a lot of strain on my right forearm (I'm a lefty) and shoulder.  Much prefer a lower grip now.
One thing was interesting though, I feel like I'm more consistent with high grip.  I've still got a couple or three high grip bows, but they are lower poundage.