Hand shock? (Update pg. 2)

[Fattony77]

What about a bow's design causes hand shock?

Is there anything that one can do to an existing bow to lessen that bow's hand shock? (Adjusting brace height, etc.?)

I have just recently noticed a significant amount in one of my bows and I'm not sure if it's that I just never noticed before, or if it's a recent development in the bow itself.

Some input from you experts out there would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, Tony.

[BowsnLabs]

Shoot a heavier arrow!  Also, check your brace height and see if your string has stretched...might need raising - that's about the only thing that I can think of that might change on a a bow that didn't have it before, assuming you didn't start shooting a lighter arrow.

[Flying Dutchman]

Times two

[Fattony77]

No, still shooting full length GT 35/55's with 250-300 gn up front. Will hafta check the brace height, though. Thanks for the input!

[JRY309]

What type of bow are you shooting? I find bows with a dacron string can have more handshock.

[Fattony77]

It's a hybrid made by a local bowyer. I had it up for sale on the old classifieds for awhile & now I'm thinking that I'm glad I didn't sell it to someone here, without at least being able to have told them about the hand shock! I honestly don't know if it's something I just never noticed before, or if something has changed (?).

That's why I'm asking if it can be caused by a change in brace height or other tuning issue, or if it's something in the design of the bow and can't be fixed?

[KeganM]

Handshock is residual energy left in the bow, which is why a heavy arrow and higher brace usually help, they soak up or lower energy respectively.

Heavy tips, imperfect limb balance, poor tiller, and just a bad design can all rob performance and lead to handshock. However, if a bow is extremely light in the hand, even a little vibration can become unpleasant shock simply because the bow has less inertia to resist it. On bows like that though, a heavy arrow is usually enough to make it a very comfortable shooter.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Have you talked to your local bowyer about it?

Just out of curiosity... Is it a TD bow? or a one piece. If it's a take down, i may have a solution for you if your bowyer doesn't.

[Fattony77]

I haven't spoken with the bowyer. He had some aneurysms in his brain last year, and has stopped making bows. He is doing better, but I don't know that he could do anything to help right now, so I thought I'd ask you guys.

It's a one piece. 64" 49#@28" forward riser design. It's actually a very pretty bow, I just couldn't get used to the grip & the length. That's why I was trying to sell it. Sounds like I need to do some tinkering with it, before I try to sell it again.

Thank you guys for all of your input. -Tony

[danseitz]

Set the brace height about 6-6 1/2 and then shoot a few arrows and up the brace height a couple twists of the string and shoot a few more.  You may find that the hand shock lessens as you increase the brace height.

I have a Super Shrew that wants 7 1/2 and had a Black Creek Siren that wanted 7 3/4.

[JamesV]

Check the tiller on the bow also.

[huronhunter]

If you still have hand shock after this, tread try a good bow quiver. The weight of the quiver and arrows will help.

[hvyhitter]

Most bows have some handshock but you get used to it after shooting them awhile. If I go from shooting one of my recurves regularly to one of my longbows I notice a difference, three days later, not so much...........recurve and longbow back and forth the same day its real noticable and my shooting usually goes to crap even if the bows have the same POI for me.........YMMV

[KentuckyTJ]

If you don't have a quiver on it add one. Any extra weight you can add to the riser will help tame the shock.

Oops just saw Huronhunter said same thing.

[treepasser]

Did it just develop or did you just now notice it?
Some bows just have more bark. My favorite
longbow (not to mention any names), is
infamous for hand shock, but I do 90 percent
of my shooting with and is number one
come September.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

If you are just going to sell it. don't sweat it...A lot of times just changing the pressure point in your grip from high wrist to low can take a lot of the shock out.... The next guy that owns it might have a different grip placement and not even notice it...

There is nothing you can do about tiller or balancing limbs on a one piece now unless you send it to a bowyer to do some fine tunning.

[SELFBOW19953]

Sometimes handshock is a "personal" thing.  I have a friend that hates old (50's era) Bear static tips because of the handshock.  I don't notice any handshock at all.  

I once owned a longbow that was built by a  popular bowyer named Hill (not Howard) that was the hurtingest (not really a word) bow I've ever shot.  No one I knew would shoot it more than twice.  My personal record with it was 15 shots-then my bow hand went numb.

[Flying Dutchman]

Handshock is also relative. One pce designs tend to have more handshock then the heavier mass 3 pce designs.
If you have shot 3 pce designs for awhile and then return to a one pce, you might suddenly feel a handshock. It was always there, but you never felt it. I have the same when I move over from three pce designs to one pcs. After some shooting you don't mention it anymore.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by Flying Dutchman:
Handshock is also relative. One pce designs tend to have more handshock then the heavier mass 3 pce designs.
If you have shot 3 pce designs for awhile and then return to a one pce, you might suddenly feel a handshock. It was always there, but you never felt it. I have the same when I move over from three pce designs to one pcs. After some shooting you don't mention it anymore.

I don't know whether i agree with this one bro. Hand shock is caused by having the bow out of balance. It has very little to do with the mass weight of the riser.... Now i'm not saying mass weight cannot and will not help absorb hand shock.... But it's caused by imbalance.

There are a few different things that need to be balanced out too.  Tiller is just a measurement top and bottom from the fade tips to the string. That is a good place to start out balancing a bow out, but far from the end of the process.

here are the rest of them:

1)mass limb weight: to preload balance (design stage)
2)working limb location top & bottom sometimes called mapping the limbs. (Extra  mile by bowyer)
3)balancing the working limb length: top to bottom

You can have a perfectly balanced bow that will be dead in the hand for one archer and have vibration issues with another just by using a different pressure point on the grip....

It is very important for a bowyer to know how a customer shoots. With some bows, like Hill style bows, it is critical. I did two custom layups from blanks from Hill Archery. One, I was on top of my game, the lay-up was what I expected and I took my time. The final stage was nothing more than shooting it, knowing what I wanted for feel and 60 grit sand paper.  When the timing of the limbs came, all of the good qualities one could expect from a Hill style bow came with it. My other one was not laid up quite like I expected and it took more work, A change in the grip required retuning in the limbs, which required a slight change in the string grooves, but when it was there it all worked. For all of those that have Hill style bows that have some thump in the hand, I would say to do what you can to get to the sweet spot by changing things a bit here or there to get the most out of the bow without throwing your Hill bow shooting form completely out and if your bow still has some thump left, that still does not mean that it is garbage or campfire wood.  Thankfully, bows can have some handshock and still be very forgiving and accurate hunting bows.