No Shelf Longbow

[turdyptbuck]

I'll be hunting with a bow this year that is "shoot off the knuckle" no shelf.  Who hunts with a bow like this and I'd like to see some kill pics if you have any! Need a little motivation!

Thanks!

[mike g]

I have a Hill no shelf longbow.
I ordered it that way so I can shoot it from both sides, Hench it's name Ambi....
    I have only used it for Beaver hunting so far, Sorry no pic's....
    To me shooting it is no diff from shooting one with a shelf.

[Zbone]

Didn't Ferret make a "floppy" rest or something like that for bare hands?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Just be sure you wrap the fore end of your feathers with sinew, thread or something like that. Super glue works fine to hold it in place. You need to do that or you will end up with feather shards in your hand eventually.

[monterey]

I have scars from feather piercings.  Kinda painful and needed to be pulled through to remove.

You should wrap or glue a piece of thin leather onto the grip so that it rests hanging over your index finger and nuckle.  Or you can wear some sort of protector on your hand.  No different than with a shelf as long as your arrow setup is tuned.

[Jack Skinner]

TR has a off the hand glove you can buy. I use it when building and shooting in a new selfbow till I am ready to put a floppy rest or rawhide rest on my bows. I dont find shooting off the hand that difficult, I too have had a fletch or two through the knuckle of my right hand. Which is why the rest but this glove is pretty sweet and I have been considering going without shelf.

[ed cowden]

Didn't Howard make his shelf about too small to hold an arrow and then would use a piece of leather as a holder to keep the arrow on the shelf. No where near cut as deep as todays bows , but it did give you a location that did not change. I think he still tapered the belly side of the grip to almost center shot , to funnel the fletching past the shelf and also to have the arrow hit and bend where he wanted it to. He used no leather on the bow shelf also to hear if the shot was right. I would maybe have the bowyer try that, But who's to say what you want. You can try anything so long as that is your choice.

[K.S.TRAPPER]

Ed I use the small peice of leather like Howard did on my Hill naturals and glass bows it works great.

 

On my primitive bows with no shelf I used to get cuts with right wing feathers, I'm right handed. By chance I tried some left handed fletched arrows and I stopped cutting my knuckles      

Maybe I'm just lucky but I still use extra glue on the front of the fletch or sinew on the primitive arrows.

Tracy

[Sam McMichael]

I have a couple of bows that I shoot off the knuckles, but I don't hunt with them. I would like to, though. If I could afford it, I would like to have HHA build an all-wood bow without a shelf. I think it would be neat. When shooting off the bare hand, it is important to check the condition of the fletching to prevent cuts and scratches.

[BigArcher]

My one and only elk so far was taken with a 93# osage bow shot off of the hand with no rest.  The elk seemed to think it worked pretty good.  Make sure your nock is, if anything, a touch high to avoid those bloody fletching.

BigArcher

[Gordon Jabben]

A couple of years ago I took a doe shooting off the knuckle.  I shot pretty well that way.  I had a sinew string so I didn't have a nocking point because I was afraid it would wear the string out if I nocked the same place all the time.
 

[bowberry]

I have a black locust long bow. While building it, when I knew I was getting close to done, I wanted to shoot a few to see how it felt.
On my past bows I always glued a little shelf on.I hadn't gotton that far on this bow.
 I cut a strip of leather about 1/2" wide by about 4ft long. I tapered both ends down.I started wrapping where I thought the arrow should be.I went around 3 times in the same spot to build up a small arrow rest and then wrapped the rest of the handle. I put a tiny little stitch at the end with dental floss ( barely visable).

It only made about a 1/8" wide arrow rest. That was plenty to locate the arrow the same every time.

It was a quick fix, but I liked it so much I've never taken it off. When I finished the bow I did cut the shelf in about 1/8" deeper tapered toward the belly. the back looks un touched. When people see it they say "your shooting off your hand" But I'm not at all. No pics at this time.

[SportHunter]

I find that if the arrow is the right spine for the bow and the nock point is right I don't have any fletching contact issues with the hand on no shelf bows.