Very difficult to do...especially barebow compound FINGERS...for field archery.

 

I used to shoot my Jennings forked lighting with finger gloves. Back then releases weren't common....these days I use a release. I think you need a longer ata.bow for hand shooting

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Finger shooting whether it be barebow or with sights goes by the wayside more every year simply due to bows getting shorter and and letoff's getting higher. Niether one are finger shooter friendly. Hunting overall drives the market so short and compact with high letoff wins.
I believe Archery Republic and Oneida are the last company's producing bows adequate for finger shooting. Last 2 holdouts were the Hoyt Tribute and the Barnesdale Classic X, both of which have been discontinued. 40 inch axle to axle may be about the longest availble today from all the other manufacturers with those being geared more to the target archer.
I keep around a early 80's PSE Laser Magnum that I pull out a few times a year and do a little barebow stringwalking with. When I'm on, it's still the most satisfying way to shoot for me.

 

Finger shooting whether it be barebow or with sights goes by the wayside more every year simply due to bows getting shorter and and letoff's getting higher. Niether one are finger shooter friendly. Hunting overall drives the market so short and compact with high letoff wins.
I believe Archery Republic and Oneida are the last company's producing bows adequate for finger shooting. Last 2 holdouts were the Hoyt Tribute and the Barnesdale Classic X, both of which have been discontinued. 40 inch axle to axle may be about the longest availble today from all the other manufacturers with those being geared more to the target archer.
I keep around a early 80's PSE Laser Magnum that I pull out a few times a year and do a little barebow stringwalking with. When I'm on, it's still the most satisfying way to shoot for me.

One of my students came to be 3 weeks before the NFAA field archery championships. A "friend" bought her a riser off ebay, compound riser, and some limbs. She hands me some Barnsdale Classic X cams, and wants me to franken-stein her a bow, at her draw (24-inches), and her desired draw weight, and holding weight. She also hands over 3 dozen arrows, all different spine ratings. She gets her arrows for free, cuz she's a sponsored shooter. All kinds of points, and a wad of vanes. Wants to try barebow compound, for field archery, and is headed to Yankton, in 3 weeks...this was years ago.

She is a skilled Olympic recurve shooter, skilled barebow recurve shooter, and a skilled compound release shooter. Did I mention she gets free arrows? So, she wants to try out barebow compound FINGERS, for the first time. Wants her point on distance at 50 yards, too. Sigh. So, I figure out a 50 yd point on, at a 20 yd indoor range.
Build the franken bow, and figure out which arrow spine will tune for her, to shoot barebow compound FINGERS, for field archery.

She wins by 1 point. Senior women's champion field archery, FINGERS compound barebow. How's that for a mouthful.

 

So an accessory-free compound bow shot with a release is not considered barebow? Is that what people call “instinctive”?

Sorry if these are dumb newb questions. Just trying to learn all the the jargon.

 

Best idea is to go read the NFAA rules. Then you will really be confused.

 

Love watching Tim Wells shoot this way!

 

My son and I both shoot barebow compounds. He shoots an Oneida Phoenix and I shoot a Darton Tundra.

IMO, 40” is plenty long for fingers shooting. ”Finger pinch“ is pretty much non existent when shooting 2-3 fingers under.

 

I started as a kid with long bows and recurves my uncle would make. Barebow to me cant be a compound. No sights no help. Just a wooden bow and a arrow. Instinctive shooting. Real man ****.

 

I shot my PSE Phenom with fingers for a while. Barebow without scope.
With the whisker bisquit rest, the results were abysmal. Even with my KTBs and thumb draw I was clearly better.
So I gave it up, and reinstalled D-loop and scope.
But technically not a problem. Starting with three fingers, I later used two to draw.
But this was mostly for consistency issues, there was very little finger pinch because of the let-off.

 

Unfortunately it's a dying class in NFAA where I am. There's still a loyal few, but they are mostly older guys and are really good at it, so getting new competition is discouraging. When barebow recurve was created as a separate class, a lot of folk jumped ship and went to the one string side of things.

 

I used to shoot that way all time. Love it and still do. I don’t compete or anything but hunting and shot 3D. One of the funnest ways to shoot there is.
Watch some old Dan Fitzgerald videos. That will get ya wound up to go do it for sure!!

 

My very first archery experience was compound barebow. And old Darton something or other with wood limbs and a traditional riser, so it was designed as a finger bow. All I could afford at the time was the bow, some XX75 gamegetters and a fingertab.
I shot it for quite a while like that and even did well in a couple of field shoots, shooting it instinctive style.

Today you could probably still shoot some of the 40" target bows with fingers, tho maybe at a slight to moderate risk of a derail on a bad release, depending on the bow. But a skilled finger shooter (not me) could probably do fine with it.

I think compound barebow is still a thing, sort of, but its probably like recurve with a release aid - not really a competition class anymore....

lee.

 

Lee knows whats up.....

 

I used to shoot an Oneida Screaming Eagle just like a recurve; off the shelf and canted. Killed a lot of critters with that thing in the couple years I was shooting it. I finally gave it up and went back to the longbows because there was never anybody else in the class at 3D shoots to shoot against.

Bisch


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