Recurve hunting school · String hand
Three fingers decide where the arrow goes. Split or three-under, deep hook or fingertips — here is how to choose and how to release cleanly.
Your string hand does two jobs: hold forty-plus pounds without strain, and let go of the string so cleanly that the arrow never knows you were there. Finger placement — split finger or three-under, deep hook or fingertip — determines both how clean that release can be and where your arrow sits relative to your eye, which feeds directly into your aiming system.
There is no universally right answer, but there is a right answer for your bow, your anchor, and your hunting. The variables interact: three-under raises the arrow toward your eye and shortens your gaps; split finger spreads string pressure and suits a lower anchor. Choose deliberately, then stop changing it.
01
Split finger — index above the nock, middle and ring below — is the classic hunting grip. It balances string pressure across three fingers, tolerates a low nocking point, and keeps the arrow a little farther below your eye, which produces forgiving trajectory and strong instinctive alignment for many shooters.
Three-under puts all three fingers below the nock. The arrow rises toward your eye, point-on distance stretches out, and your gap table compresses — many gap shooters pick up a flatter sight picture immediately. The costs: more finger pinch on the nock if your nocking point is set wrong, and a release that must be cleaner because all the string pressure sits on one side of the arrow.
Try each for a month, not an afternoon. Judge by your groups at 15 and 20 yards from hunting positions, and by whether your nock pinch causes arrows to lift off the rest. Then commit — switching grips mid-season is rebuilding your aiming system from zero.
02
Grip
String sits in the first joint crease of all three fingers, pads flat. Deeper than the fingertips, shallower than the second joint. It spreads the load so 50 lb feels like 35, and the flat pads give the string a smooth surface to roll off.
Protection
A shooting tab gives the smoothest, most consistent release surface and is what most serious traditional shooters use. A three-finger glove is faster to put on, never gets lost on the ground, and releases slightly noisier. Either beats bare fingers past 40 lb.
Execution
You do not open your fingers — you stop holding. Back tension keeps the string pulling; the fingers simply relax and the string pushes them out of the way. A plucked or snatched release throws the string sideways and shows up as wild arrows with no pattern.
After the shot
Anchor the same every time — common anchors are index-in-mouth-corner (split) or middle-finger-in-corner (three-under). At the release your hand stays glued to your face or slides straight back along the jaw. If it flies outward, you plucked.
03
Ten minutes of this drill, three times a week, will fix most string-hand problems in a month.
04
November cold is the enemy of the string hand. Numb fingers cannot feel a relaxed release, and a frozen tab turns slick. Keep a spare tab in a warm pocket, and in serious cold many hunters switch to a thin glove tab or mitten-tab hybrid so the release surface stays supple.
Practice with everything you will wear. A facemask changes your anchor; a heavy jacket sleeve can catch the string. The release that works in a t-shirt on the range must be re-proven in full hunting dress before the season — this is where most 'mystery misses' on opening day come from.
Learn from the experts
We hand-picked the best instruction on this topic from the most respected traditional archery teachers on YouTube — each embedded here with our notes on what to watch for.
Clay Hayes — The definitive hunting-context comparison, with the aiming implications of each grip.
NUSensei — NUSensei's clear, no-mystique breakdown of both grips and who each suits.
Clay Hayes — How to build the deep hook and why finger depth changes everything about the release.
3RiversArchery — The largest traditional archery shop's take, with nocking-point setup for each grip.
Jeff Kavanagh — Kavanagh covers hook depth and the tab-vs-glove decision in one sitting.
Fred Eichler — Fred Eichler on fitting a tab properly — a detail most hunters get wrong and never know it.
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