It is undeniable that hinge releases have grown in popularity for bowhunting. What is also undeniable, though, is that many of us thrive on the DIY mentality. So, when it comes to buying your first hinge release, this often translates into not properly learning how to use the release from the get go and trying to figure things out on our own. In light of that, I’m going to lay out my 3 favorite methods to using a hinge release. These are all what I believe to translate the best to hunting and what have given me the most in terms of accuracy and feel.
In order to understand how each of these methods works, we first need to understand how a hinge release works. It fires off of rotation. Each head of a hinge, the part that attaches to your d-loop, is set on a half moon. So, the head rotates along that half moon and when it hits the end, it will drop off and fire. Right before the drop off point there is usually a small groove that will make a click sound as the head rotates over it. This is an audible indicator that the release is getting close to firing. Many hinges allow for one to set the release up with no click as well.
Before we dive into the actual methods of using a hinge release, I just want to cover a few things. First is how to draw your bow with a hinge release. This is something that sounds easy, and it is, but if you don’t know how to properly do it, you might end up with a bloody lip.
It’s all about how you hold the release when you draw. A hinge release fires on rotation, so we want to make sure that we don’t rotate the release while drawing our bow.
When drawing back with a hinge release, we want most of the pressure on our index finger, a little bit on our middle, and almost none on our ring finger. Most hinge releases will also have a safety bar to wrap your thumb around to ensure you don’t accidentally rotate during the draw. If the hinge you’re using doesn’t, you can simply wrap your thumb around the body where your index finger sits.
Once drawn back, you can release your thumb, come into your click, and move through your shot.
Lastly, these releases are fairly customizable, some more than others. From changing the angle of finger grooves to adjusting how quickly, or not quickly, the release fires. Some will even allow you to adjust the distance between the click and fire. What I’m getting at here is to try and customize your hinge release to you. If you’re new to this, it may take a while to figure this out, and that’s totally normal. You’ll learn what you like most through time.
The first method I want to cover is what I call the Relax Method, and my personal favorite. While at full draw, come into your click by rotating the release. Once there, you’ll slowly start relaxing your index finger. You can think of this like slowly starting to point your index finger at the target if that makes more sense. The whole time, your middle and ring finger need to remain rigid. This causes a natural rotation of the release and will make it fire. Just keep aiming throughout this entire process and let the shot break.
The pull through method, as I call it, focuses more on the middle and ring finger rather than the index. Once at your click, aim, and start slowly trying to bring your middle finger and ring finger behind you. It won’t take much for the shot to break. By doing this, you’re again causing a natural rotation of the hinge release.
This method is somewhat of a hybrid between the two I just covered. Once at full draw, and at your click, you’ll slowly start relaxing your index finger and bringing your middle and ring fingers behind you. As we’ve covered with both of the above methods, they cause a natural rotation of the release. This 3rd method just combines the two.
At the end of the day, all of these methods are accomplishing the same exact thing, which is rotating the release. They are just different ways of thinking about doing so, and they are not the only ways to fire a hinge release. Just my personal favorites. On that note, I say experiment with it. See what works best for you, because we’re all a little different. What works really well for me, might work terrible for you, and that’s ok. The important part is that you get out there and find that method that clicks for you. When you do, you’ll be lacing the X like nobody’s business.
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