what makes hand shock?

[swamp monkey]

What makes hand shock?  I seldom encounter it but when I do I am at a loss to understand why.  I have only had it in a few D bows.  I suppose the real question is not so much what makes hand shock as how do I avoid it?

Look forward to the wisdom.

[Josh]

bend through the handle bows have more handshock than stiff handled bows and too much weight in the tips causes it also.   Also if you use too light an arrow that can't absorb all the energy of the bow you will feel more handshock. 

[Pat B]

Generally is is limbs out of time with each other or excessive tip weight. I usually keep my tips thick(1/2" or so) but try to narrow them as much as possible. This will reduce physical weight without the loss of strength. Heavy arrows will absorbe some of the excess vibrations too.

[tomtaker]

Agree with Josh and Pat...   Heavy tips will jar you pretty good also uneven tiller will add to the shock

Jeff

[Jesse]

Touching an electric fence will also cause hand shock.

[Josh]

Touching an electric fence will also cause hand shock.

 

[swamp monkey]

me too josh!

The other information is not bad either.   

[George Tsoukalas]

Good tiller, good limb timing and narrow outer limbs keep shock to a minimum. You can see how the limbs bend and return on the t tree  when you draw an let down gently.  Jawge

[Justin Snyder]

Heavy arrows will certainly reduce hand shock also.

[JW_Halverson]

I have a bow that has the classic "outa time" kick, the bottom limb kicks forward causing the arrow to jump.  The tiller looks good and I lightened up the lower tip but still have the problem.  I went with the heaviest arrow I could find and that damped a bit of the kick, but it still peeves me to know this is something I should be able to fix....but what is the fix?

[aznboi3644]

are your tips simply too massive?

Only bow I've made with handshock was one of my firsts...a 72" pine long bow that bent too much in the handle with too wide of tips.  Jarred my elbow so hard I only shot it once during tillering before it broke

[Silent Bear]

bad tiller

[JW_Halverson]

bad tiller

I would agree with you, but then I made marks down each limb at 4 inch intervals and measured each of them at different draw lengths, ultimately the bottom limb has about 3/8 inch less bend than the upper limb and is one inch shorter than the upper limb....all classic design for a flatbow.  The tiller looks as good as any I have seen...which is why I am so flustrated by it.

The limb tips are 3/8" wide and thinned such that they are almost ready to start bending.  The limbs taper almost like a pyramid bow from limb tips to the fade outs. 

At this point I am thinking of using a little duct tape to hold washers to the upper limb tip to see if adding weight up there counters the kick.

[JackCrafty]

You can avoid hand shock with a thick handle and thin tips.  Good tiller is a must.  Even with all this, some bows will still kick or vibrate a little.  It's normal.

[Jesse]

bad tiller

I would agree with you, but then I made marks down each limb at 4 inch intervals and measured each of them at different draw lengths, ultimately the bottom limb has about 3/8 inch less bend than the upper limb and is one inch shorter than the upper limb....all classic design for a flatbow.  The tiller looks as good as any I have seen...which is why I am so flustrated by it.

The limb tips are 3/8" wide and thinned such that they are almost ready to start bending.  The limbs taper almost like a pyramid bow from limb tips to the fade outs. 

At this point I am thinking of using a little duct tape to hold washers to the upper limb tip to see if adding weight up there counters the kick.

If it were mine I might think about taking a few scrapes off the lower limb. Im sure you know this but changing the brace height and arrow knock height can also be factors.