Due to the popularity of this discussion—and to give readers and barebow enthusiasts more opportunities to engage with the content—we are publishing short takes of this week’s articles as a separate post.
Last month’s bulletin featured contributions from JD3 and ShotIQ’s Joel Turner, each sharing their unique perspectives on their shooting styles. This month’s bulletin continues that conversation, revisiting the controversial topic of the ‘trigger vs. non-triggered shot process.’ Rather than debating the issue further, we chose to go directly to the source.
See the full bulletin here: April 2026 Barebow Bulletin
From the desk of JD3
So what exactly is triggerless? While I don’t think anything is technically triggerless in the purest sense of the word “triggerless”, let’s come up with a foundation for the basis of the term. For the sake of this article, I will define triggerless as follows: “The act of shooting an arrow without the aid of an internal or a manufactured external force that starts the chain reaction of the relaxation of the fingers to loose an arrow.”
Two examples of an internal force would be something like mentally counting down, or using a spoken mantra where you need to shoot at the end of the saying. On the manufactured side, two classic examples would be popping a finger nail off of a riser or just using a mechanical clicker.
With that definition being established, how is one capable of shooting a shot without a trigger? A more important question would be why would someone want to shoot without a trigger of some sort? Hopefully I can address those questions with this article on how and why to keep triggerless shooting simple. I won’t have the space to go into a full step-by-step method of shooting an arrow, but I will go over the key “money maker” final steps.
For any approach to work, you need to have a step-by-step process and stick to it religiously. Most processes will fail for any archer when those steps aren’t followed the same every time. Whenever a step is skipped, you create a risk that the metaphorical ship will be run directly into a rocky bank… that will never end well. So to prevent that, you need to stick to the same plan on every single shot. Everything in the shot cycle is the same for a triggered and a triggerless shooter when it comes to the complete shot sequence.
Continue reading at the following link…
Read More from JD3 and see the full bulletin here: April 2026 Barebow Bulletin
From the desk of ShotIQ
The Science of Mechanoreceptive Triggers
The use of mechanoreceptive triggers in barebow archery has long been a controversial subject. Though controversial, the use of mechanoreceptive triggers is as old as archery itself. In Kyudo Archery, it is said the arrow is not ready to be released until the point touches the knuckle. The point touching the knuckle can be a trigger. In Bhutan, where archery is the national sport, a small piece of wire is tied to the arrow shaft in a place where the point of the wire touches the knuckle at full draw. Another possible mechanoreceptive trigger. It was originally thought these methods were simply used as a draw check, ensuring the archer reached the same draw length every time. However, in all these instances where the knuckle was touched, or the finger reached the corner of the mouth, the release would happen the instant the stimulus happened. It was more than just a draw check. What’s the science of what was happening in the brain of these archers?
Mechanoreceptors are sensory receptors that live in the corpuscles of our skin cells. When the mechanoreceptors take in a stimulus, they send a signal to the brain and the brain sends out the proper motor program to deal with the stimulus. In other words, if I was engaged in a conversation with someone and I set my hand down on a hot stove. The mechanoreceptors in the skin cells of my palm would send the signal to my brain, “THAT’S HOT!” My brain would send out the motor program that gets my hand off the hot stove. That hundredth of a second while the signal is being sent, received, and solved is the time you would be burnt by the heat. Our mechanoreceptors are constantly working, sending signals to brain so the proper motor programs can be dealt out to the proper places.
Continue reading at the following link…
Read More from ShotIQ and see the full bulletin here: April 2026 Barebow Bulletin
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