SHOOTING WITH A THUMB RING AND THE KAYA GLOVE

Finally, I got to put my thumb ring to the test, as well as my Kaya shooting glove. Here is my comparison of these two acquisitions for those interested in using the thumb draw, or Eastern-style release.

Before the comparison begins, a little information about what I was shooting with. My bow was a Mongolian horse bow which pulls 45 ibs at 28 inches. My arrows were 125 grain 31 inch Japanese bamboo arrows suited to bows between 45 and 70 ibs.

The Kaya shooting glove KTB from Merlin Archery

I began shooting with the Kaya shooting glove from Merlin Archery. It is a comfortable leather glove, and the leather tab which is added to the thumb sleeve makes it easy to pull even a 45 ib bow to full draw repeatedly. It was easy to keep the arrow in place and there was no strain or friction on the thumb after more than an hour of shooting.

My consistency was terrible, but I think that is far more to do with the idiot behind the bow than it has to do with the glove.

Thumb ring from Longbowmaker (Amazon)

I then put the glove away and donned my thumb ring, procured from Longbowmaker via Amazon. 

It was harder to keep the arrow in place due to the smoothness of the ring providing little grip, but my consistency was radically improved! Clearly, the point of the ring is the smooth material removes friction, meaning less torquing of the string, and therefore a cleaner release. However, it made my thumb quite sore. This is what my thumb looked like one hour after shooting only nine arrows.

Furthermore, it became increasingly difficult to keep the arrow secure in place and pull to full draw repeatedly without shaking, and I lost my new-found consistency as quickly as I had discovered it. That being said, I suspect the thumb ring is slightly too tight for my thumb. I can not properly review thumb rings in general until I have one custom-made to test. 

All that being said, the thumb ring from Amazon is considerably cheaper than the Kaya shooting glove from Merlin Archery. However, the Kaya shooting glove provides a great deal of comfortable shooting in return, while shooting with the thumb ring is just untenable for more than a few rounds.

If you want to shoot using the thumb release, I recommend the Kaya shooting glove, but if it is possible to get hold of an archer's ring that is just right for your thumb and will enable you to pull the bow you want to shoot time and again without discomfort, I suspect you will be getting a great deal of accuracy by comparison.