# Finger Hold



## Protegimus

Hi all,

Probably another newbie question you're sick of answering but I'm at the start of learning to shoot slingshot so would rather get it right now.

I'm shooting 5 days a week, 100 shots a day. The reason I stop is my finger starts hurting and my performance drops. I'm bracing the ammo (ball bearing) between my thumb tip & the middle side bit of my forefinger, if that makes sense. But then I saw a video on YT showing me to pinch it between finger tips.

I know I'll build a tolerance to it like and stop being such a wimp but wondered if I was doing it wrong. Cognisant that the release has a huge impact on where my shot lands.

What do you suggest?


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## Grandpa Grumpy

Use the lightest bands for your ammo. Maybe cut down on the shots per day until you get used to it.

Make sure your finger is on one side of the ball and your thumb is on the opposite side. Do not grip in front of the ball.


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## mattwalt

Skropi a member who hasn't been on the forum for ages. He actually had a callus so bad it caused him severe pain while shooting for a few weeks.


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## treefork

I assume your using thumb and index finger and the index finger is sore ? In that case switch to the thumb and middle finger . This will give the index finger time to heal and toughen up . You will find it a good experience to switch fingers for overall training experience of the brain .


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## Protegimus

Excellent, cheers all.


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## SJAaz

Welcome to the club.

You'll get it just maybe go lighter/smaller/a few less shots. I know it's a pain, but get that ball right up on top of that finger. The release causes more head aches than any other part of good shooting for most people.


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## StringSlap

Biggest help for me was to go light. If you are shooting targets there is no need to shoot heavy bands/ammo. As the saying goes, it's better to hit your target with a pebble than miss it with a boulder. With a light setup you can concentrate on proper form and release. Then just scale up as needed.


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## Scrat

Hi there,

I'm pretty new as well, so take this all with a grain of salt. I think I'm just getting the back side of what your talking about. This was just my experience maybe it will be helpful.

Firstly, I completely agree with all the guys who say go light for starting out. I started out with .7mm simple shot black. (I think they are like a 7/8 to 5/8 or so taper) at a 6.5" Active length. I know "heavy" is a relative term, but this was heavy for me. My pinch strength was the weak point. I would see a drop off in accuracy after 25 or so shots. I was shooting 7/16 Ammo.

I later got a .55 mm yellow Bandset from pocket predators website (precise brand, maybe?) Same length and I think a 3/4 to 1/2" taper. I started using that with 5/16 Ammo. I found I could shoot way longer and focus on the fundamentals because I wasn't worried so much about hanging on to the Ammo and keeping my sling hand steady. My accuracy really improved fast with the light setup. I know it's nothing compared to some of the folks on here but I got to where I average 7/ 10 hits on a 6cm spinner at 33ft. Now I've been bouncing between light and heavy. Ive found my fingers have toughened up as the practice was more fun and less frustrating. I shoot the light when I wanna focus on accuracy and fundamentals and the heavy when I wanna wreck some cans and stuff. Still not as accurate on the heavy setup but it's catching up.

I also tried several different pouch holds as well. Mainly because my fingers were getting ate up and I wanted to keep shooting

Always grabbing side of the Ammo, not in front of it .

I tried this one first and for me it was really easy to get a smooth release and was very comfortable. The downside was it's not as strong of a grip. It worked great on the light bands but not in the heavy ones. 








Next I tried this one. It was the strongest of the three and my fingers didn't get tired, but it was harder to get a smooth release and also took a lot of fiddling with the Ammo to set up the hold. 








Finally I just switched to this which seems like it is the happy medium, go figure it's the one in the middle. Really only down side to this was there is more soft tissue there so it gets sore faster. I just backed off in my round count per session and slowly built it back up. As you can see I've got bony hands so I definitely fell your pain when it comes to the sore hands. 









That was a really long way to say I agree with the others haha. hopefully the details are helpful.

-Scrat

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Protegimus

Blimey, some superb replies. Thanks so much for your time in helping everybody.

Scrat, excellent reply mate. I'm using the grip in your third picture. I will take y'alls advice & try going lighter, thank you.


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## SJAaz

Hope it works for you.. It didn't work for me. For me, that is a speed bump in the making. I have to get the pill right on top of my index. Not back down behind it like the photos shows. Not saying this to be cute, just trying to help. Good luck with your practice.


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## Scrat

SJAaz said:


> Hope it works for you.. It didn't work for me. For me, that is a speed bump in the making. I have to get the pill right on top of my index. Not back down behind it like the photos shows. Not saying this to be cute, just trying to help. Good luck with your practice.


SJAaz good call, that is a bad angle on that photo and makes it look like the Ammo is farther back than it is. I was trying to show the left and right positioning. The photo below is how it ends up looking with actual pouch and all. Does that look closer to right?

I think if a person had a little more meat on their fingers they could get the Ammo even farther forward than that.










Like I said, I'm pretty new and this is what worked for me. I'll definitely defer to the more experienced guys here.


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## dogcatchersito

I never used my index finger always the middle finger. I treated shooting slingshots like writing with a pencil. Because you built up more than a callus from writing with a pencil. so pinching the ball with that finger didn't hurt at all. I also use the whole bottom of my thumb, and the bone where I write with. That seemed to form a good death grip for the ammo. Just have to practice the release a little bit so the pouch doesn't jump over that knuckle.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk


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## SJAaz

Scrat said:


> SJAaz said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hope it works for you.. It didn't work for me. For me, that is a speed bump in the making. I have to get the pill right on top of my index. Not back down behind it like the photos shows. Not saying this to be cute, just trying to help. Good luck with your practice.
> 
> 
> 
> SJAaz good call, that is a bad angle on that photo and makes it look like the Ammo is farther back than it is. I was trying to show the left and right positioning. The photo below is how it ends up looking with actual pouch and all. Does that look closer to right?
> 
> I think if a person had a little more meat on their fingers they could get the Ammo even farther forward than that.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Like I said, I'm pretty new and this is what worked for me. I'll definitely defer to the more experienced guys here.
Click to expand...

That looks pretty good to me. Keep you thumb joint straight. If you let the thumb bend, that lets it go down over the top of the ammo. I admire you try, just don't overdo it. Stay with those light/long bands.


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## SJAaz

dogcatchersito said:


> I never used my index finger always the middle finger. I treated shooting slingshots like writing with a pencil. Because you built up more than a callus from writing with a pencil. so pinching the ball with that finger didn't hurt at all. I also use the whole bottom of my thumb, and the bone where I write with. That seemed to form a good death grip for the ammo. Just have to practice the release a little bit so the pouch doesn't jump over that knuckle.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk


Cool, never connected that style with the old pencil grip. I tried that and it worked pretty good for me. But about half the time, I'd forget and let my old bent index in a little and the pouch would just tick it on the way by.


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## dogcatchersito

SJAaz said:


> dogcatchersito said:
> 
> 
> 
> I never used my index finger always the middle finger. I treated shooting slingshots like writing with a pencil. Because you built up more than a callus from writing with a pencil. so pinching the ball with that finger didn't hurt at all. I also use the whole bottom of my thumb, and the bone where I write with. That seemed to form a good death grip for the ammo. Just have to practice the release a little bit so the pouch doesn't jump over that knuckle.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
> 
> 
> 
> Cool, never connected that style with the old pencil grip. I tried that and it worked pretty good for me. But about half the time, I'd forget and let my old bent index in a little and the pouch would just tick it on the way by.
Click to expand...

Glad that worked out, I could never get my index finger to work right. With slightly stronger bands I was constantly releasing the ammo way to early. The middle finger felt like it was made of stone and could grip so long.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk


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## SJAaz

dogcatchersito said:


> SJAaz said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> dogcatchersito said:
> 
> 
> 
> I never used my index finger always the middle finger. I treated shooting slingshots like writing with a pencil. Because you built up more than a callus from writing with a pencil. so pinching the ball with that finger didn't hurt at all. I also use the whole bottom of my thumb, and the bone where I write with. That seemed to form a good death grip for the ammo. Just have to practice the release a little bit so the pouch doesn't jump over that knuckle.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
> 
> 
> 
> Cool, never connected that style with the old pencil grip. I tried that and it worked pretty good for me. But about half the time, I'd forget and let my old bent index in a little and the pouch would just tick it on the way by.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Glad that worked out, I could never get my index finger to work right. With slightly stronger bands I was constantly releasing the ammo way to early. The middle finger felt like it was made of stone and could grip so long.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yeah, I ended up putting my middle finger directly under the index to support it.


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## SLINGDUDE

I hold with the tips of my index finger and thumb. I actually close the pouch completely around the ball after loading and when beginning the draw, making sure the round is centered. During the draw i open it up, allowing the ball to move slightly forward in the grip. By the end of the draw my fingers and the pouch have opened up and the ball is only held by the tips of my fingers, allowing for a smooth release (at least in theory). Hopefully this makes sense, i included a couple pics to help illustrate. This is what works for me.

Pre/beginning of draw








Ready to fire


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## dogcatchersito

Forgot to add images of how I hold.

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## Trap1

I'm about 3-4 weeks in noo so the questions & the answers raised above are of interest to me. So thanks for the postingsabove.

I've been practicing @ 33ft on 60mm & 40mm leather targets with 8 & 9.5mm steels. I started out with straight 20mm bands which were way over my actual active length.

So for the last couple of weeks I've been a bit awe over the place with nae consistency, hitting the target noo'na'gain & catch box most of the time but still the fence & field beyond gets a wee share.

I tried.. shortening the straight bands, cut new 25/20mm tapers to my actual 5.125" active length, different grips, altering my stance etc. I made some improvements but still lacked consistency.

Yesterday I cut another lighter band set with 22/16 taper & put on a 1.2mm thk K'roo leather pouch. Started with 8mm steels & hit the field once & the fence once & the target a couple of times in 15shots. The second 15 produced 9 target hits with 6 hits out of the last 7 shots. Although I had'nt been missing the targets by much prior to this change this was a remarkable improvement for me. After dinner I tried 9.5mm steels which the roo pouch barely wrapped around (like pic above..) & had more consistent success than I've had to date with this ammo to date.The roo leather pouch is far too slippy for my dry 66yo skin tho & need to think about something that would improve this grip.. any ideas?

I'm really only concentrating (albeit at a much slower pace) on reference, anchor & release + finding the right set up for myself for now!.. I think this just about covers everything to do wi' slingshots 

Thanks

john


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## dogcatchersito

Trap1 said:


> I'm about 3-4 weeks in noo so the questions & the answers raised above are of interest to me. So thanks for the postingsabove.
> 
> I've been practicing @ 33ft on 60mm & 40mm leather targets with 8 & 9.5mm steels. I started out with straight 20mm bands which were way over my actual active length.
> 
> So for the last couple of weeks I've been a bit awe over the place with nae consistency, hitting the target noo'na'gain & catch box most of the time but still the fence & field beyond gets a wee share.
> 
> I tried.. shortening the straight bands, cut new 25/20mm tapers to my actual 5.125" active length, different grips, altering my stance etc. I made some improvements but still lacked consistency.
> 
> Yesterday I cut another lighter band set with 22/16 taper & put on a 1.2mm thk K'roo leather pouch. Started with 8mm steels & hit the field once & the fence once & the target a couple of times in 15shots. The second 15 produced 9 target hits with 6 hits out of the last 7 shots. Although I had'nt been missing the targets by much prior to this change this was a remarkable improvement for me. After dinner I tried 9.5mm steels which the roo pouch barely wrapped around (like pic above..) & had more consistent success than I've had to date with this ammo to date.The roo leather pouch is far too slippy for my dry 66yo skin tho & need to think about something that would improve this grip.. any ideas?
> 
> I'm really only concentrating (albeit at a much slower pace) on reference, anchor & release + finding the right set up for myself for now!.. I think this just about covers everything to do wi' slingshots
> 
> Thanks
> john


I usually turn the pouch inside out, so the furry stuff is where I grip. The tough hide part is where the ammo sits. Or switch over to microfiber pouches way easier to grip.

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## The Norseman

Yeah, definitely don't pinch between your fingertips if you are using bands stronger than your average office rubber band!


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## jhm757

Another thing you could try, but it is tough on the finger tips, they do get used to it after awhile, is what is called "pinch ball" in this style of shooting you don't hold the pouch you just hold the ammo between your finger tips.

I shoot this way a lot and switch between my index finger and middle finger when one starts to get sore I switch and it doesn't seem to change my point of impact at all.

This definitely works best with the small Chinese pouches.


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## Protegimus

Ahhhh man. I started pinching & now see that was totally wrong to do so will have to go back to the painful finger method.


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## dogcatchersito

You know what, i will never fault anyone for using this. This may offer a great release for those who have trouble gripping their hands for long periods of time. Hopefully this may help some: https://www.dankung.com/Gcontent/new-professional-slingshot-release-aid_1453?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=yto&utm_campaign=XS2tJV6FQK8

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## SLINGDUDE

SLINGDUDE said:


> I hold with the tips of my index finger and thumb. blah, blah, blah....


I should have probably added that I mostly shoot light bands and ammo, and only target shoot. I do not hunt with a slingshot (not legal in my stoopid state -- "Sportsman's Paradise" my foot)


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## Tree Man

jhm757 said:


> Another thing you could try, but it is tough on the finger tips, they do get used to it after awhile, is what is called "pinch ball" in this style of shooting you don't hold the pouch you just hold the ammo between your finger tips.
> 
> I shoot this way a lot and switch between my index finger and middle finger when one starts to get sore I switch and it doesn't seem to change my point of impact at all.
> 
> This definitely works best with the small Chinese pouches.


Thats how I shoot.


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## Cathal

An interesting thread here for me as a newcomer......like the other newbies I’m experimenting with pouch grip.....and I am also having issues with pouch RELEASE.......can anyone offer any tips on overcoming this RELEASE FREEZE???????


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## Talaman

GREAT thread, as a newbie myself (old enough to know better really!) I measured my draw length and made 25x20mm bands the correct active draw length.

Then I started to shoot paper...first few days they were all over the shop - some even missing the catchbox. After a few hours I started getting better but found like the op,

my fingers got too sore. I persevered and played around with reference points and improved.

I now realise my bands although theoretically correct were way too tough to pull back for a beginner. So I am starting today to play with thinner bands and maybe extend

the active length a little to take the pressure off.

Cheers,

Geoff


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## OldGuy

mattwalt said:


> Skropi a member who hasn't been on the forum for ages. He actually had a callus so bad it caused him severe pain while shooting for a few weeks.


A trick I picked up from wave windsurfing. Out of the harness a lot. Using the hands a lot. Hard on the hands. Between sessions and/or a days end would soak the hands in household vinger. Let them air dry. Never developed hard thick, hard callus that could tear or crack. Legend notes that Nolan Ryan use to soak his throwing hand in pickle juice. Kept his finger tips strong, supple. No thick, hard and cracking callus to reduce feel on the ball.


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## Trap1

OldGuy said:


> mattwalt said:
> 
> 
> 
> Skropi a member who hasn't been on the forum for ages. He actually had a callus so bad it caused him severe pain while shooting for a few weeks.
> 
> 
> 
> A trick I picked up from wave windsurfing. Out of the harness a lot. Using the hands a lot. Hard on the hands. Between sessions and/or a days end would soak the hands in household vinger. Let them air dry. Never developed hard thick, hard callus that could tear or crack. Legend notes that Nolan Ryan use to soak his throwing hand in pickle juice. Kept his finger tips strong, supple. No thick, hard and cracking callus to reduce feel on the ball.
Click to expand...

I'm aiming for a pain free thick, hard but supple, callus to aid gripping over longer periods. So a lot of fish & chip suppers with extra vinegar for me  My gran swore by vinegar soaked pads to keep hard skin on feet supple.


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## OldGuy

Trap1 said:


> OldGuy said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> mattwalt said:
> 
> 
> 
> Skropi a member who hasn't been on the forum for ages. He actually had a callus so bad it caused him severe pain while shooting for a few weeks.
> 
> 
> 
> A trick I picked up from wave windsurfing. Out of the harness a lot. Using the hands a lot. Hard on the hands. Between sessions and/or a days end would soak the hands in household vinger. Let them air dry. Never developed hard thick, hard callus that could tear or crack. Legend notes that Nolan Ryan use to soak his throwing hand in pickle juice. Kept his finger tips strong, supple. No thick, hard and cracking callus to reduce feel on the ball.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> I'm aiming for a pain free thick, hard but supple, callus to aid gripping over longer periods. So a lot of fish & chip suppers with extra vinegar for me  My gran swore by vinegar soaked pads to keep hard skin on feet supple.
> 
> One must respect their elders and trust their life experiences. Now that I'm technically in that demographic group. Everything I say must be full of wisdom  or BS.
> 
> Town I live next to was once the largest fishing port in terms of tonnage on L. Superior. Today, it's tourism based industry. A few fish houses that retail and wholesale fresh and smoked fish. But no one has started a fish & chips establishment. Wouldn't require a massive footprint. Take out with just a couple outdoor cafe tables would be ideal in this season of Covid-19.
Click to expand...


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