Pushing your Button

A button (also known as a pressure button, plunger, or burger button if you’re Jake Kaminski*) is one of those bits of kit that new archers look at and immediately decide archery is weird. It’s a tiny threaded tube with a spring-loaded tip - physically simple, technically vital, and emotionally a comfort blanket for anyone who bought arrows based on vibes rather than spine charts.

So let’s poke this puppy and see what falls out.

Core Functions

Center Shot Adjustment

The collar (see picture) sets how far the button tip sticks out from the riser, aligning the arrow correctly in relation to the string. You do this once during a rough tune and then forget it exists for the next three years, but it is important. This is not to say that the centre shot is permanently fixed. It can need revisiting after equipment changes, tuning, or button movement. Its more that archers tend to file button set up in the "One and Done" file.

For right-handed archers, the arrow tip should sit just left of the string when you eyeball it from behind the bow. Reverse for lefties. Hold the bow at eye level, line the string up with the limb bolts, and adjust the button's collar until the arrow point is barely peeking out past the string. This puts the arrow in the correct position for the Archer’s Paradox .. the sideways dance your arrow does because recurvers have integrity to insist on using fingers instead of a release aid "trigger".

Archer’s Paradox Management

That's normal ... honest!

When you release, the string rockets forward but as the string has to go round your fingers on release (you ain't that fast there lightning), it also goes sideways. Add in inertia plus the arrows flexibility, and the arrow will flex like a caffeinated snake. Don’t believe arrows wiggle? Watch the WA slo-mo compilation or footage from the 2012 Olympics in London. It’s like they are channeling their inner Shakira.

A stiff shaft wiggles fast and tight; a weak shaft wiggles slow and wide. This is a simplistic view. The actual oscillation is more complicated because you're dealing with the arrow's bending modes, launch forces, mass distribution, point weight, string behaviour ... and we realize your brain just shut down. Think of the goal as matching this flex pattern to your bow so the arrow clears the riser at the exact moment it straightens. The button’s spring-loaded tip provides an archer adjustable, controlled amount of resistance as the arrow flexes, helping manage that chaos and reducing the chances of your shaft slapping the riser like it owes it money.

Spine Compensation

Shakira ... because why not?

By adjusting the spring tension, you control how much the plunger gives way when the arrow hits it. This lets you fine-tune dynamic spine without changing the arrow itself. Again, we're taking some liberties for a short article and reducing a fairly complicated subject where, more accurately, "it changes how the bow responds to the arrow's behaviour by altering the resistance offered by the button." It’s not a fix for bad technique or bad arrow choice .. but it does let you finesse the rough spots and pretend you know what you’re doing.

What it doesn't do

This is probably going to come as a surprise to many experienced archers but the button is not a magical device. It will not make incorrectly spined arrows work. It isn't a two-minute fiddle that replaces properly tuning your bow. And it definitely isn't a tiny mechanical therapist for the life issues your release is having.

Rounding things up

Tell me about your tuning ...

The button is one of those quality-of-life upgrades modern archers enjoy while traditional archers grit their teeth and pretend their wooden riser is “more authentic.” It’s also one of the most misunderstood bits of kit .. new archers forget to install it, lose it, or decide they don’t need one because “the club bow didn’t have it.”

The GA kit gnu is famously obsessed with the Shibuya DX button. It's one of the holy trinity of Shibuya products which he will recommend at every opportunity. Would it help if he explained how it works? Yes. Will he? Absolutely not. This is archery. No-one tells you anything.

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* Jake's "burger button" incident happens in the first 5 seconds. Watch and enjoy here. Keep watching cause the VOD is worth it for detailed button related lore.

Image by Stephane from Pixabay