Best Archery Gloves and Armguards in 2026

Gloves, tabs and armguards are the cheapest gear on a bow and the closest to the shot itself. Everything the string does passes through your fingers and past your forearm, so a tab that folds or a guard that rotates changes the release directly. The good news is that the whole category is inexpensive, and nothing here needs to be replaced with something expensive to work correctly.

Six picks follow across three tiers, covering both halves of the problem: protecting the bow arm and controlling the string hand. The single most useful thing on this page is not a product, it is the reason the string is hitting your arm at all, and that is fixable for free.

Best archery gloves, tabs and armguards by level

Beginner Best budget armguard

SAS

SAS 8 inch Archery Armguard with 3-Strap Buckles

$10.99

Three straps instead of two, which is what keeps a guard from rotating on the forearm mid-session. Eight inches covers the part of the arm a string actually finds.

Best for: A first armguard for a beginner still fixing elbow rotation.

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Beginner Best first glove

Bear Archery

Bear Archery Leather 3-Finger Traditional Shooting Glove

$15.99

Plain leather fingerstalls from a brand that has made them for generations. A glove keeps the string on your fingertips, which is the easier feel to learn first.

Best for: Traditional and recurve archers starting out.

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Beginner Best low-profile guard

Easton

Easton Deluxe Oval Armguard

$15.87

A curved shell that follows the forearm rather than sitting proud of it, so the string sheds off instead of catching an edge. Elastic strapping stays put through a long line.

Best for: Target archers shooting high volume on a shooting line.

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Intermediate Best slip-on

Bohning

Bohning Slip-On Archery Armguard

$20.71

No buckles to snag on a sleeve and nothing to adjust in the dark. It goes on like a sleeve and stays where it was put, which is the whole argument for the style.

Best for: Bowhunters wearing layers who cannot fuss with straps.

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Intermediate Best first tab

SAS

SAS Barebow Suede and Leather Finger Tab, Medium

$19.99

A tab gives a cleaner string release than a glove because the string slides off one flat surface instead of three separate fingers. This is the cheapest honest way to find that out.

Best for: Recurve and barebow archers moving off a glove.

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Expert Competition tab

AAE

AAE Cavalier Cordovan Elite Finger Tab

$73.61

Cordovan facing over an aluminium plate, with an adjustable finger spacer and ledge. Cordovan is used because it stays consistent shot to shot instead of compressing as it warms up.

Best for: Competitive recurve archers chasing release consistency.

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How we chose

Selections are based on published specifications, cross-checked against verified owner reviews and coaching guidance. We do not test gear in person. In a category this cheap the risk is not that an expensive item disappoints, it is that a badly shaped item quietly teaches a bad habit, so shape and fit drove the picks.

Three criteria. Retention: a guard that rotates on the forearm mid-session is worse than none, because you stop trusting it and start flinching. Three straps, or a slip-on sleeve, solve this where two straps do not. Profile: the shell should follow the arm, since a flat plate on a round arm leaves an edge for the string to catch. Facing consistency: on tabs, the material that touches the string is the whole product. Cheap leather compresses into a groove and changes feel within weeks; cordovan does not, and that difference is the only reason a $74 tab exists.

Fix the cause before you buy the cure

String slap is a symptom. The string is hitting your arm because your arm is in its path, and there are exactly three usual reasons.

The first is a locked elbow. Straightening the bow arm completely rotates the inside of the forearm into the string. Keep a slight bend and rotate the elbow crease outward, away from vertical, and the arm leaves the string path entirely. The second is grip: squeezing the handle torques the bow and drags the arm in. Let the bow sit in the web of the hand with a relaxed grip. The third is draw length, which is the one that needs measuring rather than adjusting. If your draw length is too long you are forced to over-extend, and no amount of technique fixes a bow that does not fit. Check yours against the draw length calculator, since wingspan divided by 2.5, rounded to the nearest half inch, gets most archers very close.

Buy the armguard anyway. It costs about $12, it keeps loose sleeves out of the string, and it stops one painful hit from teaching you to flinch while you correct the underlying cause.

Who should not buy the Expert tier

The AAE Cavalier Cordovan Elite is a competition tab, and it costs roughly four times a decent leather one. Its advantage is consistency over volume: cordovan holds its shape where ordinary leather compresses into a groove, and the adjustable spacer and ledge give a repeatable anchor.

That only pays off if you shoot enough for a tab to wear out and if your form is repeatable enough that a tab is now the limiting factor. Do not buy it if you shoot a compound with a release aid, since it does nothing for you at all. Do not buy it as a beginner, because your hand position is still changing and the adjustment range will be set to the wrong place. And do not buy it if you shoot occasionally, since a $20 tab lasts years at low volume. If you are shooting a few hundred arrows a week and wearing through tabs, it is a sensible purchase.

Glove or tab, in practical terms

A glove keeps the string on your fingertips. It is warm, it stays on your hand between shots, and it does not need to be found in a pocket at the moment a shot presents itself. That convenience is why traditional and hunting archers largely shoot gloves.

A tab puts one flat, smooth surface between string and fingers, so the string leaves cleanly and identically every time. That consistency is why target archers largely shoot tabs. The trade-off is that a tab is a separate object you have to hold on to, and in cold weather it is less pleasant.

Either way, one thing is not optional: protect your fingers before you shoot a recurve or longbow at all. Bare fingers on a string at even modest poundage produce blisters within a session and a flinch shortly after, and a flinch is far harder to unlearn than it was to acquire. If you are choosing between a compound with a release and a recurve with fingers, the compound versus recurve comparison covers what else changes with that decision.

Sizing and fitting, which is most of the value

Nothing here works if it fits badly, and fit is where cheap items succeed or fail rather than where money buys quality.

An armguard should sit on the inside of the forearm covering the area between wrist and elbow crease, snug enough that it cannot rotate but not tight enough to restrict blood flow. Six to eight inches suits most adults. If the string is reaching above the guard, the answer is a longer guard and a technique fix, not a tighter strap. For a glove, the fingerstalls should reach past your fingertips with a little room, because a stall that is too short lets the string bite the end of your finger, and one that is far too long folds and changes the release.

For a tab, the facing covers the pads of the first three fingers and stops at the fingertips. Too large and the surplus folds under the string, too small and the string finds skin. Between sizes, choose the smaller. Finally, keep all of it consistent: switching between a glove and a tab changes where the string sits on your fingers, which moves your point of impact just as surely as moving the sight would.

Buying tips

• Buy the armguard first. It is the cheapest item here and the one that prevents a habit rather than fixing gear.
• Three straps beats two. Rotation is the failure mode that makes archers stop wearing a guard.
• Size tabs to your fingers, not your gloves. Between sizes, go smaller so nothing folds under the string.
• Buy two identical tabs if you shoot volume. Rotating them keeps both from wearing a groove, and you have a spare.
• Check for a spacer. A finger spacer stops you pinching the nock, which is a common and invisible cause of erratic arrow flight with fingers.
• Try before committing to cordovan. The premium only makes sense once your release is repeatable enough to notice the difference.

Related reading

• Compound versus recurve bow, fingers against a release aid
• Draw length calculator, the usual cause of string slap
• Arrow spine calculator, since finger shooters need different spine than release shooters
• Best bow quivers, the next low-cost accessory worth getting right