Bow support apparatus

Claim 1

A bow-string holder in combination with a shoulder sling and a planar closed loop sling strap contoured to lie flat, for use by an archer and while sling-held for carrying a bow or standing with an armed or unarmed bow, the sling comprising means for adjusting its effective length size from the shoulder such that the bow-string of the bow is carried by said holder at a distance substantially above the waist of the archer, said bow-string holder having a planar body that is dimensioned and contoured to lie flat at a stand-by position and a shooting position above the waist and under the bow arm against the archer's body in close proximity to but with spacing from the archer's relaxed bow arm in the stand-by position and is further dimensioned to provide spacing from the intended bow string path when drawn back by the drawing arm for shooting in the shooting position, the planar body of the holder further having front and rear margins and including at the front margin cooperating spaced apart hooks all portions of which are located forwardly of the plane of the planar body and are sufficiently compact at said stand-by and shooting positions to space the hooks from respectively the relaxed arm and the intended string path, the hooks being configured for engagement in hooking and upwardly supporting relation substantially above the waist of the archer with the horizontally held bow-string of a bow, said hooks while so engaged being positioned axially for balance at or closely adjacent to a balance point of the box with the bow below the bow-string thereby allowing a nocked arrow of a holder-supported armed bow to lie flat against the archer's body in the stand-by position, the rear margin of the holder having means for slinged support from the shoulder for hands-free carrying and standing with the bow-string under the bow arm substantially above the waist balancing the bow, the sling strap having a flat profile and comprising an upper loop end with said sling threaded therethrough and a lower loop end attached to said rear margin in a position such that when sling-held substantially above the waist and under the arm the planar body of the holder and its thus attached sling strap are held in coplanar relation flat against the archer's body whereby twisting of the sling and holder is avoided.