removing your grip?

if youre not grabbing/clenching the bow it wont torque to start with. shoot with a relaxed bow hand, neither gripping the bow nor forcing the hand open.

I did that on a couple of my Browning compounds several years back. Helped me to get used to the feel of settling the grip in the right place on my bow hand, as I could feel the exact location of it better. After shooting without the grip for a season or two, I went back to it for the comfort, and didn't have the torque problems return, so it was a helpful experience for me.

A lot depends on your bow and your hand size, as well as your personal form issues.

Quite a few guys seem to benefit from going to thinner aftermarket grips for their Mathews bows, and one Mathews I owned had the grip reworked for a slimmer and less torque-sensitive feel. I'm 5' 9" with about average sized hands for my height. A friend who also shoots Mathews is slightly shorter and has some torque issues, although he overcomes them well with good form when he's practiced up. My relatives who are 6' plus seem to not have the issues, so hand size seems to be a factor.

I would have to disagree with what trapperdave said above in one respect. Even with an open hand, the friction between the skin and the grip surface can impart a lot of torque into the bow. It can be difficult to find by feel and can be done in so consistent a manner that your groups will be good, until something happens to change that friction. One of the best ways to discover whether you are imparting torque due to such skin friction is to use a thin cotton glove or a lubricant such as WD-40 on the grip and try a couple shots normally. If the POI moves laterally to different point it's a good indication that you have been unknowingly torquing the riser.

Been there, done that....a couple of times. It can be sneaky because if you're making that form error very consistently in practice, nothing feels amiss and your results will be fine until that chilly day when you wear a glove or that rainy day when you try a shot with a wet grip. Better to find the form problem and fix it, then you will have the same POI under any circumstances. Sounds like from your own experiment with removing the grip, you probably have very little problem if any in that department. That's good. A few shots with some lube on the hand from time to time is a good way to be sure, though.

Like a lot of other shooting problems, some guys will encounter it, some won't, and some may occasionally. Good to be aware of the possibility so that it may be easier to detect and fix if ever needed.

Several years ago I built a swivel grip on my Mach11 target bow. It work real sweet.

In the july issue of field and stream, they had an article about different myths on accuracy in archery. It was 3 guys that shot a bunch of arrows comparing group size. They tested if they shot tighter groups with the grip removed among other things. 30 yards 3.05 with grip 2.43 without grip, 40 yards 3.88 with, 3.62 without, 60 yards 6.01 with, 4.98 without. In their conclusion they wrote:
"Yes, absolutely. All three of us shot better without the grip. For me, the difference didn't show up until I stepped back to 60. But Brantley shot better across the board. And Bestul, testing the thickest grip of all - Matthews famously enormous hunk of walnut- shot a full inch better at 30, 40, and 60 after removing it"

As far as arrow flight, Have you paper tuned your bow? If you haven't done that I think it will really help you out. I made a paper tuning rig out of pvc and it really works out nicely.