Hip, Back or Bow-Mount - Decided by How You Carry

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Attaches directly to the bow’s riser and carries your arrows with you at full draw – ideal for hunting, where you cannot set arrows down. Hunting versions have a hood that grips and covers broadheads safely. The trade-off is added weight and bulk on the bow, and because it hangs off one side, it can roll the bow sideways at full draw – a back bar is the usual fix for that imbalance.

Worn on a belt at your side, the hip quiver is the standard for target and 3D archery. Arrows are fast to grab and easy to keep organized, and many models add pockets for a release, pencil, and scorecard. Not ideal for carrying broadheads.

Hip and field quivers get confused constantly, and the difference matters more than it looks – one is built to be walked with, the other to stand still at a shooting line. We pull them apart properly in hip quiver vs field quiver.

Slung over the shoulder, the back quiver is the classic traditional look and keeps arrows out of the way while walking. It is popular with longbow and traditional shooters, though arrows can rattle and are slightly slower to draw than from a hip quiver.

Two things people find out after buying one. Walking through brush, the arrows catch on branches and work their way loose – the most common complaint you will read from anyone who has actually hunted with one. And plenty of clubs will not let you shoot a back quiver in competition, even though it is fine for casual practice. If you are buying one to use at your club, check the club rules first rather than after.

A tube or stake that holds arrows upright beside you at the shooting line. Common at ranges and for practice, it keeps arrows clean and within easy reach but is not made to be carried while shooting.

1. Match it to your discipline. Hunting: bow-mounted. Target/3D: hip. Traditional/field: back or ground.
2. Check broadhead safety. If you carry broadheads, choose a quiver with a covered, gripping hood that locks the blades away from your hands.
3. Count your arrows. Quivers hold anywhere from 3-4 up to a dozen or more. Buy capacity for how you actually shoot.
4. Consider noise and security. For hunting, look for foam grippers that silence arrows and hold them firmly during a stalk.
5. Think about extras. Pockets for a release, tags, and tools add real convenience for target archers.

This comes up constantly, and the honest answer is not the one a product page will give you: a $150 quiver will not make you shoot better scores than a $30 one. Nobody has ever lost a point because their quiver was cheap.

What the money does buy is durability and quiet. Budget bow-mounted quivers can get crushed, they rattle more, the mounting bracket flexes so the quiver shifts against the riser, and the foam grippers give up sooner. On a hip quiver you are paying for stiffer tubes that hold their shape, belt hardware that does not sag when loaded, and stitching that survives being dumped in a car boot every weekend.

So buy the cheap one first if money is tight. You will find out quickly whether the thing that annoys you is noise, capacity, or the belt – and then you will know what you are actually paying to fix.

This is the single most common quiver complaint, and it is usually not the quiver’s fault. Work through it in this order before you buy a replacement.

Check the gripper foam. On bow-mounted quivers the foam holds the arrows, and it packs down and fills with grit over a season. Pick the debris out and the grip often comes back. When the foam has gone hard and shiny, it is done – most quivers take a replacement insert for a few dollars.

Seat the arrows properly. Half-seated arrows work loose the moment you start walking. Push each one home until the nock or shaft is fully into the gripper.

Fill the gap in an oversized tube. If you shoot skinny target shafts in a tube sized for hunting arrows, they will rattle no matter what. Archers solve this with a rolled sheet of packing foam pushed down the tube, or with magnets set into the base of the tube to hold carbon shafts still. Both are common home fixes and both work.

Then look at the quiver. If arrows still shift after all that, the tube is simply too wide or too short for the arrows you shoot, and that is the point where a different quiver is the right answer.

Whatever type you choose, make sure broadheads are always covered and gripped, never exposed. Keep arrows seated fully so they do not fall out on the move, and clean grit out of the gripper foam periodically so it keeps holding arrows tight.