Tested True: STAN’s Onnex Clicker Thumb

The Onnex Clicker Thumb is STAN’s latest heavy-handle release, and it’s built off everything they’ve learned from fifty years of making thumb releases. Working alongside Joel Turner of SHOT-IQ, they’ve created something different: a thumb button with a deliberate click mechanism that’s designed to train your mind through the shot.

I jumped into the STAN ocean in the summer of 2025 with the manufacturer’s Solex Clicker index-finger. A standard, slim-built index-finger release, the STAN Solex Clicker was designed to provide deliberate feedback. Pull into the trigger, feel the travel, get to the click.

I loved the release, and still use it regularly. However, I’m a handheld shooter, and was thrilled to discover STAN’s OnneX Clicker Thumb. A heavy-handle release with a fully-adjustable thumb-barrel, the Onnex Clicker Thumb blends STAN’s sear system with a trigger that requires travel to reach the click, and then continued push and pull to get beyond the click to allow the release to fire.

Pre-STAN, I wasn’t a fan of trigger travel at all. Up until STAN’s clicker-series of releases, I wanted zero travel in my index-finger, and thumb-button releases.

Why?

For me, and many archers like me, feeling a trigger move creates anxiety. Trigger movement means the shot is going to break, and when the trigger moves and the shot doesn’t break, we freak out even more. The point of the Onnex Clicker Thumb is to train your mind to keep pushing and pulling, and to accept the travel of the trigger. The click is an audible reset that tells the shooter, “Hey, you’re almost there, stay through the shot.” The audible feedback helps with your shot sequence training.

I will tell you that I wanted to throw this release in the trash after one week of using it. Even after I played with the tension and travel settings, I was still struggling. I’ve shot and continue to shoot many hinge-style releases. Hinge releases don’t have a trigger. Hinge releases fire through rotation, so a surprise shot is nothing new to me. Still, the travel and click freaked me out. I always turn my “click” setting off on my hinge releases.

What was hanging me up was the trigger’s travel and then the audible click. The click isn’t loud, thank GOD. Anything loud in the woods is unnatural. While my anchor lets me hear the click, the click is felt in the hand more than it is heard. I love this. The idea behind the travel and click is to help archers learn to push and pull, accept the travel as part of the shot process, and when the click is heard/felt, talk yourself through the final phase of the shot. This internal monologue is critical. You’re pushing and pulling to the click. Then, you know it’s time to settle, focus on the pins, and continue to stay strong in your shjot routine until the shot breaks.

I hunt with a variety of releases. Ninety percent of the time, however, I hunt with a hinge. The goal is always a surprise release, and I’ve learned I can’t trust myself not punch a trigger, even after months of training.

What STAN’s Onnex Clicker Thumb has done is make me a better hinge shooter.

How?

One of the most common hangups with a hinge release on the range and in the field is being at full draw for too long before the hinge goes off. Most hinge shooters want their shot to break between 4 and 7 seconds. After 7 seconds, most shooters panic and stop breathing. Lack of oxygen to the brain creates added pin wobble and reduces focus. Sometimes, during high-pressure shooting situations, and sometimes for no reason at all, it feels like a hinge won’t fire. During these times, shooters aren’t pushing and pulling. Instead, they are death-gripping the bow’s riser and squeezing the release to death. Squeezing will never make a hinge fire. Pressure from driving your elbow backward and dumping the weight of your fingers into the release handle creates rotation, which causes the release to fire.

STAN’s Onnex Clicker Thumb has taught me not to panic when I have a hinge hangup. Setting my Onnex Clicker Thumb with plenty of travel, I’ve learned to keep pushing and pulling, dumping weight into the release handle. When I hear the click, I no longer panic. The click heightens my sense of focus. This is because I’m not focusing on the release firing or trying to make it fire. I’m actively aiming, trusting my shot process until the shot breaks clean.

My 2026 goal is to harvest a spring turkey with the Onnex Clicker Thumb and execute a perfect surprise release. I love the release’s ergonomics, many settings, and all of it’s adjustments. I also love the fact that I can swap between the Onnex Clicker Thumb and other STAN handheld releases.

One of the best features of the Onnex platform is interchangeability. The handle works with multiple head types—thumb button, hinge, back tension, resistance, and the new clicker. You can switch between different release styles while maintaining the same anchor point and peep height. Same feel, same point of impact, different activation method.

Something else I love about the Onnex Clicker Thumb, and I’ll end with this, is the Trainer Lock feature that lets you practice trigger activation without firing the release. You always want an arrow loaded and the bow pointed in a safe direction, but Trainer Lock, which comes with the release, allows the release to fire but won’t allow the hook to disengage. This allows you to make adjustments and go through your shot process without ever firing an arrow.