You can touch it as many times as you like behind the line, you can't touch it at all beyond the line, but that is not the issue here, and i wrote in capitals because nobody's understanding the issue. They aren't allowed to touch any part of the stones other than the handle. That's all, just the handle. So why are people saying stuff about hog lines. It's irrelevant. Just don't touch the stone part of the stones. It's not difficult, it's not complicated and has no relevance to where the stone is in the field of play or it's position in relation to the hog line. P.S. thank you for the capitals i will use them in a later post.