Fantastic Hunting Rests

By Vaughn Rader

    Many of you have already seen the new popularity in fall away rests around the archery world. They are not just for the target archers. The drop away rests have intrigued me for years after seeing my first one about 12 years ago. I felt that they were really a fad or novelty item and I have always prescribed to the philosophy that the fewer moving parts on your equipment, the less chance for equipment failure. I then saw some drop away rests while attending a NABH Cabela's 3-D tournament in Abilene, Texas in the late 90's. I was in the group behind this shooter on the practice range and was watching the way the rest picked up the arrow everytime and watched his arrow flight as well as his accuracy and was still not convinced that it was a rest of the future. Now, in the 21st century, I have finally realized that the drop away rests are not a fad or a novelty item, they are for real.

    As far as moving parts, the drop away rests that I prefer have no more or sometimes less than the regular arrow rests that I used to swear by. I prefer the drop away rests that attach to your cable or cable slide more so than the inertia style rests. The inertia style rests are very good rests but do not fit my needs and I have more confidence in the rests that connect to my cables. I have to think that the inertia rests that use bow recoil to drop the rest out of the way of the vanes or feathers can not be as consistent or adjustable as the cable type of rests. With all the vibration dampening devices on the bows today, the reduced amount of felt recoil has to cause slight problems for the inertia style rests as well as drastic temperature differences could create some inconsistencies. However, the rests I have experience with was about a year old and the manufacturer recommended the rest only would be reliable to about 5000-7000 shots. The same manufacturers have improved their products and with changes in archery technology almost daily, I can not speak for the rests that have been improved or introduced in the last year. I can, however, comment on the cable type of drop away rests. With the tests that I have performed and they have been far from scientific, I find that one cam bows are easier to set up with the drop away rests than the two cam bows are. The major difference between the two types of bows is the one cams seem to be less critical of the rest timing. By timing, I am referring to the point at which the rest raises to its upward position during the draw cycle.

    Back to the differences between setting up the one cam bows compared to the two cam bows. You have to tie or serve your rope, that is attached to your rest, to the cable that is
connected to your lower cam on two cam bows and to your only cable on your one cam bows. The two cam bows do not have cables that are stressed near as much as one cams so the two cam bows are more finicky when it comes to tuning the timing of the rest. I like for my one cam bow rests to rise to full upright position when I have 1"-2" of arrow to continue to draw. With two cam bows, I like to have about 2"-3" of arrow left when the rest comes up. This is just a real good starting point from what I have seen and experienced. When you serve the rope to your cable, make sure and serve at least an 1/2"-3/4" below and above the point of attachment of the rope to ensure it does not slide up when you draw the bow back. The rope is under a lot more pressure than what most people realize.

    The drop away rests are much easier to tune that the conventional rests. This is because if they were installed with timing close to what was stated before, the vanes will not contact the rest during the shot. Vane contact is the largest cause of poor arrow flight and is very hard to correct with conventional rests on smaller diameter arrows such as the popular carbon arrows. The way I set up my one cam bows is I set my beginning nock set about 1/8"-3/16" higher than horizontal. On a two cam bow, after I ensured the timing was correct and the tiller was close to equal, I set my nocking point about an 1/16"-1/8" above horizontal. I like for my arrow rest, when raised, to hold the arrow where it crosses the riser right at the hole where the rest mounts or just slightly higher than that if I need more clearance for broadheads. I then set my windage on my rest so it looks like arrow is pointing straight out of the bow and by looking down on the shelf, the arrow looks straight when compared to the edge of the shelf. 

    You are now ready to start the tuning process and I bet the tuning process takes a lot less time that your initial set up of your rest took. Basically, if your arrows are grouping decent at twenty yards, start the Plumb Bob method that I wrote about in another article. If your arrows are fishtailing and you aren't torquing the grip, make small adjustments one way then another to your windage setting on your rest until the fishtailing is corrected. If it doesn't tune out, your arrow spine is too weak or most likely, you are torquing your grip and causing the problem. If you are using a launcher type rest like the Trophy Taker, I put a small piece of moleskin on top and below the launcher to make it completely silent when drawing the bow. The moleskin will last a lot longer than normal since you are only drawing the arrow about 2" over the rest instead of 15" or more like normal. I also like to put a piece of the neoprene type silencing material on my bow shelf where the launcher hits when it drops to make it quieter. Then for the Trophy Taker or similar rests, I use 2 small 1/2"-3/4" pieces of carbon shaft and lay it on the front of the shelf of the bow. I then fasten it down with tape, glue, epoxy or whatever you feel comfortable doing to your bow finish. I then cover it with moleskin as well as the majority of my shelf area. This will give the arrow a place to rest when the bow is not at full draw and it completely silent. In the picture, I put moleskin on the shelf, then glued the shafts to the moleskin, then put more moleskin over the shafts. My buddy that I set up for these pictures did not want his finish on his shelf ruined. (Imagine that) With the two pieces of arrow shaft under the moleskin, I can almost turn my bow sideways without my arrow falling off the shelf. Try that with a normal rest. 

    If you set up your rests properly, you will see an improvement in accuracy and forgiveness, especially with carbon arrows. Accuracy and forgiveness is something I am always searching for. Try the rests or at least watch other people that are shooting them and ask them what they think of them and ask how they like theirs. I bet they will swear by them.

                                                                            Good luck and good shooting!
                                                                            Vaughn Rader
                                                                            TexasOutdoorsman.com Field Editor