Arrow rest help

cstilt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
102
Location
Chuckey TN
Well, it's time for me to get back into bow hunting. I've been a few years out of the game and miss it more than you can imagine. I'd been bow hunting years before ever picking up a deer rifle. I recently updated my arrows from Easton 2213 to Beeman Carbon ICS400s and have been shooting them and doing okay thus far. My only problem comes from my fletching clearance. I have a Boodoodle rest and I have trouble clearing the fletching because I like to shoot a helical style fletch. Any suggestions on what rest I should look into? I'm thinking either a drop style of whisker biscuit. I'm leaning towards the drop away. What would you guys recommend?

A bit more information about my setup. I shoot a High Country Force, 29" draw (i think), 28" arrow, 100gr Thunderheads, 4" right hand helical fletch, and a 65lb draw. I hunt only deer(maybe black bear in the future) with a self imposed limit of 40 yards, but I like to practice back to 70.

Thanks,
Chris
 
cstilt said:
I'm thinking either a drop style of whisker biscuit. I'm leaning towards the drop away. What would you guys recommend?

Thanks,
Chris
cstilt,
Stay away from the Whisker Biscuit, it's a beginner rest, at best. The damage it would do to your helical fletching would ruin them.

Lean and lean hard towards a drop-away rest! :cool: I recommend a QAD Ultra HD or LD rest, as it has the containment and clearance that you're looking for...as well as being affordable. Around $40 for the LD. The LD or HD is very important, as they have the Lock Down feature! These models lock the launcher arms down after the arrow is released, so as not to interfere with arrow flight.

The instructions on the package, make it simple to set up. Here's a promo video, from QAD, for the Ultra rest and its' features:


Another promo, at a local archey shop with the Lock Down feature:


Using this rest on my Martin Cheetah, the 4" groups that I was getting at 40 yards, has shrunk to 2" and at 60 yards, I'm getting 4" groups.

Good hunting, Bowhunter57
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was afraid of the whisker biscuit and the helical so I'm glad you said that. The QAD rest is one of the 3 I was leaning towards the most. I kinda had it narrowed to the QAD, G5 or Ripcord.

Was it difficult to setup and tune your QAD? I'm good at paper tuning and also walk back tune, but I have no experience with a drop away. I'd imagine it'd be roughly the same principles. Also, is it easy to get the timing right on them?

Thank you,

Chris
 
Id also recomend staying away from the whisker biscuit, I personaly use the trophy taker smack down and really like how it works, its a limb drivin rest, how most drop aways work is buying tying a string to your cable which raises the rest and uses a spring to pull it out of the way from the arrow with a limb drivin its just the opposite, it uses a spring to left the rest and when you shoot the string attatched to the rest pulls it out of the way, its a super simple to set up, I purchased a new bow in february and it had issues so I just got my new one last week it only took 5 minutes to paper tune it both times, on the loaner bow my pro shop let me borrow they had a QAD and that was also a really impressive rest, I like how when you let down it still holds the arrow and it was just as easy to tune, alot of my friends use rip cords and they haven't had any problems with the new model but I see a few of the older ones get stuck up broke when they shot an arrow thru it without it dropping, kinda turned me off on those, I had a G5 on my old bow and loved it the only reason I chose the trophy taker over it on my new bow is I liked the limb drivin rest and the full capture on the smack down, all the rest you are thinkin about would be great rest and they are all just as easy to tune, another thing that is really nice about the trophy taker is it 100% steel construction, I've tried them all and I always seem to go back to the trophy taker.

I also like shooting longer hanes with a helical, I shoot 3" fusion vanes which you might want to check out, they are really durable and they don't get that wrinkle look after you shoot them awhile like standard 4" vanes do.

Also if in your to reading books and serious about bow tuning id bow a copy of "Technical Bowhunting" by Joe Bell, Joe is a tuning freak and this book helped me fine tune my bow, I still reference back to it quite often if I am having issues with anything
 
Last edited:
cstilt said:
Was it difficult to setup and tune your QAD?
Also, is it easy to get the timing right on them?
cstilt,
Set up is very simple...if you follow the directions on the back of the package. The timing is based on the rest being completely vertical, when at full draw. However, if you set it up according to the directions, it will be timed like it's supposed to be and the rest is all about getting the arrow squared with the string.

Ofcourse, the centered lefts/rights will be something else you'll have to get set up before shooting. I set my rest up with the proper rest timing, centered the lefts/rights, the arrow being squared with the string and when I went outside to shoot the bow, all I had to set was the individual yardages for each pin. :)

I've been very lucky the last 2 years of bowhunting and have been able to take a buck and a doe each year. Nothing like having a good bow and having it set up, so that you have high confidence in your equipment when the moment of truth is upon you. :cool:

I hope this helps. By the way... Go Vols!!! :D When I retire, I hope to live in the Greenville area...just west of your location. I seen a bumper sticker, while I was in Pigeon Forge that says it all... "You can say what you want about the south, but you'll never hear anyone say 'When I retire, I'm moving north'".

Good hunting, Bowhunter57
 
Thanks for all the help guys. It looks like I'll be going with a drop away rest this fall, most likely the qad rest. I'll have to look into that book spdrman. I can always use some good tuning advice.

Bowhunter, I know what you mean about moving south. I'm a WV transplant myself. Came down here 3 years ago for work. Talking about Greeneville reminds me that I need to update my location. I'm in in chuckey which is walking distance to Greeneville. I plan on bow hunting the Cherokee national forest this fall.

ThAnks again guys. I appreciate it.

Chris
 
I would check the price of the qad i think they are more toward 100. I shot one for a couple of years and started to have some fletching contact issues so i sent it back to qad they recieved the damaged package but never got the rest. USPS lost it and cant find it. I spoke to qad about it and they are sending me out a rest anyway if my old one turns up i will try again. But they have great customer service and great drop away rests.
 
Well, it's time for me to get back into bow hunting. I've been a few years out of the game and miss it more than you can imagine. I'd been bow hunting years before ever picking up a deer rifle. I recently updated my arrows from Easton 2213 to Beeman Carbon ICS400s and have been shooting them and doing okay thus far. My only problem comes from my fletching clearance. I have a Boodoodle rest and I have trouble clearing the fletching because I like to shoot a helical style fletch. Any suggestions on what rest I should look into? I'm thinking either a drop style of whisker biscuit. I'm leaning towards the drop away. What would you guys recommend?

A bit more information about my setup. I shoot a High Country Force, 29" draw (i think), 28" arrow, 100gr Thunderheads, 4" right hand helical fletch, and a 65lb draw. I hunt only deer(maybe black bear in the future) with a self imposed limit of 40 yards, but I like to practice back to 70.

Thanks,
Chris

Ripcord
 
FEENIX and Dave, I know that the qad rest will stay up on a slow let down whereas I dont think the ripcord will. Has this ever caused you any trouble in the field? All my hunting is in the woods so having to draw and let down is more the rule than the exception.

The air rest was a neat idea. Not sure I like the idea of adding those heavy inserts though. Whoever the camera man who did the air rest shots was a lot braver than I am. Now way I'd have looked at a drawn bow like that. Lol.
 
Ive shot the Trophy Taker Drop fro many years and have been very pleased. Great rest, easy to install and tune. Good luck. I prefer a drop away to the biscuit.
 
In my honest opinion the QAD is the best of the crowd. I shoot a monster and don't have any clearance issues with it. And you may want to look into blazer vanes so far they have shot just as well as 4" vanesif not better they last a lot longer as well. If you do get the biscuit you will have trouble from your vanes no matter what kind you use the friction from the bristles causes deformation of the vane feathers do work very well though. Just my .02 worth.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 13 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top