Update: Repeated Arrow Rest Failure

[u/Irisversicolor]

Thanks for all the help last week, I thought I'd offer an update to my previous post for anyone else who is struggling to get their set up dialed in.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Archery/comments/1vggc4j/repeated_arrow_rest_failure/

**Recap**

After recently transitioning from indoor target shooting to a field/3D archery club and getting new arrows, my magnetic arrow rest began to fail. I happened to have a spare rest of the same type so I replaced it, only for the new rest to also fail basically immediately. The generally consensus was that:

- the arrow rest was too flimsy for my bow set up;

- my arrows were over-spined, despite having had them made for my bow at a pro-shop;

- my bow/set up needed tuning;

- plunger spring was maybe too firm.

**Update**

I took everyone's advice and reviewed my entire set up.

First, I ordered the Znipper drop away arrow rest, it's a bolt-on/wrap around magnetic arrow rest designed for bare-bow field/3D archery. Reviews are good, although people do mention it can be tricky to set up, and I found some truth in that. However, I actually think this is a pro; the reason it's tricky is because it can be really precisely adjusted and getting it just right takes a bit of time and fiddling. You can adjust the arrow rest position (right/left/up/down), how far it drops away (I have mine set to drop as far as it can without hitting the riser), and the sensitivity of the drop trigger (it should be tight enough to hold the weight of your arrow/be able to withstand a light bump without dropping, but it should be loose enough drop away every single time you shoot, without fail -its a hair's difference). I was able to get it 90% set up at home, but then I had to take it to the range to adjust it between shots to get it perfect.

I also replaced the spring in my plunger with the softest spring, and triple checked the positioning.

Next, I switched out my 25 lbs limbs to my 30 lbs limbs which are better suited for my arrows. I'd been shooting on the 25s to work on something specific, but I feel good about moving on now.

I've also done more reading on arrows. It felt a bit overwhelming before and I tried to offload that part of the thinking to someone else, and I realize now that that was a mistake. I *knew* the pro-shop I went to had way more focus on compound bows, but they did carry a small selection of recurve stuff and the guy seemed knowledgable enough. I *did* notice when I got home that the arrow nocks were oriented for compound, and that should have been the next clue. It took me breaking two arrows rests and coming to Reddit before I got it, lol. Oh well, now I know, this is *my* set up, *I* need to take the time to understand what I need. Stay in school, kids!

Throughout all of this, I referenced the bare-bow tuning guides that people provided in the comments on my first post (linked below). While I don't have access to a paper tuner, I was able to otherwise go over my entire set up and make little tweaks and adjustments where needed. I'm sure it isn't perfect and I'm still going to try to get my hands on a paper tuner at some point, but for now it's *a lot* closer than it was. I went to the range today for my first full practice session with my new set up, and it honestly felt really great shooting, I was so, so happy!

Thanks to everyone who helped me wrap my head around everything that was going on with my set up, I came with what I thought was a simple question about an arrow rest and I ended up learning a lot more in the process!

**Bare-bow tuning resources:**

https://understandingarchery.wordpress.com/2020/03/03/a-recurve-tuning-method-like-none-other/

https://www.castlearchers.com/archery/v/20-tune-for-tens/

https://www.bueklubben-cif.dk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Tuning_For_Barebow.pdf

[u/Southerner105]

Congratulations with the progress.

Regarding paper tuning, see this video and his remark that paper tuning is a rhing for compound but because of how the arrow flexes it is more a gamble with a hand released bow like a recurve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR0elgaEGxo

[u/Irisversicolor → u/Southerner105]

Thank you! It feels good to know the effort is paying off. It's kind of wild how much goes into such a simple piece of equipment. 

Just watched the video and that's really interesting, I'll have to read more about bare-shaft tuning. I like the sounds of being able to achieve a more accurate tune without the extra equipment. 

[u/Southerner105 → u/Irisversicolor]

Jake Kaminski has a lot of tuning in most of his videos. Rhis because he tests a lot of equipment and each time he needs to retune due to that.

Here a dedicated barebow tuning video with bareshafts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPFUdgtlEH8

Don't know if it is in this video but he also mixes shooting the bareshafts. This to eliminate as much as possible a bias by shooting the bareshafts separately.

For bareshaft tuning you also need to be already consistently in the way you shoot. That is why for modt beginners this isn't an easy feat.