# Arrow rest for finger shooters



## wa-prez (Sep 9, 2006)

Topic has been covered a LOT.

Quick search found this thread:

Best arrow rest for compound finger shooting?
March 06, 2019 • 27 posts • 1488 views


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## mamba/ny (Mar 11, 2012)

I like the spring rest with a stiff spring.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

Springy rest is great, timberdoodle is another.


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## Whitetail 8 (Oct 22, 2019)

my wife uses a flipper


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## rsarns (Sep 23, 2008)

Springy from Pat Norris.


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## TR1960 (Jan 3, 2016)

+1 on Springy from Pat Norris


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## thebestarcher (Apr 18, 2011)

NAP Center Rest


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

Just received a Micro-Adjust Springy yesterday. Have it installed and will try it out at the range soon. I like the clean lines and the ease of finding center. Did a little paper tuning last night and found I love the way it can be adjusted left or right.


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

I prefer a magnetic flipper style rest for my target bows.
For hunting rests I use Whisker biscuit. Yes they work great for finger shooting.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

gumboman said:


> Just received a Micro-Adjust Springy yesterday. Have it installed and will try it out at the range soon. I like the clean lines and the ease of finding center. Did a little paper tuning last night and found I love the way it can be adjusted left or right.


How are you liking the spring rest?

Regarding adjustment, you should be able to just up and down by the angle of the spring.

Did your rest come with three different spring tensions?


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

Fury90flier said:


> How are you liking the spring rest?
> 
> Regarding adjustment, you should be able to just up and down by the angle of the spring.
> 
> Did your rest come with three different spring tensions?


Still undecided about the springy rest. Have been working to tune arrow flight but with little success. Challenge could be due to my shooting style which is bare bow compound and walking the string. My tuning efforts have been such that I place my fingers mid crawl, trying to tune at my crawl point on the string. Cannot get a clean tune for vertical paper tears with fletching or bare shaft. Bare shaft makes awful tears that are 4-6 inches long.

Using split finger, three finger, yields better results. Two fingers split even better. But I bought the rest for bare bow style after reading good reports on AT. So far I am not satisfied but will continue working to get the results I need. 

Have shot arrows with spine from 400 to 900 and all show vertical tears. Moving nocking point only changes the direction of the tear.

I can say that a flipper and plunger allows for better vertical tears but still no bullet hole. My bow is a Mathews Apex 8, 42.5 ATA. Not the ideal bow length but should be a good finger shooter.

The rest comes with one spring. I bought an additional stiffer spring that I have not yet tried. That is probably my next step in the process.

Bear in mind I am not criticizing the rest. It is just that I haven't yet achieved good results but continue to work on it. And I must say most of my shooting has been at paper with little range time. Hope to get to the range today in fact to get visuals on arrow flight.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

Stop paper tuning. Work on bareshaft tuning...bs hitting with fletched at 20.


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## dragonheart II (Aug 20, 2010)

You sound like you are pursing excellence in your barebow shooting. Here is a bit of advice. #1 Its not the arrowrest. If you are wanting to be competitive in compound barebow, get a bow with round or energy wheels. Get a long ata bow. You want a bow as close to a recurve with wheels on it. You will never tune that bow to any level of satisfaction string walking. Barebow stringwalkin is a tune of averages. You will never have perfect arrow flight at all distances.


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## rsarns (Sep 23, 2008)

gumboman said:


> Still undecided about the springy rest. Have been working to tune arrow flight but with little success. Challenge could be due to my shooting style which is bare bow compound and walking the string. My tuning efforts have been such that I place my fingers mid crawl, trying to tune at my crawl point on the string. Cannot get a clean tune for vertical paper tears with fletching or bare shaft. Bare shaft makes awful tears that are 4-6 inches long.
> 
> Using split finger, three finger, yields better results. Two fingers split even better. But I bought the rest for bare bow style after reading good reports on AT. So far I am not satisfied but will continue working to get the results I need.
> 
> ...


What spring weight are you using? At 50-60# I need to go to a 25 OZ spring, around 50# and depending on arrow weight (lighter arrow) I switch to a 20 Oz. Go with BS tuning and group tuning as string walking and getting a good tear is really really tough.


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

rsarns said:


> What spring weight are you using? At 50-60# I need to go to a 25 OZ spring, around 50# and depending on arrow weight (lighter arrow) I switch to a 20 Oz. Go with BS tuning and group tuning as string walking and getting a good tear is really really tough.


Using a 20 oz now. Have a 25 oz in reserve which I will try soon. Have had some success since my last post. Dug out some old 2117 aluminum arrows. Cut to 29 inches and installed 125 grain point. Bare shaft at 3 yards yields bullet hole tears. At 5 yards bare shaft shows tear of about 1.5 inches. Fletched arrows using feathers fly every good and group well. Bare shaft testing at 20 and 30 yards today.

I am considering going back to feathers. Have never had great results with vanes and finger release in the past anyway. I can recall seeing at the last National Senior games, top bare bow compound shooters using feathers. Most likely they know what I know. Feathers are more forgiving for finger shooters.


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## dragonheart II (Aug 20, 2010)

I reread my post and I may have come off a bit harsh. My intent is only to assist. I shot with Rick Stark, no argument one of the best stringwalkers with compound ever, many moons ago at outdoor nationals. He was shooting a cam bow a PSE Shark. He shot good scores. Rick then went to a Hoyt with wheel and 1/2, a Montega and shot GREAT scores stringwalking breaking records. All the best to you.


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## rsarns (Sep 23, 2008)

dragonheart II said:


> I reread my post and I may have come off a bit harsh. My intent is only to assist. I shot with Rick Stark, no argument one of the best stringwalkers with compound ever, many moons ago at outdoor nationals. He was shooting a cam bow a PSE Shark. He shot good scores. Rick then went to a Hoyt with wheel and 1/2, a Montega and shot GREAT scores stringwalking breaking records. All the best to you.


Rick still shoots that Montega. It’s great to have him back shooting BB.


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

> I reread my post and I may have come off a bit harsh. My intent is only to assist. I shot with Rick Stark, no argument one of the best stringwalkers with compound ever, many moons ago at outdoor nationals. He was shooting a cam bow a PSE Shark. He shot good scores. Rick then went to a Hoyt with wheel and 1/2, a Montega and shot GREAT scores stringwalking breaking records. All the best to you.


No offense taken. Thanks for the input. Being new to the string walking technique I am having a blast trying different things. Rests, arrows, tabs, nocks etc offer many variables for this shooting style. 

I did learn today that bullet hole paper tears at 5 yards do not always translate to good arrow flight at normal shooting distances. Although I got good grouping with the 2117 aluminum arrows at 40 yards, they are stiff for my 50 pounds draw weight. They clearly flew down range a little side ways. Bare shafts group well but left of fletched arrows indicating stiff. I think I need arrows two spines weaker for my set up. Plan to order some 1916 shafts to try out.


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## bowproPat (Jul 11, 2002)

gumboman said:


> Using a 20 oz now. Have a 25 oz in reserve which I will try soon. Have had some success since my last post. Dug out some old 2117 aluminum arrows. Cut to 29 inches and installed 125 grain point. Bare shaft at 3 yards yields bullet hole tears. At 5 yards bare shaft shows tear of about 1.5 inches. Fletched arrows using feathers fly every good and group well. Bare shaft testing at 20 and 30 yards today.
> 
> I am considering going back to feathers. Have never had great results with vanes and finger release in the past anyway. I can recall seeing at the last National Senior games, top bare bow compound shooters using feathers. Most likely they know what I know. Feathers are more forgiving for finger shooters.


When I string walked back in the day, I was shooting a 48 inch axle to axle Bonnie Bowman Striker with round wheels. A little slower than today's bows but very stable. I was shooting 50 pound's with 2013 aluminum arrows. The field round was the old target and 500 was the goal then. There were many guys here in CA shooting 500 and over. Springy Rest was always the most popular rest. Shoot one size springy for a week or so recording groups. Then change springy coil weight and do the same thing. I have seen very good archers shooting 50 pounds with 15oz, 20oz, 25 oz springy's with excellent results. Arrow size and tip weight makes a big difference. Also bow weight. Do not be afraid to change bow weight to get the arrow grouping. Groups are more important than paper tunes.


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

bowproPat said:


> When I string walked back in the day, I was shooting a 48 inch axle to axle Bonnie Bowman Striker with round wheels. A little slower than today's bows but very stable. I was shooting 50 pound's with 2013 aluminum arrows. The field round was the old target and 500 was the goal then. There were many guys here in CA shooting 500 and over. Springy Rest was always the most popular rest. Shoot one size springy for a week or so recording groups. Then change springy coil weight and do the same thing. I have seen very good archers shooting 50 pounds with 15oz, 20oz, 25 oz springy's with excellent results. Arrow size and tip weight makes a big difference. Also bow weight. Do not be afraid to change bow weight to get the arrow grouping. Groups are more important than paper tunes.


Wish there was a 48 inch bow with wheels available in newly manufactured state. But sadly I find nothing like that is made today. Seems like manufacturers are only making bows to satisfy hunters and target archers who want maximum speed and use releases.

Thanks for all the input from experienced string walkers. I am having fun learning and experimenting. Got interested in bare bow quite unintentionally. I am helping a friend learn to shoot and her archery style of choice is bare bow. So I started playing with it to learn so I can teach. To my surprise I found it to be a very accurate form of shooting and more fun than any style of archery I have shot in my 6 decades of shooting. I have rediscovered the pure joy of watching an arrow arch through the air and land in the gold. Much more fun than the normal today where tiny high speed arrows with small fletching zip to the target undetected. Makes me think of stealth arrows.


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## dragonheart II (Aug 20, 2010)

"Groups are more important than paper tunes." Pat Norris...Wisdom right there.


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## shadowhunter (Oct 12, 2003)

gumboman, check out a 30 year old Hoyt Provantage with 48" AtoA. It doesn't have to be new to shoot like a DREAM!


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

shadowhunter said:


> gumboman, check out a 30 year old Hoyt Provantage with 48" AtoA. It doesn't have to be new to shoot like a DREAM!


That's not true. Everybody knows that speed means accuracy and those bows are slow so they're not accurate.


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## bowproPat (Jul 11, 2002)

Fury90flier said:


> That's not true. Everybody knows that speed means accuracy and those bows are slow so they're not accurate.


Thats BS some of the first perfect rounds where shot with this older bows, with cam leans and big grips. 
This forum thread is for finger shooters. Every top finger shooting archer I know shoots bows 40 inches or longer and complain about the 40 inch length. Pretty much ideal length is 43 to 45 inches for less finger pinch from the string to the fingers. I think rsarns (2019 National Field archery champion) would agree as will 99 percent of the other finger shooters shooting compounds.


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## rsarns (Sep 23, 2008)

Look at what the top shooters in BB NFAA shoot, Frank Burdi, old Pearson with round wheels maybe pushing 245 FPS, has won the Belt 2 years in a row (belt buckle for best BB score of all age groups NFAA), I shoot nothing but 45” now... Ben Rogers, Hoyt Aspen 45” and wheels, Rick an old Hoyt Montega... I can continue Bubba Bateman won Worlds and NFAA with his 45” with wheels. Speed is nice but smooth and forgiving wins


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

Fury90flier said:


> That's not true. Everybody knows that speed means accuracy and those bows are slow so they're not accurate.


Sorry but the above statement simply does not hold up. Experienced finger shooters know first hand that high speed is not needed. Speed is good up to a point. All one has to do is to consider this fact. Young petite female archers shooting 40 pounds and less recurve bows, can tear up the 10 ring at 70 meters, outdoors in wind and rain and heat and cold. Accuracy can be attained with traditional speeds. High speed is not necessary. So those who shoot fingers in the more traditional style know the truth. Those long ata bows that shoot sub 275 fps are deadly accurate. Plus they are a lot more fun since the shooter can actually see arrow in flight.

I happen to have one of those old Hoyt Pro Vantage bows in 70 pound draw weight. It is a joy to shoot. Accurate, stable and quiet. My only wish is that it would have 50 pound limbs.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

bowpropat said:


> fury90flier said:
> 
> 
> > that's not true. Everybody knows that speed means accuracy and those bows are slow so they're not accurate.
> ...


no, yur rong...mamma said speed is accuracy


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## bowproPat (Jul 11, 2002)

fury90flier said:


> no, yur rong...mamma said speed is accuracy


are you a finger shooter or are you from the dark side.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

I'll always be a finger shooter at heart. When I started shooting back in the 80's, releases were for those that were too weak to pull with their fingers.

I do hope you guys see the humor in my comments about speed. Just regurgitating comments I hear about accuracy from bows, guns , e t c... More speed means better accuracy... LOL


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

Want to get this thread back on the original theme. Arrow rests for finger shooters.

I have been experimenting with the springy rest for a couple of weeks now. I like the rest for its simplicity and the micro adjust feature is cool. I have been struggling with arrow tuning, having tried several different spine shafts for my 50 pound compound. Bare shaft testing has been erratic. Although I can get reasonable accuracy, I could not get bare shaft tuning to line up with the Easton method nor the Tuning for Tens method. Sometimes bare shafts showed stiff and sometimes they showed weak. Could not get the perfect dart like arrows I want. Results were not consistent.

Today on a lark I installed a NAP center rest plunger rest flipper. Arrow flight improvement was dramatic and immediate. Bare shafts grouped with fletched shafts in 500 and 600 spine. Arrow flight is beautiful. Arrows were perfectly straight flying and landing in the gold consistently. Both 500 spine and 600 spine grouped in the gold and impacted the target with a solid thud indicating good arrow flight.

I am very happy with the result. Although this plunger, flipper rest is no longer available, the center rest flipper can be purchased still. I will buy another for my back up bow.

Too bad the plunger flipper is discontinued. I would buy a couple more if they were available.

I'm not giving up on the springy yet. Will try feather shafted arrows and judge results.


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## Peacemakr45 (Feb 18, 2019)

gumboman said:


> Want to get this thread back on the original theme. Arrow rests for finger shooters.
> 
> I have been experimenting with the springy rest for a couple of weeks now. I like the rest for its simplicity and the micro adjust feature is cool. I have been struggling with arrow tuning, having tried several different spine shafts for my 50 pound compound. Bare shaft testing has been erratic. Although I can get reasonable accuracy, I could not get bare shaft tuning to line up with the Easton method nor the Tuning for Tens method. Sometimes bare shafts showed stiff and sometimes they showed weak. Could not get the perfect dart like arrows I want. Results were not consistent.
> 
> ...



Sorry I'm late to the game. I just did a web search and lots of places are still carrying that rest. Running about 25-30 bucks

I prefer the AAE T-300 flipper with a standard plunger and I've been shooting compound Fingers since about 1977. The pic in my avatar is a 1982 PSE laser magnum with a 27" draw @ 50 lbs, anemic 30% let off and a 48" ATA. I shot the same bow, same setup last weekend (broke the rest on my Jennings and switched bows).


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## gumboman (Sep 3, 2019)

> Sorry I'm late to the game. I just did a web search and lots of places are still carrying that rest. Running about 25-30 bucks


Yes the Flipper Center Rest is still a current product. The one I was referring to is the now discontinued Flipper Plunger version. This one has a cushion plunger and a spring loaded flipper in two axes that provided 3 axes of cushioned movement. It is a fantastic rest but no longer available.


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## Since1985Tx (Jan 19, 2021)

_An AAE Free Flyte Elite Rest with a Beiter plunger._


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## bowproPat (Jul 11, 2002)

gumboman said:


> Want to get this thread back on the original theme. Arrow rests for finger shooters.
> 
> I have been experimenting with the springy rest for a couple of weeks now. I like the rest for its simplicity and the micro adjust feature is cool. I have been struggling with arrow tuning, having tried several different spine shafts for my 50 pound compound. Bare shaft testing has been erratic. Although I can get reasonable accuracy, I could not get bare shaft tuning to line up with the Easton method nor the Tuning for Tens method. Sometimes bare shafts showed stiff and sometimes they showed weak. Could not get the perfect dart like arrows I want. Results were not consistent.
> 
> ...


I have a bunch of NAP Flipper II rest on EBAY. They can be used with any plunger .....but I'm a Springy Guy as are many of the top barebow string walkers and bowhunter archers.


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## Gimli's Ghost (Jun 29, 2021)

When the leather rest surfaces of my 1967 Bearcat recurve began to fall apart I ran across the suggestion of replacing it with pieces cut from velcro, the closed loop side.
Took a lot of super glue soaking into the underside before it would stick but once in place I found my shooting improved by at least 300%. Theres next to no friction.
The rest area of the Bearcat is convex both in vertical and horizontal planes so effectively theres only a tiny bit of contact.


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## Fedric (Nov 3, 2021)

mamba/ny said:


> I like the spring rest with a stiff spring.


That's my favorite


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## Az archery (Jun 9, 2020)

Springy or flipper used both


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