# What are good materials for shelf and strike plates on trad recurve bows.



## woof156 (Apr 3, 2018)

What are some suggestions for good shelf and strike plate materials that have some longevity.


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## kynadog (Nov 3, 2004)

woof156 said:


> What are some suggestions for good shelf and strike plate materials that have some longevity.


I have leather on my longbow. Pliable, yet it lasts a long time. 


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## Bow Rider (Jan 16, 2015)

Some might abhor the DIY, but I like a felt furniture pad for the shelf and the soft side of velcro for the strike plate. The felt pad is a one inch round pad cut in half. It's the pads used for the bottoms of chair legs, so they are made to take abuse. The velcro is from a wall mount kit (read:strong) of 7/8 inch squares. I also cut those in half. I'd love to use the velcro for both, but (for me) feather contact wears down the outside portion of the shelf rest. After about 500 shots, the felt rest has a 45 degree bevel on the outside edge. Nothing to require changing it. The adhesive on these particular things is not an issue. I've tried some archery leather and hair rests with inadequate adhesive. So I have come to a point where if a stick-on anything isn't branded 3M, I don't bother with it. That's just me and my experience.


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## Bender (Dec 6, 2006)

Leather. Hard and slick. Shoe leather. You can make finer adjustments by adding layers, or taking layers off if you've gone too far.


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## Bill 2311 (Jun 24, 2005)

Leather from old tabs for shelf. Used a bunch of furniture pads but they wear quicker. For a strike plate I use either the Bear plate or a piece of seal fur. I like a thin plate so that I can build it out as needed with double sided tape underneath.


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## woof156 (Apr 3, 2018)

Some good responses thanks and ideas. How long do your shelf pads normally last (500, 5000 arrows)? Mine seems to wear pretty quickly- sort of a soft side velcro like material.


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## danshao (Feb 17, 2014)

I like how the Velcro feels but it doesn’t get the radius that I want on my titan. I can build a nice radius up with some scrap material and more than one piece of Velcro (bigger piece on the smaller piece so it bumps up) but it feels cheap to me. So I switched to arrow rest instead.


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## Stub (Aug 13, 2013)

I use Industrial Velcro for my radius shelf bows. Felt furniture pads for my metal flat shelf bows.

Cheap and easy to replace.


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## Bow Rider (Jan 16, 2015)

woof156 said:


> Some good responses thanks and ideas. How long do your shelf pads normally last (500, 5000 arrows)? Mine seems to wear pretty quickly- sort of a soft side velcro like material.


At least 5000. If I try something that lasts only 500 shots, I'd never use it again. This is why I use the velcro for the side plate only. When I tried it as a rest, it wore out way too quickly.


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## Daniel L (Nov 23, 2013)

If there's a radius I like to use the Bear Rug Rests on the shelf.


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## Bill 2311 (Jun 24, 2005)

Easy to put a radius in the furniture pad. Cut it with a razor blade before installing.


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## Calgroundgame (May 6, 2018)

Seal skin was the best ever now it's no longer available in use. I use furniture pads now


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