To Drop Away or Not
to Drop Away…That’s the Question
In the past few years, drop
away rests have become more popular. Here are a couple of
the reasons why they have become so popular recently:
- When you use a drop rest, the arrow, when released,
travels across the launcher anywhere from 2” to
4” before the launcher falls out the way of the
arrow. This action helps eliminate any sort of fletch
contact with the rest as the arrow leaves the bow. This
allows you to utilize a full helical fletch on your arrow
which will create a little more spin on your arrow, which
has shown to improve broadhead flight and grouping.
- Because the drop rest always falls out of the way of
the arrow so quickly, it greatly reduces the amount left
and right hits you see, which is caused by wrist torque
on your bow grip. Because the arrow does not pick up the
full effect of the torque, it will hit much closer to
your point of aim than any other type of containment
style rest, i.e. “Double Prong Rests” or
“Biscuit Style Rest”.
- When tuning your bow with a drop rest, you will see your arrow selection, if done properly, will actually be making a more precise arrow selection as far as spine of the arrow is concerned. It is almost as if you “bare shaft” tuned your bow, which usually means for you, the broadhead and field points have a tendency to hit closer to the same point of impact than previously.
Here are some drop away tuning tips:
- When you tune your bow with a drop rest, 98% of the
time your bow will shoot a weaker spined arrow.
- Since most drop away rests use a cord that attaches
to your downward pulling cable, you will want to recheck
your synchronization and/or timing of your cams after you
install and adjust the lift of the rest. The rest cord
has a tendency to pull the cam that your cable is
attached to slightly out of time.
- With most drop rests, your launcher has to make contact with your arrow shelf when it falls. Putting a pad or a cushion on the shelf where the launcher makes contact will prevent the launcher from bouncing back up in front of the flight path of the arrow.
When installed, set-up and tuned properly, you should see a noticeable improvement in your consistency and accuracy.
Good Shooting,
Tom DiRisio