Trad Gang

I posted this on the shooters forum but thought I might get more responses here. I'm shooting with a Bear Weatherrest and I'm getting pretty excessive wear on the rest. The rest originally had about an 1/8" thick rib on the strike plate portion of the rest and as you can see, that rib has been worn right off and the arrow has actually eaten quite deeply into the main body of the rest. I've had the rest for two years I think. It has worn enough where it seems to be affecting my tune. I experimented with taping a toothpick to the strike plate and my arrows are flying better. Is this wear normal, or is it an indication of a arrow spine issue? I like shooting with a rest, but it doesn't seem like I should have to replace the rest every year. Maybe carbons are just too abrasive for this rest. Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts.

My bow is a Quinn Stallion 50 lb. @ 28" and I draw around 30". I'm shooting Carbon Express Heritage 250's that are cut 31.75" long from nock throat to end of the brass insert. I'm using 100 grain brass inserts and 125 grain points. I'm thinking that this arrow is a bit too weak anyway. Possibly a stiffer arrow wouldn't drag on the rest as much, or maybe more?
 (http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w264/jeff_simon13/IMG_0123.jpg)

I had a similar problem with my carbons. The Nock was hitting the side plate. Built it out with a piece of rubber tubing behind the plate and fixed it. Something ya might try.

I believe a stiff arrow will cause more wear on the rest because it slams into the riser upon loose, whereas a weak arrow will bend too far away from the riser.

I've always used weather rests; I used to slice off the rubber strip as the arrow wore it down, but that does throw off the tuning. At some point I bought a few of them and just resigned to replace them every couple months as they wore out.

That said, I think even well-tuned arrows will wear out weather rests; the rubber is just too soft.

Oh, and I usually peel off the factory adhesive from the weatherrest and use Scotch outdoor double-sided mounting tape instead. It's a little thinner and not quite as gummy as the factory stuff.

I think Bear Weatherrests are pretty soft and I have seen many like yours. I would simply  get a new one and put a piece of moleskin over it and replace the moleskin as it wears out. I doubt that it is arrow spine that is causing it....probably just normal wear.

Thanks for the replies. They don't cost much, so I might just order a bunch of them. Does anyone recommend a more durable rest?

JS, I have the same setup as you but I'm not shooting carbons. My rest shows  some  wear on that rib after 6 months of average use.

Don't know how many arrows have passed over your rest in two years but it would seem that's a fair amount. A new WeatherRest comes with an additional thicker adhesive sticky plate...maybe building out your side plate a tad would decrease the next stretch of wearing.

I saw turkey feather rests on sale on one of these sites here, I think they were five dollars. They look like the old feather rest you got on some older recurves.

Changing rests fixes the symptoms but not the disease.  Your 250's are probably too stiff..pressing in and riding on the rest rather than bending away.  That's a nasty groove in that rest and it shouldn't be ignored.  I can shoot a Hoyt rest for a year an not have more than a slight indent in it.

Thanks George. I've been wondering if my arrows are too stiff. This bow is cut past center though, so it should be able to handle a stiff spine, plus I should be drawing close to 54 lb. and I have 225 grains up front. When I bought the arrows, I trimmed them a little bit at a time until my bare and fletched shafts were impacting the same place. My arrows ended up 31.75" long so it seems like they should be in the ball park. But, I'm still fairly new and I might have been getting mixed results due to poor form. The bareshafts tend to fly through the air tail left, but I'm trying to figure out if I'm causing that by plucking the string.

I'm going to order some different point weights to try. When I take this rest off, I'm going to try shooting off of the shelf. Theoretically, if my shafts are too stiff bringing my arrow closer to the strike plate of the bow itself should help.

The weird part is my broadheads (Snuffers) seemed to fly awesome, even better than my field points when the rest was new. They impacted right where I'm looking. I shoot right handed and now my bareshafts are always to the right of my fletched shafts, although it seems that my fletched shafts often impact to the left of the bullseye. From my understanding, fletched shafts that impact to the left of the bullseye are too stiff. But reading through OL's tuning guide, if my bare shafts are always impacting to the right of my fletched shafts, then my arrows are too weak.

I used to shoot the bear rest and the wear you show is not unusual especially after two years. I shot wood and aluminum. I just replaced them every season. The one thing I really liked was they were always quiet unlike hard rubber or teflon rests that can occasionally skweek ... and usually when drawing on a critter. I now shoot off the shelf.

The rougher finish on the heritage will wear faster than a smooth finish.Keeping you arrows waxed good with car wax will help with the wear and make them pull across a rest quieter as well.

Where can you find a Lefty hoyt arrow rest??? cant find one! Mark thanks      :(

JSimon, before changing anything else, try moving the rest out by putting a piece of leather behind it.  If you are significantly past center, the arrow may indeed be just riding tight against the rest.  Moving the rest out would force it to bend and may show whether it is too stiff or not.  I've heard guys talking about the Heritage being like sandpaper on rests.

Gene Wensel uses that I believe and he puts a thin leather pad with adhesive baching over top of it. Check out masters of the barebow, vol.1. He talks about it. Would think the leather would hold up longer.