Older Recurves with HUGE flat shelves?

[damascusdave]

I believe those bows were made to shoot off an elevated rest but find they will also shoot fine off the shelf (my 1963 Kodiak Special is a good example)...sure tiller will be off a bit but lots of rather good shooting can be done with a bow that has less than perfect tiller...I just bought a 1966 Tamerlane which has a flat shelf that is about as big as they get...one reason I bought that particular bow is that the brush rest it left the factory with is still intact...I have featherrests on all four of my 1960 Kodiaks...those rests are a total of 224 years old and still working fine

DDave

[fireball31]

Not to hijack the thread, but can you use vanes if your shooting off of one of the weather rests or a flipper? I have always thought it would be nice to have an arrow with vanes in the quiver in the event of inclement weather.

[Longtoke]

Originally posted by fireball31:
Not to hijack the thread, but can you use vanes if your shooting off of one of the weather rests or a flipper? I have always thought it would be nice to have an arrow with vanes in the quiver in the event of inclement weather.

Never done it myself but I have seen many people post on here that it does work.

[Pine]

Don't see why vanes wouldn't work with a feather rest .

[Don Stokes]

The problem I've had trying to shoot those bows off the shelf was that when I bare-shaft tuned them, the nocking point was very high compared to the shelf, so the arrow had a relatively steep downward slope when on the rest, with shorter bows in particular. That adds another vector in the dynamics of the shot, so I built up the shelves to get the arrow closer to level.

[YORNOC]

I've had a lot of those Herter's over the years. Love the massive risers.
Most had a round elevated factory rest, I'll see if I can come up with pictures. The arrow shot off a radiused plastic rest, like an upside down smile, that had a small round leather side plate.
Looks like I see the standard mustard yellow limbs under that camo, if so you probably have a pau ferro riser under there. Which will look incredible if refinished.

[Zradix]

Yornoc..
That wood could be pau ferro.
I was trying to figure out what it was....was thinking possibly rosewood..or even bubinga but the pau ferro seems a closer match.

Do you KNOW that pau ferro was a wood they used during those times?

thank you
   

[Sirius Black]

Had a feather rest on a 1957 Kodiak once, worked great! Seemed to put the arrow somewhere between "off the shelf" and an elevated rest, height wise.

[Zradix]

She ended up pretty after I got the paint off.
I gave it a little of a satin finish and for some reason felt inclined to break up the dijon mustard back.

[Pine]

That looks nice .
Thanks for the pictures .

[Babbling Bob]

Had a brush rest on a '62 K Mag long ago and it shot very well.

[redfish]

I have a couple of Shakespeare Kaibabs with the flat shelves and one has been a nightmare to tune. I bought a feather rest and put it on last night. Adjusted the nock point and that thing is shooting like bullets. I had never used a vertical feather rest before but I am sold now.

[Zradix]

cool!

[Drewster]

Love the feather rests on several of my vintage bows....and Trap is THE man.

[Longtoke]

nice looking bow zradix!

i just put the high profile strike plate and feather rest on my mid 70s grizzly.  its shelf wasnt flat but i am really enjoying the feather rest.  looks really cool too

[tomsm44]

That turned out great.  Beautiful wood on that one.  I have a '66 Kodiak with a flat shelf and just a bear rug rest.  It was setup that way when I got it and it shoots great.  I also have Ben Person 709 Hunter and a Wing Red Wing Hunter, both mid to late '60s bows, that I setup myself.  I used small pieces of leather to build a slightly elevated rest in the center of the shelf.  I've had good results with both of them as well.  Here's a picture where you can kinda see it on the Ben Pearson.

[Tom]

Hunting bow this fall is a '65 Howatt Hunter I just refinished. Am using a feather rest with Martin strike plate. Has a flat shelf but the feather rest shoots well for me.

[JohnV]

Back in the day I would estimate that just as many archers shot off some type of rest compared to those who shot off the shelf.  The feather rest was common as well as the bristle brush rest.  Later flipper style rests became pretty popular.

[Bud B.]

You can radius the shelf by glueing a few thick pieces of leather together and then sanding an arc in the leather. Cut the leather to match the shelf dimensioms. Double sided tape or Barge cement to hold it on. Same as a raduised wood shelf plus it raises the arrow for better tuneability.

[redfish]

I used a felt pad covered with velcro on my Red Wing Hunter. I shoots good but looks kind of cobbled up. With the difference the feather rest made on the Kaibab I am going to order one for the RWH.