strike plate and rest material

[canuck4570]

I have velcro for my strike and rest material

read that hard martial is better

would love to here your opinion

thanks Canuck

[Alexander Traditional]

I've just been using the stick on calf hair strike plate and rest in one. The bows that I have that have the velcro do just fine though.

[Matty]

I've shot many many bows with Velcro.
Lasts a while and is easily replaced. And rediculously cheap.
I do happen to like calf hair and seal skin as well

[canuck4570]

guess I am going to stay with velcro

I have put it on my whip since I have it and it must have over 5000 shots on it and the velcro is like new

[2bird]

Thick leather is what a lot if people use. Nothing wrong with Velcro though. I use bearhair on my rest and thick leather for my striker plate, tooth picks behind both to make the smallest contact points as possible.

[McDave]

It isn't that hard or soft material is better. It's a way of fine tuning your bow. For a RH shooter, a soft material for the strike plate, such as a rug rest, like a Martin rug rest, will move the point of impact to the right. A soft material for the shelf will move the point of impact down.

A medium material, such as Velcro, will start moving the point of impact back to the left/up.  A hard material, such as plain leather, will move the POI further left/up.

My recommendation would be to stick with whatever material the bow comes with until you're sure your form is correct. It doesn't do any good to get a soft strike plate to move the POI to the right if the real reason you're hitting left is because you're not getting your elbow back behind the arrow at full draw.

[canuck4570]

I will try this tooth pick set up under the velcro and see if it makes a difference

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I think you are going to find if you tune your arrows to velcro, then switch to a hard leather you may need to do some more tuning...... the soft velcro acts like a berger button and gives a bit. Where a hard strike doesn't.

The one thing i like about calves hair or velcro is that it is quieter on the draw that a hard strike material. I'm using stingray hide on my hunting bow right now, and i got busted a couple times hunting hogs in real close. when i was drawing, it made a slight hiss that velcro or calf hair doesn't make. i've had the same issue with hard leather making noise.

food for thought... Kirk

[canuck4570]

my bow shoots great with velcro

may be should not mess with it....

[nineworlds9]

I like Velcro, seal skin, or beaver tail.

[2bird]

Well experiment if you want, and in the end if you don't like the other options put the Velcro back on... I think putting tooth picks under the rest and striker plate is going to do nothing but help you, it helped me a bunch...

McDave is 100% correct , don't build up your shelf/striker plate to correct firm issuse

[cahaba]

I use Velcro or moleskin. I had a thick leather side plate on one of my longbows and my arrows weren't fine tuned. I replaced it with thin moleskin and my arrows paper tuned perfectly.
Not to many years ago archers like Mr. Hill shot their longbows without any side plate material.
Thinner or no material on the side plate gets narrow Hill style bows closer to center cut and helps a lot with tuning and makes them not as finicky with spine.

[Machino]

I have been using beaver tail and I don't think there is anything more durable.  Applied with barge cement.  It is a nice change from the velcro I also had problems with.

[canuck4570]

thanks guys

appreciated

[Paul_R]

Originally posted by Kirkll:
 I'm using stingray hide on my hunting bow right now, and i got busted a couple times hunting hogs in real close. when i was drawing, it made a slight hiss that velcro or calf hair doesn't make. i've had the same issue with hard leather making noise.

food for thought... Kirk

Same thing happened to me with stingray. It sounded like I was dragging an arrow over gravel and I realized that's exactly what I was doing!    

[Terry Green]

Velcro can be noisy with some arrows. .

best I've found is calf hair for silence and durability

[Bladepeek]

What about trying a combination? Most of my shelf and side plate material is Velcro, but what about putting down a thin piece of felt or soft leather with sealskin over it?

In fact, I think I am going to try that just for grins and chuckles. Seems like it ought to work well.

[mike g]

With proper spined Arrows, your strike plate should last dang near forever....
  My Hill bow is 8 years old and I have the original strike plate on it....
  And I have thought about trying none at all....

[Randy Koleno]

Another Velcro user here. I did just get some Beaver Tail I may try, but I really have no good reason to change.

[Bowwild]

On a bow I just set up I'm using leather as the side plate and velcro on the shelf.