When you buy a compound bow you are provided with the raw materials to an instrument that can be taken and immediately used straight out of the box. That’s all well and good but there are many ways in which the bow can be altered to specifically suit your body, style and the type of shooting you plan on doing. One of those little alterations is to add an arrow rest.
Arrow rests are designed in a number of different ways and each of them provide the shooter with a secure and stable starting point on which the arrow is placed. When the action starts and the arrow begins its journey, the work of the arrow rest is essentially complete and must somehow have no further contact with the arrow or else its direction will be altered. Find out more about four types of arrow rests.
For this reason many arrow rests are designed to fall away from their original positions so that the arrow shaft and fletching do not strike it at all. The way in which this might occur has been tinkered with by the various archery component companies with some rests attaching to the bow cables or strings and others using the forward momentum of the arrow.
Containment rests are used by hunters who require the security of holding the arrow firmly in place once it has been loaded on the bow. This allows scrambling and pushing through and over undergrowth without the problem of the arrow falling from the bow. When the bow is shot the containment rest is designed in a way that the vanes of the bow pass through fine fibers so that a minimum of impact is imparted to the arrow. The most well-known and popular of the containment arrow rests is the Trophy Ridge Whisker Biscuit.
The use of a good quality arrow rest is not necessarily an essential part of the process of setting up your new compound bow. It is, however, a very useful device that can help to improve accuracy and consistency. Once you have started shooting with a certain type of arrow rest it will become a natural part of the draw and release process.
