Modern arrow rest makes tuning recurve bow easier

As my traditional bow collection grew, I’ve had a difficult time using one particular bow and sticking with it. As a longtime hunter and shooter, it’s always been my seasoned opinion that to improve accuracy and success, it’s easier to buy new or different equipment, rather than practice frequently.

I still have the same Bear Grizzly I started bowhunting with in 1974, and if I had shot that bow even 10 arrows a day, four days a week, Chuck Adams would be angry that I was hogging all the trophy animals.

A few years ago, I acquired a Martin Saber takedown recurve with an aluminum riser and laminated limbs. This fairly inexpensive bow also had a Whisker Biscuit on it — an ingenious arrow rest that uses a circle of bristles to retain the shaft. This design makes it easy to shoot from a centershot position, meaning the arrow fletchings do not touch the riser and the arrow doesn’t flex around the bow nearly as much as one shot from a traditional carpeted shelf rest.

I was planning to hunt with my most beautiful and expensive bow in my collection, a Bob Lee Signature recurve that is not only a work of art, but a fine shooter, too. This takedown bow came with two sets of limbs and is probably worth at least $1,500. The Saber might be worth $300 on a good day.

Shooting the 46-pound-draw, 62-inch Bob Lee with a large, thick riser is a dream. Because of my 29 1/2-inch draw, the 58- to 60-inch bows I’ve favored over the years cause stacking (the weight suddenly increases and seems to hit a wall). Because I usually hunt from a ground blind, a shorter bow has advantages but smooth shooting for me isn’t one of them.

While shooting the Bob Lee bow, I also dug out the 64-inch Saber. It has a 40-pound draw weight at 28 inches, so I’m approaching 45 pounds at my draw length. Its built-in riser silencers make it quiet and the metal riser shoots surprisingly fast. I feel like I’m drifting back to the compound bow, but I love the simplicity of the recurve.

The Whisker Biscuit further complicates and simplifies things. I realized that I could shoot vanes with it (the long feathers on my traditional carbon arrows tend to get a bit mangled by the bristles anyway).

Off-the-shelf arrows must have feathers. Feathers get matted when wet while plastic vanes are fine.

Seeing my groups tighten with the Saber has been encouraging. I haven’t shot my new Abowyer single-bevel broadheads yet, but that is coming soon (I normally don’t bowhunt until October anyway because of the bugs and heat). Fixed-blade broadheads seldom fly the same as a target point, so be sure to practice with the heads you plan to hunt with.

Tuning a bow has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Decades ago when just starting my bowhunting, my brother Brian and I used to struggle to get our broadheads to fly straight. The biggest issue I had was the arrow suddenly dropping off or porpoising from the weight of the broadhead.

Clay Hayes, a trad archery expert and YouTube celebrity, has a unique way of tuning his arrow to a broadhead (he favors heavy 190-grain heads, while most compound shooters use 100- or 125-grain heads).

He starts with a full-length (32-inch) shaft with broadhead, then cuts the arrow length back by a quarter-inch. He takes a shot and sees how straight the arrow flies. He continues to do this until he finds the sweet spot (correct length), which has to do with the perfect spine for that bow.

A longer arrow simply flexes more than a shorter one. If your bow has a 50-pound draw, you may need an arrow spine (or stiffness) made for a 60-pound bow, for example.

Recurve shooters can twist a string and restring their bow to slightly alter the brace height (distance between the grip and the string). Compound bow shooters have many adjustments to make, or just bring it to a pro shop for help. It is crucial that both the top and bottom cams turn over at the same time. Drop-away rests, peep sights, lighted front sights and other accessories also need adjustment. This is why I switched to recurves.

Some swear that the fletching (vanes or feathers) has to line up with the broadhead blades. Those who shoot mechanical heads don’t have to worry about that, but more traditional hunters stay away from mechanicals. You will have to heat up the arrow insert to move the tightened broadhead in alignment with the fletching if you believe this may help.

Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.