New rest and what the crap happened to my shooting?!

[2006HighSierra]

I shoot a 2002 Hoyt Magnatec which is a jewel and I must admit I don't shoot as often as I'd like. Usually on evenings if it isn't raining I am out cutting wood and doing other work but I have been trying for the last few months to get in more practice than usual. About a month ago I had been consistently hitting a 6" target at 45 yards(longest area at my home I have to shoot). So my whisker biscuit is abit wore out and it's about time for a new string so I take it to the local shop and have him restring it and I elect to put a QAD rest on it after everyone I work with raving about drop-away rests. I hadn't shot in a few weeks since having the work done so I set up at about 15 yards to zero the new rest. All is well and it's grouping pretty good and where I am aiming. So I move to 25 yards and all of a sudden my arrows are everywhere. It won't consistently hit a 6" bulleye. Also it seems to be hitting about 7-10" to the left and not consistently at that. I don't think it could be me considering it done good at 15 and I was shooting really well at 45 with the old rest. That's a big difference it seems for human error. Anyone have any ideas?

Is the centershot set up correctly? Have you bareshaft or walkback tuned? Have you tried to adjust the centershot?

[Vabowman]

From my experience if the bow is not tuned it won't shoot well at those distances. 15 yds it will give you a false hope. Tune the rest and see what happens. They didn't do it or mention it at the shop??

[BGfisher]

To see results like that going from 15 yards to 25 yards I'd say there areseveral possiblities. First---it's you. Even a grossly untuned bow will group arrows. They'll just fly ugly getting there.

2nd-----When you change things like strings, rests, or whatever, however minor, you should retune the bow or at least check out the tune. String and rest type and location are not minor changes. A complete retune is called for. How you do it is up to you. Paper, bare shaft, walkback. They all work. Walkback is better for checking centershot. Paper tells you how the arrow is leaving the bow. Bare shaft is good for both, plus checking arrow spine, but is more critical of consistent shooting form. Once you have it tuned pretty well with target points then try it with broadheads. Use the broadhead tuning section of Easton's Tuning Guide for a good reference.

CONTACT---Is the rest set up correctly? Arrows will scatter if the fletching is hitting the rest. Drop aways are nice but they have to be timed so they get out of the way before the fletching passes by. Try drawing your bow slowly and see. The rest should not raise up till about the 2" of the draw cycle. If it raises too soon it won't drop early enough.