Velcro vs Leather for Arrow Pass
I've been using the fuzzy side of some Velcro to pad the arrow shelf and for the strike plate on my bows for a couple of years now. Changed over to soft, upholstery leather a couple of days ago and I've come to a conclusion about using velcro. It's great to have some in your kit for emergency use, but I won't use it for long term applications any more.
My bows just have an all-round better feel with the leather than they did with velcro. They're quieter. Seems like they shoots a tad faster too, but I haven't chrono'd them to tell for sure. All I can figure is, the leather must cushion the arrow better than the velcro did.
And it's cheaper!
For one thing, the velcro wears out fairly quickly and needs to be replaced every couple of months. Also, I found a whole bag of upholstery leather scraps in a hobby shop for $5, enough to make up enough of a supply of shelf plates and strike pads to last several years. Just cut the pieces to shape, any shape you want, as fancy or as plain as you want - another benefit - and glue 'em down with Barge cement.