Well I purchased a Trophy Taker Shakey Hunter and set it up on a Darton Maverick. My first impression of the rest is that it is VERY rugged and solid. It seems indestructible but only time will tell on that. Setting it up was by no means easy and if you don't have a portable bow press or access to a press it could be very difficult to get the cord through the cable. I decided to set it up so that it lifts the arrow in the last 2" of draw so there is minimal contact. There are 2 schools of thought on this and I go with the less contact the better on this one. If you wanted to have the arrow ride the rest a little longer the supplied bungy would do the trick. I used the nylon cord suplied. It is similiar to the ropes D-loops are made out of. I simply tied knots to secure the cord at the rest and the cable. It took about three draws of my bow to get the rest rising exactly like I wanted it.

This rest was VERY simple to tune...I am shooting Easton Epic Carbon Aeros 340 out of my 74# Maverick at 29". I just eyeballed what I know to be centershot on this bow and set the arrow so it was perfectly level at full draw, again just eyeballed. The large headed Allen screws that make the vertical and horizontal adjustments are MUCH nicer than on say a Bodoodle...if you strip these out you're doing something VERY wrong.

Then I shot it through paper. Bullet holes from 3 feet to 30 yards. Tuning was super easy and was producing the best groups I've shot from this bow...under 3" at 40 yards. I tried different hand placements that I know on this bow has produced torqueing and saw that this rest solved some of this problem. It seemed to be very forgiving of poor form especially compared to a Whisker Bisquit (the only real downfall to the Whisker Bisquit that I can see)

Silencing the rest was fairly easy. Fleece on the arm and I used the supplied fleece "cradle" for the shelf. I also took a piece of Sims insulator wrap and glued it to the riser where the arm contacted it. There is no sound on the shot....much quieter than my Bodoodle Pro-lite and equally as quiet as my Whisker Bisquit.

One thing that I'm working on is the arrow capture system on the shelf. I'm playing with shaping some dense foam for a cradle but one thing is certain...the supplied cradle is not effective for what I think makes an effective arrow cradle. My rule of thumb is laying the bow completely on the side with out the arrow leaving the capture system and the arrow capture system can't interfer with arrow flight. This is actually tougher to do than I thought but I'm sure it can be accomplished and once it is this will be a fantastic hunting rest.

The one thing that has scared me off about drop-aways is the linkage system. Well once I go this rest shooting, I took the bow by the linkage cord and shook the bow very violently and would shoot it (honestly I shook this bow very hard. I'm 6'1" and 220lbs and I was shaking this bow as hard as I could by the cord...it's the only way I could bring myself to trust the linkage)I did this about a dozen times and after every "shake" it put an arrow inside a 1" circle at 20 yards. It had no effect on accuracy. I made sure the cord was served very tightly into the cable and think this helped a bunch. I can honestly say the force I was putting into the "shake" is MUCH more than this bow will ever see in the field. This test made me a believer.

I'm getting some "skinny" carbons here in the next day or so and will be fletching them with 5" RADICALLY helical feathers. I can't wait!! Skinny carbons and BIG fletchings are the reason that I went to this rest! And it should fit the bill like a charm!

Anyone figured out an arrow capture system that works??? Let me know and I hope you enjoy the report.

"What we do in this life echos an eternity"

Edited by - CG on 01/31/2003 13:19:54