ORIGINAL: Matt / PA
Here's one benefit I am appreciating as well, especially in the cold and wind. When i was using my $150 Golden Key Infinity drop way with the Dave Cousins .010 launcher , it FELT very "Targety" but I found myself messing up my shot progression on quite a number of shots because outside I would bounce the arrow off the blade, the wind would blow it off on a good gust and would have to vary the way I drew the bow and really concentrate on keeping the arrow in place, having to draw several times on certain targets.
See this is why other pieces of equipment suit other folks, Matt's got good reasoning here on what works for him. I'm yet to look at a Zero Effect in good detail, I've only set one up in the past and it was a while ago, so I don't have a goodopinion on it. I do have to say that I like the theory much more than a cable actuated drop away though, at least it's doing the same thing to both cables and there is no rope/cord to stretch and change things over time. I'd have to see what happens with this rest if you creep a 1/4" before the shot goes off......to understand if the rest moves at all from this creep motion. Matt, also just out of curiosity...........didn't you have that blade on your Infinity setup in a drop away configuration, or was it fixed position relying only on the spring steel blade?
With all this said, I actually
like the fact that the arrow pops off a spring steel if the bow isn't drawn perfectly and smoothly. It's an indicator to me that it wasn't a perfect setup routine of my shot and that arrow needs to be let down because it wasn't perfectly setup. I'm also likely pulling with arm muscles instead of dynamic back tension if the arrow pops off, and if I'm not starting the shot sequence with this dynamic tension it's time to start over because it's VERY hard for me to execute a clean shot if I don't start with tension in the right place.
Also a spring steel is going to require you to set it up right to prevent excessive popping off of the arrow. Yournock points need to betied in correctly to create a bit of downforce on the arrow when you pull the loop (bottom nock point a bit longer than the top, Cousins style). You also want to be using the correct width and thickness blade, you don't want a super skinny blade when using say an x-cutter or 30X pro, and if it's too thin it will bounce around too much during the draw. In all honesty they don't pop off on me too often,maybe 1-2x a week if I'm shooting 300+ arrows a week, and it'sonly when I'm not focused and getting sloppy. For 3D, I'm using the skinniest.010 pro tuner blade with a Pro 22 width shaft.