to drop or not to drop?
 

do the drop away rests really carry that much of an advatge over my trid and true bodoodle. if it helps i currently shoot arrows with an offset rather than helical. i use steelforce 4 blade 100 grain broadheads but am thinking of going back to muzzy' sthis time in 100gr instead of my old 125' s.maybe they wont wind plane as bad.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

After shooting them for over a year; No, I don' t think Drop-aways hold any significant advantage. In the case of single-cam bows that have some nock travel, IME you are definitely handicapped by using one.

I certainly don' t begrudge anyone for using one, but I' ve gone back to conventional rests.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

JeffB, could you expand your above post. I understand why a SC has uneven nock travel, but why is that more of a problem when using a drop away than anyother type of rest. I don' t disagree, but just wondered what symptoms to look for in groups, etc..

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

The biggest problem is that these bows require a little more arrow" support" to get through the initial down movement of the nock. When a dropaway is set up according to most of the instructions, and drops very soon after the release, the support is gone. The down travel of the nock will continue down and fletching contact is very hard to eleminate ,as well as getting a real good tune.

The simple answer is to support the arrow for a longer duration of the shot. But this is also very hard. When attaching to the down cable there is only so much pressure you can put on it, and only so much you can get the arrow to raise sooner. When attaching to the cable slide there is only so much load you can apply to it and stop the cables from mooving back on the rod.

Some bows and some rests just don' t match up that well.:)

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Rack, good thing you didn' t name names. That would be one long $#% read... :)

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

so in other words since i shoot a single cam bow stay away from the drop away rests.?

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

iowabuckslayer, not necessarily so. I must be one of the fortunate ones that have a single cam bow without uneven nock travel. The drop away on my bow (NAP QT2000) works better than anything I have ever tried on it. It will shoot field tips, fixed blade broadheads and a bare shaft to the same spot up to 40 yards. I guess I would rather be luckey than good.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

I think you' ll find a LOT of top shooters useing drop away rests on one cam bows. And they won' t use it if it doesn' t mean top performance to them.
EVERY bow I have put a drop away on shot well, and was easier to tune than shoot through rests. This includes several different 1 cam bows, and a few 2 cam bow as well.
Do a search on the Muzzy Zero effect, and see how many happy campers with 1 cam bows you find (LOTS!!!)
I personally shoot an ARC Systeme drop away, but I REALLY like the Muzzy too (In fact, I just put one on a bow for a friend...Mathews Ultra-Max).
I can get Muzzy' s to group with field points to 40 yards (haven' t tried farther) with nothing more than 3" " Kurly Vanes" with my Stealth Force.
Don' t fret nock travel...drop aways simply WORK when set up right.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Tommy, I got one of them bows too...

:)

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

I' ve heard a lot of good things about the Mze and i' m sure it' s a good fall away but i' ve never tried or set one up. I have tried or set up most of the others and i' m constantly trying out different gadgets. I just recently put a Trophy Taker Shakey Hunter on my Parker UL35 and i couldn' t be happier. It does everything i' ve heard it would do, it' s quiet, solid, and simple. My groups have really tightened up especially my broadheads. I think i may just have to give this one a try this upcoming hunting season but i still have my trusty Golden Premier on stand by just in case i want to go back.:D

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

IME, The people who see a significant increase in accuracy when switching to a drop-away are people who have spine/fletch clearance issues, not rest issues.

On singlecams that yield fairly good nock travel (i.e. straightline type cams, some of the better maxcams like Hoyt’s previous DTI designs, etc) I don’t see drop-aways as a problem (and I have used them on such bows with success).

My point was that I have found that conventional rests work better on singlecams (especially for the bows that are not straight-line types), for the very reasons Rack stated.

I don’t see any significant accuracy advantage w/ a drop-away unless you wish to shoot extreme helical 4” or 5”vanes on a smaller diameter shaft.

On a more practical level, conventional rests are easier to set-up, have fine tuning adjustments you cannot have w/ a drop away, and are much easier to get shooting again in the field should something happen.

As for what the PRO’s use….you’ll notice many of the Trophy Taker sponsored shooters are using the rest in the fixed position w/ a blade launcher…if the drop-way was more accurate, they’d be shooting them that way.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Jeff, where would you place the Diamond/Bowtech post feed single cam on the straightness scale?

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Rangeball,

Seems to vary from model to model. I have not seen a bunch of ‘em tested but I have seen a few. I would say they are middle of the road from my experience. Not as good as a straightline, better than most of the max-cam copies I’ve seen (and certainly much better than the older pre-max cam styles).

Of course nock travel can be really goofy. You can test a bow that has very good nock travel and make it look not as good, just by pulling from a different part of the string.

As long as you are aware they tend to like a stiff arrow, the PF cam’s are a breeze to tune IME (w/ a Conventional rest, Rack! ;) ), and along with some other reasons (valley & holding characteristics, hardest wall available) that is why they are my fave single-cam design on the market.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

What do you mean " fine tuning adjustments you cannot have w/ a drop away"
The drop away I am using is independantly micro adjustable.
I never really worry too much about straight and level nock travel because:
1) 2 cam bows don' t have LEVEL nock travel unless shot from the exact center of the string (which most target bows do NOT)
2) Even Mathews didn' t start putting the " striaght line" cams on the target bows (Conquest?) only the shorter hunting bows. Why?
IMNSHO, having a rest touching the arrow through the entire shot, simply gives you the entire shot to move, and upset the arrow.
I think it was PSE that had some SUPER Slow motion video of arrows being shot with a " normal" arrow rest...showing the effects of too much, too little and just right spine (So you want to be a bowhunter video has these as well I think) even the " proper spine" arrow was bouncing on and off the rest.
PERSONALLY, I' ll use a drop away. If you have better luck with a shoot through. You know what YOU should shoot.

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RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Bob Ragsdale stated that you want your spring set as light as possible, even if it was slightly depressed at rest, so that it just comes up at full draw, to help ensure it is placing as little influence on the arrow as possible...

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Jeff has got this one nailed down and is 100% correct with his depictions/reasonings. I agree totally.

Nothing more needs to be said.;) Pinwheel 12

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RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

For those who have not been able to infer what I’m getting at, notice how some have said on this thread that they drop away has to stay up a bit longer to get them to shoot/tune correctly….

Translation: YOUR ARROW NEEDS SOME GUIDANCE.

It NEEDS stabilization, which is EXACTLY what the spring tension on a conventional rest does. It provides some initial stabilization and then is pushed out of the way as the arrow passes.

A drop away that falls instantly is doing nothing to help your arrow. For those with fletching clearance problems this can be a good thing. However if your arrow spine or tune is not perfect, or pull out of alignment, you’ve solved one minor problem only to create a few more. What happens with a drop-away if you torque the string in some way? The arrow keeps on going the wrong way because there is nothing there to compensate for the whipping oscillation of the bowstring. If I make that same mistake w/ a conventional rest the arrow will have at the least a pair of prongs or spring steel launcher working at the front of the shaft trying to help it get back on the right track. Like a perfect bullet-hole, a drop away works very well if you do your part, but the arrow acts like a knuckleball if you make a mistake.

I prefer being able to fine-tune the guidance (i.e. spring tension) to the particular arrow to give me the most forgiving set-up.

I have no problem if someone shoots a drop-away, I’m not ANTI-dropaway or some kind of conventional rest Nazi: I just don’t see the superiority other than from wanting to shoot a massive helical. I find them more cumbersome to tune and set-up, especially when something goes wrong (like the cable the rope is attached to stretches), or you bump the rest in the field, or something comes loose. I find them more finicky about arrow spine because you cannot fine tune the guidance using spring tension (well sometimes you can.by lengthening how long they stay up, but it’s a much more time consuming and difficult process then loosening and turning a screw on a conventional rest).

“Been there, done that” as the saying goes.

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

I won' t get into the debate but I have had accuracy as good with each style as the other.

I do however want to share a way I have been minimizing the extra tension that will go to your cable or cables if you time the dropaways to stay up longer. Here is a pic of a governor spring for a Briggs small engine (part #260695) installed in the lanyard of a trophy taker. It isn' t a great shot but you should get the picture. I have since changed the position of the spring to be very close to the slide, to minimize possible vane contact. The spring starts to uncoil some until the rest is full up and then it takes the extra tension that would transfer to the cables. I prefer my timing to be longer than most.

If changing the timing of your dropaway (up longer) brings your point of impact up, I would say your rest is definitly falling too early. It just makes sense to me. Any thoughts on that????

-Chief

RE: to drop or not to drop?
 

Generally, you want your drop away to " top out" just as you hit the peak, and start into the valley. SOME people, wanting the drop away gone ASAP, will move this into the valley. When this is done, unless you ALWAYS shoot from the wall, the rest may be moving down before you release...hence shooting low, or inconsistantly.
My drop away works much the same as ChiefHeadhunter' s but mine uses a section of rubber tubing (NOT the crap some use for peep sights...much tougher, and resistant to UV) instead of a spring.
I attach mine directly to the buss cable instead of the cable slide. Works both ways.
If you " torque the string in some way" with a conventional rest, you get a very similar result. Being that unless your shooting with fingers, it' s pretty hard to torque the string without moving the rest of the bow (including your arrow rest) if you torque up the arrow will go up...left the arrow goes left. Your rest will in fact be making SURE that your arrow does NOT go straight, but follows the arrow rest that is being torqued. Simple answer...you can' t torque either style and expect accuracy.