Compound Bow Arrow Rest

What the rest does on a compound

The rest is the small part that holds the front of the arrow while your release holds the back. Archery 360 calls it perhaps the most important accessory you put on your bow, because a well-tuned rest is what makes the arrow leave the same way every shot. Its target accessory guide puts the job simply: the rest guides the arrow from the moment of release until it leaves the bow.

Outdoor Life's compound anatomy guide adds the geography. The riser comes pre-drilled for the sight and rest, and the arrow shelf below is where a launcher arm lands after the shot. So the rest sits in a busy spot: just above the shelf, just behind the sight, right in front of your bow hand.

Hunters and target archers want different things from a rest. Carolina Sportsman's rest guide says simple containment rests, with few if any parts to malfunction or freeze, suit hunters in remote or very cold country. Archery 360's target accessory guide frames the target choice as drop-away or blade, and says both can be very accurate. That split runs through everything below.

Three families of compound bow arrow rest

Archery 360 sorts compound rests into three families: launcher, full-capture and drop-away. Each one solves the "where does the arrow sit" problem differently.

Launcher or blade rests support the arrow all the way out

Prongs or a single thin blade hold the arrow from draw to release. Archery 360 calls this the oldest of the three: simple, reliable and affordable, with minimal contact with your vanes. Its catch for hunting is that nothing holds the arrow on, so it can fall off if you tilt the bow. That's why Archery 360 points it toward indoor shooting. Archery 360's target accessory guide names the blade as one of the two rest styles for a target compound, guiding the arrow along its whole path out of the bow.

Full-capture rests hold the arrow on every side

A ring of bristles, or a set of guides, surrounds the shaft. No moving parts. The arrow stays put at any angle, which is why stand hunters, stalkers and 3D shooters like them. The cost is contact all the way out, so the tune has to be good. The brush style has its own page: the whisker biscuit arrow rest page.

Drop-away rests get out of the way

A launcher arm rises as you draw and falls clear at the shot, driven by a cord tied to the cable or a limb. Archery 360 says they can be very accurate once set up correctly, and more complex to tune than other options. Cords, timing and the cocked styles hunters like are on the drop away arrow rest page, and limb-driven ones on the limb driven arrow rest page.

What about recurve rests

The "Type" column also lists stick-on and shelf rests. Those belong on traditional bows, which shoot off or just above the shelf, often with fingers. They're on the recurve arrow rest page. This page sticks to compounds.

Pick the family by how you hunt

Here's what actually changes from one hunter to the next, and the family I'd look at first.

• Tree stand or saddle, mostly sitting: full-capture or a drop-away you can cock up before the draw
• Ground blind: either; containment if you shift the bow a lot in tight quarters
• Spot-and-stalk or still-hunting: full-capture, or a drop-away with containment arms you can lock
• Backyard and 3D practice only: anything, including a blade
• Long shots and small groups as the goal: a drop-away, if you're willing to own the tuning

GOHUNT's rest guide sums up the hunting trade in one line: the more moving components, the more ways it can fail. Weigh that against full vane clearance. Neither side of the trade is wrong.

What to look at in a compound bow arrow rest

The table under this page lists every compound arrow rest we track, mixed across makers and families. It shows type, containment, activation, hand, adjustment and which bows each fits, as the maker or the Amazon listing states them, plus the maker's weight (the table marks values that come from the listing). When neither states a value, you get a dash.

Type tells you the family

Read the "Type" column first. It says drop-away, containment brush, blade or launcher, stick-on or shelf. Everything else on the row means something different depending on that one word.

Full containment means the arrow can't roll off

That column covers brush rests and some drop-aways with closing arms, but only when the maker or the listing states full capture. If you'll ever carry a nocked arrow through cover, this column beats every other one on the row.

Activation only applies to drop-aways

For a drop-away, the "Activation" column says what moves the arm: a cord to the cable, a cord to a limb, or a style you set by hand. Blades and brush rests leave it blank because nothing moves.

Hand has to match your bow

Most rests bolt to one side of the riser. A right-hand bow needs a right-hand rest unless the maker or the listing lists the rest as fitting both. The "Hand" column shows right, left, "right or left" (both versions sold) or ambidextrous.

"For" tells you which bows the maker means

The "For" column says whether a rest is sold for compounds, recurves or both. A rest built around cables and a release isn't automatically right for a finger-shot recurve, and the reverse is true too.

Weight sits right at your bow hand

Weight is in ounces where the maker states it. A few ounces at the riser are easy to ignore in the shop and easy to notice after holding at full draw for a while. Compare rests in the same family; a drop-away and a stick-on aren't in the same weight class.

Windage and elevation adjustment

Every rest needs to move left, right, up and down at least once. American Hunter's install guide has you center the arrow and set its height before anything else. The finer, dialed kind is what GOHUNT's rest guide calls a microtune rest, for archers who want to set the rest in very small steps; it says accuracy depends on how precisely those adjustments can be made and held. The table marks micro-adjust rests when the maker says so.

Noise dampening is a hunting spec

Some makers state felt, rubber or padding where the arrow rides or where an arm lands. The table can filter on it. Target shooters don't care. Deer at 20 yards do.

Mounting: standard hole or dovetail

Most compound rests bolt through a single threaded hole in the riser above the shelf. Outdoor Life notes that flagship bows from several makers now add dovetail slots in the riser for face-mounted rests, alongside that traditional hole.

Grand View Outdoors explains the difference. With a bolt-through mount, you have to get the rest level yourself, you may need a set screw, and the rest can rotate. A dovetail rest mounts directly to the back of the riser, which the article says makes it impossible for the rest to rotate up or down. The maker it covers also claims the rest levels itself when mounted that way.

The practical point: a dovetail rest only fits a bow with the dovetail, and a bolt-on rest needs the standard hole. Check your riser before you shop. The compound bow page covers the bows themselves.

Set center shot and launcher width

Center shot is where the arrow sits left to right. Easton's tuning guide gives the starting point for release shooters: line the tip of the arrow point up down the center of the bowstring. With a release, Easton says, the arrow mostly bends up and down, not sideways, so there's no need to offset it the way finger shooters do.

Easton also flags launcher width. On launcher-type rests, the support arm has to be narrow enough for the two lower vanes to pass over it without touching. That matters most with release aids, because the arrow often rides the rest for its full forward travel. With small-diameter shafts, Easton says, you may need a much narrower blade.

One more Easton note for skinny shafts with nocks that fit over the outside: the nock is wider than the shaft, so a slightly higher nocking point keeps it from hitting the rest.

Paper tune the rest, then leave it alone

Paper tuning is the test Easton calls the most common for compound archers with release aids. The setup is simple.

1. Tape paper over a frame about 24 by 24 inches, at shoulder height.
2. Put a target about 6 feet behind it.
3. Stand about 4 to 6 feet from the paper.
4. Shoot a fletched arrow level through the center.
5. Read the tear.

A clean hole, point and fletching through the same spot, means good flight. A tear that's low or high points to the nocking point; Easton suggests moving it 1/16 inch at a time. For a right-handed release shooter, a tear to the right usually means moving the rest left in small steps, and a tear to the left means moving it right. If a high tear won't go away, Easton says check for vane contact with the rest. On launcher rests, a more flexible blade or less spring tension can help.

Make one change at a time. (I say this as someone who once made three changes at once and then spent an evening finding out which one mattered. It was the first one.)

Write the settings down

A tuned rest is a set of numbers, and numbers you don't write down turn into guesses by next fall. I keep mine in a spreadsheet, because of course I do. It has a tab called "rest," and it's the shortest tab I own.

What goes on it: which hole the rest is in, the windage and elevation marks, the nocking point height, the paper result and the date. If your drop-away has a cord, add where it sits on the cable. American Hunter's install guide suggests checking that the arm still rises fully after any cord change, which is easier when you know where it started.

Uncle Walt's version is a strip of masking tape inside his bow case that says "don't touch it." In fairness, nobody has.

Keep it tight through the season

A rest that moves takes your tune with it. Archery 360's storage guide says to check that the screws and bolts on the rest, sight and other parts are tight before storing your bow, since loose hardware can affect accuracy. I'd check before the season too, and after any trip where the bow rode in a truck.

Arrow length interacts with rest position. Archery 360's arrow length guide says where your rest sits on the shelf sets your minimum arrow length, so if you move to a rest that sits farther back, recheck your arrows before broadhead season.

Who doesn't need a new rest

If your bow came as a package with a rest, the arrow stays on it in the ways you hunt, and it paper tunes clean, you may not need another one. Upgrade when your hunting changes, say from a stand to stalking, not because a catalog arrived.

And if you shoot a recurve or longbow, this isn't your table. Head to the recurve arrow rest page.

If a drop-away cord has to be served into your cables, take it to a shop with a bow press. Archery 360 says that's why most archers have a shop install drop-aways. Everything else on a rest is a hex key and a pencil.