Show of Hands - Arrow Plate or Arrow Rest or Arrow Shelf?

[Tetsuoh]

Okay guys I'm about to start a bow and I got a question for you all.

What do you all prefer to be shooting?

A Bow with an Arrow Plate, an Arrow Rest, or simply an Arrow Shelf?

I have seen all kinds of things when it comes to this and I have shot really only a bow with a shelf, SO I'm thinking of trying something new.

[huisme]

I like a hemp wrapped handle with a leather flap for a rest, nice and thin without a bunch of forming. I've done some cutout shelves by request, but I don't like them personally.

[chamookman]

I double over the Buckskin at the top of the grip and add the arrow pass (Buckskin also) when I install the grip. I shoot off the knuckle. Bob

[Joec123able]

I prefer an arrow shelf my self it's more accurate and more consistant then shooting off the hand and also I think it looks nice and isn't that hard to carve into a handle at all That's my opinion

[bow101]

Shelf

[Weylin]

I don't much care for how cut in shelves look on self bows. I like a rest though. I make mine out of golf tees.

[BOWMAN53]

depends on what kind of bow i make. bendy handles get floppy arrow rest, stiff handles get a glue on rest and ofcourse center shots get center cut shelfs

[Thesquirrelslinger]

well, i like elb style bows... so of course no arrow rest. just a plate of copper or leather.

[Dances with squirrels]

I don't cut the shelf into the wood, but I build the shelf up with leather and then put a leather arrow plate on too... similar to the one pictured above.

[George Tsoukalas]

I don't do cut ins. My osage this year has no rest or shelf except for my hand. Jawqe

[SLIMBOB]

Like 'em all.  Cut in shelves being my least favorite.  Most I build have a built up shelf out of leather or wood, but the last 2 I've built, I shoot off the hand.  Like them as well as those with a shelf.  I shoot just as poorly with any of them.

[smoke]

I'm always in perpetual change . . . so I may feel differently in a few months but for the last year or so, I've gone without either.  I'm shooting off the hand and no arrow plate.  To be honest, I can't tell the difference.   

[Will H]

I build my bows for one thing. Deer hunting. I hunt from a tree stand and prefer to hang my bow from a hook with an arrow nocked. So it's a built up leather shelf or cut in wood shelf for me. I agree that shooting off the hand is fine and I still do that from time to time if I don't plan on hunting with a particular bow. It does look a little more classic without a one but it's all about function when it comes to a hunting bow IMHO

[Newindian]

I just shoot off hand, no strike plate, but I hate cut in rest.

[toomanyknots]

No no and no, .