Advice please....

[Rage N Woodsman]

Friday night I finally got my paws on one of the new Martin Jaguars.  Let me say this.... I am very new to Trad shooting and this was the first new bow I ever set up solo....then I set my buddies up the same night.  He grouped wonderfully after a very little time.  I did not.  He wasn't really hitting where he was aiming any better but his groups looked good.  Personally I think it was the elevated plastic rest.  (I have tried to learn how to shoot mainly by studying G.Fred Asbell's method and I am very used to having the arrow as close to my hand as possible and shooting instinctively) So today I recycled that rest and tried it off the shelf.  I placed 1/2 of an old style round clothes pin in the center of the shelf and covered with a Bear hair rest and placed the leather striker plate over against the riser.  My groups have gone from "Dude, did you mean to shoot your barn?" size to about 5inches at 20 yards on average...Some much tighter.

My question to the masses is hard to put into words since I'm new enough to not really know too much.  Just going on gut here....
The shelf on these bows are HUGE!  I really feel like I need to move the arrow over some but how to do that shooting from the shelf?  I want some way to hold and keep the arrow some little bit to the left of center or at center.  Right now its right of center with any cant at all to the bow.  Am I nuts?  I know I have no clue what I'm doing but I think this thing will make a decent shooter if I fiddle a bit more with it.  Any advice for tuning a metal riser recurve to shoot from the shelf will be much appreciated!

[PAPA BEAR]

use a toothpick behind the bear hair (plastic one will last forever) you really in my opinion need to shoot with the bow at 2 oclock.i am assuming you are using feathers.only other way i know to keep arrow in center of shelf is a plunger.

[Rage N Woodsman]

Thanks very Much!  Question: How do you mean with the tooth pick behind the bear hair?  Up from the shelf or off of the up-right part of the riser?  I've already got the shelf rounded some with the use of the clothes pin part.  I do use feathers and try to shoot at about 2 o'clock.

[PAPA BEAR]

on the handle (right)

[Mo. Huntin]

How much do you need to move it?  Those furniture pads at Wal Mart are pretty thick.
You Prolly need to move it a bunch don't you to get it to center?  furniture pads might not work.

Hey How about a feather rest? Do a search if you don't know what I am talking about.  I have never used one so we need to git some other opinions on here by people who have used one.

[Mo. Huntin]

ttt

[kbetts]

Might need to use a piece of plywood of whatever thickness and attatch it to the cut out of the riser.  Then cover w/ bearhair or some other silencing material.

[Rage N Woodsman]

Thanks guys!  keep em coming I'll let you know how it turns out.  I just got done building a 1/2 doz new arrows for it to launch so the coming days should be full of trial & error and Fun!

[Mo. Huntin]

Yeah I would do what Kbetts said.  But I would use a regular board and not plywood.  You could countersink it and use a bolt through the hole where the rest would go to help secure it.

[p1choco]

You can get some thick tool box liner foam rubber and cut it to whatever shape you want and layer it to the right thickness if you need to.  Glue it to the riser with barge cement.  Stick some velcro or your leather of choice on top of that.  

If you're feeling froggy, you can bondo the shelf and the strike plate and just shape it.  Then add your shelf and strike plate material.

[Smallwood]

google the
New Archery Products-
Centerest
or Centerest Flipper

these are both good rests that are made for that type of bow riser and will allow you to shoot either feathers OR vanes off of it.
 http://www.newarchery.com/

[kbetts]

I would use a regular board if I could also, but I'm no woodworker and the plywood would probably already be the thickness I needed.  I can't afford to loose my fingers. Now that I think about it, you can get small hardwood pieces of almost any thickness.

[bigiron]

i use thick hard leather from a hobby shop. 3/16" thick & then barge cement thin strike plate with apropriate thickness of kitchen match behind it. bring it out to center with the thick leather, or close to center.