Bear Bearcat question

[Mojostick]

I'm lucky enough to live 10 minutes away from a great trad shop, Black Dog Outfitters.

Today I swung in to have Ryan make me up a string for a longbow.

While there, I saw a mint 66" Bear Bearcat they just bought used from a customer. It's 66" 40lbs.

It has white glass limbs and I thought it'd make a great "snow bow" for once we get snow and I wear my snow camo. Plus it a great weight for cold sits.

It's also a super shooter.

The bow has the original "bristle" type rest on it. It's elevated, off the shelf.

My question is, since I want to hunt with this bow while sitting on the ground in a chair using a brush blind, I'd rather sit with the arrow on the shelf instead of the elevated bristle rest. I can just see that posing problems, with the arrow slapping up against the riser all the time. That's a no-no anytime and worse in cold weather.

Tom, the other owner there that would know if I can shoot off the shelf with that bow isn't there until Thursday.

I had Ryan put a "hold" on it for me for a couple days.

So anyhow, can you shoot off the shelf with a Bear Bearcat, since the factory rest is elevated? Any issue with noise and limbs not being in synch? The elevated bristle rest is about 1/2" above the shelf.

I'm not worried about "ruining" the original condition by taking off the original bristle rest. This will be a hunting bow for when there's snow, if I do buy it.

Thanks in advance.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I have a 60" bearcat bow. Its 20 lbs at 28" It has been mailed to my nephew but all summer long the local kids have been shooting arrows off the shelf..... No issues. The bow actually shoots great you would be hard pressed to tell its only 20 lbs.

you will probably have to re adjust the nock height and tune your set up.

[b44mag]

i have a 66in 48# bearcat. i never tried to shoot it off shelf. the original rest was bad so i put a nos para bristle on it. my shelf looks to slope off the bow. i thought it would be hard to keep the arrow on there. it shoots better than i do for sure. i was told these were target bows back in the late 60's. mine is a 68 like i am. i put limbskins on it for hunting. it is black outside white inside very nice bows.          

[Mojostick]

I'm no Bear expert either, that's why I'm asking. It sure could have been made as a target bow. I just know that it could be a killer "snow bow" with those white limbs.    
Plus it's mint.

[Rosco1]

I too have a 60" 35@28 Bear Bearcat that I have had since I was 9 yrs old (43 now). If I remember correctly it came with a flipper style rest which I quickly removed and stared shooting off of the shelf. Been doing it ever since and have had NO problems.

As Charlie mentioned... You'd be hard pressed to tell mine is only 35#s