Arrow Rest Placement ?

[Roy from Pa]

I make BBO Longbows. I read a while back about how the arrow should contact the rest at the same point with where the hand contacts the bow. Speaking about a vertical line there as if you were standing beside the bow looking at the riser. So with a longbow handle, the arrow should contact the rest at the back of the handle, as compared to a recurve with a cut out pistol grip where the arrow would rest on the bow more in the center of the handle. Just how critical is this alignment? And what is the purpose of it, to reduce the effect of bow hand torque on the shot?

[Wapiti Bowman]

Roy,

I'm not a bow design expert, but yes, the purpose of having the arrow to bow contact at the "vertical axis" is to eliminate, or reduce, hand torque.  That's the same reason for the 'deep' grip cutouts on recurves: to have the hand contact, the arrow contact, and the vertical axis all aligned.

I don't believe that this is possible with 'most' long bow designs I've seen, as the grip/riser seems to locate the hand behind the vertical axis of the bow.

A well designed LB will have both a slight convex curve to the arrow rest that aligns with a slight convex/rounded face plate, this helps to minimize the arrow contact with the shelf and face plate, and I would think that it would be as close to the vertical axis as possible.

I believe that the location of the hand behind the vertical axis on the LB is what makes them a tad more difficult to shoot relative to a well designed recurve. Uhhh....rather challenging for many of us, myself included! But Fun!