Longbows without Arrow rests?

[CPeacock]

Hi all,

I was thinking of getting a cheap/used longbow to play around with in Arizona when I'm there in the summer (rather than having to deal with shipping/flying with my current longbow). And I came across these guys  http://www.woodbows.com/rhunt.html  made locally in MA, but they don't have arrow rests and I've never shot without one.

Does anyone have any general or basic advice on shooting without arrow rests or websites or books I should go look at?

I'm interested in trying it out, but not sure if it's a good idea if I've never shot that way..

Thanks all.

[Markus77]

It´s nothing special about it. It´s just a little less forgiving and your arrows have to be softer in spine for a given drawweight than a bow with a cut in arrowshelf. If you have a bow you usually ad 5# to the bows weight to get your arrows spine, but with no shelf you take away around 5#. It´s a little different, depending of how wide the bow is where the arrow touches it, the wider the bow the less spine on your arrows.

[northland archer]

I shoot a short static recurve with no shelf and it is no problem.  Markus77 is right, the arrows need to be a little softer or longer since you are shooting around the bow.  Try a few different set ups and you will enjoy shooting that way.