Objective
Make the bow more forgiving by adjusting the rest in such a way that your groups are less dependent on the correct by the vanes, and more about the horizontal and vertical alignment of the arrow to the string.
This is an optional step that would improve arrow flight, but a high degree of accuracy and consistency is required.
Preparation
Place a target with an 80cm 6-ring World Archery face (or similar) at your selected distance, typically 40m to 60m. A blank white target with one vertical line and one horizontal line can also be used. Make sure it’s in the middle of the buttress.
Ensure you have proper sight settings for the selected distance.
Ensure you have the correct tools available to adjust your rest.
Technique
- Shoot a couple of reference groupings at the selected distance using 6-8 arrows.
- Measure the grouping size and take note of where your misses typically go. See what the horizontal and vertical spread is.
- Adjust the rest on the bow no more than 0.25mm in the opposite direction of where most of the misses go. Take note of this adjustment for future reference.
- Shoot a couple of reference groups and repeat from step 2 until the smallest group sizes are consistently achieved.
- Sight in your bow to accommodate the changes to the rest.
Notes
You’re only concerned with group size, thus you can ignore sight settings after you’ve shot your reference groups and only correct your sight settings at the end.
Be aware that this step will change how your bow shoots through paper, thus invalidating the Paper Tuning process.