the New Spot Hogg Whammy Drop Away Arrow Rest

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timujin

Guest
Hi All

I bought one of these recently, have fitted it to my bow and tried it out. I thought it might be useful to share my findings with you for those who might be thinking of buying one.

Before I start talking about it, I'll post some factory pics of the rest so that you have an idea of what I am talking about:



A few general things about the rest first. If the design looks vaguely familiar, it's because it was designed and made by the guy who used to design and make the Golden Key Futura rests and who nows owns Spot-Hogg. The quality of the workmanship is excellent.

This is not like any other rest you have probably come in contact with. I'm still not completely sure how it works, but I'll try to describe it as best I can.

The rest stays upright when it is "at rest" (so to speak). The brass bit on the back of the rest with the piece of cord attached is the trigger. As you draw your bow the cord slackens completely (see bottom picture above). By the way, this was just a publicity shot - the arrow does not sit nose high on the rest when at full drawn.

When you release, the rest stays in the upright position until the string comes to about six inches from releasing the arrow. At this point the trigger is drawn very rapidly down and drops the rest to the horizontal, thereby giving clearance to the arrow fletchings.

Immediately after this, the rest springs back upright. The thing is on a trigger mechanism which operates as the rest drops to the full horizontal position. Don't ask me what the internal gubbins are like, I wouldn't have a clue, but it does work.

The guy who designed the rest did extensive testing of it using a Spot Hogg Shooting Machine and claims that it works perfectly all of the time, giving complete clearance and shooting "all of the arrows through the same hole".

I've no cause to believe otherwise, except that things aren't quite as simple as they appear. First up, the "timing" of the drop can be adjusted by adjusting the tightness of the rope through the brass trigger. The instructions cover this, but it isn't totally clear how things really operate in this regard.

When I tested this on my bow, a Mathews Prestige, 60# draw weight and bracing height of 6", I had massive amounts of vane contact, so much so that at 70m my arrows were going from the 1 ring on the left hand side of the 122cm target to the 1 ring on the right hand side. At 70m I normally keep the majority of my arrows in the 10/9 ring so it was clear that something was really wrong. I played around with the timing but from its very slowest to its very fastest, I could not improve on things.

Just for the record, I had set centre shot properly and adjusted the nocking point carefully and was using correctly spined arrows. When I reported on my tests of this rest on an Amercian Archery Forum, I was accused of not having done any of these things, so I thought I'd let you all know right now that I'm not a TOTAL klutz and did all of the usual necessary things when trialling a new rest.

Anyway, when I got back home, I decided to trim the prongs right back, so that the absolute minimum was protruding just above the arrow. I also did some further testing on my home 15m range and founf that the best nocking point was 1/16" above dead level. I reset the timing to the suggested factory setting and this combination proved a lot better. Powder testing, however, showed I was still getting the lightest of touches on one of my vanes and nothing I could do would remove it. Cabe, of Spot Hogg, suggested that i replace the supplied prongs with a spring blade launcher and try that.

Fortunately for me, I have several of these plus some spare GKF launcher rods so I was able to mount a .010" spring blade on the appropriate bearing rod, on which I had to grind a flat along one side. I tried the rest with this set up and arrow behaviour was perfect with no conatact whatsoever. However, I knew that this was going to be the case, because what I was shooting now, effectively was a GK Target Pro Spring Blade rest, (albeit with a drop away feature) which I already have anyway and which I know works perfectly well.

I carefully increased the size of the V in the spring blade so that the arrow would sit comfortably in it during the draw and the rest is now shooting perfectly. It also manages my X10s without any vane contact, which the Target Pro won't do, so I guess I'll keep the Whammy and continue to use it.

I am told by some of the other owners of these rests that they have had no problem with setting up the rest and getting perfect arrow flight with no clearance problems at all. It has been suggested to me that I don't know what I am doing and any problems I am having are my fault. At least Cabe from Spot Hogg doesn't believe this.

So, in summary, here is what I feel about the rest. It is beautifully made and should last forever. If you can get it set up properly on your bow so that you get no vane contact on firing, you should have a nearly perfect drop away rest which will give you maximum arrow support and no vane contact.

If like me you have some problems, you can resolve them by fitting a spring blade launcher in place of the prongs and these make the rest work perfectly.

However, and perhaps I am being unreasonable about this, when I buy something, I expect it to work as advertised without major work on my part. I have no problems with having to set the thing up properly to start with and to do some tweaking to get it to operate perfectly but I do not believe that I should have do major investigations to resolve problems nor have a range of other equipment available to replace parts of the commercial item to make it work as advertised. If I hadn't been lucky enough to have the spring blade launchers and a spare GK bearing arm available, the rest would be on its way back to Spot Hogg now for refund (which incidentally, they do offer).

I would say, in conclusion that it is going to be a great rest for some bows, in its factory guise. It can be made to work for all bows as proved to be the case with my rest. Whether you feel happy about having to do some major playing around with it if things don't work as they are supposed to, is a matter for you to resolve yourselves.

Would I recommend it? Yes - in its present form on my bow and also if you can get it to work perfectly right away. If not, then either send it back or do as I had to do.

Here's a photo of my final set up:


Hope this is of some use to you.:)
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Timujin, that looks like one of the rests I haven't made YET!:cheerful:
Am I right in thinking that the cord is attached to the opposite cable from normal so it pulls tight as the bow is released. With the bow at rest, it is already tight (or almost tight)and goes slack through the draw.?
I'm very curious about what's inside but won't ask you to take it apart.:cheerful:
Could I ask you a question, though?
If you operate the trigger, by hand, when the rest is in its up position and the cord slack, what does the blade do? Does it drop and then pop back up? Or, does it just stay up but feel slightly loose?
ORRRRR? does it drop as the trigger moves back then pop up as the trigger goes back to its rest position?:cheerful:
I'm guessing it's the latter.:reading:
 
T

timujin

Guest
Hi Geoff

It's pretty much as you described. The cord is attached to the UP cable and goes totally slack on the draw, during which time nothing happens with the rest, but the brass trigger moves upward under spring pressure.

As the arrow is fired the cord is pulled taut and pulls the launcher down to its fully lowered position. If you do it by hand you can feel the trigger sear roll over as the brass trigger is forced back down.

The launcher is released by the movement of the sear and immediately springs back up.

Pretty nifty idea. Why it wouldn't work on my bow with the factory fitted prongs is beyond me, however, as I stated, it works perfectly with the spring blade.

And no, I have no intention of pulling it apart:thumbsdow :yuck:

Hope this helps

Best regards

Tom :cheerful:
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Thanks for the quick reply, very useful.
Can I be an even bigger nuisance and ask one more question(if I promise to make it the last one?):cheerful:
If you pull the brass trigger back by hand, and hold it in the back position, does the rest stay in the down position till you let the trigger go free? Or does it pop up even with the trigger held back?
That is just one question; I used two sentences.:cheerful: :reading: :faint:
 
T

timujin

Guest
Hi Geoff

Sorry to take so long answering. Got caught up in something else.

Once you pull the trigger down, it pulls the launcher down with it and near the bottom of its travel it trips as sear which causes the launcher to pop back up again. You then relax pressure on the trigger and it moves back into the up (cocked) position. On the bow itself during firing, the trigger pulls the launcher down as noted above, the sear is tripped and the launcher pops back up but the trigger stays down, held there by the cord on the cable.

As you draw the bow the trigger mopves into the upright position and cocks the mechanism ready for the next "shot"

Hope that's clear. :scratchch

Best regards

Tom

PS I'm hitting the sack now. Catch up with you in the morning.:cheerful:
 
M

Moose

Guest
Cascade 8 mech

Sounds like the cascade 8 operation but in a rest

Do you think that the rest was difficult to set up because you used light fast target arrows rather than fat heavy and slow short range American hunting arrows with two tonne of blade attched to the front.

I dont think many american archers can get their heads around a target set up, I have noticed this on archery talk
 
M

Moose

Guest
Trophy Ridge

Have you tried the trophy ridge vertical drop away rest
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Moose I think that could very well be the answer The late drop will be too late if the arrow is going so fast that the spring can't get the launcher down in time.
I had this with the old Barner rest when I first moved over to compound. It was fine on the recurve but needed to be speeded up for the compound.
 
T

timujin

Guest
Moose

I tried to get this message across to the Forum members at Archery Talk, but some, one in particular, got very stroppy about my experience with the rest.

When I put a new rest on my bow and try it and then presnt to others my experiences with that rest (or anything else, come to think of it), I give an honest description of what I did and then an appraisal of what happened and hopefully why. I buy the rest with MY money and I'm not paid to p*ss in anyone's pocket just to rack up brownie points or to suck up to the manufacturer.

If some people don't like that they should try to find someone who gives a damn because I sure don't.

I think your analysis of why I had problems is quite correct and that was the view I presented on the Archery Talk forum and got howled down for it, but I stand by it none the less.

Thankfully the rest works perfectly with the spring blade launcher and so I will stick with it and NO, I won't be buying another rest for a while thanks very much. I've already spent more than the cost of a new tournament bow on rests this year and, if you will pardon the pun, I think I'll give rests a rest for a while before I venture into that can of worms again.

Thanks for your thoughts and comments, though:cheerful:
 

niceguy

Member
I don't wish to rain on the Whammy parade but I can't see the benefit of this type of rest for target shooting. The only part of this set you need is the spring steel blade locked up solid. Job done and 100% bomb proof. I've shot with a spring blade for over a year and it just does the job, no contact, no moving parts, nothing to go wrong. Look at what the top US target shooters use, blades.

Regards to all
 

Schme1440

New member
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
I don't wish to rain on the Whammy parade but I can't see the benefit of this type of rest for target shooting. The only part of this set you need is the spring steel blade locked up solid. Job done and 100% bomb proof. I've shot with a spring blade for over a year and it just does the job, no contact, no moving parts, nothing to go wrong. Look at what the top US target shooters use, blades.

Regards to all
Its all a personal preference. I use to shoot compound and would nevr think of using a blade rest. I dont like the idea behind it. Just seems to me that there mite be a tenadancy for a bit of inconsistancy. There probably isnt but it just seems to me there is too much of a tendancy for the rest to flex under the weight of the arrow or spring back and catch the fletchings. Im probably wrong but thats what I think.
 
T

timujin

Guest
I simply wanted a rest that gave maximum support and absolute clearance regardless of the type of arrows/vanes used.

I thought I'd get it with the factory set up for the Whammy but in my case not so. Others managed it quite well apparently.

Mine now works perfectly with the spring blade launcher which I modified by making the V bigger so that the arrow didn't teeter on it during the draw. I can now draw quite freely and the arrow doesn't drop off, however if I fired the arrow over the blade as it now is, without the drop away feature, I would definitely get contact with the vanes, particularly with X10s, so the combination of the two works perfectly for me and that's the way it's going to be.

Those who like the rest for the same reasons I did will no doubt try it and those that don't, won't - and the sun will still rise tomorrow.:indiffere :cheerful:
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
A nice deep V holds the arrow in place: especially useful in windy weather.
The same deep V means that the fletchings can contact the blade on exit and thinner arrows will suffer more. One way to avoid contact is to raise the nocking point( or lower the rest in relation to it). Many archers tune, on paper test, to give a slightly high tear. Do they get better results because the fletchings clear the rest that way?
A drop away rest is another method of keeping fletchings away from the rest.
You can then tune to get a bullet hole. If after that, you find the arrows group better when the rest is lowered or the nocking point raised, then at least the options have been explored.
 

abcwarrior

New member
Hi,

May I ask how wide the prongs are apart at the widest bit at the top, and how wide where they nearly touch please.

Is this adjustable?



I like the look of this unit as I'm getting problems with my Axis FMJs bouncing off the rest when my Supertec is over 51lb draw weight. A wider rest that dropped away would sort that out and this one isn't too expensive!!

Regards

Ivan
 

bow-man

New member
Hi i have just got a whammy rest and fitted it to my bow tech equalizer i have yet to shoot it i have to wait til sunday, so i dont konw if there are any clearance isues,thanks for the tip timujin i will keep an eye on this.
Now the prongs i got with the rest are curved but on the videos on the spot hog web site the prongs are staight. i have tried the prongs with the prongs curving up and down. found that with the prongs curved down the tips hit the bottom of the sight window and the arrow does not seem as well suported as shown on the videobut well enough. when i tried the prongs with them curve upwards and the prongs hit the sight window about half way up the prongs. i have set the prongs curving up this seems to suport the arrow like the videos shows. i operated the rest using the trigger and the prongs do not appear to hit the sight window. has anyone else found this on their bow?
 
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