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Are your arrows always falling off of the bow before you can even let them fly?
Stop Immediately!
You could seriously injure yourself!
There are two reasons why this could be happening:
You either don’t have an arrow rest for your compound or traditional bow, or your arrow is too short!
The first thing you notice in archery is, that you need arrow rests for compound bows and traditional bows.
(Yes, some archers, who want to be 100% traditional will not use any kind of arrow rest, but most will use one sooner or later.)
While arrow rests are often just very small helpers, they do an important job.
They keep the arrow in place and make shooting a bow so much easier.
In the following, I want to show you a few different types of arrow rests:
The Arrow Shelf
This is the most primitive rest you can have.
It is not even a real arrow rest. It is just a small indention in the riser of the bow.
Most traditional bows use a shelf.
If you get a Samick Sage Recurve Bow, for example, it will only have an arrow shelf.
But it is very easy to add a real arrow rest to it if you prefer using one.
Who should use an arrow shelf?
If you are shooting arrows with real feathers, it is always safe to use an arrow shelf.
Usually, the Archer’s Paradox should prevent the feathers from touching the bow. But if the arrow is not perfectly chosen for the bow, the feathers might still touch it.
Real feathers will just collapse when touching the bow and the arrow will not alter its direction.
If you are using plastic vanes instead and they touch the bow, your arrow can bounce off and fly off course.
So please keep that in mind.
If you want to use arrows with plastic vanes, it is safer to use one of the following arrow rests:
Bear Weather Arrow Rest
It doesn’t look like much, but it does what it is supposed to do.
It holds the arrow in place and will keep the vanes of the arrow away from the riser (grip).
When releasing the arrow, the rest will fold forward automatically to get out of the vane’s way.
You can see that it is very basic, nothing fancy.
You can use it with traditional bows when their riser is flat or if they have an arrow shelf.
The arrow rest works great with the Samick Sage Recurve Bow.
Just clean the surface with alcohol before you stick the rest to your bow.
For its low price, it is the best arrow rest you can get for that price.
You can use this arrow rest for both right- and left-hand bows! Just make sure you pick the correct one when ordering!
Trophy Ridge Quick Shot Whisker Biscuit Arrow Rest
Whisker Biscuit Arrows are widely used by recurve bow and compound bow archers.
They hold the arrow in place even when you are moving around with a loaded arrow.
An arrow rest of this type increases and stabilizes your arrow a lot.
The whiskers will let the vanes of your arrow pass without altering its direction.
They do slow the arrow down a little, but not by much.
Arrows with three vanes don’t get slowed down much at all.
Arrows with four vanes can get slowed down by 1-15 FPS, depending on the arrow. 
You need to make sure that the diameter of your rest is big enough:
If you are shooting carbon arrows, a medium-sized rest will be the right choice.
If you are using aluminum arrows, you should go for a large rest.
Small ones can be used with fiberglass arrows.
You actually can use a large arrow rest for all arrow types.
But you can’t use a small arrow rest if the arrow is too thick!
The Trophy Ridge Quick Shot Whisker Biscuit Arrow Rest can be used on a right-hand or left-hand bow.
I love using whisker biscuit arrow rests on my recurve bow.
When I started shooting I just had a simple arrow rest. But once I tried a rest with whiskers, I never looked back.
I liked shooting my bow so much more then.
If you haven’t tried a whisker biscuit rest, you should do this as soon as possible.
QAD Ultra Rest Hunter
Only for compound bows!
The Whisker Biscuit arrow rest is already very efficient.
There is only one way to get an even better one:
The QAD Ultra Rest Hunter!
This rest will drop away when the arrow is flying forward.
By doing this, there is no way that the vanes can get in contact with the rest.
Therefore the arrow will not lose any speed.
The arrow is completely enclosed, so you can keep it on the rest while moving around with your bow. The arrow will never fall from the rest. 
Many drop-away arrow rests use inertia or vibration as a trigger for dropping away.
This can cause a rest to drop away even though you didn’t shoot the bow.
The QAD Ultra Rest Hunter does not have this problem.
It is triggered only when firing the bow.
It also works great with short arrows, whereas other rests have problems with short arrows.
If you are shooting with a compound bow and want to get the best out of it, you should get the QAD Ultra Rest Hunter.
How To Choose The Correct Arrow Rest
Now you know three great arrow rests for compound bows and traditional bows.
Which one you get depends on what you want to do with your bow.
If you are shooting a traditional bow, you will either shoot from the shelf or a very simple arrow rest.
With a recurve bow you can also use a normal arrow rest or the whisker biscuit rest.
When you own a compound bow, I would recommend either getting the whisker biscuit rest or The QAD Ultra Rest Hunter.
All of the arrow rests are very affordable and will help you to become a better archer.
Conclusion: Arrow Rests Are A Must-Have!
Arrow rests for compound bows and traditional bows are a cheap but effective addition to any bow.
Even modern longbows have at least an arrow shelf to make shooting easier.
Nowadays, only hardcore traditional archers won’t use a shelf or rest (which is impressive!).
Everyone else is using them, though.
Let’s take another quick look at the different arrow rests:
You can get the Bear Weather Arrow rest for longbows or recurve bows here.
The Whisker Biscuit Rest is perfect for recurve and compound bow archers.
The Ultra Rest can only be used with compound bows!
What is your favorite arrow rest?
Let me know in the comments below.
