Launcher How reliable are Hamskea drop away rests?

I am thinking the unthinkable (for me at least) and getting a drop away rest.

Hamskea is probably the best out there but expensive. But I wanted to see if anyone out there has had issues with them, or are they as bullet proof as the marketing blurb says they are?
 

turtle

Member
havent had mine long, but immediately ordered a second one for my other bow. Built like a tank and I’d say much less of a reliability conserving than bending/broken blades. It’s a simple mechanism and very heavily engineered. Can be configured lots of ways, so flexible too. I’m very impressed. No questionable plastic parts and the mechanism feels very smooth and low stressed. Shoots super smooth and quiet too.
 
havent had mine long, but immediately ordered a second one for my other bow. Built like a tank and I’d say much less of a reliability conserving than bending/broken blades. It’s a simple mechanism and very heavily engineered. Can be configured lots of ways, so flexible too. I’m very impressed. No questionable plastic parts and the mechanism feels very smooth and low stressed. Shoots super smooth and quiet too.
Thanks. I have always shot a blade rest and found them to be 100% reliable, other than the times when I have snagged the blade pulling the bow out of the case. But from memory I have only done that once in about 10 years. The reason for looking into a drop away is two fold. First I want to get back into indoor shooting, and I have real trouble keeping fat arrows on the blade when drawing, even with the wide blade (skinny arrows on a skinny blade is fine). Second I want to go to a four fletch so will need the clearance.
 

chuffalump

Well-known member
On Sunday I was thinking about this too. It was so windy that I lost an arrow to a toppling boss. Worse for a compound was getting the arrow blown off the rest.

I've seen drop-aways with big U supports so no chance of pin wheeling arrows, death, destruction and strained muscles.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
I made a very simple but strong drop away rest. It has a single axle through a sturdy body. One end of the axle has the wide blade. the opposite end has a lever that is pulled by the limb at rest. It relaxes through the draw allowing the spring to lift the blade. The blade just needs to drop enough to allow the fletchings to pass over without contact... about 5mm. So the blade is part raised at rest allowing a good grip on the arrow. The stop on the lifting lever is an off centre rod Cam) that can be rotated and locked for adjusting rest height. The hub for the axle is screwed into the body, and by screwing in or out, adjusts left to right. It hasn't failed in the last 5 years. The weakest part is the blade and I have plenty of spares.
 

Murray

Well-known member
Ironman
American Shoot
AIUK Saviour
Never heard anyone say a bad word about the Hamskea other than 'that's expensive!' :) I don't like dropaways, but that's personal preference, I did fit one for a student recently and she loves it.

@chuffalump - you're probably referring to the QAD hdx
 

Kernowlad

Supporter
Supporter
When I suffered from a bad case of draw wobble/fear/anxiety, my arrows kept coming off the rest. I was also nervous of drawing down (I’d had a bad experience with a couple of releases; I kept pinging arrows too early and lost a few) and it got so bad, I nearly gave up.
I moved to a wide V rest which helped then finally realised that once the string is under enough tension, the arrow pretty much clamps onto the rest and is pretty secure. Problem solved.

It’s funny how a little issue can spiral out of control.
 

adilator

New member
TBH, They are way too overrated in my opinion, There are many options out there that are way better than the hamskea. Was looking for a good alternative the other week and ended up in this article from valrin. They provide you some pretty good choices.
My favorite was the HDX arrow rest. It hits all the right spots for me, And also comes with a lifetime warranty.
 
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