The $2.50 Arrow Rest Used by Olympians in London 2012

Former US Olympic archer John Magera notes that many London 2012 archers were using $2.50 plastic arrow rests on their expensive Olympic bows.

US Olympian Khatuna Lorig and what appears to be an inexpensive plastic arrow rest on her Olympic-style bow. Also note the shoelace finger sling.

Magera shot for the USA in Athens, where he says it seemed one third of the archers were using cheap plastic arrow rests.

Olympic-level equipment is often extremely expensive, leading many people to think that they must also spend thousands of dollars on archery equipment to be competitive at high levels. While that is true to a certain degree there are still a few Olympic-level bargains out there, and one of them is the $2.50 plastic Hoyt Super Rest.

A $2.50 plastic Hoyt Super Rest.

An arrow rest is a critical component on an Olympic-style recurve bow which lightly holds the arrow away from the bow. Upon release of the string the rest allows arrow to pass by without jostling. A great deal rides on the precision and performance of the arrow rest, so the use of an inexpensive plastic rest like the Hoyt Super Rest instead of a more expensive rest is a deliberate choice based on proven results, not a cost savings.

Former Olympian Rick McKinney used a Hoyt Super Rest to set an American record for a FITA Round. Today the Super Rest is still used in world class competition, especially by female shooters.

Oddly, you won’t find any mention of this Olympic-level bargain on Hoyt’s target recurve site. Perhaps they’d prefer to sell you one of their new $1500 recurve bows, the kind US Olympian Brady Ellison shoots (accessories not included)… Either way, Hoyt makes some great gear, from $2.50 arrow rests to $1500 bows. But keep in mind that when John Magera qualified for the 2004 US Olympic Team he was using used equipment much of it scrounged off of eBay, and 16 used arrows so worn the labels were no longer visible. So, you can take up archery and spend as much or as little as you want to enjoy it, and you can be competitive for a lot less than you might think.

H/T John Magera at the Archery Talk FITA Forum.
Negative search results for “Super Rest” at hoytrecurve.com as of 8/3/12.