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Has Whisker Biscuit Met Their Match? |
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 WHISKER
BISCUIT HISTORY
When Steve Graf and Ike Branthwaite introduced their newly patented
Whisker Biscuit arrow rest in the fall of 1999, they probably didn't realize they
would stand the archery industry on its bristles. At a time when
precision spring-loaded prong style rests were still leading the market,
the Whisker Biscuit didn't exactly get a warm reception by dealers and
hardcore enthusiasts. Some just laughed. Others called it a
"beginner rest".
Many said it would be impossible to tune; it would be inaccurate.
It just wouldn't work.
But when mainstream bowhunters got a look at the new Whisker Biscuit,
the reception was somewhat different. While the accuracy and
reliability of the prong rest is undeniable, their fundamental drawback
has always been lack of arrow containment. If the drawstroke
wasn't smooth, or the bow was canted, or if the shooter bobbled a
little, there was a good chance the arrow would fall from the rest.
And as many prong rest users could attest, this seemed to happen at the most
inopportune moments (like when drawing on a lifetime trophy buck).
The Whisker Biscuit promised total arrow containment; no more fallen
arrows, no more missed opportunities. The arrow would stay tucked
safely inside the biscuit, ready to shoot, every time,
without fail. So in spite of the initial criticisms, the Whisker
Biscuit was a hit.
Over the next few years the Whisker Biscuit's popularity soared.
By 2003, the Whisker Biscuit had literally redefined the arrow rest
market, sending competing manufacturers into a mad scramble to create
their own containment rests.
Unfortunately for Whisker Biscuit's
competitors, bowhunters seemed reluctant to accept substitutes for the original.
Maybe the magic was in those whiskers; maybe it was the catchy sound of
that name. Either way, the Whisker Biscuit left countless
competitors flailing in agony. By 2006, they had nearly wiped the
market clean, even driving some old favorites like Golden Key and Bodoodle
into retirement. Not only had the Whisker Biscuit managed to
largely create and then dominate the containment rest market, but they
had managed to decimate much of the prong rest market at the same time.
Today, nearly half of new bows sold are ultimately outfitted with a
Whisker Biscuit. So love them or hate them, Whisker Biscuits are
simply here to stay.
Oddly enough, the Whisker Biscuit didn't come from some big corporate
manufacturer.
The Whisker Biscuit company (Carolina Archery Products) was
originally founded by two out of work Semi-Conductor engineers.
So it's something of an American dream story. Two guys with a
great idea and a product with a funny name ended up
changing the course of our industry - and they managed to make a few
dollars along the way too. In 2006, Whisker
Biscuit caught the attention of industry
giant, Escalade Sports, and they were reportedly purchased for a
whopping $12.6 Million. |
 WHISKER
BISCUIT MERITS AND DEMERITS
So does the Whisker Biscuit deserve such high acclaim? When it
comes to arrow containment, you bet it does! And arrow containment
isn't the Whisker Biscuit's only technical merit. As it turns out, they actually shoot quite well too.
As the arrow passes thru
the biscuit, the whiskers make "equal contact" with the arrow fletching.
Since the contact is equally distributed around the shaft, the
fletching contact is effectively "cancelled out". So ironically,
setting up a Whisker Biscuit means you don't really have "fletching
contact" issues to resolve. As such, the Whisker Biscuit has a
reputation for being user-friendly and particularly easy to tune.
Even so, the Whisker Biscuit remains a "love it or hate it" product.
In spite of the obvious benefits, the Whisker Biscuit has always been accused of
some misdeeds, specifically damaging fletching, creating noise, and
reducing arrow velocity.
And perhaps these are all fair criticisms. As the arrow zips thru
the biscuit at 200mph, the arrow fletchings must "sift" their ways thru
the layer of bristles. This creates some noise. It also
causes rubber vanes to stretch. It causes feathers to eventually
tatter. And the resulting friction burns up a little arrow speed.
So using the Whisker Biscuit is often seen as something of a trade-off.
To get the benefits, you have to tolerate some costs. |
SO, CAN WE HAVE OUR BISCUITS AND EAT THEM TOO?
Obviously, arrow containment is a key benefit that bowhunters want.
The real question is, can a containment style arrow rest be designed to
perform as well as the Whisker Biscuit, but without the undesirable side-effects?
Are there any designs that can incorporate all the positive elements of
the Whisker Biscuit while avoiding the trade-offs? Many have tried
over the last few years. Some designs just didn't work. Some
didn't really catch-on. Some were too expensive. And others
just seemed to have come and gone. So last season we began to
wonder if anyone could really make a legitimate challenge at the Whisker
Biscuit. But this season, we may have an answer. |
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 NEW
KID ON THE BLOCK
In late December of 2006, we received
an email from a new manufacturer,
Catawba Archery,
based in Mount Holly, NC. They introduced themselves and sent us
photos of their new product. Since we are always excited to see new design innovations,
we quickly responded back to request samples for evaluation.
Upon receiving the sample rests, we were immediately encouraged.
Much like the Whisker Biscuit, the Catawba rest incorporates a circular
housing and sculpted bristles to support the arrow. But unlike the
Whisker Biscuit, the patented Catawba design doesn't feature a
continuous 360º ring of bristles. Rather, the bristles are grouped
into blocks and spaced at 60º, 180º, and 300º around the circumference
of the housing. This should allow the fletchings to pass thru the
housing at 0º, 120º, and 240º without making any contact with the
bristles. |
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course, spacing the arrow supports in this way isn't unique. Several
rest designs have attempted this (Bodoodle Zapper, NAP 360º Capture Rest,
etc.). But what struck us as unique was the idea of incorporating
bristles at all 3 contact points. This would theoretically allow the
Catawba rest to yield full containment while still permitting natural arrow
oscillation like the Whisker Biscuit. Incidentally, permitting natural arrow
oscillation is one of the reasons the Whisker Biscuit shoots so well.
It's also the reason other capture rests sometimes shoot poorly, since rigid
fins and prongs clamp the arrow too tightly to allow the arrow to flex
properly. So we were happy to see that the Catawba rest
had similarly taken this into account. |
 With
our initial oooh's and aaah's now complete, it was time to get to work.
We grabbed a bow, bolted one up, and headed to the archery range.
The Catawba bracket design is simple, but
effective, allowing plenty of vertical and horizontal adjustment similar to
the adjustments on the Deluxe Whisker Biscuit bracket system. So as expected,
the Catawba rest had similar ease of setup and simple tuning. We
were shooting good groups and enjoying the rest within just a few minutes.
Oddly enough, getting the rest installed and shooting properly wasn't really
our goal. Given the initial look of the design, we rather expected the
Catawba rest would be equivalent to the Whisker Biscuit in basic
performance. What we really wanted to know was if the Catawba design
was going to outperform the Whisker Biscuit, particularly in the three
problem areas where the Whisker
Biscuit struggles? So we focused on three essential tests.
- Will the Catawba Still Shot Rest cause
fletching damage?
- Will the Catawba Still Shot Rest make
less noise than the Whisker Biscuit?
- Will the Catawba Still Shot Rest
have less effect on arrow velocity?
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TESTING AND EVALUATION |
 #1
FLETCHING
DAMAGE TEST
By far, the #1 complaint from Whisker
Biscuit owners is fletching damage. It's a pesky issue that
Whisker Biscuit has addressed to limited success over the years.
Whisker Biscuit owners often report that after repeated shooting, vanes
begin to have a warped or wavy appearance. Of course, this isn't
the end of the world. Arrows can always be refletched, and in many
cases wavy vanes can be straightened back up with a little heat
treatment. But it's a hassle most shooters would rather avoid all
together. So any real improvement on the Whisker Biscuit design
would begin with eliminating this disadvantage.
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 To see if the new Catawba rest could outperform the Whisker Biscuit on
fletching damage, we prepared two
identical test arrows for a little field test. To make
sure we could get plenty of speed (and maximum vane damage potential) we
selected some lightweight arrows, two Easton Lightspeed 400's w/4" Offset Vanes, 337
grains total weight.
We then installed the new Catawba Still Shot
arrow rest on a 2007 Fred Bear Truth (29"/63#) and stepped onto the
shooting range.
With the help of a runner, our staff shooter took exactly 50 shots with
the same arrow. When the cycle was complete, we carefully labeled the arrow and
set it aside.
After a little rest break, we removed the Catawba rest and installed a
Deluxe Quikshot Whisker Biscuit and repeated the test with our second
arrow. Again, our staff shooter took exactly 50 shots using the
same arrow. When the cycle was complete we carefully labeled that
arrow as well.
When all finished, we placed the two arrows side-by-side and
photographed them. The photo below has been clipped to size, but
is unedited. This is exactly how they appeared after our test.
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RESULTS: After 50 shots, the Catawba test arrow exhibits
little or no vane damage. Clearly the vanes of the test arrow have
avoided contact with the brushes, blocks, and housing of the Still Shot
arrow rest. In contrast, the vanes on the Whisker Biscuit test
arrow are beginning to exhibit some early degradation.
PERSPECTIVE: Keep in mind that our test indicates a
worst-case scenario (soft offset vanes, fast bow, brand new Whisker Biscuit,
etc.).
Also note that minor vane degradation doesn't automatically equal poor
arrow flight. A small wave in a vane, as in the photo above, would
have a negligible effect on performance. So in many cases, vane
degradation from the Whisker Biscuit is more of a cosmetic irritant than
an actual detriment to performance. Nonetheless, it drives some
bowhunters nuts. If you want containment without the wrinkles, the
no-contact design of the Catawba Still Shot may be for you. |
 #2
NOISE TEST
While the Whisker Biscuit certainly
isn't a "noisy" rest compared to most, it is often criticized for the "ssshhhrrrip"
noise the vanes make as they penetrate the biscuit (at the shot).
So to see if the Catawba rest would generate less noise, we fired-up our
Center322 Sound Level Meter for a quick test.
In order to make our test results reflect the sound of the actual arrow
rests, rather then overall noise of the bow or the sound of the arrow
impacting the target, we decided to conduct our test
by positioning the dB meter's microphone just 1 inch from the arrow rest,
held at 90º from the vertical axis of the bow. This allowed us to
isolate the sound of the arrow penetrating/clearing the rest.
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 Using
our 2007 Fred Bear Truth (29/63#) and 10 more identical new Easton Lightspeed arrows,
we conducted our sound test.
Distance from Source = 1 Inch
Our dB readings (weighted dBA actually) indicate the amount of noise you
would perceive if you held your ear 1 inch from the arrow rest when the bow
fires (don't try that at home). With the Deluxe Whisker Biscuit still
installed from our previous test, we captured a peak dBA reading from it
first.
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 As
you can see, the sound of the vanes clearing the Whisker Biscuit
generated a peak noise level of 95.4 dBA at 1 inch. (view
full screen shot).
We then removed the Deluxe Whisker Biscuit and installed the Catawba
Still Shot back on our Fred Bear Truth. No other adjustments were
made to any of the bow's settings, the environment, the shooter, etc.
All variables except the arrow rest remained the same.
With our remaining 5 arrows, we repeated the test for the Catawba Still
Shot. As you can see from the
software
screen shot, the peak noise level for the Catawba rest was only 91.7
dBA (median of the 5 attempts). |
RESULTS: As a matter of direct comparison, our results
indicate that the Catawba rest generated 3.7dBA less than the Whisker
Biscuit. However, be advised that this is no small difference.
A jump from 95.4 dB to 91.7 dB is NOT a 4% decrease. The dB scale
is logarithmic, so a 3.7 dB decrease is more than a 50% reduction in
total noise. To learn more about dB fundamentals,
view this article.
PERSPECTIVE: Keep in mind that our test was conducted with a
very close proximity to the source, so the results are a little
deceptive. A 90+ dB sound is generally considered very loud (lawn
mower, kitchen blender, heavy truck, etc.) but that's at distances from
source of about 1 meter. Our measurements were taken at just 1
inch from the source. So be advised that we're not suggesting
any arrow rest makes as much noise as a lawn mower. Sound
intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance away
from the source (more).
So give or take, the measured
sound level would drop six decibels with each doubling of the distance
from the source. Therefore, if we measured our arrow rest noises
at the standard distance of 1 meter instead of 1 inch, the readings
would be in the 60's rather than the 90's. However, at a distance
of 1 meter, our device would detect the overall noise of the entire bow
rather than an isolated sound of one component (arrow rest). So a
close proximity measurement was more appropriate for this particular
test. |
 #3
ARROW SPEED
The final test is a simple arrow speed
test. Critics of the Whisker Biscuit often claim that it wastes
some arrow speed. We tested this claim years ago and found it to
be true, but usually only to the tune of about 2-3 fps - not exactly a
deal breaker. Of course, given the design of the Whisker Biscuit
bristles, some loss of speed due to friction is to be expected.
But will the Catawba rest do better? If the Catawba Still Shot can
provide the same arrow containment without the arrow speed reduction,
that only makes it more appealing. After all, when it comes to
arrow speed, every little bit helps. |
 So
to get this test underway, we powered up our Easton Bow Force Mapping
System and set the chronograph in place. Again, we called on our
test bow, the 2007 Fred Bear Truth and chose an arrow from our Easton
Lightspeed test set. The bow was still set for 29"/63# and our
total arrow mass was 337 grains (5.34 gpp). Our bow had the
Catawba rest still installed from the sound test, so we started there.
We fired 5 shots and saved the results. We then removed the
Catawba rest, installed the Deluxe Whisker Biscuit, and took another 5
shots with the exact same arrow. All other conditions remained the
same during the 10 shot sequence. The only thing we changed was
the arrow rest. Our results were as follows:
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CHRONOGRAPH
TEST |
Shot 1 |
Shot 2 |
Shot 3 |
Shot 4 |
Shot 5 |
Average |
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Catawba Still Shot |
283.6 |
283.8 |
283.6 |
283.5 |
283.8 |
283.7 fps |
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Deluxe Whisker
Biscuit |
280.2 |
280.5 |
279.8 |
280.5 |
280.5 |
280.3 fps |
RESULTS: The Catawba rest tested an average of 3.4 fps faster
than the Whisker Biscuit. Obviously the lack of fletching contact
on the Catawba rest means less friction and loss of arrow velocity.
PERSPECTIVE: Unlike the quirky dB scale, velocity ratings are
pretty simple and linear. So the 3.4 fps average represents only a
1% improvement in arrow velocity. And if we convert that to more
familiar mph units, we can say that using our test bow, the arrow
cleared the rest
going 2.3 mph faster with the Catawba rest compared to the Whisker
Biscuit. Will that make the critical difference on your next big
hunt? Probably not. But the Catawba rest does not seem to
have the same negative effect on arrow velocity as the Whisker Biscuit.
In fact, we repeated this same test with a simple QuikTune prong rest
(out of pure curiosity) and got about the same average (283.9) as with
the Catawba rest. |
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OVERALL PERFORMANCE: It appears the Catawba Still Shot has
some impressive potential. As a matter of performance, it seems to
be equal to the Whisker Biscuit in most areas and manages to exceed it
in others. It installs easily, tunes well, it's convenient to load
and shoot, and delivers a consistent shot. Better yet, it's
quieter and faster than the popular Whisker Biscuit and it does it all
without damaging your fletching. So it that it? Can we
declare that the Whisker Biscuit has been bested at its own game?
Well.....not just yet. |
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MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION |
 Our
initial nit-pick to this design was about the choice of material.
You may have noticed from the photos that the Catawba rest isn't
machined aluminum like most other arrow rests. Since the housing
isn't made of metal, we assumed it was just simple plastic.
However, it appears we don't know much about polymers. After
Catawba designer, Kevin Yoder, bristled at our suggestion that the Still Shot
rest was a "cheap plastic Whisker Biscuit knock-off" we got quite
a lecture on the process. Turns out that the housing and windage
bracket are actually made of a high-density injection molded
fiberglass-filled nylon polymer (say that three times fast). It
also turns out this choice of material wasn't selected for improving
production costs, but rather because the material is immensely strong,
lightweight, and doesn't conduct vibration like machined metal. So
much like the polymers used in the construction of Glock™ Pistols, the
Catawba materials are thoughtful elements of the overall design.
Of course, we had to try and prove that to ourselves, so we even made an
effort to break one; pushing, pulling, twisting, and squeezing the
housing - but to no avail. Whatever the Catawba rest is made from,
it's some seriously tough stuff. We humbly retracted our cheap
plastic comment.
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 But
that didn't stop us from disassembling one for a closer look. The
Catawba Still Shot rest is composed of 15 individual parts (including
the 2 brass washers). The housing, brush blocks, and windage
bracket are nylon polymer. The mounting bracket is the only
machined aluminum component. All the parts fit cleanly (and with
impressively tight tolerances). There are a series of windage and
elevation reference marks on the housing and windage brackets to make
setup easier too. |
 BRUSH
BLOCKS: The real heart and soul of the Catawba rest is the brush blocks - custom
molded blocks with nylon bristles which are staple set into the block by
a precision automated process and then trimmed to a v-shape to center
the arrow at full draw. The brushes are arranged in 8 bundles,
separated into two lateral rows. They are formed directly into the
final polymer of the brush block, so they're in there to stay. We
even tried pulling bristles free with some needle-nose pliers, but they
wouldn't budge - it's a very tough and effective brush configuration.
The brush blocks are also identical, so they're interchangeable to any
of the 3 positions around the housing. And it doesn't matter if
they're installed facing in our out. So changing them, should you
ever actually wear-out the brushes, is a snap. According to tech
folks at Catawba, the brush sets are good for about 10,000 shots (about
5 years for the average hunter or recreational shooter).
Replacement brush sets are available for around $18. |
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RH/LH AVAILABILITY: The Catawba rest is totally ambidextrous. There is
no RH or LH specific models. It can be converted from left to
right just by flipping the mounting bracket over. This gives
archery shops one less SKU to have to worry about (thank goodness).
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DIAMETER COMPATIBILITY: While the current model will
accommodate standard diameter ICS carbon shafts (Gold Tips, Beman ICS
Hunters, Carbon Express Terminators, etc.), the Still Shot rest does
not yet accommodate small diameter shafts (Axis, A/C/C, Beman MFX,
etc.). However, Catawba will soon be including a simple block shim
kit with every arrow rest. So users will be able to adjust the
block alignment and diameter of the rest opening to fit any popular shaft (again, without
another SKU). |
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SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON |
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Catawba
Still Shot |
DLX Quikshot
Whisker Biscuit |
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So how do our
two rests compare side by side? Here are the highlights. |
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Ease of
Tuning/Install: |
Excellent |
Excellent |
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Ease of Loading: |
Excellent |
Excellent |
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Arrow Containment: |
Excellent |
Excellent |
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Reliability: |
Excellent |
Excellent |
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Accuracy: |
Good |
Good |
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Fletching Care: |
Excellent |
Poor |
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Quiet Upon Release: |
Good |
Fair |
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Arrow Speed Loss: |
Excellent |
Fair |
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Ambidextrous Use: |
Yes |
No |
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Reference/Tuning Marks: |
Yes |
Yes |
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Total Windage Adjustment: |
0.75" |
0.63" |
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Total Elevation Adjustment: |
0.31" |
0.31" |
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Arrow Rest Total Weight: |
679 grains |
1392 grains |
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Arrow Rest
Price Range: |
$49.95-$59.95 |
$49.95-$59.95 |
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So has
Whisker Biscuit Met Their Match?
We think this newcomer has a lot of potential. But will that be
enough? Defeating the reining champion often requires more than just raw
talent. Nonetheless, we give Catawba a solid puncher's chance.
And we'll all be watching to find out if Catawba can use their strengths
to challenge the
supremacy of the mighty Whisker Biscuit, or if they'll ultimately join
the long list of battered contenders who have come before - tried - and
failed. Someone please ring the bell! |
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