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Home Made Plunger

1K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  Viper1 
#1 ·
Anyone made a plunger for a recurve? I have a flipper rest now and it has a hole for a plunger, so I want to try that. How important is it that there is a plunger function. Would a solid stop work? Maybe this post should be in the DIY section?
 
#2 ·
DIY would be possible if you have a lathe and perhaps $10 in materials plus 3-4 hours of time (if you work fast).
What you have now is basically a solid set-up with some adjustment, just not very fine.
You can buy a pretty darn good plunger for $20. See where I'm going with that?

-Grant
 
#3 ·
You could screw a bolt in the hole and have a solid stop, which is not optimal but still the same as any other solid strike. Older bow manufacturers used a nylon bolt, which would be easier on the arrow. Next DIY level would be to use a felt plug glued on the bolt - OEM on some of the older bows as well. Current convention is an adjustable plunger, which can be had pretty cheap.
 
#4 ·
The plunger is there to counter paradox- it can be too soft but not too stiff

you don't necessarily need a plunger...just something to set center shot. This can be done with felt/rubber/foam pads, it can be done with a nylon/metal screw.


If you want to physically manufactur an adjustable plunger- go for it but there might be much time involved negating any savings you would have made...much easier to purchase one (you can get them for under 30 bucks).
 
#6 ·
cha -

Might want to back up a little bit.

What bow do you have? If the riser isn't cut past center shot, the spring part of the plunger may not you do you a lot of good.

The general formula for using a plunger is that the riser needs to be cut 1/2 you intended arrow diameter + the thickness of the rest's back plate + ~1/8" past center shot.
Almost all metal ILF risers are, but a lot of the wooden and vintage ones aren't.

If you're in the former case, there are useable plungers in the $10 - 12 range (last time I checked any way).
If you're in the latter case, then the notion of a nylon 5/16" x 24 screw/bolt to act as an adjustable strike plate would be more in order.

The felt glued to a metal bolt sounds good, but I haven't seen one stay glued on for very long.

Anyway, as to the purpose of a plunger, while it is a tuning parameter, it's other purpose is to help minimize MINOR variations in finger pressure on release.
Whether you're are shooting well enough to exploit that or not is hard to tell from here. Most new shooters are usually better served with a stiff plunger, acting as an adjustable strike plate.

Viper1 out.
 
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