Traditional bow brace height setup
Equipment
I wish I could give credit to the original author but unfortunately I do not know who came up with this method first. I just found it buried in a thread on another forum and thought it makes sense and therefore it deserves a good reading if of interest to any of us. The following is a method for letting the bow tell where to set brace height:
1. Set a horizontal line on your target using tape.
2. Set the brace height to the lowest value suggested by the manufacturer.
3. Shoot a group with field points at the horizontal line from same distance; 10 to 15 yards. NOTE: Tip of the arrow at full draw is aimed at the horizontal line.
4. Measure and record the group's impact above that horizontal line.
5. Add five twists to the string; shoot another group, and repeat, each time recording both the new brace height and the measurement of the resulting target impact, working towards the brace height upper limit of the manufacturer's recommendation if there is one.
6. Initially the impact point will rise steadily above the horizontal line but then suddenly starts to drop.
7. Go back to the recorded brace height which has the highest impact measurement above the horizontal line and set the brace height to that recorded measurement. That should be where the bow was transferring the greatest amount of energy to the arrow. It should also be the quietest with the least felt hand shock as the byproducts of wasted energy are usually noise and vibration.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing this.
Seems to make sense. Except that if you're looking to see how much energy is transferred it would be much easier to do this from 30 yards, than only 10-15, because the rise or drop would be much easier to measure.
I used to drive myself silly with this stuff......
Interesting, I just twist it til. It's quiet and feels good.
Different way of doing things. I have always used a vertical line with a spot in the center. Noting where the groups would strike, either raise or lower the brace to center the group.
I like to hunt with my long bow at times, and yesterday was at a trad shoot. I always looked at it, as a 15 yard weapon, and have done well. A very good archer yesterday said, my bow was out of tune. He followed here what was posted, tuned my bow, and I purchased the right arrows, with only 4 inch fletch, and now I can shoot 30 yards like nothing......
I was launching at the 50 yard targets, and doing pretty good. I will still limit my actual kill shot of course, but a tuned long bow, makes a difference,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
After reading I tried this method with fletched arrows. I got 8 1/2" with my PMA. I was curious, so I lowered the brace all the way to 8" and began shooting a bareshaft CE Heritage 250 and twisting the brace height up until I got great bareshaft flight. This measurement was also 8 1/2". That must me the magic number. Great tuning technique, thanks for sharing.
I'm with Glunt....good post
You can actually feel and hear when a stick bow is in its sweet spot....the same goes for compounds too...just not as obvious.
