Brace height question

[Guest jkuch]

Do you think that there is a big difference in 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in brace height. Say from 7 to 71/4

Thanks

[BowtechTurkeyHunter]

Nope not at all ... but the more Height you have the more forgiving the bow ... I suppose on paper or in a an engineering environment yes it does ... but not in the field

Steve

[JimPic]

On compounds--probably not.On trad bows-definitely yes

[hutchies]

Just make sure the cams are in time............that is the main thing.

[Slugger]

i agree, if you think about it if two guys have the same bow and it has a 7in brace height and 1 guys draw length is 30 in and the other guys is 28 the guy with the 28 in draw has the advantage because the arrow is off the string quicker and therefore out of the bow quicker I could be wrong but thats the way i see it.

a bows forgiveness has as much to do with its powerstroke as it does with brace hieght bcause after all inches are inches right?

[Randyman]

a bows forgiveness has as much to do with its powerstroke as it does with brace hieght bcause after all inches are inches right?

My understanding is the shorter the brace height, the longer the arrow is on the string, thus the more energy that is released to the arrow, increasing speed. Conversely, the longer the brace height, the less time the arrow is on the string, therefore making the bow more "forgiving", but sacrificing some speed. I would think the "powerstroke" and the brace height are basically the same thing. With good form, i would think a small difference in brace height such as mentioned wouldn't make that much of a difference.

[VermontHunter]

I was just reading a great info article on just this very topic ... Here's a little tidbit of that article ..

Brace Height

Brace height is yet another important factor in the energy storage equation. A bow's brace height is simply the distance from the string to the pivot point of the bow's grip. You can kind-of think of brace height as how close the string will be to your wrist when the bow is at rest. The closer the string is to your wrist, the more work you have to do to get the bow drawn back. If you're drawing a 6" brace height bow back to a 30" AMO draw length, you'll have to pull the string back a total distance of 22.25" before you reach full draw*. But if the string rests farther back from your wrist to start, say the bow's brace height is 8", then you'll only have to pull the string back for 20.25". So the bow's brace height also figures into how LONG the bow's powerstroke will be. And as you know, a longer powerstroke generates more energy.

As a matter of energy storage, brace heights are analogous to the length of the rubber-band on a slingshot. If you hold a slingshot at arms-length and pull it back to your cheek, a shorter rubber-band would be stretched for a longer distance (and shoot faster) than the same slingshot with a longer rubber-band. In much the same way, a short brace height bow stores more energy and shoots faster than a tall brace height bow (all other things being equal). So brace height has the same affect on total powerstroke length as does the bow's draw length setting. The only difference is that the brace height determines where you start and the draw length determines where you stop. But unlike draw lengths, brace heights aren't adjustable. So you have to get this one right the first time. You can't change your bow's brace height later, should you change your mind.

If you compare brace heights and IBO speeds, you'll find an obvious correlation. Shorter brace heights tend to make for faster bows. Easy enough. Then it would seem that in order to get better performance from a compound bow, all you have to do is look for a model with a short brace height, right? Well, not so fast! Short brace height bows may be hot-performers, but they will come with a few drawbacks you should think about A bow's AMO draw length is measured 1.75" beyond the grip pivot point. So a bow's powerstroke distance is found by subtracting the brace height and 1.75" from the AMO draw length.

Here's the link to the entire article for those of you that woould like to read up on some technical jargin.

http://www.huntersfriend.com/bowselection.htm#14-braceheight

Hope this helped abit ..