Well, I have to admit - I did have some ulterior motive/was trying to prove something with this topic.
Over the years, I've seen way to many shooters go through excruciating frustrations with their bows & shooting when thinking lowering their brace height was getting them some significant extra performance, when in reality all it got them was a crappy shooting bow, and a pocket full of disappointment.
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Just recently I went through this with a buddy.
He lowered his brace height (even though he was already at the bottom end of reasonable) a full inch thinking he was going to gain some power stroke & speed.
He went from shooting pretty nice accurate groups to not being able to consistently hit the target butt at 20 yards. He called me to ask what I thought was wrong with his form to cause this to happen. He was convinced, that the extra speed he had gained was amplifying his form flaws.
I argued with him about it for two weeks before finally having to prove it to him with a chronograph.
He borrowed a chronograph, and was actually quite shocked by the results.
Not only was he losing speed at the lower brace height, but his bow was 1.5 fps faster with the brace height set higher than his original setting.
After playing with his brace heights for a couple of days, he wound up settling on one at the upper end of the manufacturers recommendation. Not only was his bow faster there than ever before, but it was vibration free, and a lot quieter. He had found that "Sweet Spot".
He would never have believed it if not for the chronograph, and would have continued to believe it was either flaws in his form, or something wrong with the bow, until his frustration convinced him to get rid of the bow, OR quit archery all together.
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I thought a discussion about brace height (what it does & don't do) might save a few from unnecessarily torturing themselves.
Rick
Over the years, I've seen way to many shooters go through excruciating frustrations with their bows & shooting when thinking lowering their brace height was getting them some significant extra performance, when in reality all it got them was a crappy shooting bow, and a pocket full of disappointment.
`````````````
Just recently I went through this with a buddy.
He lowered his brace height (even though he was already at the bottom end of reasonable) a full inch thinking he was going to gain some power stroke & speed.
He went from shooting pretty nice accurate groups to not being able to consistently hit the target butt at 20 yards. He called me to ask what I thought was wrong with his form to cause this to happen. He was convinced, that the extra speed he had gained was amplifying his form flaws.
I argued with him about it for two weeks before finally having to prove it to him with a chronograph.
He borrowed a chronograph, and was actually quite shocked by the results.
Not only was he losing speed at the lower brace height, but his bow was 1.5 fps faster with the brace height set higher than his original setting.
After playing with his brace heights for a couple of days, he wound up settling on one at the upper end of the manufacturers recommendation. Not only was his bow faster there than ever before, but it was vibration free, and a lot quieter. He had found that "Sweet Spot".
He would never have believed it if not for the chronograph, and would have continued to believe it was either flaws in his form, or something wrong with the bow, until his frustration convinced him to get rid of the bow, OR quit archery all together.
`````````````
I thought a discussion about brace height (what it does & don't do) might save a few from unnecessarily torturing themselves.
Rick
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