# Suggested starting brace height



## c365 (May 15, 2013)

Me, I'd start with 9" and adjust accordingly.


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## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

Brian -

Start at 8.5" and work up as necessary during tuning.
Just my experience. 

Viper1 out.


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## Gipper54 (Mar 28, 2015)

Thank you, that gives me a good starting point for this setup. For an old recurve/longbow shooter this just sounds like a ton of brace height.

Brian


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## wfocharlie (Feb 16, 2013)

The SF owners manual suggests 21.5cm to 23.5cm for 25" riser and medium limbs. That is 8 1/2" to 9 1/4" converted.


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## Kim Jong Skill (Dec 19, 2014)

Thats an interesting thing to bring up and I guess my follow up to that would be how do you know you have the "right" brace height? I read somewhere that you keep tuning until your bow is as quiet as possible but that's difficult to judge quantitatively without an instrument.

Also, does changing the brace height by say a quarter of an inch really affect how your bow shoots? I mean it only really affects your idle weight and maybe your draw weight by a teeeeny amount. At what level archer and distance would you be able to really tell that your brace height is "off"?


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## bobnikon (Jun 10, 2012)

Kim Jong Skill said:


> Thats an interesting thing to bring up and I guess my follow up to that would be how do you know you have the "right" brace height? I read somewhere that you keep tuning until your bow is as quiet as possible but that's difficult to judge quantitatively without an instrument.
> 
> Also, does changing the brace height by say a quarter of an inch really affect how your bow shoots? I mean it only really affects your idle weight and maybe your draw weight by a teeeeny amount. At what level archer and distance would you be able to really tell that your brace height is "off"?


Google brace height tuning, or search in AT. 

But essentially sound, vibration, and if you are consistent height of impact. Your bow will likely be most efficient at the right brace height so the most energy will be transferred into launching the arrow. Thus the first two will be minimized, and the last should be optimized. Shoot a bunch of groups at say 30 or 50m. Chart the center of each group. Adjust brace height, keep going. You will likely find, if you start out low, your group centers should slowly move up, and at some point they will peak. That should be your optimum. That takes a lot longer than going by sound, and is likely to only be marginally more accurate.

Cheers


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## dchan (Jun 29, 2004)

Kim Jong Skill said:


> but that's difficult to judge quantitatively without an instrument.


If you have a fairly consistent release, I suspect you will be shocked at the difference when you hit that sweet spot. For someone shooting 200/300 at 18M, 40cm target they will be able to get pretty close to finding the sweet spot.

It's a significant change in sound as you pass through the sweet spot and often that sweet spot is a lot smaller than 1/4" BH difference. For a 260 shooter, it might be as small as 2-3 twists in the string or even less.

DC


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## Gipper54 (Mar 28, 2015)

Wow thanks...more great information!! As a long time recurve longbow guy too low a brace height also resulted in excessive contact of the bow arm with the string.

Can you tell me where you got the manual for this riser? Mine did not come with one.

Brian


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## bobnikon (Jun 10, 2012)

Gipper54 said:


> Wow thanks...more great information!! As a long time recurve longbow guy too low a brace height also resulted in excessive contact of the bow arm with the string.
> 
> Can you tell me where you got the manual for this riser? Mine did not come with one.
> 
> Brian


Google is your friend. Third link when I googled Sebastien Flute Manual

http://westcombefieldarchers.co.uk/about-us/useful-guides-and-manuals


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## wfocharlie (Feb 16, 2013)

I don't think a lot of people really understand brace height. Maybe I don't either but my understanding is that proper brace height allows the arrow's knock to disengage from the string at the moment that the arrow is straight (between the left and right oscillations of paradox). This allows the arrow to come off the string on plane with the bow. This coming off straight is one of the things that makes the bow quieter and shoot better. Someone correct me if I am wrong.


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## Viper1 (Aug 21, 2003)

charlie - 

That's correct, or at least as the string is approaching center line - since the string doesn't really stop at center line.
That's why tuning by sound still works.

Viper1 out.


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## lksseven (Mar 21, 2010)

Increasing brace height will also make the arrow's dynamic spine present weaker, and will also slow the arrow speed coming out of the bow, as the arrow is on the string less time (shorter power stroke)


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