Newbie question on brace height

[rluttrell]

I am new to traditional shooting or just new to shooting.  Would someone mind helping me understand brace height and where exactly do you measure from?  
Thank you

[katman]

Measure from deepest part of the grip to the string straight back.

Brace height effects how the bow shoots. Can be raised or lowered slightly to help- with arrow tune. A bow will have a brace it likes, that is were it is quiet and stable. By twisting and untwisting the string quietest height can be found best done without string silencers on.

With your 62# AMO bow a 59" string will get you very close.

[rluttrell]

Ok from the deepest part of the handle, I understand that now. When you twist a string and make it shorter do you have to do it any special way? I read if the arrow goes up and down its spine if it goes right and left that is nock or brace height?

[NY Yankee]

The lower your brace height, the longer the power stroke of the string,making the spine seem just a bit less. It also will lower your nocking point unless you have left it loose so you can adjust it. use a bow square to keep your nock point in the right spot. By the way, up and down is nock point adjustment (and/or brace height). Side to side is spine adjustment. You should find out from your bowyer what the range is for your bow and where he measures from. My Bighorn is measured from the rear edge of the shelf. Leave on loop on the bow and twist or untwist the other end then reinstall the string and shoot a few shots then measure the brace height. once you find the best brace height for your bow, nock an arrow and mark it with a sharpie where it meets the shelf. Out in the field, you can perform a quick check with that marked arrow to see if the length has changed. That might mean that something is wrong.

[Smallwood]

Originally posted by rluttrell:
Ok from the deepest part of the handle, I understand that now. When you twist a string and make it shorter do you have to do it any special way? I read if the arrow goes up and down its spine if it goes right and left that is nock or brace height?

Nope, just the opposite...if your arrow is poroising up and down, it's usually a nock point adjustment. If your arrow is fishtailing, it's arrow spine and can be fixed by adjusting your brace height higher or lower.
If the arrows are hitting left of the target they are too stiff.
If they hit right of the target, they are too weak.

As a general rule with brace height(bh)...
Lower the bh to make the shaft ACT STIFFER
Raise the bh to make the shaft ACT WEAKER

[Smallwood]

[Smallwood]

[Smallwood]

[Smallwood]

[Smallwood]

And always do your twisting or untwisting from the bottom loop. Just don't untwist it past the lowest recommended bh or the string will come apart.
With my strings, you twist clockwise to lower bh and twist counterclockwise to raise bh.
hope this helps,
sammy

[**DONOTDELETE**]

You have just about all the info you need here from the guys that have posted already. The only thing i might add is finding proper brace height takes a little getting used to.... if you don't have a recommended brace height from the bowyer, could you tell us what kind of bow you have? and the length?

you see.... recurve bows are more likely to have brace heights from 7.5" to 8.5" to the deepest part of your grip, and a lot of long bows shoot best starting at 6" to 6.5".

you can start out by just pulling the string back about an inch and letting it go and listen to it... if it's buzzing a bit or you are feeling vibration.... tighten it up till that stops buzzing first.... as you start shooting the bow the lower the brace you have the more energy it transfers to the shaft, but you will get more noise and vibration in the grip. you need to determine a happy medium for performance vs hand shock, and noise.... once you have it shooting good you can add string silencers to help quiet things down.

another thing that determines a good brace height is arrow weight... on a typical trad set up you should stay between 8-10 grains per pound of draw weight.... the lighter the arrow, the more noise you'll get out of it....

as you get more experience shooting these things, you'll get the hang of adjusting arrow length and tip weight to make your spine match your bow. i'd recommend starting with at least 9-10 gpp arrows. even going up to 12 gpp helps when you first get started. heavier arrows with 5 inch fletching are more forgiving to a poor release that lighter weight set ups with small fletching....

hope that helps some...

Kirk

[rluttrell]

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I read if the arrow goes up and down its spine if it goes right and left that is nock or brace height?
  I had my dyslexia moment I meant to write it the other way, My bower did send me the instructions for brace height. I am just new and didn’t fully understand everything.
Thank you guys for taking the time and explaining it to me.

[NY Yankee]

The lower your brace height, the longer the power stroke of the string,making the spine seem just a bit less. It also will lower your nocking point unless you have left it loose so you can adjust it. use a bow square to keep your nock point in the right spot. By the way, up and down is nock point adjustment (and/or brace height). Side to side is spine adjustment. You should find out from your bowyer what the range is for your bow and where he measures from. My Bighorn is measured from the rear edge of the shelf. Leave on loop on the bow and twist or untwist the other end then reinstall the string and shoot a few shots then measure the brace height. once you find the best brace height for your bow, nock an arrow and mark it with a sharpie where it meets the shelf. Out in the field, you can perform a quick check with that marked arrow to see if the length has changed. That might mean that something is wrong.

[Smallwood]

 sorry about all the posts...it wasn't a computer problem, it was me.
working 11pm-7am really screws with my brain functions.   :eek: