Brace Height/arrow spine/arrow length--your basic newbie questions

[virginiashadow]

I am looking to possibly change up my brace height on my recurve.  Right now, it is set at 7 1/4 inches.  I would like to mess around with it and see where it feels the most forgiving/quiet. I feel I can do better than I am currently oing in terms of arrow forgiveness. What effects do you think I will see out of my bow if I change the BH tomorrow from 7.25 inches to 7.5-7.75 inches? I have a Martin X-200 set at 55#@28 inches.


Another thing, I believe my arrows are too short.  I am shooting 27.5 inch arrows and I ran the numbers on a spine calculator and to get my bow where I want it, I need to up my arrow length to 30 inches.  Do any of you shoot longer arrows?


The only other way for me to weaken the spine of my arrows is to increase the tip weight....and my brain at this time cannot comprehend the drop of the arrow with such a heavy tip.  Ive tried a heavier tip and the drop at 20 yards is just too much for me to handle mentally.  Right now I am shooting 175 grain tips with a 15 grain insert.  The only way I think I can slightly bump the arrow weight and in turn reduce the spine strength is too get new arrows cut at 30 inches.  That would put me right around 500 grain total arrow weight with around a 50-52 pound draw weight....man I am rambling now.  Thanks.


Brett

[Blackstick]

Martin recommends a brace height of 7 ¾” to 8 ½“ for the X-200. I’ve found their recommendations to be right on for my Dream Catcher.

[virginiashadow]

Thank you Blackstick, I am going to up the BH to 7 3/4 then start testing it out from there to see where it feels the best.

[Ragnarok Forge]

I would definately go to longer arrows and work from there.  A recurve or longbow is not a compound.  You don't get your arrows cut to your draw lenght and then tune.  You want to start with full length arrows and tune them and the bow to each other.  If you need to shorten the arrows cut off no more than 1/4 inch at a time while working with different head weights.   Lots of trad shooters have 3 or 3ven four inches of arrows sticking in front of the bow at full draw.  The extra lenght doesn't interfere with anything and can help you get a perfectly tuned arrow which will vastly improve your confidence and ability to shoot well.  Plus a perfectly tuned arrow provides dramatic improvements in penetration on animals you shoot.

[virginiashadow]

Thank you Ragnarok, I will be purchasing full length arrows in the next two weeks.  I feel if I can get my arrows to be 30.5 inches BOP then I will be getting a much better marriage between my bow and arrows.  

I moved by Brace Height to around 8 inches today. It felt a tad better. I am going to put a couple hundred arrows through the bow with the 8 inch BH and see if it continues to shoot better. It seems to shooting a tad faster as well.

[stickbowhafe]

I have been starting at the high end of the brace height range and shooting a couple three arrows. Then, take a twist or two out of the string and shoot a few more. Keep doing this until that bow hits its "sweet" spot.  There will be a place in the middle where it just "sings" as you go down in brace height. You will know when you hit it and when you pass it on the next "untwist". It take a little time, but it is worth it.

[metsastaja]

trying to tune with arrows you think are not correct can be very very frustrating. Why bother.
I would sit down and figure out what bow set up I planed B50, FF string, Quiver attached? or not. What silencer on the string? cat whiskers, hush puppies Walmart wool homemade.  Get your bow set the way you plan to hunt. If you are using Stu's calculator the center cut and string type can make a huge difference on out come.  Call Martin and find out what the center cut is or measure it yourself do not guess.
 


Now it is time to sit down and do some reading
   Longbow and recurve tuning .  I suggest you print it out, read it and and make some notes.

Stu's calculator will get you in the ballpark and sometimes right on the money. Adcock's tuning will help you get right on.

Having consistent form really pays off.

[virginiashadow]

Thank you stik and met, I really appreciate the information. I will read it all.

[virginiashadow]

stickbow, I hope I didnt miss the sweet spot-I played around with the BH today and found a BH right below 8 to feel pretty good. Once I got to 8 1/4 inches the string started to make a tiny sound that I did not like and the release did not feel that good.

metsastaja--I read the link you provided, THANK you.

[woodcock]

I read the info above about tuning your bow from Adcock and tried it myself this afternoon.  Quite interesting!  To make a bare shaft fly like my fletched arrows took some playing but after some nock height adjustments it was right on.  unfortunately it changes my gaps but not enough that I can't adapt and certainly makes my long range shots more point on for 3-d shooting.  Which is OK by me to be point on at 30 yds.  I have not played with a greater FOC yet cause I really like the way my arrows fly with 145 field tips almost exactly same as my 160 gr broadheads.  What fun to tinker with!!!Joe

[eric-thor]

http://bowmaker.net/tuning.htm
print this out