Brace Height

Yes your brace height is measured from the back of the grip to the string. Seven inch is the key number, seven and over is a high brace and under seven is a low brace. As far as the differance well to a newer shooter none only because they would not have the experience to know they were shooting in bad forum to start with unless they had help from a knolagable friend or someone else. I would still recommend a high brace for a new shooter, if they are going to self teach just to pull out for hunting.The lower the brace the faster an less forgiving the bow, keep in mind an arrow spends its first part of flight correcting its self from the initial shot, so the more off the peron or the bow and the combination of the two the more time the arrow needs to correct, and in some case's this is fixed with better forum and some with proper tuning to the equipment. Usually bad forum will a lot of the time equal string rash on the forearm, one realy common sign of bad forum. I even still seem to get mine every now and again rushing a shot.

I was recently involved in what started out as general discussion and became a very intense and elaborate discussion on this very subject.
the rule of thumb for brace height is the shorter the brace height the longer the arrow is in contact with the string and hence the more time the shooter has to influence the product of the shot and the longer the brace height , the shorter time the arrow in in contact with the string and the less influence the shooter can have on the outcome of the shot. so Ive been told.

many arguments can be brought from both sides in support of that statement and just as many to refute it. the problem in the case of this type of discussion is really in the proving of the statements which is most difficult because the only way to get an unbiased result is to conduct a test with a shooting machine and when you do that you take out the element of human error which is really a key factor in the whole statement.

we pretty much ended the conversation with is, 1", 1 1/2" or even 2" of string travel really going to make a difference with the speeds being generated by the bows of today? NO!
10-15 or 20 years ago? YES maybe
my reasoning is this. take a bow generating 300 ft per second. any influence you make during the shot has to occur in roughly 2 300ths of a second. I am willing to bet you cant do much of anything in that span of time. I believe that if anything brace height forces proper shooting form because it magnifies the subtleties of improper form.

From personal experience though, I am shooting bows with a 6" brace height much better than I shot my long brace height bows. granted they are much faster, but that is yet another point that was brought into the the discussion.

all in all, disregard brace height as a factor in the purchase of a bow. shoot the bows you think you would like and if they feel good in the hand and they shoot well for you, go for it.

Sorry but i couldnt disagree more.The average archer the guy who starts shooting before hunting season should shoot a bow with a 7inch or greater. They cant handle a bow with a low brace height.These speed bows with hard cams take an expierenced archer with the same repeatable form shot after shot.The problem is average archers think they can shoot these bows because they dont get their arm slapped because of the string stop.Take a mathews monster or pse omen take off the stop and 99.9 % of archers will have no forearm left.They all have too much hand on the grip which torques the bow but they dont know it.In cold weather these hard cams are tough to draw and have very harsh draw cycles.With the advances in speed theres no need for the archer to go with one of these bows.The average golfer does not use blades for irons like a golf professional does he uses forgiving irons.A higher brace height bow with a softer cam,better draw cycle, and smoother valley is a much better fit for the majority of archers.

spiker said:

Sorry but i couldnt disagree more.The average archer the guy who starts shooting before hunting season should shoot a bow with a 7inch or greater. They cant handle a bow with a low brace height.These speed bows with hard cams take an expierenced archer with the same repeatable form shot after shot.The problem is average archers think they can shoot these bows because they dont get their arm slapped because of the string stop.Take a mathews monster or pse omen take off the stop and 99.9 % of archers will have no forearm left.They all have too much hand on the grip which torques the bow but they dont know it.In cold weather these hard cams are tough to draw and have very harsh draw cycles.With the advances in speed theres no need for the archer to go with one of these bows.The average golfer does not use blades for irons like a golf professional does he uses forgiving irons.A higher brace height bow with a softer cam,better draw cycle, and smoother valley is a much better fit for the majority of archers.

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disagreements are a good thing. other wise some posts would only be the initial post with, nothing following.

Many of the problems you described are directly related to the shooter, their experience or their form or lack of it. if you are shooting a bow improperly, a string stop( which is designed to take out excessive string vibration) is not going to stop you from smacking your arm. I can go outside right now with any of my xforce bows and shoot it improperly and hit my forearm.
cold does not physically affect the bows draw-ability beyond the shooters comfort,cam design does. and as far as hard cams go, all of my 6" brace bows draw as easily if not more easily than any of my long brace bows and are rated 300fps IBO or better.
I self taught myself to shoot a bow and I know my form is not the best. and I know I could use a lot of work. but I can generally hit what I am shooting at with repeatability out to 50 yards(in the kill zone). I am not a newbie or a seasoned world class pro. probably an average archer.

I guess I have a different take on this. I've hunted many years in extreme cold and know that cams do influence felt draw weight. We use to set our bows down 5# just because once your muscles tighten up you cannot draw your normal weight. A round cam bow draws twice as easy as a radical D cam bow just because of the design. There were many times when all of us were unable to draw our bows because we were froze. We finally got smart and set the bows down before the trip sighting them in at the lower weight. It's the main reason I prefer/purchase mild cam bows. I do agree that you need consistant form for good shooting and you need a bow that is comfortable to shoot under all weather conditions. Speed at the sacriface of comfort isn't worth any price. I'm sure today's bows are different than yesterday's bows and the brace height issue maybe is not what it once was. Just a few years ago I wouldn't ever considered a short brace height bow purchase. Let the debate continue, it's good for hunting.