I also prefer a longer stabilizer for the reasons stated above. I put very little emphasis on shock absorption for stabilizers. I know there are plenty out there that our effective at, I'm just not that overly sensitive to it, and would rather have the added length for stabilization About 10+" is good for me. I'm currently shooting an Xtreme stab with adjustable screw in weights. It's 12" with all of the weights, but I'm shooting only 2 of the 4.