Higher brace heights do make a bow more shootable, Coug, by letting the arrow clear the string earlier, which decreases the amount of time torque can direct the arrow somewhere other than where you aim it. BUT reflexed risers are still much more susceptable to torque than deflex risers. A bow with an 8" brace and deflex riser will shoot every bit as fast as a bow with an 8" brace and reflex riser, but will be more accurate, stable and consistent. With the grip between the limb pivots and the cams, your hand has a good bit of mechanical advantage. The slightest movement, or even pressure in the wrong place, can twist the riser out of alignment with the string and cause the shot to go wide. The more reflexed the riser, the more mechanical advantage you have and the more the problem is amplified. Even worse when the bow is also extremely high letoff because there is hardly any tension on the bow to help keep the string aligned with the bow itself.
With your hand in front of both the limb pivots and cams, you have hardly any mechanical advantage. Even intentionally trying to flex your wrist to twist a deflex riser bow left and right, it can't hardly be done. Especially if the bow is lower letoff. A slight movement or inconsistent grip pressure will affect a deflex riser bow much less than it would the reflex riser. The difference might mean your arrow striking the target fractions of an inch wide vs inches wide, or a line cutter X vs a 10.
Just get a deflex riser bow and a reflex riser bow and do the experiment I outlined. Draw the bow, flex your wrist left and right, and see how much you can move one vs the other. It'll be oh so obvious to you.
Can a reflex riser be shot well? Obviously, yes. Assuming the reflex isn't excessive. Assuming shooting form is rock solid and you don't make any mistakes. The more your bow is reflexed, the more flawless your form must be. For me, I know my limit is 1 1/2" and I don't even shoot that as well as I do a straight or deflex riser bow. My field archery scores prove it.
I know, not many people around these days have ever shot field archery and don't know diddly about it. It's a 28 target course, 4 arrows per target, 560 total points, distances from just a few feet out to 80 yards. It's not only a game to test your accuracy, but also your consistency. Not to mention that shooting 112 arrows for score will test your stamina and concentration. I average 518 shooting in bowhunter freestyle class (didn't say I was good at it!
) with a straight or deflexed bow. I've never been able to score over 475 with a reflexed bow - even with high brace height bows. 475 isn't a whole bunch better than my average shooting my deflexed bows in competitive bowhunter class, which is fingers, no sights, 12" max stabilizer. 460 makes me pretty salty in that class.
Reflex risers make you pay for small mistakes and the more reflex the more you pay. If they have reflex risers and low brace heights, they make you pay dearly. For a given riser configuration, higher brace heights are more forgiving. But I've found riser configuration to be much more important to my shooting than brace height. I can shoot a bow with 1" of deflex and 8" brace much better than I can a bow with 1" of reflex and an 8" brace. That's exactly why I sold my Pearson when I got my ProTec. They both brace at 8" but the ProTec is deflexed and the Pearson was reflexed.
Good concept with the paperclip thing, Mattiac. You posted whilst I was typing!
