jdowney85

im relatively new to shooting archery and havent hunted yet...but plan to in the future.i recently bought a hoyt powerhawk and the recoil it has is a little more then i felt when i shot the alphamax by hoyt and the drenalin by mathews.so i am trying to sell my powerhawk to get a new bow.i have it narrowed down to a hoyt alphamax,mathews drenalin ld,or the mathews monster(or monster xlr8r)but,the new monster series bows havedrasticaly different brace heights.

im wondering what the big difference i will notice shooting from a 7inch brace height down to a 6 or even 5 inch brace height?

SwampCollie

Well I'll say this about a 5" brace height... I know we'll have one here in the shop pretty soon.. I'm eager to see it from a techinical curiosity standpoint, but I think I'm going to take my wrist watch off before I shoot it.

Lower the brace height is, the less forgiving (more difficult to shoot well) a bow will be.

FSUBIGMAC

Swamp is right im afraid. Thats the natural tendency of bows with low brace heights. If you are looking for a smooth drawing bow and one that has little vibration I would look towards single cam bows. Just my opinion. If you want to buy into all the mathews ads and publicity I would check out the Reezin 7.0 -- I think it seems like the most reasonable in their lineup. The "standard" brace now adays is around 7 inches so I would stick close to that if not a little longer. Just shoot a bunch of bows. If you do decide to go the single cam route don't just check mathews out -- try the diamond line -- I love my Marquis. I have nothing against mathews cause I would buy the old switchback in a heartbeat if I had the money -- but I was not a DXT fan because of how light it was. Just shoot what you are comfortable with.

KodiakArcher

Not what I've found with some of the new single cams. My '08 DXT ramps up just as hard as my '06 binary cam BowTech with the speed modules.

As far as brace height goes, in general, the greater it is the more forgiving the bow will be to poor shot execution. The shorter it is, the more efficient the bow will be at transferring energy thereby making it faster. As a beginner I'd recommend something moderate. As FSU said, something at least 7". Also take into account that shorter draw length shooters can shoot a shorter brace and ATA bow without giving up what a longer draw shooter would.

Matt/NC

In order to shoot 5" brace height what would be a good draw length? Shorter draw length for a shorter brace?

KodiakArcher

Depends on how perfect your form is but the shorter the better.

Matt/NC

27.5 or 28 in draw length? would that make 5 in brace any easier

KodiakArcher

It'd make it easier than 29.5 or 30" draw length but not as easy as 25.5 or 26. A shooting machine will shoot a 5" brace height at 30" draw just fine. The question is how close is your form to that of a shooting machine?

Black Stick

I just saw the Elite lineup and it is impressive to say the least. I am going to make a trip to one of their dealers by me this weekend to shoot them. The GT500 specs are incredible. A bow with a 7 1/8" brace height is not supposed to shoot 346 fps IBO. I gotta try this thing out. Wow!

Black Stick

Here is the link to their bows. At least check them out.