Braced for good shooting

    "Boys, if the string doesn't bite your wrist, you've got it braced too high" 

     Howard Hill's words to John and Dan Schulz and something lost on most longbow shooters today.

     The following instruction sheet was given by John Schulz with new bow purchases back when he built glassed Longbows, and the sheet after that is from the era when he built non-glassed Longbows. Notice the recommended brace heights listed, and the other things that extend a Hill style longbow's lifespan.

      Schulz is saying here, what I have heard echoed by other longbow makers from years ago.  The glassed longbow is glassed for durability and to add some speed to the limb recovery, it doesn't make the bow indestructible.  Schulz mentions that the recommendations are for a lifetime of shooting pleasure. It's implied that it means a lifetime of shooting the bow that was included with the instructions.  We see today, many Schulz (and other makers') longbows that are going on 50 plus years old, still in use and we know of Hill style longbows that met their demise early.  Most of these failures in the bows are at the sight window area from what I've seen over the years.  Rarely in the limb area even though the limbs get a bit of knock-around abuse.  Then there's some abuse at the tips from the inadvertent hitting of the tips on trees, walls, ceilings, rocks, etc.  But we're going to address the usual failure and how brace height most likely affects it in this style of longbow.

     Schulz mentions in the instructions that you don't draw the bow without an arrow, and when I was with him, and he allowed me to draw his bow, it was with "his" arrow.  This was meant to keep me from overdrawing his bow longer than what it was tillered for.  He mentions not overdrawing the bow as well, and the brace height recommendations would be deemed rather low by today's standards.  We all know archers who say that overdrawing a bow will get more energy and power out of the extra inch or two of increased weight and limb travel.  This may be very true in a recurve or hybrid bow design.  In a deep core longbow...especially one of the design that Hill made popular....not so much and here's why.

     In a properly tillered Hill style longbow, per Hill's instructions in his book "Hunting the Hard Way", he says that every inch of the limb has to do its share of the work.  That means the limb bends all the way down into the handle.  A recurve or hybrid bow doesn't have that feature.  Their limbs start bending several inches away from the handle and on a very many supposed Hill style longbows, a braced and drawn bow will show that the limbs start bending to any great degree sometimes mid limb at least. This feature takes pressure of the draw force away from the handle.  Their working limbs are shorter and quicker to recover and the shock of the limbs' forward motion is absorbed by the non-working limb and handle.  On a proper Hill style longbow, the limbs bend all the way into the handle and the handle itself becomes part of the tiller and alignment of the bow.  Much like a selfbow in this regard.  And, much like a selfbow, the first time a Hill style longbow is drawn, the belly lams of the bow compress in the lam materials to the belly side, which causes the back side to have more tension.  As a Hill style longbow is tillered properly down to weight, the forces of the draw and weight compression are tillered as part of the bow.  You only bend the bow a little at first, gradually tillering as you increase the draw length and then you stop at the desired full draw length of the shooter.  Almost everyone understands that overdrawing a selfbow beyond the tillered draw length will drastically reduce performance and start the process to an early bow failure.  Adding glass to the bow makes it almost indestructible in most archers' minds, but that isn't the case.  It only prolongs the shooting life.

     Schulz was building a bow for a lifetime of shooting.  He expected the bow to last that long for the shooter.  And that is much the case for the older bows still in use by shooters who've never overdrawn their bow.  A lot of older Hill style longbows built 50 or more years ago.  This is not so common in the fairly new used bow market. Shooters think they can get any ol' longbow and shoot it with any ol' draw length they wish, because the bow weight was marked at 27" or 28" and it doesn't hurt the bow to shoot it at 30"...does it?  Not according to the internet pros.  Well, Schulz thought so, and so did other Hill style longbow makers and their pupils...namely Don Burdette, Dale Phillips, John Watson, Del Allen, Pete George and the Schulz boys among others.  They were known to recommend not drawing or shooting any of their bows at lengths longer than what was listed on the bow.  This information however, was usually not passed down to any future owners / shooters of the bows. After a bow changed hands a few times, new owners would wonder why there was a crack at the sight window of the bow...when did that happen?  It's called riser flex and it happens because a Hill style longbow has a short handle and the handle is bending a bit with the drawing of the limbs.  When you draw the limbs into a tighter arc than was originally tillered, you are creating a lot of internal stress on the fadeouts and sight window,  and also creating a breakdown of the lam materials towards the belly side, which reduces the amount of limb recoil speed that was originally possible.  Schulz built thousands of bows in this design and he knew his stuff.  Other bowmakers that don't have as deep a limb core, have a higher glass to core ratio, and their limbs may not bend all the way to the handle...and this issue is not a problem for their bows.  But then, maybe their bows can be called an ASL but not a Hill style.  Here again, there is a difference due to the design that is lost on a lot of casual observers.

       When you shoot one of these Hill style longbows with a brace height that is 1" up to 2" higher than was originally meant by the builder, you are basically compressing the longbow with what is essentially a longer draw length; because the bow is again, being drawn into a tighter arc.  Failure might not happen immediately, but the clock is ticking to failure.

       Hill said the string should bite the wrist. That means you probably would need a bracer or armguard.  Nothing wrong with that.  You never saw him or his disciples shooting without one. They are good to keep the string from slapping your wrist, and as an added feature, give some protection from the chance of an arrow breaking upon release.

      There are those who say that they need to have a higher brace height in order to tune their bow and arrow setup.  I don't believe that is true.  If the brace height is lower, it adds more power stroke to the bow and the string carries into the bow further, which will essentially stiffen the spine. So shoot lower spine arrows.  Easy fix. Or add a touch of arrow length or tip weight...just a touch because you don't want a dart with a heavy head...remember arrow balance?   However, I think that lowering the brace height to a range that Schulz recommended makes the bow draw smoother and easier.  Arrow speed is a touch faster as well.  I shoot 6" brace or less on all my bows and know some who shoot around 5 1/2" with no issues of tuning arrows, carbon or wood or whatever.  If you want to lower yours, just do it and then don't tune a single arrow or change a single thing, except to go out and just shoot the bow for about 500 shots with your existing arrow setup.  Don't worry about any tuning at first.  Just shoot.  After about 500 shots you'll start to forget what the bow felt like before at the higher brace and with your relaxed form (not stressing about if the brace height changed your tuning), you'll be shooting freely and I'd wager that your arrow flight will not change much if at all. WE get worked up on the nuances of tuning and most of the time, like Schulz said, it's the archer that needs tuning, not the bow.  So just shoot and enjoy the feel of the bow, knowing you aren't overstressing it.  Get to understand your bow and shoot it for a lifetime and it will become an extension of you. 

      At the bottom of the Schulz list, he says to practice and shoot your bow until it becomes a part of you and the bow will give you years of shooting pleasure.  Keeping the brace low and the bow from being overdrawn will give you a very long relationship with your bow....and will help you to...

     Shoot Straight.