quiksilver

Since we have been thinking a little bit about bow speeds - check this out.

Think: an average ATA bow, but only a 3-4" brace height, using 2 STS stoppers to keep the string over-travel from slamming your wrist. Cables pulled to the side via roller guard.

By stepping down from a traditional 7" brace height, you'd be adding another 3-4" to the effective draw, and a MUCH longer force-draw curve. Conventional thinking says that by cutting out that much brace height, and replacing it with effective draw length, you could add 30+ feet per second, right?

The riser would just reach 3-4 more inches forward, pulling the strings and cables that much closer to the grip.

I guess, looking at my 5 minute redneckcrude drawing, it's a little off, and the strings/cable would be fed through a roller guard that would most likely be offset right at the grip itself. (Closer to the riser than it actually appears in the picture). But that's me nitpicking.

Anyway, why wouldn't it work?

Really, there are enough "crutches" available to make up for a bad shooter (string loop, dropaway, etc..), that something like this might be "shootable." I mean, there are newbs out there as we speak shooting lights-out with 6" bh X-forces.

mobow

Man dude, you would be talking more the 30 fps I believe....Prolly more like 50.......I'm no engineer though......

I would think you have to build it with some sort of shoot through system, I feel like if you used a roller cable gaurd you might be putting an awefull lot of torque on the system.....

Wouldn't be the most forgiving bow in the world, but it just may be the fastest...

arrows42071

Just think of all the money you could have made if you only had applied for the patent before you posted the pic on the internet.

Arthur P

7" is only 'traditional' if you haven't been around bows longer than 4-5 years. Brace heights just came back UP to 7" fairly recently. Many used to be in the 5" range to squeeze out a little more IBO speed. Problem was those bows were so critical of shooting errors that most people couldn't shoot them worth a darn. So, low brace bows failed in the market place and manufacturers went back to making bows that were a little slower but reasonably easy to shoot well.

Not to mention that bows braced that low are practically impossible to shoot while wearing cold weather gear.

bigbulls

The problem with a bow with that short of a brace height is that it becomes very unstable and takes a long time to settle in the hand when you pulol to full draw.

The bows pivot point is at the grip. The string is only 3 inches rear of the grip and the limbs are attached 9 inches in front of the grip.

Basically the more reflexed the riser the more the bow wants to turn around backwards as you pull the string.

quiksilver

BB - I was thinking about that - there is a point where the bow will actually try to flip backwards. Not sure where that point is, though. I'd think as long as the handle isn't BEHIND the cams, it won't try to flip, b/c the contact point (the cam) is always (on the axis) between the handle and the nockpoint.

Art - while they did try short bh bows, they weren't shooting them with string loops, dropaways and STS's to keep the strings off their hands. Also, they were built using inferior materials and not many people really knew how to shoot with a consistent form either. As you know, I'm sure, there were a lot of ideas out there that floundered once, then came back to the forefront later (dropaway rests, STS's, cable rollers, etc..). A lot of guys ruined a lot of watches on those old PSE Mach bows. That story might have ended differently, if they had a dampener installed, blocking the string from overtraveling forward and stinging them.

wis_bow_huntr

isnt there already a bow similar to that its like really tiny?? i cant seem to find it right now.

wis_bow_huntr

here it is I think.

Arthur P

Oh, please, quicksilver, keep telling me how we used to do things. It's SO entertaining.

Yes, even way back at the turn of the new millenium , we were using string loops and releases. We certainly did know how to shoot with consistent form. The manufacturers were using exactly the same materials then as they are now. NOTHING has changed in the short time since except the move to longer risers and shorter parallel limbs.

And parallel limb technology, that's not new, if you'll go back and take a look at the old Rigid compound from the 70's. I'll even post up a pic of it for you. Naturally, this was long before they figured out the stuff about reflexing the riser to shorten brace height, but here you had a 34" axle to axle bow with a machined aluminum riser.

quiksilver

Sorry Artie - most older limbs were compression molded, and now they're glass laminates, built using a whole different subset of components. Much more adept at handling repetitive flex. If you don't believe me, I have a 250 grain arrow that I'll let you borrow to shoot out of your maxed out1992 PSE. We'll see how it handles that. Bring your trash bag, your hockey helmet,and your warranty card. But you knew that anyway.