BobCo19-65

I wear an armguard everytime I even pull back a bow for two reasons. First, because I had a string break, wrap around the bow and snap me like a whip, leaving a gash and nice bruise, second, to keep my clothing out of the way. Besides, my compound I also shoot a recurve. My brace on the compound is 7 3/8.

Rack-attack

I hunt with a 6-5/8 brace height and never need a guard when practicing.

I do use electrical tape on my heavy coat to make sure there is no contact.

Ossage

It seems to me that really low brace heights are on the outs right now. Everyone has the idea they are harder to shoot etc... I think the lowest I have had on a bow is 7", and I don't have any problem with that.

Four things that help are:

1) A traditional style arm guard, not one of those crapy things with a couple of pieces of panty elastic on it, get one that is serious leather, with either shock cords or leather straps, unless your clothes are ridiculous you should be able to control them. Remember the hat keeps you warm, there isn't all that much action in the left forearm, as long as there is something reasonable covering it.

Leather ones are easy to make if yo have leather skills. I also have one of these:

http://www.bowsite2.com/acb/showdetl...=2936&CATID=64

The picture sucks, the one I have isn't light in colour, and is so handsome I couldn't walk by.

2) Chest protector I don't use one, but if the issue is also you chest area (not really part of the current discusion) it helps.

3) Most grips encourage too deep a grip, in the proper position you shouldn't ever need an arm guard to shoot on a warm day with a compound/release. If your string is slaping your arm when you don't have loads of stuff on , you are way too deep. This is a compound/release thing. Some bows like longbows (riser style)need a bit of a deep grip, And I would never not wear a guard. release makes a difference also. Depending on what you are doing a finger release may narrow your window also.

4) In winter you really need a shorter draw length bow than you can sensibly shoot in summer. So just be careful that you don't always buy your new bow something like August 15. I don't think a short draw length is a good idea, but somewhere on the short side of the correct length is. It may actualy help your general shooting.

Straightarrow

Ossage,

Thanks for your suggestions with the armguard. I think my grip is correct. I don't get any arm slap even with a light jacket on, and I never wear an armguard except when I have a very heavy jacket on. Even then, it only seems to hit the jacket if I'm at a very weird angle like you often get into while hunting. I've never owned what I would consider a good armguard. I'll have to go out and pick one up.

It will certainly make my search for a new bow easier if I decide to consider some with a brace height under 8".