recurve issue - need guidance

[TexaRican]

I'll try to describe what is happening. Normally (in the past) I have not needed an arm guard when shooting a recurve. However, my current bow is slapping the heck out of me and not where you might think. It seems the string is continuing way, way beyond brace height and hitting way up on my wrist. What could be the cause of this? Is it possible my string is the wrong length? The bow is also very loud but I have done nothing to quiet it.

[Deb]

Check your brace height.

[Mike Javi Cooper]

Check your brace height.

Yep..

[Ron]

X3

[Night Wing]

X4

[TexaRican]

Ok, that makes sense. This is an old bow and I just had to guess on the brace height based on the weight and length. I'll experiment tonight.

[ShaBow]

What bow is it!

[Greywolf in Hawaii]

Try making a fist and stick your thumb up, put the fist in the lowest part of the handle, the string should be in the range of your thumb nail. if it's on the quick or base of the nail add a few twists if you have a finger space(I doubt it) between the string and end of thumb. Remove a few twists.

But, I'd venture a guess that your nocks are also way too tight, causing the arrow to keep attached to your string and "Pull it" into your wrist. if your arrow "snaps" on the string and you can hear it you've found the problem. (Providing your brace height is a described above)

If this is the problem take a small pan of water, get it boiling, snap any dermal tool bit into the nock, swirl the nock around in the boiling water for 5-6 seconds (no longer), then run it under cold water to "set" the plastic in the new position.

This should get rid of the wrist burn.

[Ron Meloni]

That Dremel trick sounds like a great one. Good stuff.

[Mike Javi Cooper]

Could just reserve the string if the nocks are to tight... takes less than 5 minutes and then replacement nocks fit without having to go through the trouble of melting them...

[TexaRican]

Well, I think it is going to be the brace height but my nocks do fit tight so I may be adjusting that too. This is an old montgomery ward bow that has lost it's markings. The string it came with is shorter than the new one I'm using so I've twisted the new one down to get the same brace height as the original string.

My arm hurt too much to shoot again last night. Too bad because the night before I had my best trad shooting session - ever. I had just re-fletched my first arrows and was so happy to finally be seeing the arrows hit where I want them. I was drilling a baseball size spot out to 20 yards which made me not really care about how bad my wrist was getting slapped. Today there is still an ugly big bruise there

[Ron]

You might consider getting an arm guard while your tuning your bow. It'll stop that string slap and keep you from flinching when you release. You might not flinch now, but if it keeps hitting you, you'll start.

[TexaRican]

Thanks for the help everybody.

-Brace height increase cured the slap.

-Inexpensive arm guard provided some added confidence.

-String whiskers quieted things down.

-Nocks turned out not to be an issue.

I had another really good shooting session - until I got cocky. Backed up too far, about 27 yards, dropped my hand a little and had a flyer

This is why I should take my time and move my target to the back yard with a proper backstop and not shoot into my garage



That is a 2x4 it went through and the Easton aluminum arrow is no worse for wear. In fact, its still straight as an... well, you know.

[Deb]

I'd say you've got the bug.

[Greywolf in Hawaii]

You are a 2x4 killin machine !!!!