You don’t have to be a technical wizard to be a proficient archer, but every archer should know a few basic maintenance skills. Recurve archers, for instance, must learn how to adjust their brace height.

What’s brace height?

A bow’s brace height is the distance from the grip’s deepest part to the bowstring. It’s important to maintain a consistent brace height because it affects your arrow’s impact point. Brace heights can change as the bowstring stretches, or you repeatedly remove and re-string your recurve.

How to Adjust Your Brace Height

What You Need:

Bow Stringer

Bow Square

Step 1:

String your bow. Learn how here.

Step 2:

Measure your brace height. Place the bow square in the grip’s deepest part and check the measurement at the bowstring.

Step 3:

Remove the bowstring.

Step 4:

If your brace height is too low, give the bowstring a few twists. If your brace height is too high, unwind a few twists from the bowstring. After adding or removing a few twists, re-string your bow and check the brace height again. Once you’ve done this task a few times you’ll learn how many twists achieve your desired brace height.

Do you need a bow square or bow stringer? Visit an archery shop to pick them up. You can find the closest archery shop by clicking here.