Today i received my brand new Bear takedown. B riser and #1 limbs. The overall bow is 60"AMO. It came with decent flemish twist string from 3rivers archery. I will be shooting it first time tomorrow. What's the brace height i should set the bow to?

Bear says 7 1/2 to 8 1/2. I have mine at a touch over 8"

X2

On both the 3 -Rivers and Bear brochure I've got they say 7-8". I've got mine at 7-1/2"..... But you'll need to fine tune yours to suit your release, arrow weight, string noise etc.

Cheers, Scott.

According to KK's Bear chart above, a 60-inch B riser bow should be braced at 7-8 inches. Just shy of 8 inches works well for me.

Bears bows are made to amo/ata standards where most today are not. Put that string on and you will be at the brace the bow was designed for. Measure the string while its on the bow and it'll be 3 inches shorter than the bow.

GLF: I'm not certain about Bear currently building limbs to ata standards. I have several older sets of Bear TD no. 1 limbs, red and white tips made in the 80s. They're pretty close. My strings for those no.1 limbs, which make a 60-inch bow on a B riser, are all 57 inches, give or take an eighth inch.

However, I've recently come across two sets of no.1 limbs made in the last 1-3 years that are 1/2 to 5/8 inch shorter than my old limbs, and they take a string that's 55 1/2 inches on the same riser and make about a 58 1/2-59-inch bow. I've laid those limbs on top of my old limbs on their sides and the curvature of the limbs is identical, they're just 1/2 to 5/8 inch shorter, shortened from the tip ends.

Don't know if these two sets of limbs are just flukes, or if Bear intentionally shortened them for some reason, and, if so, why.

I don't know about the td's. I just bought a phenolic super k. The string was shorter than I wanted so called bear n they sent me another, also too short. So I measured the bow, its 64" exactly. I measured the string after it had been on the bow a couple hours and drawn a few times. It's exactly 61" so I called them since you always hear 4 inches shorter and 3 for longbow. The guy there told me that amo standards say a 64" bow(all 64" bows,even longbows) should be the length it would take to get the manufacturers ideal brace height with a 64" amo string. Because of different designs not all 64" amo bows are the same length. They figure 3 inches but if the bow has a weird shape or the manufacturer wants a higher or lower brace then the bow might be a little shorter or longer in order to get the brace they want with a 64 amo string.

So the definition of a 64" amo bow is a bow that when strung with a 64" amo string is the brace height the bow was designed for. The same goes for all other lengths as well.

So orion, I don't know but the only thing I can think of after what I was told, maybe the newer ones are designed to have a lower brace height. Since amo strings don't change length if they wanted a lower brace they'd have to shorten the bow.

AMO CONVENTIONAL BOW LENGTH STANDARD AMO Bow Length Standard is designated to be three inches longer than AMO Bow String Master that braces bow at proper String or Brace Height. Bow String Master will carry only the bow length designation. Example: A Bow String Master designated as AMO 66” (bow length) will have an actual length under tension of 63”. Cable length is determined by placing loops over 1/4” diameter steel pins and stretching under 100 pound load and measuring from outside of pin to outside of pin. Tolerance is +-1/16”. End loops of cable will be 1 1/4” long and plastic coated. Bow String Master shall have the following material specifications or equivalent: 1/16” 7 x 7 galvanized (Mil-C-1511) or stainless (Mil-C-5424) steel aircraft cable of 480 lb. test.

A Bow String Master Set shall consist of twenty-five Bow String Masters to measure bow lengths in one inch increments ranging from 48” to 72”; (i.e. actual string lengths 45” to 69”). The AMO prefix to bow lengths in inches means that the bow has been manufactured to a length that properly uses a bow string designated with the identical AMO marking. (i.e. A bow marked “AMO 60”, 50 lb. will brace to the proper string height with a string marked “AMO 60”, 45 lb. to 55 lb.)

Yep. My 57-inch strings yield a brace height on my older limbs that falls within the parameters specified by Bear, i.e. 7-8 inches for a B riser with no. 1 limbs. Thus, the bow would be considered a 60-inch bow by AMO/ATA standards, and Bear identifies/markets it as such.

However, when I put that same string on the newer limbs, the brace height drops to about 4 inches. I need a 55 1/2 to 55 5/8-inch string to get the brace height to between 7 and 8 inches. Following AMO/ATA standards/nomenclature, that means these limbs make a 58 1/2 or 59-inch bow.

I'm going to give Bear a call and see if someone there can explain the discrepancy for me.

Orion , read the last paragraph of the last post of mine. These were taken from a websightI was told to go to for ata/amo standard.

No 2 bows are alike especially customs. That's one of the reasons for the variance. No 2 shooters are alike either. Take the different string materials into account among other things and we have to find out for us what brace works the variances gives us starting points but not the exacts. Sound of the string and bows varies from archer to archer too. I have sold bows that for me were quiet and I had a certain brace I liked that I thought worked only to find it didn't really work for the new owner? Bowyers recommend and I had found different on a couple bows that were pointed out to me when I had certain strings made. Try this brace and see what you think now and it was a little better.

Wow, 4 inches?? they wouldn't have done that on purpose I wouldn't think. I'm lost, call bear.

Most custom bowyers don't know or understand the ata/amo standards just like small bowtring makers don't. It's just not used any longer by small manufacturers.

GLF: I understand and agree with the ATA standard. My old limbs conform to that standard. The newer ones don't.

I just got off the phone with a Bear rep. He understood my issue. Though he couldn't/wouldn't acknowledge that Bear screwed up, he did tacitly acknowledge that there were some limbs like that out there and said "those limbs should never have left the factory." He suggested sending such limbs back to Bear for replacement. So, what this tells me is that the limbs that I ran into just happened to be flukes. Someone mismeasured a few.

Oh ok, thanks guy. I was just curious as to what happened.

My manual says 7-8"... But whatever

My 1998 B w/ #1 shoots 65#. Its likes a 7 1/2 brace height best.

Have fun finding it! I thought it was more of a pain than nocking point because my limbs are so darn loud as a shooter. Its a wisper when you're not the one holding it though.

Orion, if they are flukes I have two sets of 55# no. 1 limbs. They shoot fine I just have to make the strings. I was curious at ETAR this year and bought two different AMO ATA 60 inch strings. Both gave me a brace height between 5 and 6 inches with out being shot. But they are good with older limbs.

Ophf,

Re-read KodiakTD's photo, my manual is right. That's what I get for skimming, force of habit.

Hawkeye: I've only found this discrepancy in two sets of newer Bear No.1 limbs, those with the red and black laminated tip overlays and black action wood wedges. Regardless, as far as I could tell, there was nothing wrong with the limbs. They looked good and shot good as well. But, they are about 1/2 to 5/8-inch shorter than my older limbs.

You've apparently found the same thing with your newer limbs. A 57-inch string AMO- ATA string length for a 60-inch bow,(and yours were probably a bit less than that because they weren't shot) should yield a brace height of 7 to 8 inches, not 5 to 6 inches. And, you report the same strings brace your older limbs as normal.

Lay one of your older limbs on its side on a flat surface and lay one of the newer limbs on top of it. Should be able to tell immediately if it's shorter. If so, you'll need to decide whether you want to keep them or return them for longer limbs. As I noted earlier, nothing wrong with them except for them being shorter. Let us know what you find out.

Don't know how many of these limbs are out there. Might have been a run of a day, a week, a month, etc. Most folks wouldn't know it unless they checked their string length and/or physically compared one of the newer limbs to older limbs. That's what I get for being anal.

Orion, yes you are correct! In length and description of limb. The set I'm using now isn't going anywhere. They are one of the sweetest shooting easiest to tune limbs I've ever had, if that makes any sense. I figure the tiller was just perfect for my style of shooting.

When I replace them the string jig will be back out again!! Thanks for the info.

Jeff

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