Is there any difference?

[Curmudgeon]

Is there any difference in the performance of a custom bow built for a given draw length, 26" in my case, and a bow five pounds or so over the desired weight at 28". Are custom bows designed to "peak' at the designated draw length?

[DEERSLAYER1961]

A bow that is say 50#@26" and one 56#@28" is the same bow. In other words if you were to shoot a bow marked 56#@28" it would be the same as if you shot one 50#@26"  there would be no performance difference.  

>DEERSLAYER---->

[Al Dean]

There is a difference, maybe not arrow speed, but in a lot of other ways.

[aromakr]

I have to agree with Al. There used to be a bowyer here in Montana that built the bow to your draw length, once you got past that length the pounds really started to add up. His bows would usually build at the rate of 2-3# per inch up to the desired draw, they would then jump to 5-6# per inch after that. He did that by increasing of decreasing the length of the fadeouts. I can' say every custom bowyer does that but there are a few.
Bob