Ed I owned an HC30 for many years. Those short limbs were kinda prone to fail because they had a very short working area. If one builds short limbs the pressure has to be very evenly distributed. I would say that Bear went for the gold in performance for a light weight target bow and did a wonderful job there. I also admire the Pearson Soverigns and Wing target models.
One of the most difficult tasks any bowyer faces is building a target weight bow that is torsionally and verticaly stable. Bear did that.
I went about it in a novel way. I doubt you have ever seen another bow with the limb profile that narrow in a recurve. It definitely proves that one does not have to build a wide limb for stability.
NO kidding here though,. I have really considered building target bows. Problem is I do not believe the target community would embrace them at all. I have doubts that anyone to speak of would give them a serious tryout. If they did , Then I bet they would buy.
God bless, Steve