does a longer limb= a faster bow?

[Hud]

If your shooting a traditional longbow, length does matter. I have Schulz and Miller in 68" and 66". It is more stable, durable, and pleasant to shoot. The same is true with the R&D bows, but I prefer a little shorter and shoot 64" and 62" Robertson's. I am less concerned about the small difference in speed in any particular bow. Speed matters in racing, not much in bowhunting.

[last arrow]

Bjorn,

I am interested to know how the length increase is obtained in your ACS example.  If the additional 2" in length is becuase the handle is longer with the same length limb it would indicate that the speed increase is due to the increaase in handle length as I would expect.  If the additional length is due to placing longer limbs on a handle of the original length I would have expected the speed to be slower.  I would also expect both approches to provide comfort or shootablilty improvements.

[Bjorn]

"Last arrow"
We bought new longer limbs and used the original risers, we were both impressed with more shooting comfort and increased accuracy-improvement on an already great bow.

[Deadsmple]

Originally posted by Sixby:
any bow that shoots a light arrow faster than another bow will also shoot a heavy arrow faster if the two bows are same poundage and the draw lengths are equal.

 . Weight and speed of limb return for x amount of power applied equals speed of projectile. the lighter the moving limb is and all else equal the more force that is applied to the projectile.
Here is a fact.

 When a bow shoots a light arrow faster than another bow shooting that arrow and all else , poundage draw length, string. brace height ect is equal . the slower bow will be much closer to the speed of the faster bow with a heavier arrow. Hoever, It will never , ever be faster. It may get really close but within the margin of error it will always be slower. This is because the slower bow is applying more of its efficiency against the heavy arrow.

 

I would have to respectfully disagree. Some years back I had the opportunity to use my neighbors chrono and shot my new( at the time )Mahantango through it. As well as a few other Hill style longbows I own. The Mahantango was 50#@28" or 52# at my 29" draw. This is exactly the same as my Jerry Hill longbow. Both bows are 68.5" nock grove to nock grove. Both are narrow deep cored Hill style bows.  The only major difference I am able to determine between the two bows is the actual limb length. The Jerry Hill measured just over 14" fade out to fade out, and the Mahantango measured just over 12" fade out to fade out. When I compared them at the chrono I first used my normal hunting arrow which was at the time some 15gr per pound for my Jerry Hill. The Mahantango shot that arrow on average 3fps faster than the JH. Just for fun I decided to see how they both shot a random carbon I had around that came in at around 9gr per pound and the JH shot that one considerably faster than the Mahantango, if I remember correctly it was something like 5 fps faster on average.

Personally I do not understand how this was possible but my neighbor who is also a bowyer said that it is most likely because the Mahantango has a longer working limb.

I am surprised that I have spent this much time explaining something I don't really care about!!    So to answer the original question.  In my experience it depends on the design of the bow.

[joe vt]

i have asked this question to bowyers when placing orders and the answers vary. but what is consistant with their answers is....the performance difference is very very slight either way.

[Overspined]

According to Ken beck, his longer longbows at black widow were faster than the short ones. From his mouth...really what's the difference to the deer whether you miss him faster or slower??

Regardless of length, the amount of energy available versus the weight of the moving limb material that the available energy needs to move will greatly influence bow speeds.  I have very trim and slim longbows that will blow the pants off some that have heavy tip segments.  A longbow that does more of its bending near the riser will have more limb to move than one that does more bending out to the tips.     With some designs the amount of working limb is much shorter which can contribute to more efficient stored energy, as example some static recurves are pretty quick, but only a few inches of the limb is compressing and stretching to develop the power.  However it is compared, one must still compare the identical bows at different lengths, if the bowyer makes adjustment with longer length limbs, it is no longer apples to apples.  I find that highly efficient longer bows are all around better most of the time, but there are always exceptions.