Quick Question... effect of limb shortening...

[Dick in Seattle]

Busy morning... I have a finished shaped bow... even shot it! Still work to do, but here's where I am... I finished up at 28#... lost about 3 to 3 1/2# in the finishing process. I can live with 28, but the speed is slooooowwww. Average is 105 to 110. Shoots OK but I had a heck of a time getting target alignment... wanted to be really left. The arrows are too stiff, but it was more than that. It appears to be pretty sensitive to grip. Once I figured that out, I did a lot better. I can get almost all shots into the kill zone on my bear out to 15 yards, a good half at 20. 30 is mostly wishful thinking at this point. I kept them all on the bear, but down in his lower belly. I finally got one up in the zone and I think I could work it out and do fair.

My question... If I cut the limbs back 1", going to a 66" bow rather than 68", how much draw weight and/or speed increase would I likely get? I would be a tad happier at 33# and my arrows might come into their own a bit, since they work well on other bows of that weight.

I'm kind of sitting here waiting on this one... hacksaw in hand... :^)

[Holm-Made]

On a highly R/D bow I lose about 5-6# going from 62" to 60".  I'm not sure what you'd lose on a straight bow.  Probably less.  If your not happy then cut it down.  Supposed to be a learning experiance right?  Chad

[bigcountry]

How do you lose wieght by piking the bow?  I suppose because your R/D?

[Greg Szalewski]

Dick
When I was building my wife's bow I cut it down from 66 to 64" by shortening each limb 1 inch. doing that only picked up a pound, maybe 2 near as I could tell. Her draw is around 23" and it now pulls about 25#. With a longer draw as I would assume you have your bow might tend to stack more by shortening it. However I think you will not notice any major change by taking an inch off each limb. Just my opinion. I am very much an ametuer. Let's see what the others have to say.
GS

[Dick in Seattle]

Thanks, guys... I've gotten the info, which is basically as I surmised, now all I have to do is decide.   The bow is comfortable for me to shoot as it is, but I sure would like a little bit more edge in performance.   tomorrow is going to start with a total workshop cleaning... I'm at that point where the instant I set something down, it's lost.    Then i can decide what to do and/or do it.   I have nice pix of the finish shape and will try to get them posted tonight.

[PV]

I would guess 3-4# taking an inch off each end.

"I'm kind of sitting here waiting on this one... hacksaw in hand... :^)"

As Chad said above no time like the present to do some experimenting.
How did you shape the grip? How the bow pressures your hand and how close to centershot will affect your windage.
If you have enough width at the tips you can put  shallow string grooves down 1" without cutting the bow and sand them out later if they're not to your liking.

[Clay Hayes]

Are we talking a wood bow here?  If so, you could just steam in some short recurves.  

ch

[Apex Predator]

Dick, on my straight long bows I will gain 3-4 pounds by cutting one inch off of one that started at  66".  I would guess 6-8 pounds with one inch from each end.

[Chuck Hoopes]

Like you, I have been considering shorting a 70" white oak flat bow. Iam also thinking 1" off both limbs.  I do not know this, but Iam thinking that a bow that has weaker outer limbs,ie. the last 10" is more likely to be enhanced by shorting. If your ends are  somewhat "Whippy", than shortening should bring about the desired effect.  That said, I have shortened several glass bows, and all I got was a bow which pulled a few more pounds, but with no noticeable enhanced performance,-- actually lost some performance on one of them--really regret what I did to that bow.  But, what the Hay?  Its a wooden bow, the worst that can happen is you have the pleasure of making another one. this is how we learn, is it not?

[Holm-Made]

Sorry, I should have said "I gain 5-6#" by cutting an inch off each end.  And I should have said you will gain poundage by shortening the bow.  I'm not much of a proof reader.  Chad

[John Scifres]

Give some more info on the bow.  Sometimes the weight gain is due to loss of leverage and stacking v. actually storing more energy.  If the bow is overbuilt then you probably have some room.

[Roy Steele]

Cutting it back an inch won't make the cast much better.It should pick up 2 to 3 pounds.My thought is don't cut it off.Back it will inprove cast an pick up pounds.