In my opinion and experience, it is a "rob Peter to pay Paul" situation. Short bows have an advantage in a ground blind for situations like turkey hunting, but generally they are less stable than a longer bow will be...and therefore I tend to view them as a specialty bow.
There are of course some things good bowyers will do in order to shorten a bow for special applications...and those bows make great candidates for hunting in situations where one needs a short bow.
When selecting a short bow, an archer has to ask themself, what matters most. Do you want stability or speed? If you want stability, you have to add some features to the bow to be sure you maintain it. You will need 1. a forward riser, 2. a shorter riser, 3. you will need a higher brace height, 4. you will need more deflex off the riser. All these things help add stability BACK into a bow that has been shortened in length to meet the needs for tight hunting situations. Of course, ALL OF THESE THINGS also reduce a bow's efficiency, so as a result many short bows end up being less efficient than a longer bow that has a longer riser but an equal length working limb. Additionally, many heavily deflexed risers tend to have a more flemsy limb and have often a bit noisy in my experience.
For this reason, I suggest you try before you buy. There are a few out there that have excellent reputations for obtaining excellent hunting type short bows, but because we are all different I would suggest asking a bowyer what areas he gave up in order to make the bow shorter. If they say they gave up nothing but yet they are producing very very short bows...well, personally I would find that hard to believe and think that for anyone to prove other wise (meaning their bow is short, quiet, durable, fast, and stable for their shooting), that archer would HAVE TO HAVE excellent form. Physics is after all physics.
I am sure there are some out there I am not aware of that are worthy of consideration, but personally, the only two short bows I would consider would either be a Centaur or a Shrew (although I would lean towards their longer models)...as both bowyers have an excellent reputation and have obviously done an excellent job in producing some of the finest short bows on the market. The centaur is known to be a very fast bow and while I haven't personally shot one Jim (Centaur) wouldn't have the following he has if his bows were sensitive. Additionally, Ron (Shrew) has obviously proven his ability to shoot well and has done some trick shooting with his bows despite their length...so they are obviously not sensitive either. The old saying is "the proof is in the pudding" has been put on the table by those two guys...so I would suggest checking into them.
Good luck.
Topic: Question about Short Bows (Read 658 times)
