It turns out with natural materials you can't achieve the big speed numbers without the other desirable stuff, like low shock, noise and longevity you want for a "hunting" bow. Once you exceed the elastic limits of the material the bow is in effect toting around limb mass which doesn't store energy. The wood is already crushed. Bad mojo for efficiency. On the other extreme, regardless of the context, if you leave too much wood working you have shock and noise. So, aside from ones that store lots of energy, like Marcs bows with 5" or more of net reflex or recurve, horn bows or horse bows, and even these one could argue, "fast" bows are not really a great deal different than a "hunting" bow. It's a misconception to assume folks who concentrate on speed aren't interested in the other attributes. Rather they tend to satisfy the fundamental stuff first, and then go after speed as well. At least that's what I do.
It's not a sin to go for speed, that's our purpose ultimately. I have a hard time understanding where people are coming from, not necessarily in this thread, who say it's not important or not "traditional" or whatever and seem to have a real chip on their shoulders about it sometimes. If I can have, and I think I can, a bow that is quiet, no handshock, lasts practically forever and fast I'll take it over quiet, no handshock, lasts forever and slow. Just seems logical to me.
Subject seems to come up no FastFlight versus Dacron threads a lot. Folks act like an extra 6, 7, 8 fps, all else being equal, doesn't matter. Seems like leaving perfectly good chicken on the bone to me, so to speak. Same with bowyering, chances are the 3, 4 fps left on the table can come off the outer limb width and the bow would never miss it, would not even change the tiller in a lot of cases. But I draw the line at tiny little out limbs, maybe 7/16" being about as little as I care to go. Dang things just look too fragile when you get down to 5/16". Another overlooked aspect is how you treat the wood during the construction process. By simply working the wood less, more carefully, I believe you can pick up 3, 4 fps in the finished bow, for the life of the bow, and that's leaving the design exactly the same. Then there is the more obvious stuff like moisture control, etc. It will sound like we're obsessing over insignificant things, but 3 or 4 fps scattered over 3 or 4 different opportunities and pretty soon you are talking 12 to 16 fps cumulative difference. That equates to 12# to 15# difference in draw weight, or 2" to 3" of draw length (having read Pappy's post). Not insignificant by my reckoning.
Maybe it's just a personality thing. If it goes, no matter if a pickup truck, lawn mower or a bow-n-arra, I want it to go faster, stronger, better! LOL
Eric folks use 6" brace, 28" draw generally, although the brace height is where some fudging is going on. In extreme cases, Tim Baker's bows at the first MoJam for example as I understand it, going down as low as 4". But I don't think that is necessarily typical.
