If you want the bow to take less set you should temper the belly. The temper allow the bow to pull further, reduce set, and will increase draw weight a bit. Hickory takes well to tempering. If you're up for more work on the bow (or for the next one) it'd be an easy fix to heat the whole working area and put it in a form (I'll explain that in a min). Once in the form and cooled down, you temper the wood until it starts to change color. The form is basically a 2by3 or 2by4 cut to the length between the big bends before the statics, with a block of wood in the middle. You clamp the handle to the block of wood (cut off of 2by4) and the weight of the tips should bring the ends down to the ends of the board with heat. If it's not enough you can add pressure with weights or even clamp the ends down. This should give you 1.5in of reflex before the static tips right at the big bends. It will take some set again but the tempering will help with that. So it should end up .5in +or- of straight. An important thing to remember is to not temper the back. Unlike the belly it will make the back brittle. Also remember to temper the whole belly of the bow not just the working area. It will add strength to the whole bow not only the bending parts if you do it that way. Tempering will make the bow perform better and in my opinion makes it look cooler too.
