If you have two bows with the same limb design but one has a long riser and short working limbs and the other has a shorter riser and longer working limbs what are the advantages or disadvantages of the two bows?
Well, the two designs aren't the same. Regardless, the long riser, shorter limbs will be a tad quicker, the shorter riser, longer limbs will be a bit more forgiving, all other things being equal, which they usually aren't. Pretty small differences either way. I opt for the shorter riser, longer limbed offerings.
A good example would be Bear takedowns. A B handle (longer riser/shorter limbs) with #1 limbs at 60" total length vs an A handle (shorter riser/longer limbs) with #3 limbs for total length of 60" comparison leads me to believe the longer limbs and shorter riser have a smoother draw and may be slightly slower.
The longer riser and shorter limb combo has a much stiffer front end of draw, at least from my experience (bear in mind no two bows are identical, they all have some variation that can skew the results in different directions). I don't have a crono so someone else will have to chime in with test results of similar comparisons.
My bowyer (Sarrels Archery) makes my goto bow in both configurations. My bow is a Blueridge longbow with a longer riser. The extra 2" is in the sight window. The shorter version, the Blueridge S/R has a 2" shorter riser. I have shot both, and really can't tell much, if any, difference in the feeling of the way they shoot. I just can't get used to the sight picture with the short sight window on the shorter riser. It is like I see a block of wood in the way sometimes. LOTS of folks love that riser though. I started with the longer riser and that is probably why the shorter one does not "look right" to me.
The current Hope and Faith bows are both the shorter riser Blueridge.
Bisch
Thanks guys
It depends which ones closer to the "sweet spot". The bow length : working limb : riser length ratio has a sweet spot. The percentage of the nock to nock length that the riser occupies needs to be a certain percentage to perform at the optimum level.