I've never had a bow yet that performed better maxed out than it did turned all the way the down, or at half way. You might gain a slight amount of effeciency, but as far as accuracy and noise and the such it should not matter with a bow newer than 10 years old. Some of the older compounds get be a tad noisier if the limbs were not maxed out, but they are sort of noisy to begin with so it really didn't matter.

Dissadvantages to a faster bow are it can be less forgiving, it causes more wear on your bow do to increased vibration, it could be noisier, it could have more recoil or handshock, the bow may not fit you as well anymore.

The most common thing I see with archers is being over bowed. Either too much draw weight or too long of a draw length. The slight amount of speed you will pick up will not be worth the extra challenge of shooting the bow well.

I'm not telling you not to turn your bow up. Go a head and try it and see how it feels. I can shoot 60 lbs pretty easy, but choose to shoot around 55. If I shoot a lot and work my way up to it I can target shoot with 70 if I want. I can't hunt that way though becuase it is too hard to draw in odd situations and when I have been sitting for hours in the cold. Been there done that!

Keep in mind though if you turn the bow up you may have to get a heavier spined arrow, which in most cases will mean more weight. So you may not gain anything in speed. You would pick up some momentum and KE though.

I shoot 55 lbs at 26 inches with a 400-450 grn arrow. I think I shoot around 220 fps with that set up. I do have a pretty fast bow though, my IBO rating is around 324 fps. The most I have gotten out that bow is around 280 fps. That was turned all the way up (61 lbs) and with light arrows.

And you don't need an ultra fast bow to shoot 3-D. I have seen guys shooting recurves that are better than some with fast target bows with fancy sights. Equipment does not make a good shooter. I took a trap lesson a few weeks ago and asked the instructor if I get serious about it should I get a better gun (I have an A-5 stalker now). He looked me in the eye and said, "Son, you just can't buy talent, and beleive me I have seen people try! You have one of the best shotguns made, why would you want to waste money on something else?". I think the same thing applies to archery.

That being said, turning your bow up to 60 lbs and using the same arrows should put you somewhere around 260 fps or so if I did the math right. At 232 fps your arrow would drop 19 inches from 20 to 30 yards, at 262 fps it would drop 14 inches from 20 to 30 yards. That is still slow enough that you would have to be guessing yardarge pretty close to make a good shot. You may not even notice that big of a change in your pin gap on your sights.

All I can say is try it and see how it works, but another thing to consider is the less you mess with our set up the better you will shoot. I can tell you that from experience. I am the type that is always tinkering with something and changing my set up. It IS NOT conducive to good shooting. I shoot much better if I leave my bow alone and concentrate on shooting rather than my equipment.

Paul