Mike,

It's me again, Barry. I'm one of those poor soles with a short draw--27". I don't feel hampered anymore. I'll tell ya what I have done to get more speed besides the obvious things like keeping the string clean, shooting lighter arrows and such.

The most important thing I found is to look at bows with a high IBO speed rating. Prime example is the 2004 Martin SlayR I had. IBO is 325 fps. Of course I wasn't ever going to see that. What I was able to achieve was speeds of 299 fps shooting it for 3D and 280 fps in hunting trim. This with only a peak weight of 53#---and 27" draw.

So I now know it can be done. It does take some time and thinking. For me tinkering is fun. I like changing things and ripping an arrow or two through my chrono to see what happens. Some little things like just changing string material or number of strands can sometimes gain 10-12 fps.

But it all boils down to a bow that has a high IBO rating. Ya have to start with the basics.