My compound is a Hoyt ProTec, LX Pro limbs and Accuwheels. 46" axle to axle, 8 1/2" brace height. I' m shooting 457 grain carbons out of it for 3D and 580 grain 2315' s for hunting. I specifically avoided a speedy, short, single/hard cam bow and bought this one. Old fashioned, maybe, but it was the smartest choice.

The longer axle to axle bows are more stable and resistant to cant. Enough has already been said about that. But they are slightly more forgiving.

The ProTec is a deflex riser design, meaning the grip is in front of the limb pivot points. That means when the bow is drawn, the string, wheels, limb tips, limb butts and riser are all being pulled in a straight line. It is practically impossible to accidently torque the grip on a deflex riser bow while shooting. The vast majority of today' s bows are reflexed risers, with the grip behind the limb pivots. On those, you are pulling the string, cams and limb tips in one line and desperately trying to push the limb butts and riser in the same line. Reflex riser bows are VERY easy to torque. That' s why I think a lot of guys are saying there is no such thing as a ' forgiving' bow.

Deflex risers are more forgiving.

Along those same lines we get to letoff. My bow is 65% letoff. High letoff bows don' t have a lot of tension on the string at full draw and that makes it very easy to pull the string out of alignment with the cam(s). And it' s easy to torque the string, especially if you hook your release directly to the string. More holding weight, more tension on the string, and the better it resists those nasty tendencies of high letoff bows.

65% letoff is more forgiving. (And 50% is even better!)

The 8 1/2" brace height lets the arrow clear the string just a splintered second sooner than it would if the brace height was 7" or even 6" , but sometimes that slintered second makes the difference between a good shot and a bad shot, when you do mess up with your shooting form. Not to mention the fact that with the higher brace height, your will have a better chance of clearing your arm when you take your shot on ol' Mossyhorns on a cool morning in the stand with a jacket on.

High brace heights are more forgiving.

I chose round wheels because of my shoulders. Today' s cams bring up the draw weight very fast, hold it until you' re nearly at full draw, then body slam you into the wall. And some guys call that smooth!??! I call it painful. Round wheels bring up the draw weight slowly, hold peak for a little bit, then ease you down into the valley like a mother laying her baby in the crib. Of course, that cuts 40-50 fps off your speed, but being able to shoot vs giving up the sport.... I can live without the speed, thank you. So, I' d say wheels are more forgiving than cams on your body parts.
Reflex risers, low brace heights and hard cams give you speed, and speed is more forgiving if you don' t know how to judge yardage. Fine and dandy for that. But the higher performance your bow is, the higher performace your arrows have to be and the more particular you have to be with your selection and alignment of broadheads for those arrows. The faster the arrow flies, the easier it is for just a few thousandths of an inch misalignment to send a broadhead tipped arrow off into nevernever land.

Arrow selection and broadhead alignment are critical on slow bows too, but slower arrows have a better chance of staying close to their course if something goes wrong.

Shooting a slower bow is more forgiving.

I shoot fingers instead of a release. It' s mostly because I' ve never found a way to silence that ' CLICK' when a release goes off. It gives me a good case of the grins, all the hoops folks jump through to silence their bows, griping about noisy arrows sliding across their rest, whining about whistling broadheads and fletching, when the biggest noisemaker is right there in their hand. And, of course, there is no way to lose my fingers walking from the truck in to the stand.

Fingers are more forgiving than a release.

My bow does not have sights on it. There have been too many times I' ve been in situations where sights have been a bigger PITA than a help. Scenario 1: I get stuck in bright sun, the animal is under deep shade, and I don' t have a buddy to hold an umbrella for me and block the sun off my sights. Scenario 2: It' s getting late in the evening, about a half hour before sun down, I' m in pretty dark woods to begin with and it begins clouding up. I' ve got an hour of legal shooting left, and can clearly see my immediate surroundings out to 20 yards, but it' s too dark to see my pins, and there' s a nice buck right there in front of me.

Shooting without sights is more forgiving.

Deflex riser, high brace, slow shootin' bows, fingers and no sights not only make more forgiving hunting rigs, you can save hundreds of dollars that you don' t have to spend on accessories. So they' re more forgiving on your wallet also.

Only problem is that shooting a rig chosen for as many forgiving qualities as you can load on it, is IBO speeds become meaningless. You' re going to be closer to AMO speeds. Shooting slower bows, fingers and without sights relies a lot on a few basic skills (judging yardage, knowing your trajectory, and developing a clean release) and requires a certain level of dedication to practice.

It' s a little too extreme and too tough for most guys these days. [>:]

By the way, my 46" compound might be long, but it' s a heckuva lot shorter and handier than my 68" longbow or 72" selfbow.