Arthur-

I wouldn't say that hand-felt recoil is a very good indication of VM values.

You take a fairly harsh recoil bow, take all the measurements of arrow weight, launch speed, bow poundage, stored energy curve, etc, and determine your VM amount. Now slap on a pair of Limb Savers on the limbs and a Doinker for the stabilizer and it will feel much differently as far as hand recoil, but all the measurable paramters that gave us the VM value haven't changed. I think hand-recoil is more a factor of design geometry, vibration absorption, and such.

You could have a smooth shooting bow, but have lots of friction in the axles, cams, etc- which will give a higher VM amount. Or you could have a more harsh bow that may be from a nasty draw curve of the cam design, but it has bearings in the cams and very low friction amounts with better overall efficiency and will have a lower VM.

My Darton Mav felt a LOT better after adding my Limb Savers, front stab, and a set of NV donuts. But the VM of the bow/arrow combo never changed.