I just finnished a new ipe/boo flat profile longbow. It is 60" long and 55# @ 26' back of the riser. The cedar arrow weighs 430gr. and the bow chronographed at 148fps shooting this setup. i thought this was quite good given my short draw. Is this average for this setup? The bow shoots great and is deadly quiet. DW....
"shoots great and is deadly quiet" sounds like a winner to me. I wouldn't worry to much about speed; 148fps is not to shabby at all.
The rule of thumb, which has many exceptions, is that a wood bow will shoot about it's draw weight, plus 100 FPS at 28" draw, and somewhere in the 66-68" range..
You lost a little speed to the short draw, but that is appropriate for the draw length..I think you did come in about average, or maybe just a tad better..
160 shooting 10 grains per pound, 22" power stroke, 3 grains per pound string is a "good" bow. Power stroke is worth about 7 fps per inch. Arrow mass is worth about 1 fps per 10 grains.
So, with adjustment for the arrow mass 550 - 430 = 120, 120/10 you would be at about 172 fps. With adjustment for power stroke 2*7= 14 so you are down to 158, for a "good" bow. 148 ain't too shabby.
"Good" bow is a hard thing to define. My best r/d boo on bloodwood shot 170s as described. Selfbows I'm happy with 160ish. I've made dozens of all shapes and sizes over the last decade or so, have run a chrono off an on all along, had feedback from a broad range of shooters, and would consider myself in the top 20 percentile of amateur wood bowyers.
Chrono can be a great tool, but it's easy to become a slave to it. Lots of stuff besides the chrono reading make a bow "good."
DCM, that was "good" info, at least!