Thanks everyone
Legionnaire- yup! I really abuse my selfbows by speeding them through the drying process. It's made some other woods, like oak, really brittle but hickory is pretty forgiving. Good thing that's what we have most of here.
Mullet- The tips were actually super skinny tips, back when it was about 8" longer. I only removed some, hoping to make sure I didn't have any tracking issues. After putting a couple arrows through it there wasn't much shock and the cast was alright, so I left it. And I suppose it isn't that short... I have a couple in the 52-56" range still in the works
Osage Outlaw- I dislike B50 so much because it stretches like crazy. I've gotten used to FF strings on all my bows, but am running low so had to use Dacron for this one. Bracing a bow to 10" and watching it creep down to 5" or 6" makes me cringe!
JonW- I love your sinew backed hickory bow! I think this one would have benefited more from more working mid limbs, but I agree, sinew and hickory make a wicked short bow combo. I have two (now three) shorter hickory bows in the works that are getting paired with sinew in hopes of taking them hunting, as well as a short sinew backed lady's bow that really flings them. The lady's bow draws 25# at 26" and outshoots the 30# 2t 26" high performance hybrid bow that I built for my friend.
Parnell- couldn't agree more. Aside from straightenning issues, this bow took little to no time to get finished out and can really take a nice bend.