Thanks for the comments y'all.
I took the bow and carefully retillered to get rid of the potential hinge in the lower limb. Then took a tad more wood off each limb to get it working into the handle a bit better. The bow then tillered out at about 46# @ my draw.
I then piked 3/4" off of each tip and re-nocked while slimming the tips to 7/16". Still tillered OK, and now pulls 53# @ 26.5 which is what I was after.
So now the bow is 66.5" tip to tip unstrung, and strung at my brace is 62.5"n>n.
Some times it is best to step back before giving up. This bow shoots great and is shorter than anything I would have tried.
Tiller of new length after sanding:
Regards-PD