Hey post this in the traditional section and you might get more responses.

 

Jonty - Changing to 30# limbs MIGHT give you a couple of yards, and carbon/foam limbs might be a bit faster (adding distance). My experience was similar, 28# inexpensive wood/fiberglass limbs (medium limbs, 25 inch riser) to 30# Carbon/wood limbs with a very different profile. Moved the point-on up a little (same arrow), but not to 40 yards. More than 35 yards I need to aim high.

 

If you have room for shorter arrows, I’d drop to a weaker spine and cut arrows shorter.

 

Just aim with the shelf.

 

30# Uukha SX 50’s in medium might get you there.

 

What’s your draw length?

If you’re saying that your arrows might be a bit stiff and that you have room to cut. The cheapest option is new lighter spined arrows that are cut shorter. This will get you to the PO you want.
New limbs may or may not get you there but they will be heavier and they might be an issue with your shoulder. If this is the case, you’ll be back to buying new arrows anyways.
Save your money and just get lighter spined arrows cut to the length you need to reach 40. You can then keep progressing as you learn more with the equipment you have. Later on, you’ll know more about what you need and prefer.

 

His current arrows are 5gpi. There isn't much to be gained.

 

There’s a bunch to be gained with shorter arrows and PO. I’m not talking about arrow weight. A shorter length will increase PO much faster then weight.

Your suggestion about aiming with the shelf is another option and it’s free. I’m just giving some tips and options the OP can think about.

 

Thanks for the useful responses!

Shorter arrows makes a lot of sense.

My draw length is 25", so I guess I could use arrows cut to about 26.5"?

Would 1.5" shorter arrows significantly increase PO?

Will also try aiming off shelf. I assume this means that the arrow is on the rest as normal, but I aim with the shelf centred on the target (so arrow point would be aimed high)?

 

1-1/2” shorter arrows will significantly increase PO depending on your anchor. High anchors are less effected then lower anchors due to the angle of the arrow in relation to your line of sight.
You could have your arrows cut to the front of your riser. Sounds like you have 3” of arrow you could trim. Start cutting a couple of the arrows you have now until you get the PO you want. You’ll then know what length you need to have with the new set you buy. You’ll need to figure out spine for the new shorter arrows as well.

 

Just measured my draw length again (been a while since I last checked), and it's 25.6", so I guess I could cut arrows at 26 or even 25"?

I may see if my local club has some different length arrows for me to play around with. Spine/tune is likely to be way off, but will hopefully give me an idea on affect on POD.

 

Something to think about is to order a few singles each of some different spines. Cut them all to just in front of the riser. Then you can tune and see what spine works best. These can now be a tuning set of arrows for the future.
My draw length is just a touch over 28”. My field arrows are cut to 27” carbon to carbon. The point is 1/2” and the pin bushing with beiter nock is 1/2”. This gets me an arrow that is right to the edge of my riser.

 

Unless you are spending 500.00 + for carbon limbs it‘s really not much of a benefit. Foam cores can be anything. Shortly after getting into traditional archery for hunting, because of only being able to shoot lower poundages I bought some “carbon“ limbs, what I found is a limb can have very little carbon in it to be considered carbon. Those in the know told me I need to spend much more for carbon limbs to get the benefits of carbon. Cheaper limbs with carbon may offer a few fps and add a bit of torsional stability to the limbs.

 

Given how common in some bows Fiberglass Resin is like the Asian bows, the generic Chinese fiberglass English longbow in both take down and not, one would think that a cheap ILF limb of all fiberglass from China would be a thing for lower poundage bows for those starting out/kids ILF bows or specific hunting situations where the limbs are going to take high abuse.

 

Shorter arrows is the fastest way to get a longer point on distance. Keep in mind that if you lose 1-1/2" of arrow length you will also be gaining at least a full spine number to keep your dynamic spine somewhat consistent. So, your 900's will probably become 1000's.

If you string walk you would benefit from medium limbs at your draw length, and then the Nika N3's become a consideration. They are far better than the price would have you believe.

 

Shorter arrows is the fastest way to get a longer point on distance. Keep in mind that if you lose 1-1/2" of arrow length you will also be gaining at least a full spine number to keep your dynamic spine somewhat consistent. So, your 900's will probably become 1000's.

If you string walk you would benefit from medium limbs at your draw length, and then the Nika N3's become a consideration. They are far better than the price would have you believe.

What makes the Nika N3s so good?

 

23 with shorts would be a 64” bow

 

A longer bow is going to be slower. Not have the same point of impact

 

True, but not much and I would guess that the efficiency of a limb like the Nika N3 would more than make up for it. The benefit of a longer string for string walking is worth the slightly lower load on the limbs.

 

If you’re having trouble with making 30 yards going to a longer bow isn’t going to make shorter shots easier if you’re struggling even more at distance…I would not be worried about crawls and worry more about the distance shots. If your point on is 30 a gap system is not going to be that hard to figure out for shorter shots.

 

Increasing point-on distance with a light bow will require either very doable form changes and/or somewhat costly bow changes.

I was very successful improving my point-on distance with my FITA barebow while also reducing draw weight, but it came at a cost.

The two factors in the equation are limbs and arrows. Your arrows are 5.2 grains/inch. You may be able to cut some weight there. Black Eagle makes some pretty light carbon shafts.

I was able to increase my point-on by going with Border Super Recurves. I made two changes from the first bow that I used for shooting 90 meters (98 yards).

My original limbs were 40 pound PSE Carbon which were about 46.5 pounds at my draw length. To shoot 90 meter I had to aim the riser shelf at the top of the target and then raise a bit to where my hand was actually blocking my view of the target.

I changed to 36 pound Border HEX5 which pulled about 43.5 at my draw length. I was now able to put my shelf on the target. I shot my personal best with this setup.

Finally, I changed to 35 pounds Border HEX6 which pulled 40.5 at my draw length. I was now able to put my arrow point on the target.

These are not inexpensive limbs. I was pushing the envelope to shoot those distances and needed the investment. There are other limbs that will work but faster limbs are usually more costly since they must be lighter to accelerate faster. That requires lighter, more expensive, materials. You need to make a fairly sizeable increase in speed to get a real impact. A couple feet/sec will not give you much of a change.

The easiest way to pick up some immediate distance is to aim with the shelf of your riser for the longer shots. You can also stringwalk this way. This is how I hit 50 meters for FITA field with only 26 pound limbs. My point on is 38 yards (about 35 meters) and my shelf on is 52 yards (about 49 meters). I actually find that I shoot better using the shelf. It may take a bit of time to get the alignment right. I just shoot until my arrows start going down the center line. It is better for me if I just let it happen rather than trying to work it out.

You can also look at shooting split finger, which cannot do stringwalking, but you can for the longer distances.

A key to using the shelf is that crawl distances to the shelf are the same as with the point. In other words, if you are 5 yards per stitch with the point, you will be 5 yards per stitch with the shelf.