When we are talking angles we are looking at several things. Geometry and reflex and deflex.No need to go to Tradtalk, LW has it too.
Deflex in the handle section is a good thing for a forgiving Bow when we are talking about recurve limbs.
Pocket angles also determine the lean of the limbs and determine pre-load.
Preload is pocket angles.
The longer Olympic risers are usually from 19 to 22 or so degrees.
You can lay your riser out on a piece of butcher paper and with a protractor measure up the center line of the grip and get your pocket angles.
With recurve limbs, the curves need to set behind the handle deflex section to get less torque and forgiving shooting.
The more reflexed the handle section and less pocket angle equals more preload of the limbs and makes a faster Bow but less forgiving to shoot because you end up with a shorter brace height.
A kind of general rule with recurve limbs is something like this.
13-inch riser, 22-degree pockets and 2-4 inches or so of handle deflex. 15 inch, 21 pockets and handle deflex 2-4
17 can drop down to as much as 17 or 15 degrees but the more pocket angle, the more you load up your limbs and you do not want to load them more than 10 pounds over marked weight for limbs on a 25-inch riser.
17's need more angle in my opinion to be good shooters and give the long draw guys smooth bow.I think the 17-inch risers have too much preload these days and would be better if they were kicked back more.
I think that is the reason 19inch risers make the most sense for a hunting Bow. They have a more kicked back geometry and make a 60- 62-64 bow.
I am NOT knocking those who like a short bow but you look at the popular short bows and you will see a lot of handle section deflex and longer brace heights to make a better shooting (forgiving) bow.
Do not confuse recurve risers with longbow risers.
Most makers of longbow ILF limbs have designed preload in their limbs to work on recurve risers too.
ASLs have a different design, we are talking mostly recurves here.
So up to 21-inch risers a 17 to 19 or 20-degree angle may be the norm but the longer the riser the less deflex in the handle section you can get by with and cheat in some performance.
Keep the recurve limb tips well behind the handle section when strung and you will be able to measure the balance between performance and shoot ability over all the draw lengths.
This is just a small introduction into preload and pocket angle geometry.There is a lot of knowledge right here on the good ole leatherwall and more than a few Bowyers.
