I have an old Ben Pearson recurve bow that has been sitting around for years. I want to get back into informal target shooting, so I pulled it out of the closet, and find that somewhere along the way, the string has disappeared. No big deal, as the AMO length is painted on the bow. I found a supplier on line, and their directions were to take the AMO length, minus 3 inches for bows made after 2000, and minus 4 inches for older bows. Since this is an older bow, I went with the shorter length (minus 4 inches) and ordered a new string, and a few other odds and ends.The site said that if the string was a bit long or short, to just twist, or untwist it a bit to make minor adjustments.

Everything arrived today, so I put the string on to see how it looks. It seems to me, that is is a bit on the short side, compared to how I remember the bow looking in the past when strung. I thought, what the heck, I'll just take a few twists out, but I discovered that the string it wrapped at both ends, not twisted.

So my question is, how do I tell if the string is too short, and would it harm the bow to shoot it with a slightly short string?

Unfortunately, there aren't any archery shops nearby, or I would have gone that route to begin with!

You are probably looking for a brace height of 7 1/2 to 8 1/4 inches (distance from back of riser, or handle, or arrow shelf to string).

It may be printed on the bow, but it is not necessarily a hard and fast dimension.

Adjusting the brace height is one way to tune recurves and longbows, adjusting it to find the sweet spot for your arrow.

Tradgang.com is the arfcom of traditional archery, look around or ask there.

Does it say what the model is?

Sorry to take so long to get back, had a hectic weekend and so far a rough week at work!

The Model is a Ben Pearson Mustang, and from what I have found on the internet, it appears these were only made in 1976-77. I also found information that these bows generally like a brace height of 7-1/4" to 9". After letting the bow sit with the new string on it overnight, it appears that it is sitting right in the 8" area, so it looks like it will work after all!

I had also forgotten just how much muscle it takes to draw a 50 pound bow. Damn I'm outta shape!!!

I'd say you are GTG.  If the string stretches out and you notice the BH growing, you can remove it and twist it up a bit to get it back to where it was.