Field and Stream 2014 Bow Reviews

I'm not surprised....the "Old Guard" of the industry have their hands full with these newer companies like Elite, Prime, Strother, Athens and Obsession that are putting out some real shooters while the mainstream companies just keep putting out different versions of the same bows. Take Mathews as an example, besides the new Chill X and the introduction of rock mods, what is dramatically different from the Z7 to the Creed and the MR7 to the Chill series....nothing except a few minor tweaks here and there. Before the fanboys get all bunched up, Mathews is just an example because as a former Mathews shooter that is what I'm familiar with...PSE and Hoyt are guilty of the same thing.

From what I'm seeing, the "temperature" of the archery community is changing. Several years ago, it was speed and all about the speed�people where giving up certain aspects of shooting for speed. Now, I'm seeing archers gravitating more toward feel and accuracy and letting speed take a little bit of a backseat�I think that "review" was a representation of that shift.
 
TNDeerGuy said:
I'm not surprised....the "Old Guard" of the industry have their hands full with these newer companies like Elite, Prime, Strother, Athens and Obsession that are putting out some real shooters while the mainstream companies just keep putting out different versions of the same bows. Take Mathews as an example, besides the new Chill X and the introduction of rock mods, what is dramatically different from the Z7 to the Creed and the MR7 to the Chill series....nothing except a few minor tweaks here and there. Before the fanboys get all bunched up, Mathews is just an example because as a former Mathews shooter that is what I'm familiar with...PSE and Hoyt are guilty of the same thing.

From what I'm seeing, the "temperature" of the archery community is changing. Several years ago, it was speed and all about the speed�people where giving up certain aspects of shooting for speed. Now, I'm seeing archers gravitating more toward feel and accuracy and letting speed take a little bit of a backseat�I think that "review" was a representation of that shift.
Click to expand...
except for bowtech being number 1 lol ;) . And I have to say the new bowtechs shoot and feel good , but with the track record of spontaneous explosions I'm not shooting one .
 
I got a new RPM 360. Pick it up this weekend. First new bow in 6-8 years.
 
If you wanted to get technical about it...there ain't a whole lot of advancement that people can do with a 2 track binary cam system. I have shot all the bow companies and bows with them...and honestly, there ain't a whole lot of difference between them besides the price and whether people would recognize the name or not.

They all feel very similar on the draw cycle. The biggest difference in them is the grips. I tell people all the time that if they like everything about the Elite bows except for the grip...to try a Strother, Athens, or Obsession. They have sort of plateaued with that cam system. They know they've hit the peak as far as speed and efficiency goes...so now they are keying in on the smooth and quiet areas. A lot of these bows come standard with all the sound dampening things on them and they are quiet out of the box. The number one two track binary cam bows on the market IMO, are the Strother bows. They have all the bases covered...from hunting to target. Their grip is the best of any of them that I've shot. You can shoot them with limb stops if you like the solid backwall of those...or you can shoot them with cable stops to have a little bit of give in them. All with the same cams; and on top of that, you have pre drilled and tapped holes on the cam to make them 70 or 80 percent letoff. Very easy to tune and flat out sexy camo choices. But that's just me. If somebody came up to me and said they would give me my choice of a freebie bow between a Elite 35 and Strother Moxie...it would be the Moxie without even having to think.

As far as the mainstream magazines doing reviews...its all personal preference and shouldn't matter what one person thinks is the best. Shoot 'em all and form your own opinions. People need to start doing that a little more...they are all sheep now and just follow and repeat everything they hear other people say and like.
 
I shot the RPM 360 a few weeks ago and thought it was the smoothest bow I had ever shot before. Did not like the top heavy feel it had.

I shot a Faktor a few days later. It had the same feel in the draw cycle and was almost as quite. felt more balanced to me,

If I was buying a bow today it would be a Faktor.
 
Look in the back of a Field & Stream magazine at the ads for sex aids ect, that tells me loads about the company! Never again will I buy that rag. $$$ ,best reviews are from folks who have bought 1 with their hard earned $ imo
 
Ah, I remember when the latest "rage" was over-draws on hunting bows, going to lighter arrows with lighter heads, just to gain the greatest hyped-up speed. I bought into it. It was good for shooting, bad for hunting. Now I hunt with heavy arrows tipped with heavy fixed-blade heads, where my focus is more on simple, consistent accuracy, and bone-busting reliability.

TNDeerGuy said:
From what I'm seeing, the "temperature" of the archery community is changing. Several years ago, it was speed and all about the speed�people where giving up certain aspects of shooting for speed. Now, I'm seeing archers gravitating more toward feel and accuracy and letting speed take a little bit of a backseat�I think that "review" was a representation of that shift.
Click to expand...
I agree, and think this is good.
A few years ago, I even went back to simple recurve bow (no sights) in part because I was tired of all the speed hype, unnecessary complication, etc., when all I really wanted was to enjoy the hunt, not caring if anyone was impressed by what brand bow I had.

If I were willing to spend more time practicing, I'd likely still be using a simple recurve with no sights. In my review, I eventually just realized I'm more into hunting than shooting any particular bow or weapon. Don't let all the marketing hype shift your focus from the hunting to the shooting, unless of course you're more into shooting than hunting.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top