The Compound Craze
New Bows for 2009
By:
Bill Winke
Online Rating:
  (6/10) Last year, many fast bows took the lion’s share of the attention when the new products hit the market, and we are definitely seeing a continuation of that trend this year. It’s hard to impress bowhunters now with bow speed when everyone has an offering blasting out 350-grain arrows at 320-350 fps. But it’s a catch-22: You’re notable for having such a bow, but you’re notable if you don’t. The bowhunting community likes a fast bow—and I’m one of them. All else being equal (arrow weight, draw weight, accuracy, noise, etc.), I’ll take the faster arrow every time. As bowhunters, we’re starting to take this speed for granted, and we now want additional features as well. We want our cake and we want to eat it, too. Not only must the bow be fast, it must also be quiet, stable and pleasurable to shoot. That’s a tall request, but many of 2009’s top bows deliver on that hope. There are still a few slow (by comparison) bows on the market. They were made that way intentionally for bowhunters who would rather enjoy reliable performance, a forgiving bow design and a smooth draw. Those bows that don’t break the sound barrier aren’t the show stoppers, but they have a place in today’s market, too. Both categories—the speedsters and the smooth-shooters—are definitely worth a look. And if you’re anything like me, looking at new bows grabs your imagination and makes you start thinking of big bucks and blood trails.
Mission Menace
I have a soft spot for youth bows because we have a couple of those youths darting about the fields and lawns out back of our house. Between playing Dirty Pirates and thrashing grasshoppers with a stick, they stop by the shop to shoot their bows. So when someone makes a youth bow with massive adjustability, it catches my attention. Such bows are an obvious advantage for folks with fast growing kids and limited budgets. If you have kids you probably also have a limited budget; the two go hand-in-hand. Mathews makes such a bow in their Mission line called the Menace. The Menace is a two-cam bow because two-cam designs permit a wide range of draw-length adjustment using modules. This one bow is adjustable from 17-30 inches; can you comprehend 13 inches of draw-length adjustability? This is a 70 percent let-off bow, not a zero percent let-off bow such as the Genesis, which is another very popular Mathews youth model. The Menace also has an adjustable maximum draw weight from 16-52 pounds, so it’s ideal for young, growing archers who someday hope to hunt with a bow.
Elite GT500
A group of archery industry insiders recently bought Elite Archery—and they have big plans. They’re starting with a well respected, though little-known product, so their No. 1 goal is to get the word out. Elite blasted (literally, when you consider its arrow speeds) onto the scene two years ago. Their newest bow, the GT500, is also a speed burner of impressive magnitude—and it accomplishes this despite its moderate brace height. I’m not aware of any bow on the market with a higher advertised speed with a brace height of more than 7 inches. When I shot the bow, I found it to be surprisingly quiet despite its obvious speed. It was solid and stable in the hand with good balance, and I also like the narrow grip. With bows such as the GT500, Elite appears to be here to stay.
Martin Firecat
This is the second year for the Firecat, but Martin amped-up the voltage on this bow with a faster set of cams. The Cat Hybrid Duo Cam is a binary cam style: Remember, the cams are slaved to each other and pretty much can’t go out of time once properly set. The Cat Hybrid Duo has an adjustable hard draw stop (a moveable post), allowing you to create a brick-hard draw stop right where you want it. Finally, the new Firecat also has roller cable guards to reduce bow recoil. You’ll also find a cool rubber-covered rest shelf and a custom string and harness system that promises to offer low-stretch reliability. There’s also a leather grip, vibration-reducing modules in the riser and a string suppressor.
PSE Bow Madness
Not everyone wants a bow with a low brace height and a super-aggressive cam system. You don’t really need raw speed if you can’t control it. For many bowhunters, a smooth, forgiving bow is much more to their liking. That’s why PSE built the Bow Madness. If anyone knows how to build a fast bow, PSE does—their X-Force changed the industry two years ago. But they also know how to make smooth, forgiving bows, too. The relationship between Drury Outdoors and PSE inspired this bow, which shares its name with a television series on the Outdoor Channel. The Bow Madness is very light and short—one of the lightest adult bows on the market. It has a smooth, single-cam and past-parallel limbs. It is a pleasure to shoot, and though it is smooth, it is not slow.
Bowtech Admiral
Bowtech’s trademark Center Pivot riser system moves the pivot-point of each limb farther from the limb butt, allowing the limb to flex over its entire length while producing a parallel geometry with the other limb. The result is a very solid, stable feeling through the shot: low recoil and very little noise. Though Rex Darlington invented what we now call the binary cam, Bowtech was the first to use them. As mentioned, these advanced hybrids are kind of like conventional dual cams but with the harnesses from each attached to the other cam so they can’t easily go out of time. The cams also have rotating modules that allow an amazing 7 inches of draw-length adjustment. The Admiral also features a carbon string suppressor and a roller cable guard. It’s an impressive looking bow with excellent shooting qualities.
Darton Pro 3500
I mentioned that hybrid and binary cams originated at Darton Archery. There is no question that Rex Darlington is one of the smartest cam designers in the history of archery. So, there’s no reason to expect that Rex’s own baby (the cam he puts on Darton bows) would be any less attractive. The latest Darton to carry an advanced CPS cam system is the Pro 3500 with the CPS G2. The G2 has harness take-up tracks on both sides of the string, so it equalizes the forces acting on the limb tips by splitting the harnesses. In that way, the limb tips are perfectly balanced and there’s very little chance for the cams to lean during the shot and cause poor side-to-side nock travel. The Pro 3500 has a string suppressor near the middle of the string to eliminate any whip action that might occur when the string stops. This is a great bow that shoots fast and feels good in the hand all the way through the shot. It might be Darton’s best ever and it’s certainly its most advanced and fastest.
Diamond Iceman
Bowtech makes Diamond bows, so it should come as no surprise that there are a few similarities between the lines. One of those similarities is the Center Pivot Riser. The Diamond Iceman has the same second generation Center Pivot design as the Bowtech Admiral and looks a good bit like that bow, too. Their specs are close but not identical: The biggest difference between the two bows is the cam system. The Iceman has a single-cam system and the Admiral has Binary cams. The Iceman has an aggressive draw cycle, is very quiet and is stable through the shot. I was impressed with everything about this bow. The single-cam used on the Iceman permits 7 inches of draw length adjustability in ½-inch increments.
Hoyt AlphaMax 32
I had a chance to shoot Hoyt’s new AlphaMax 32 back in October of last fall and a number of times since. Without a doubt, this is the best compound bow that Hoyt has ever made. It’s lighter, faster, quieter and produces less recoil than nearly all past models. Hoyt was the first to really promote the hybrid cam, and The AlphaMax features their latest version, the new ZTR Cam-&-1/2 system. This system has a stout draw cycle to it, but not any of the sharp transitions that give the bow a harsh feel. The XTR cam system permits easy modular draw-length adjustment and has a draw stop to assure a solid back wall. Parallel split limbs reduce hand shock and the newly sculpted riser design is light in weight. The AlphaMax comes in a 32-inch and 35-inch axle-to-axle model.
Mathews Reezen 6.5
Matt McPherson points to the Reezen’s new cam system when giving people “Reezens” to buy it. He says it’s the most efficient, fastest single-cam system ever developed. Well, that carries a lot of weight because Matt has designed quite a few of them. The Reezen has a Quick Change Axle that makes swapping out cams much easier. To change draw lengths on a Mathews single-cam bow, you have to change cams. That can be a hassle, so dealers and tech guys are going to love this new axle. Mathews pioneered parallel limbs, and the Reezen 6.5 has them—of the composite lightweight variety. It also has a roller cable guard for reduced recoil and greater efficiency (reducing friction increases efficiency). The Reezen is also available in a 7.0 version that simply has a half-inch higher brace height. One-half inch of brace height won’t make any noticeable difference in the shootability of this bow, so I’d just go for the faster 6.5 version. With it’s combination of speed and smoothness, this bow is sure to please.
Quest XPB
I saw the XPB for the first time at the ATA Show and the first thing that struck me was the streamlined cable guard system. I’m a simple guy and I like simple things. This cable guard appeals to me—no moving parts (in fact, no parts at all). The harnesses run through ceramic-coated holes in the end of the cable guard bar. It’s like a roller guard but without the moving parts of the roller.
Additional features include a binary cam system, a string suppressor and factory-installed limb silencers. The Metrao custom string and harness system is also a great touch of class and a great way to assure that the bow will be reliable. G5 Outdoors makes the Quest line and they know plenty about machining parts. This is a great bow.
Ross Carnivore
The Krank is the most interesting piece of equipment on the new Carnivore, and you won’t see it anywhere else. The Krank is a pulley at the end of the harness that would otherwise attach to the bottom cam in this hybrid system. Instead, a separate short mini-harness attaches to the cam, loops over the Krank and then back to the axles of the bottom limb. This gives the cam designers another pulley to play with and spreads the force of the harness equally to both sides of the limb tip to balance forces. This mostly eliminates cam lean resulting in better arrow flight. Bowtech purchased the Ross brand last year and is now producing all the bows in this line. Beyond the Krank, the Carnivore is a solid, fast, forgiving bow that fits the model of today’s prototype hunting bow: short and light.
Sims LimbSaver DZ-30
Sims bows are loaded with features, and they’re also loaded with silencing accessories. They’re among the quietest bows I have ever shot—and that’s not surprising. At the recent ATA Show, I had the chance to shoot the DZ-30. Most of the bow companies in the shooting lanes used heavy arrows so their bows would sound quieter than they might otherwise. Sims had a 70-pound bow and 350-grain arrow there for me to try and the bow was amazingly quiet as it blasted out arrows that Sims states were traveling at 320 fps. The parallel limbs reduced hand shock and made the DZ-30 feel like I was shooting a kid’s bow firing a fence post—the recoil was that low. It also features a limb pocket that move the limb forward so that the bow can produce a modest brace height with reasonable-length limbs that are parallel, and a straight well-balanced riser. Other features include a Winner’s Choice Custom bowstring and harnesses, and a fast, hybrid cam system.
Bow Specifications Model: Mission Menace
Brace Height: 7.25
Axle-to-Axle Length: 31
Advertised IBO speed: N/A
MSRP: $325 Model: Elite GT500
Brace Height: 7.125
Axle-to-Axle Length: 35
Advertised IBO speed: 346 fps
MSRP: $850 Model: Martin Firecat
Brace Height: 7 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 32 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 335 to 345 fps
MSRP: $629 Model: PSE Bow Madness
Brace Height: 7 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 32 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 318 to 326 fps
MSRP: $599
Model: Bowtech Admiral
Brace Height: 7 1/2 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 31 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 312 to 320 fps
MSRP: $829 Model: Darton Pro 3500
Brace Height: 6 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 33 3/4 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 338 to 343 fps
MSRP: $866 Model: Diamond Iceman
Brace Height: 7 1/8 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 31 1/2 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 310 to 318 fps
MSRP: $770 Model: Model: Hoyt AlphaMax 32
Brace Height: 7 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 32 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 321 fps
MSRP: $800 to $849 Model: Mathews Reezen 6.5
Brace Height: 6.5 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 32 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 340 fps
MSRP: $869 Model: Quest XPB
Brace Height: 7 1/2 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 32 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 320 to 324 fps
MSRP: $675 Model: Ross Carnivore
Brace Height: 7 3/8 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 31 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 310 to 318 fps
MSRP: $650 to $700
Model: Sims DZ-30
Brace Height: 7 inches
Axle-to-Axle Length: 30 inches
Advertised IBO speed: 320 – 325 fps
MSRP: $700
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