Best bow on the market for hunting?

[Deitz Dittrich]

I for a while was really into bow hunting and shooting. But once I got my job down near the cities and moved away from all the public hunting lands I kind of got out of it. Would really like to get back into it as I miss it too much. However, I feel as tho my Equipment is now outdated and could use a new set up. I currently have a Hoyt Super Slam must be a 92 or 93? ITs a little loud compared to a lot of the new bows. I have heard good things still about Hoyt and find them a trusted brand, however hear a lot of great things about Mathews bows.

Whats your opinions out there?

[BLACKJACK]

Most of the big time bow manufacturers - Hoyt, Jennings, Golden Eagle, Matthews, PSE make good bows. You just have to find one that is comfortable to you. I'm on my third Golden Eagle, bought it last year, and I love it. I like the feel of their handles, and since I've had luck with them in the past, I decided to stick with them.

You mentioned that your current bow is 'loud'. There are a lot of new products - limb silencers, string silencers, stabilizers, - that have come out on the market that may be able to help you out. Also, one of the problems people have when they try to shoot a 'fast' arrow is noise. A heavy arrow will cause less vibration. Goto a good archery shop and see if they can help you with your bow. Or if you have your heart set on a new one, they can help you by letting you shoot some different brands.

[Finlander]

Check out a "Fread Bear TRX 32"!
Rated very high as one of the best hunting bows in one of the recent archery magazines tests.
They did comparisons of all the top bows and when all of the numbers were added that bow didn't get the top number, but the person who was doing the testing ended up buying that bow for hunting bacause of the way it shot and felt in his hand!

[jlm]

Hey Blackjack, I am on my third GE as well and just love them. Very smooth, fast, and quiet! Are you now shooting the Obsession? I have the Evolution but am thinking about buying a new one which will be my fourth GE. You have to love the price on these to, much lower than many bow of equal capabilities!

[jt24]

I bought a Bow Tech last year and shes a beauty. Kinda spendy but guarantied for life unless you dry fire it which is pretty stupid. So many brands of bows out there it makes it hard to pick which one is good unless you know your bows. Walmart specials arnt going to cut it IMO.

[Deitz Dittrich]

JT24-
Yep, all the walmart specials are out for sure. I had planed on dropping a few $$' on this.. I do own 4 bows already, 2 recurve, and 2 compound. I havn't shot indoor compitition in about 8 years. I miss that too. Used to just love pounding the paper. I would never think of selling my target bow no matter how outdated it is... Hoyt Prostar I have shot 11 perfect 300 scores in a row with it during my 1995 in door season.(now I sound like some old fart reminicing about the old days..LOL)

Huskminn-Thanks for the Bwana tip, I'll deffinatly check them out.

Thanks again all.. keep the tips comming!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Eats-

I just did a serch on the net for Discovery Bows... And found them, they look a lot like the old Oneida Eagle that was so popular in the late 80's and real early 90's. If I remember they were fast but loud. and not the best for hunting wooded areas because they were very long from tip-tip. Thanks for the tip!

JT-I looked up the BowTech page, I had not heard of them either.. Looks very interesting.. will have to find out who carries them also!

[Guest]

Mathews, their record speaks for itself.

Be careful when adding dampening items to your Bow, especailly on your string. Each item you add to "quiet" your Bow reduces the Kinetic energy of the Bow.

Some less expensive Bows are just plain noisy.

Go to a reputable dealer and shoot 3-4 different manufacturers Bows in your price range and see which one you like best.

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Chells

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thanks folks, I will deffinatly take all advise to heart and check out all those companies and bows. I will have to say that I am leaning twards the Hoyt, just because again its what I started on and feel confortable. I do plan on giving all a fair shot(pun intended).

I did shoot a lot of compitition archery back in college, and understood the fun of timing cams to get the best arrow flight. However the single cam bow does have me interested, expecially for hunting. Do any of you use the single cam bows and have you had problems at all or do they shoot and not need tuneing like the hyps says?

Also, where is the place to go for the North Metro, I live in Lindstrom, but dont have a problem driving a small distance to get great information and a good place to shop. I checked out the NEW Gander Mountian in Forest Lake, and would like a larger choice. They had only 1 or 2 hoyts, and no Mathews or higher end PSE.

[eats]

You might wanna check out a new outfit called Discovery Bows. Very interesting bows - no cams, no wheels, increadibly easy to tweak to your specifics. I have shot a couple - fast and silent. Look up Carl Wright in Aitkin and he'll talk your ear off about 'em.

Brandon

[huskminn]

Exudedude,

I think it's called Bwana Archery and I think it's in Little Canada or someplace near there....when I used to bow hunt, I would go there and the service was absolutely outstanding.

Thanks for bringing this topic up....I, too, have been seriously considering getting back into bow hunting. I'm an old finger shooter...any of you left out there or does everyone use a release?

[Havin' Fun]

I love my Jennings. Very simple, quiet and pretty reasonably priced.
Next bow will be a mathews solo cam. Very smooth shooter.

[BLACKJACK]

Exudedude, from your past experience it sounds like you could tell us a thing about bows. I also kept my old bow as a spare, they aren't worth much, but I'm not just going to give it away.

Huskminn, until last year I shot fingers. I had resisted going to a release with the thought that if I forget my finger tab, I can still shoot. If you forget your release, you're screwed. When I bought my new bow, I had a hard, hard time getting it sited in. Went back to the archery shop in Richmond, they talked me into trying a release, and within minutes I was grouping them properly. Guess I won't be going back to fingers. Part of what you owe the deer is to shoot accurately and if the release does that for you, I'll use it. Another problem you'll find is that they're making the bows shorter and shorter from axel to axel, which increased finger pinch. I bought the longest Golden Eagle bow that I could find and it was still 6 inches shorter than my old bow.

JLM, I'm shooting the Splitfire. Nice bow, I like it. It was a proven killer last year, haven't had a good shot yet this year

Good luck in your search Exudude. If you're in no rush, by Dec/jan you may find some good deals.

[This message has been edited by BLACKJACK (edited 10-01-2003).]

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thats the plan BlackJack, I hope to wait till winter. Doubt I'll find any deals, I have this small problem...I shoot left handed even though I am right handed(left eye dominant) and I am 6'3" with a wing span of someone at least 6-8...So my draw length is 32"...Needless to say, you dont go into many shops and find to many leftie bows with that kind of draw. I will most likely be shooting a lot of right hand bows, which I can do because its my natural hand. Just much more accurate left handed.. I should still get a fell for what I like...

As for the release debate...No matter how hard you try, you are human and can not release the arrow with your fingers the EXACT same every time. Its just not possible, expecially if you take into consideration cold muscles ect ect...A mechanical release will let that arrow go the exact same every time. The problem people have with releases is either bumping the trigger during drawing back or FLINCHING much like people do with rifles...

The main thing to remember is slow consistant pressure on the trigger till the arrow releases and to continue to aim at the target till long after the arrow is gone. Another huge mistake people make is to bring the pin from either the top or botttom and as soon as the pin is on the target they fire. its called pass threw shooting. Not good...pull your pin up on the target and at least count to 3 in your head.. that way you know your setteled on the target. When I shot compitition I counted to 5 before I did anything, usually the arrow wasn't gone till about 8. Animals dont often give you that much time... but gives you something to think about!

Sorry this was so long!

[eats]

Exudedude-

You're right, the Discoverys are similiar to the Oneidas but not as long tip to tip and silent.

I'll be looking for something new myself so let us know what you find out.

Brandon

[Deitz Dittrich]

Will do EATS--

I plan on going around and checking things out Staurday... I'll give you all my OPINIONS(knowing that they arent worth much)Monday hopefully.

[huskminn]

The bow that I currently own and last hunted with years ago is a PSE designed for finger shooting. I can't even remember the model name, as it has been years since I've shot it. But, it is heavy and it is long.

The argument about releases being more accurate than fingers is correct. I can't argue with that.

That being said, back in the day when I practiced and hunted a lot, I shot fingers with no peep sight and was consistently more accurate than any of my buddies who bow hunted and used releases. I also practiced a lot more than they did, so that was probably the reason why.

I think no matter what type of release one uses, you've got to know your limitations. What we owe our quarry is a humane kill. 25 yards was always the maximum range that I allowed myself to shoot at an animal. I knew that I would hit what I was aiming at if I kept it at or under that maximum.

Perhaps that maximum would be greater if I shot a release and, if I do purchase a new bow, I'm sure a release will be part of the package. As was stated before, they just don't make bows for finger shooters any more.

Good and helpful discussion.

[BLACKJACK]

Exude, something else to consider are carbon arrows. When I started shooting archery hunting 10-12 years ago the carbons were a LOT more expensive than the aluminums, now they're the same price, so last year I bought my first dozen carbons. What I like about them is that they're lighter and faster and flatten out your shot, making range estimation less tricky. I have my bow set up with 20, 30, and 40 yard pins, anything inside of is shot with that first pin. The carbons are also tougher, and stay straight, or they break up, no inbetween. No twirling your arrows to make sure your hunting arrow is straight.

huskmin, I agree with you that people need to stay within their limits on range in order to make a good, clean kill. They owe it to the animals. If they can't stay within a 6 inch pie plate, then they're beyond their max shooting distance. As stated above, I have 30 and 40 yard pins set up, but thats mainly for practice. I like shooting 3 arrows each at 20, 30, 40, 30, and then 20 yards again. After you've been out to 40, you're taking the red dot right out at 20 yards. I consider my effective shooting range to be 25 yards, I wouldn't even use the 30 and 40 yard pins in the field.

[Dan Wood]

I bought a Mathews a few years ago and have been very happy. They charge a premium, but you will be happy.

I'm sure now there are many good bows on the market. At the time I bought, the only other solo cams on the market were paying Mathews for the technology. I wanted a single cam and figure I may as well pay a bit more and buy it from the original inventor of this technology. I do love the solo cam and will never go back to a dual cam.

Good luck and have fun bow shopping!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Well, I went out this weekend and visited a few Arch shops. Most of the selection was way down so I wasn't able to really get a great feel of what bow I was really looking for. I did get a lot of questions answered however. I asked a lot of questions reguarding split limb tech, single cam vs double, bow length and a lot of other things.

Whoever pointed twards Bwana arch was right, very nice people there...

I also looked at the BowTech bows as someone pointed and was impressed. I also like the feel of the Hoyt bows with the cam and a half. Mathews bows seemed very nice, however, I fet they were over priced. I even saw a quiver that was over $100 by mathews. I think that is way over kill. I heard that over $100 from each bow they sell goes right back into advertising. I am sure other companies do the same thing, its just something to think about.

I'm still going to keep looking and asking questions, but I am starting to narrow down my choices.

[Scott Steil]

Two years ago I switched to Mathews. I have shot several different bows both fingers and with a release. I have a Q2, and I use carbon arrows with a release. I love this setup and doubt I will ever change. Mathews are expensive but WELL worth the money.

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Mille Lacs Guide Service
www.millelacsguideservice.com

[BigRoy]

My vote is for the mathews-I shoot a mq and I love this bow! This will be a ten year bow for me. What ever you buy spend the money and get what feels good in your hand-has a smooth draw and is fun to shoot. Dont let the archery shop talk you into a bow because they think its "the best" the best they might be talking about is their profit margin. You will know the right bow when you have it in your hand and like the way it shoots. A couple of friends of mine shoot Hoyt Havocs and they love the bows- Just get out there and shoot them all and read up as much as you can on your top three. Hope this helps.

[Hoyt4]

I would say the best place you can go for service and not too far from you is compound doctor off 35E on County rd e.That is the best shop around and service . Have gone to Bowanna and Shafer. I used to live a good 40 minutes from the doctor and would make that drive 3 to 4 times just to shoot and be in the shop good place will always help you out. Bowanna(poor spelling I know)had VERY BAD luck there. I do like the shop in Burnsville also called Schafer archery they are good people there and will also help out a lot.

[Guest]

Both shops are super and the owners have the same first name John

SCHAEFFER PERFORMANCE ARCHERY
1403 E. CLIFF ROAD
BURNSVILLE, MN 55337
952-894-4139

BWANA ARCHERY
3015 COUNTRY DRIVE
LITTLE CANADA, MN 55117
651-481-9866

[Smallie]

Check out Archery Research a division of PSE new this year. They make it in 3 models Ar 31 Ar34 Ar37 all that is is length axle to axle. For my opinon it's the best hunting bow on the market today. I was between Matthews, Bow Tech and this one I was able to shoot all these bows side by side, I found my self drawn back to the AR every time.

I found that it was quieter and felt less hand shock. I liked the Matthews better than the Bow Tech I like the sleek thin handels of the AR and Bow Tech. The bow also only weighs 3.6 lbs.