Review: Obsession M7Z Bow Review
By Gerard Marcaurele, Guest Contributer
When you live in the archery world, come fall and winter, you’re bound to hear about the newest line of bows. The latest and greatest technology from last year quickly becomes a fading memory as companies develop either new technology or new ways of marketing their products. I will admit that I have fallen prey to the “new bow bug” in the past, but a year ago a change in priorities left me bow-less. It took me six months to realize that this was the dumbest thing I could have done, without a shadow of a doubt. I needed to get back to doing what I love.
After knocking some sense into myself, it was time to shop for a new bow. I had been running an Xpedition and had truly enjoyed it, but I was looking for something a bit simpler to tune than a hybrid. I wanted a true dual cam bow with decent speed and, to be honest, good looks. My friend owns an archery shop near Dallas. He suggested I look at one of his top selling brands, Obsession. I got to studying the Obsession specs vs. all other major manufacturers and found them to be on par (at least on paper). Once I decided to stick with Obsession over the other lines, I settled on the DEF-CON M7Z. Aside from the weird name, it fit the bill nicely at a 7” brace height, 32” ATA, and an IBO rating of 346 feet per second. I put my order in and began the long wait for it to be built and shipped.
About six weeks later in late April, I made the five-hour trek to my buddy’s shop to pick up and set up my bow. At first glance, I was impressed by the Iron Works camo. I picked out a Trophy Taker Smackdown Pro Rest, a single pin Black Gold Ascent Verdict sight, and a Trinity Archery 10” t3 stabilizer.
Click here for Brock’s Montana Black Gold Pure Gold 75 Review.
I got everything set up on the bow to spec and installed my Clear Shot Peep. A quick aside for those looking for a good peep, the Clear Shot system is such that the color of the peep is meant to work with your eye to provide a clearer sight picture, including colorblind shooters. This peep system really worked for my goofy vision, and I recommend it to anyone looking to improve their shooting. Back on topic now. To my relatively inexperienced bow technician surprise, the first shot was a bullet hole through paper! Sadly, I ran out of time to shoot at the shop due to prior commitments that day, so I had to wait until I got back home to finish tuning.
After I had a chance to walk-back tune, I noticed that my rest was not set correctly, but a couple rounds and two slight horizontal adjustments and the bow was shooting a perfect vertical line with the walk-back and my fixed blade broadheads flew great. Now I could focus on the bow’s feel, which can be summed up into one word: smooth! The draw cycle stacks up quickly (not harshly), the valley is deep and the back wall is solid. I could tell this bow was definitely made for speed, but the cam system allowed me to let down without my shoulder being ripped out of socket. This was a huge improvement over the “speed” bows I have shot in the past.
For those that want to know the numbers, I am pushing a 470-grain arrow at 275 f.p.s. with my bow set at a 28”/65# draw. This was impressive to me, as I like to keep between 270 and 280 feet-per-second for tuning purposes. With the 470 grain arrow, I am confident in my set-up’s ability to put down game as large as elk. Once I had the numbers crunched, I put another 200 shots or so through it to finish breaking in the strings (they were broken in by 100 shots, but I was wanting to be sure that everything was more than settled). Then it was time to sight in and get to shooting.
The Black Gold sight was a breeze to dial in, and in about two hours of shooting I had everything dialed in out to 90. Unfortunately, after two weeks of shooting I noticed vibration in my sight when dialed into any yardage above 30—obviously a defective sight. Black Gold honored their warranty and I had a repaired sight back to me 10 days after I first found the vibration. While I wish the problem had never occurred, I was impressed by Black Gold’s expedience that got me back to shooting within two weeks of the original problem.
I’ve been shooting this bow multiple times per week for the last three months, which has given me a pretty good idea of how it holds up to general use. I have put at least 2500 arrows through it so far, and the wear on the factory strings has been very slight given the number of shots. I was skeptical of the lack of a cable roller or cable slide due to some issues I had with my old Xpedition, but the wear on the cables is far less than I would have expected.
The limb stops work very well, but the rubber that covers the top stop would wiggle halfway off the peg after about 150-200 shots or so. I placed a very small bead of G5 Blue Glue on the metal piece and put the rubber back on with no recurrence of the issue.
After putting arrow after arrow through this bow, one thing I have decided I would like to see on all bows is a v-shaped shelf with a silent rubber coating (like a Hoyt). This bow does not have that feature, and I am not the biggest fan of the arrow shelf I had to install to keep things quiet while walking and stalking. Being a wannabe western big game hunter, a bow that requires minimal additional accessories to be mountain ready is a big plus. In my opinion, simplicity is key when it comes to having confidence in equipment.
Other than the aforementioned minor issues, I am extremely pleased with how accurate this bow is along with the lack of vibration on the shot. The overall tuning process was extremely simple, as I did not have to adjust the cam lean whatsoever and the timing was dead on from the factory. While I know this is likely the exception and not the rule, in my opinion, it still added good marks for the Obsession brand. I would rate this bow as a 9 out of 10, simply because the arrow shelf, draw stop rubber issue and the fact I believe that there is always room to improve upon any equipment. If you’re in the market for a new bow, I believe Obsession deserves a spot on your test drive list.
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