AaronMColeman
WKR
So I've been shooting archery for several years now. But it has been through a 20 year old bow that was not really set up for me. I figure there are a few others on here who are newbies when it comes to equipment, but have some experience as shooters. Here are my impressions amongst the (mostly) 2022 bows I shot recently.
I walked out of the shop with a Bowtech SR350, but almost grabbed the PSE Evo, and Matthews V3x 29 was my least favorite. As a newbie I don't really even know what I am looking for but I used a few criteria: feel, speed, natural aiming point, and (subjective) how much fun I think I'm going to have shooting this on my property.
All 70#ish, 28" draw, 400ish grain arrows. Yes, very scientific review...this is more of an "impressions" and feel review because I don't know enough to give technical reviews.
Bows I tried (in order from least to most favorite):
- Bear (whatever their top of the line is). Didn't like it so it went on the rack. Smooth draw but it felt, for lack of better words "slow" and not a ton of fun (I wish I had a fun scale to help define this).
- Matthews V3x 29". The draw was stiff at the beginning. Stiffest of all the bows I tried. I was surprised at this because everyone talks about how smooth it is. Very very very dead in the hand, like it does not move side to side front to back nothing! For me I did not like the draw cycle.
- Matthews V3x 33". Mostly the same impressions, it just had a nicer feel than the 29" to me. I did very much prefer this to the 29", and as an elk hunter I think this is where I was leaning from the beginning.
- Bowtech Solution. Really sweet draw cycle, great speed, very quiet. This is a fun one to shoot. Speeds on comfort versus performance, the Matthews V3x 33" falls right in the middle of these two so speed is no issue.
- PSE Evo. This one surprised me, really nice draw, felt great in my hand, slight vibration but I don't mind it one bit. From reviews online this was my least favorite and it's a 2021 bow. But, I almost walked out with the PSE. If you have a PSE bias or have watched a million videos, throw that out and try one. I really liked it. If I went back 10 more times I might walk out with the PSE 5 times.
- Bowtech SR350. I know you aren't getting anywhere near 350fps but other than the BS marketing this was the best shooting, among the fastest (within 5fps), smooth smooth draw on comfort, not bad draw on performance. Normally I'm in the camp of take into the field what is least likely to break, and that would be the PSE (simple), but at the end of the day being able to shoot the same bow all year on comfort and switch over to performance when tuning broadheads was a big plus to me.
So that's the newbie's mostly worthless review of mostly 2022 bows and a couple 2021 bows, with maybe 10 or so arrows through each bow.
I walked out of the shop with a Bowtech SR350, but almost grabbed the PSE Evo, and Matthews V3x 29 was my least favorite. As a newbie I don't really even know what I am looking for but I used a few criteria: feel, speed, natural aiming point, and (subjective) how much fun I think I'm going to have shooting this on my property.
All 70#ish, 28" draw, 400ish grain arrows. Yes, very scientific review...this is more of an "impressions" and feel review because I don't know enough to give technical reviews.
Bows I tried (in order from least to most favorite):
- Bear (whatever their top of the line is). Didn't like it so it went on the rack. Smooth draw but it felt, for lack of better words "slow" and not a ton of fun (I wish I had a fun scale to help define this).
- Matthews V3x 29". The draw was stiff at the beginning. Stiffest of all the bows I tried. I was surprised at this because everyone talks about how smooth it is. Very very very dead in the hand, like it does not move side to side front to back nothing! For me I did not like the draw cycle.
- Matthews V3x 33". Mostly the same impressions, it just had a nicer feel than the 29" to me. I did very much prefer this to the 29", and as an elk hunter I think this is where I was leaning from the beginning.
- Bowtech Solution. Really sweet draw cycle, great speed, very quiet. This is a fun one to shoot. Speeds on comfort versus performance, the Matthews V3x 33" falls right in the middle of these two so speed is no issue.
- PSE Evo. This one surprised me, really nice draw, felt great in my hand, slight vibration but I don't mind it one bit. From reviews online this was my least favorite and it's a 2021 bow. But, I almost walked out with the PSE. If you have a PSE bias or have watched a million videos, throw that out and try one. I really liked it. If I went back 10 more times I might walk out with the PSE 5 times.
- Bowtech SR350. I know you aren't getting anywhere near 350fps but other than the BS marketing this was the best shooting, among the fastest (within 5fps), smooth smooth draw on comfort, not bad draw on performance. Normally I'm in the camp of take into the field what is least likely to break, and that would be the PSE (simple), but at the end of the day being able to shoot the same bow all year on comfort and switch over to performance when tuning broadheads was a big plus to me.
So that's the newbie's mostly worthless review of mostly 2022 bows and a couple 2021 bows, with maybe 10 or so arrows through each bow.
