I'm tuning a Bowtech D350 right now for someone. It's a 350 ibo bow, is relatively forgiving, not too loud, not too much hand shock. It does have Barnesdale limbs now, so that was an improvement, however it's a 2010 bow. I think we have seen performance peak a few years ago. It's generally accepted that peak performance with a compound is 350ish ibo until progress is made on limb tech.
So we are really left with user upgrades, that's feel, ease of tuning, pretty colors. Whatever it takes to sell a new bow. Nothing revolutionary with performance is going to happen.
There's no option for 75% with SW. You can get them there, but for their hunting bows in the past 4-5 years it's only been a stated 80 or 85%.
absolutely, the user feel on mathews (for me) went the wrong way after the chill series, if that was the platform they decided to build off of and refine, i would probably shoot a mathews today, the chill r was one of my favorite bows, and though it wasn't perfect, it was pretty close for me besides their limb issues (i never had a problem, but i know it was a thing) and i know a lot of people complained about tuning them, and mine certainly didn't tune down the middle, it was ugly, but i had good arrow flight.... i do think the masses are opposite of me, and like their current bows, they just aren't for me.
i would say they consistently also make the most incremental changes, they don't do much, but like i mentioned earlier in the thread, why would they? i think they have to be #1 in bow sales, so i'm not criticizing them, just makes me scratch my head a bit
speaking of older bows, i bought an alien x used a couple years ago (my 3rd or 4th one since 09') and that sucker was ahead of it's time, i think they were right there in speed by today's standards (335-340ibo) and a decent draw cycle even by today's standards, and you have to spend 17-1800 bucks to get a bow that light today.... i know most don't care for light bows, but my main game is shooting roosevelt elk at spitting distance, nothing that resembles a target bow is required
everyone makes a killer bow these days, i would be content with any US bow manufacturers flagship bow, and i have even toyed with the idea of getting a mathews as a secondary bow, it would be 60# and it would be a dedicated treestand bow for blacktail and lion calling, but i haven't even got a tree stand still, so that program is still on the back, back, back rear burner, haha.
i haven't shot this year's mathews, but since the switchweight, every mathews i have shot, i didn't care for the draw cycle at all, and i even had a triax when they came out, which was a poor decision for me, i liked shooting that bow, but it was my least favorite hunting bow.... but they got me, haha... went to go buy a new carbon Hoyt and left with a triax
if i'm smart (not something i accused of often) i'll just keep shooting my mach 1, it's about the perfect bow for me, but every year i get the new bow itch, which i recognize as impulse, but i am not good at avoiding impulse buy with hunting gear of any kind
i personally hope compound tech doesn't get much better, bows are supposed to be harder to shoot than other weapons... the bow technology, though incremental, is still pretty impressive, i just don't like the whole world constantly catering to the easy button.....