Anyone have buyer’s remorse with a bow purchase ?

[DuckDogDr]

Not necessarily looking for a recommendation on which bow to buy because I know it’s a Ford / Chevy debate but mainly looking for wish I had known or I would have bought this instead; or went with this brand for this reason.

I’m trying to do my best with an educated decision before I purchase. Coming from a Recurve background so not completely naive to Archery but I am naive to compounds.

Shop by my girlfriend’s house has all 4 brands I’m considering so I’ll shoot them all prior to dropping cash (Matthews, Hoyt, Elite and Bowtech.)

Will have a 65-70lb draw at 27”
Planning to shoot a fixed blade arrowhead vs mechanical

Primarily chasing white tails and really want to get a Turkey with one .
I do travel west to hunt elk, mule deer and antelope about every 3 years.

 

[trailblazer75]

I've got 2 mathews 4s. One 29 and one 33 and I don't regret buying either one, a bit.

 

[Billy Goat]

I'd bet the largest regret you hear in archery is buying from the wrong shop, not the wrong bow.

Get a feel for the shop, how much time they will spend with you before and after purchase, what all they will do.


Pretty much everyone makes a good bow. I think most would be better off with a low end bow from a high end shop that spent time with them versus a high end bow from a place that pushes you out the door.

 

[MattB]

Shoot all the brands and the one that suits you will become apparent. It is hard to buy a bad bow these days.

 

[DuckDogDr]

I'd bet the largest regret you hear in archery is buying from the wrong shop, not the wrong bow.

Get a feel for the shop, how much time they will spend with you before and after purchase, what all they will do.


Pretty much everyone makes a good bow. I think most would be better off with a low end bow from a high end shop that spent time with them versus a high end bow from a place that pushes you out the door.

Definitely solid advice. I was ready to drop coin last year but ultimately didn’t because of shop interactions.
Local shop by house just isn’t good (multiple opinions)

Shop by work wouldn’t return any phone calls so they are off the list.

Shop by the girlfriend’s house has a decent reputation although other than window shopping haven’t talked to them yet because I don’t want to waste their time until I’m ready with the cash.

 

[Billy Goat]

Definitely solid advice. I was ready to drop coin last year but ultimately didn’t because of shop interactions.
Local shop by house just isn’t good (multiple opinions)

Shop by work wouldn’t return any phone calls so they are off the list.

Shop by the girlfriend’s house has a decent reputation although other than window shopping haven’t talked to them yet because I don’t want to waste their time until I’m ready with the cash.

It's difficult. Shops don't really make a bunch of money on new bow sales, people think the margins are more than what they are. And the margins improve on volume, so the more you can sell, the better. But that's counter to spending a lot of time with a customer to some extent.

Then accessories can be purchased online for cheaper, so that doesn't help.


I'd just go off of your guts, you might get burned, but if they don't have a bad reputation, hopefully they can tell you are a customer worth spending time on.

 

[KBC]

I'd bet the largest regret you hear in archery is buying from the wrong shop, not the wrong bow.

This right here.

I bought an Axius Ultra a few years ago from a local shop. They guy definitely knows his stuff but I always get the impression he doesn't want to spend any time with me. I did only buy the bare bow and a new rest but put my old sight on it to start. When I upgraded the sight I went elsewhere because of my gut feeling from the guy. I should have kept driving to the next shop a half hour further because they are great. I wish I'd bought the same bow from them.

 

[DuckDogDr]

I will say if the shop by my girlfriend’s house doesn’t pan out, I’d be willing to fly back out to Odessa Texas (Doing relief work) and deal with the shop there. They have limited selection but was kind of impressed while killing time over my lunch break.
Small hunting store, family owned,
Archery shop guy / manager was helping a young guy with his bow. Would have him shoot 5 arrows , make some adjustments and then give him some coaching advice and have him re-shoot.

Store owner was nice but said sorry my guy is occupied. I can have him call this afternoon or we can schedule an appointment for the next morning but ultimately the customer got 100% of the attention of archery guy.
Had to catch a flight so couldn’t swing back by

 

[S.Clancy]

I would have buyer's remorse buying a brand-new bow. I've never spent more than 600$ on a bow, those were all a year or 2 old and included accessories. New bow prices are crazy. Plus, if you buy a year or 2 old model there are plenty of reviews out there.

 

[MallardSX2]

I bought a heli-M and I hated that bow from the day I bought it. It was SOOOO loud and there was nothing I could ever do to get it to quiet down.

 

[dks07]

I already had a Mathews Triax, but fell for the marketing a few years ago and convinced myself I needed a VXR28 when they came out. I ended up not liking the draw cycle/short valley compared to my Triax and I didn't shoot it as well either. I ended up turning around and selling it and taking a hit on it.

That was the last time I'll buy a new bow and made me realize if you ignore the marketing, how little is changing nowadays year to year as new bows are released. Sure, there are minor refinements continuing to be made, especially in terms of being more user-friendly to tune, etc. But from a performance standpoint, the industry seems to have hit a wall and doesn't justify the price of a new bow considering what you can buy used in my opinion.

 

[doc holiday13]

I'd bet the largest regret you hear in archery is buying from the wrong shop, not the wrong bow.

Get a feel for the shop, how much time they will spend with you before and after purchase, what all they will do.


Pretty much everyone makes a good bow. I think most would be better off with a low end bow from a high end shop that spent time with them versus a high end bow from a place that pushes you out the door.

This

My regret of buying a Hoyt is that the only hoyt dealer less than 2 hours from me is run by some know-it-all-clowns

 

[5MilesBack]

Anyone have buyer’s remorse with a bow purchase ?​

Ya, a few times. But being LH and 32.5"+ draw length it's not easy to just go to a bow shop and shoot a bunch of bows that actually fit. So I've bought a few sight unseen that I didn't care for once I got them. Actually it wasn't buyer's remorse because I've learned a lot about different bows and manufacturers from doing this. It's more of "just didn't like them" kind of them. A lot of long draw bows from the past seem to be put together as an afterthought to the same bows in a shorter draw. So for shorter draws they worked fine, but at long draws they were really bad......very little to no valley and letoff, harsh draws, no speed gains for the draw length, etc.

 

[Pointerguy]

I bought a new off the shelf leftover, Hoyt RX5 this past Monday and returned it for a refund today. My drive for buying a new bow was a lightweight setup for elk hunting. That bow was around 5 lbs with nothing on it. This first trip I shot around 6-8 different bows, mainly flagships. They were all upper 4’s to just over 5 lbs.

Today when I went back, I shot the three lightest bows they had. I shot the Hoyt RX7, Bowtech Carbon Zion and the Hoyt Torrex XT. Money wasn’t a driving factor, I was prepared to drop whatever it took and I came home with the Torrex XT and ended up saved a grand over the RX7.

I sighted in the Torrex XT this afternoon and shot it for about an hour. Great lightweight, compact tack driver. Will be a nice bow for hiking in the mountains this fall.

 

[Dsnow9]

I second the bow shop regrets. No regrets on the Matthews vxr though. Had to replace the string though, the zebra strings kept twisting.

 

[roosiebull]

Not necessarily looking for a recommendation on which bow to buy because I know it’s a Ford / Chevy debate but mainly looking for wish I had known or I would have bought this instead; or went with this brand for this reason.

I’m trying to do my best with an educated decision before I purchase. Coming from a Recurve background so not completely naive to Archery but I am naive to compounds.

Shop by my girlfriend’s house has all 4 brands I’m considering so I’ll shoot them all prior to dropping cash (Matthews, Hoyt, Elite and Bowtech.)

Will have a 65-70lb draw at 27”
Planning to shoot a fixed blade arrowhead vs mechanical

Primarily chasing white tails and really want to get a Turkey with one .
I do travel west to hunt elk, mule deer and antelope about every 3 years.

I have certainly bought bows that were the wrong bows for me, the one standout was a short ata bow that was fun and impressive as a bare bow at the shop… I just avoid all extremes, and like at least 32” ata and don’t want a bow marketed for speed, I would rather shoot a forgiving platform at higher draw weight if I desire more speed, though I never do, you won’t either coming from single string bows.

Don’t buy into any hype, people love over hyping bows they bought, they are all good, nobody makes a bad bow, so your best bet is shooting as many as you can without bias.

I haven’t shot a loud compound in years, some are more quiet than others, but once a bow is setup, there will not be meaningful hand shock, and most need very little attention to make them very quiet.

Focus on draw cycle, how fast it settles, backwall, etc… the subjective things to you will tell you the bows that fit you well

 

[Marble]

Price paid will long be forgotten after satisfaction of purchase.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[roosiebull]

I second the bow shop regrets. No regrets on the Matthews vxr though. Had to replace the string though, the zebra strings kept twisting.

Mathews get new strings as soon as it’s ordered or bought… life is too short to mess with zebra strings. Hoyt aren’t much better, prime strings aren’t great… haha, there is a trend! I have heard the newer elite strings aren’t bad, but have no experience there… pse is the only stock strings that I didn’t quickly find a reason to change, they were actually pretty good on my Mach 1… shot them for the better part of a year and only changed them out to break in a new set before season and have a good backup (stock) they held up better than the ABB platinums I put on, though both were good as far as not creeping, but the ABB frizzed faster

 

[packer58]

No buyers remorse here, but i did almost throw it off a mountain after missing a shot once ......

 

[sndmn11]

If you narrow down to a few you like, see if they will bolt any sight on so you can gauge pin float. Doesn't need to be sighted in, just a dot to reference.