Best YouTube Bow Reviews

[WyoElkHntr]

Who is your favorite bow reviewer? Curious who you think offers the most informative breakdown.

After several years of consuming a multitude of bow reviews (rokslide does a great job here too), my favorite youtube bow reviewer by far is Kellen @ApexArchery. He doesn't have the most quantity (I hope he expands to all flagship hunting models for the year), but the quality is second to none. He's not repping a product, but objectively dives deep into all the specs, technology and design. He also does a great job of breaking down the hard to quantify attributes like feel and hold. I appreciate the obvious prep that is put into each review and it is clear he's not just prematurely pumping out a half-assed review to build the view count with inconsistent and ever changing evaluation criteria.

 

[Jethro]

I like Podium Archer's reviews.

 

[billysmals]

I also appreciate Apex Archery. I like the way there is draw cycle curve information. It gives me a decent reference to how a dray cycle would feel visually. You get a sense of how quick it stacks and also any hymps. A lot of person don't really do that when they do a review.

 

[baz77]

Mikes archery and podium are always the ones I watch

 

[T-Rex]

I like Lancaster Archery reviews with P.J. Reilly. He seems to be unbias in his reviews and gives a good honest review that isn't overly technical. And he doesn't have the stupid whiteboard with a bunch of made up scores

 

[Wilderlife]

I watch a few different reviewers and all of them have thinks I like and don't like. I guess the main ones I watched are Podium Archer and Backyard Bows, but I scroll through plenty of the stuff from Lancaster, and other reviewers mentioned in this thread.

I'm in two minds about the way this works in the industry. On one hand, it's exciting when the bow releases are happening and there is some cool content to watch when they drop. On the other hand, a lot of this stuff is just getting pumped out and it's based on numbers and vibes and there isn't much to be said about proper field use. Maybe that doesn't matter? I dunno.

Case in point. MFJJ has his system, and to be fair, he is always discussing changes to his system because he wants to be as thorough as possible. With that being said, any bow with heaps of reflex gets marked down, hard. Why? Because he says it'll be torquey. Now, that may be the case, but if the bow hasn't been shot at a range and out to reasonable distances, can you really say it'll be torquey? Maybe 10 years ago you could. The PSE Mach 30 got great reviews from basically everyone, except MFJJ.

Now that's not a massive gripe at all. It's just something I noticed. Similarly, the new Hoyts were marked down hard in the tunability category, which is probably fair enough with the way the industry is moving these days, but I feel like a lot of this discussion is becoming more important than it actually is. Am I wrong? Maybe. Again. I don't know. My Z1S isn't very tunable, but I know that I've barely had to touch it in almost two years of owning it, and it's been put through hell and killed its fair share of critters.

I don't know if bow reviews will need to look the way they do now in a further 10 years. The bows aren't really getting THAT much better than previous years, and it almost seems a waste now to bring out a new bow every year, just to see everyone on YouTube say it's better than the year before, and be done with it.

 

[billysmals]

I would agree with you that reviews with subjectivity or subjective areas don't offer much value. One person values one thing over another. Even creating a rating scale or assigning numbers imparts bias. I know MFJJ has attempted to remove that with a "scale" of sorts, but those numbers still have to be created. He assigns a score to the weight of his bows based on what they weigh, but those number are still artificially created. I also think those weight numbers are not in ratio to the length of the bow. So smaller bows get a higher score. Someone has to create the scale and thus the bias. Backyard bows does the same thing with speed. Whatever arrow weight (I think he uses 500gr or so) at whatever FPS is scored (I.e 270-279 is 7, 280-289 is an 8---I don't know what it actually is...). I get it though, it's impossible to rank something and not have bias...So I get it, I get the reason to try.

My point is I would rather not have a ranking system or a score. I don't really care what a person values and rates or scores as important-- Everyone has something they prefer and I won't say what other people should value in that space. I would rather have the data and then decide what matters for my preferences. I use these "tubers" for the data as I don't have access to the bows for myself to measure. So things like weight, length, brace height, reflex, ect...all matter to me and these things can mostly be objectively measured. This is why I appreciate Apex for that. It's a lot of data which I prefer over someone saying "this gets a 9/10 because I value it..." I also understand that data isn't for everyone.

 

[Wilderlife]

Yep. Good post.

The Backyard bows rating for speed is pointless. The implication is that bow companies, or consumers, should be looking at a certain speed with a 500gn arrow. That's the control. Nothing else to do with the ATA, draw length, design of the cams, comes into his equation. I know it's just his way of being able to assign a number to things and that's fine, but it's not a part of his reviews that I believe holds much weight.

That's not to say bad stuff about that bloke, either. I appreciate his enthusiasm and energy and he's making positive contributions to the community.

The importance of speed is blown so far out of proportion these days. The amount of variables involved is crazy. Everyone likes the idea of speed for sure, but having it be a big deal in a bow test or review isn't that important, at least as far as I can see it.

What I do value however, is MFJJ 'rewarding' bow manufacturers for being honest with their numbers, particular in the speed area.

 

[billysmals]

Ya I agree with you.

I like Backyard Bows. He does a good job and I appreciate his perspective. I also agree with you, I like that MFJJ creates an honest category. I think it's important to demonstrate that just because a company says a bunch of marketing stuff about their product, it doesn't make it true. This is most glaring in the speed area. I also appreciate that even though all those inflated IBO numbers may come by "acceptable margins" when measured, and MFJJ does a great job mentioning them- no d-loop on the string, 1/4 in longer draw, chronograph number hit only once, using multimple chronos... ect-that doesn't mean that it's right. Speed mostly serves as a general predictor of draw cycle. In my own experience those bose with higher rated IBO's generally have a much more harsh or stiff draw. The speed comes from somewhere so I can get a general idea of how it might feel from the speed.

I shoot a bowtech currently and the performance side of the flip disc sucks, but it's faster. Some of those older speed bows, RPM 360, PSE OMEN, ect...had terrible draws to me, but they were fast as crap.

 

[Wilderlife]

I had a 2022 Omen that only made about 68# but it was fairly fast with 500gn at 27.5in. I think about 269fps. The draw cycle was fairly harsh but it was my first compound since owning a Mathews No Cam so I was excited and didn't mind.

Then I replaced it with a Z1S, which isn't quite as fast, but the draw cycle is nicer. I'm shooting that bow at 77# and 28in now so it's fairly stiff, but it performs well.

As you say, the speed has to come from somewhere, but it's more of an indication of draw cycle. The Mathews V3, V3X and Phase4 were all supposedly super smooth, but fairly slow, and especially so with how far they were from their quoted numbers by Mathews. In a new plot twist, the next Mathews in the LIFT was a lot faster, but surprise surprise, it was a much harsher draw cycle.

 

[fulldraw71]

I quit watching MFJJ, Tim, Bee, Elkshape, Dudley and several others. Nothing annoys me more than someone biasing reviews to certain brands when it benefits them. MFJJ has been known to dock points from other bows if they didn’t hit IBO but then not dock Mathew’s for the same thing and have an excuse why they didn’t hit it. Now that Dudley is with Hoyt that’s all he pumps. Backyard bows is who I like and there’s another guy from Montana I think I like. He’s an older gent with a mustache that wears western gear.

In general I’ve cut way back on all the influencers cause they paint an inaccurate picture of life in the archery world that the majority of us will never see.

 

[WyoElkHntr]

Glad to hear that many others feel similar. I like PJ's reviews at Lancaster but it feels more like he is reading the brochure he was handed (which can have it's place) and he really minimizes any negative attributes. I'm sure this is because Lancaster sells everything and it's not in their best interest to to be critical. I've soured on MFJJ's because they seem inconsistent and biased even though he tries to be/appear objective. Not sure if it's conscious or subconscious but it's definitely there. He leaves out key marketing information -- I'm not a PSE guy, but he doesn't even mention their Full Draw Stability claims. At least explain why you think it's a bunch of BS if you don't agree. As billysmals mentioned, I'd rather not have a point system at all and just go over the pros and cons. It also feels like he is in a rush to post the videos and isn't super prepared. There's often errors in the "published" data he's comparing against.

 

[Wilderlife]

Yep. More and more, these days, bow reviews are less about a genuine review, and more about looking at the specs and making some comparisons to other bows with different specs.

To me, that's not a 'review' at all, and this type of thing is happening more and more in the hunting world.

I saw a bloke on YouTube a few years ago do a 'full field review' on a new knife that had come out. Bless him, all he did was essentially cover the published specs, did some basic bushcrafting in his backyard like batoning wood and chest-lever cuts, and then cut up some chicken breast, potato, and tomato in his kitchen. Honestly, far more wood stuff and bushcraft stuff than anything to do with 'hunting'. He probably did the whole 'review' in an hour. I know that in America, you may be limited by how much you can demonstrate the capability of a hunting knife if you don't have it when a season is open, but that shouldn't be a determining factor in the quality of a review.

 

[bergie]

Podium I like the best followed by Lancaster.

If I want what I feel is an honest review I watch Podium, and then watch the same bow on Lancaster to see all the good things about it, knowing that there will be no negative comments made

 

[TheTone]

I watch podium and Lancaster not expecting to see a hard hitting review but just to see the features the bows , and other products, have. My closest shops are close to an hour away so hopping on YouTube just to kind of get a look at things is easy

 

[NXTZ]

I really enjoyed Brandon McDonald’s reviews from a few years back-he bought a bunch of bows himself, spent TIME playing with/shooting them, and covered a lot of little details and some of the negative aspects. His reviews actually felt like someone sharing their experiences and actual observations rather than just reading the data card on the bow.
Kifarucast (when frank and Aaron were hosting) did some good reviews-again the dudes actually used/abused/hunted with the bows and shared thoughts and experiences.

I miss those kinds of reviews; so many now just pull the bow out of the box, read or misread the data card, and bitch about or praise features that they don’t dive into and really test or explore. I kind of get it-if you wait and test a bow for months to get actual data for a review, you miss the new hotness and release date excitement, but I do feel like most of the current reviews are more like infomercials.