BOWSITE.com

[Droptines]

Did anybody see the new feature on the new bows ??.They blind folded a bunch of guys and had them shoot like 12 of the newest bows.All the bows judged and classed.Interesting results []

[CBM SC]

I thought it was pretty interesting. Some results were very surprising, like the speed winner and the noise winner [].

[Arthur P]

Yeah, but I wasn' t overly impressed. The blindfolds were supposed to keep brand loyalties from playing a part? Even blindfolded I can tell a Hoyt grip from a Mathews, High Country from Golden Eagle, Darton from PSE... It' s not as blind a ' test' as they make it out to be.

I noticed in some of their elimination brackets that a bow would turn up in a second or third round elimination that wasn' t in the original bracket. How' d that happen?

[PABowhntr]

I tend to agree with the other comments. I would give the Keystone Country Store an " A" for effort as it is nice to see someone besides the manufacturers themselves actually doing some sort of comparison between bows. It was the first time that they attempted this so we should expect something " less than perfect" . However, I was equally surprised with some of the results and not much by others.

Arthur,

The explanation that Jon Silks gave about the brackets was that they would flip flop a few of them from one bracket to the next in order to keep it more equal. I understand what he was trying to do but think another format needs to be utilized in the future.

[Arthur P]

Next time, leave the blindfolds OFF and choose testers that are capable of making an objective decision based on the test criteria. Seems a better way to do it than try to tell me someone can' t tell the difference between bows by the feel of their grips. Anyway, I do agree with ya, Frank. They do deserve an ' A' for effort.

I did like the elimination tournament concept. Next time they should do a double elimination with winner and loser brackets.

[Pinwheel 12]

Hmmmm. Which brands of bows does Keystone sell? Lets' see---HC won noise, yep, they sell them.... Draw was Hoyt, I assume they have Hoyt too cause they sell Reflex, etc, etc...... You see where this is going, right? Also, How many of those guys are shop shooters/friends? probably most of them if not all. I do not agree with their findings, irregardless. Too bad tests such as this are always based on bias or sales motive--- but it does give a boost to sales of certain products, no question. I suppose any type of boost to the industry is better than none, right?

I conducted a similar test and all of my shop shooters concluded that the same bow won all of the tests across the board....imagine that! LOL.

What one needs to do to conduct a FAIR test is just have an independant company with no links to the industry whatsoever (and no greasing, either!) drive out to a few different clubs in different areas the country,(pull them out of a hat at random) and conduct this same type of test. I guarantee this same test will produce different results.

Other than that, it was very entertaining! Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

[BowTech_Shooter]

I just returned home last nite from my trip to Keystone Country Store to help them with at their Outdoor Heritage Days Festival last weekend.

What a classy operation they are...

FWIW, They don' t carry some of the bow lines included in their testing with Mathews being one of them.

If my memory sevres me correctly, most of the guys in the archery dept. shoot Hoyts but as you can see, Hoyt didn' t win in every catagory...

IMHO, they did a great job of unbiased testing.

[JeffB]

I' m gonna have to respectfully disagree w/ my bud Pat on this one.

{RANT} No malice towards KCS, but personally, I' m not crazy about the way they ran the tests at all..the blindfold thing is ridiculous..as Arthur said..it' s pretty easy to tell the diff between manufacturers grips.

And if you are comparing a bow like say the LX or ExVFT w/ and IBO speed of 320 FPS or whatever to a Golden Eagle or Buckmasteror whatever w/ an IBO of 285, you can be pretty damn sure the 285 FPS bow will be quieter and have less recoil. It' s like comparing a .243win vs. 7mm Rem Mag.

All bows tested should be decked out the same for speed tests. Same string load. The ExVFT had silencers. The Hoyt too (as they are factory items). Even then you are nto taking into account different materials, strand sizes, etc.

Some bows had factory vibration stuff..Hoyt has Limbsavers, Mathews & Jennings have HD' s,Bowtech has VB' s, etc. IMO strip the factory stuff off completely, or shoot them all w/ the EXACT SAME stuff...

Bows with similar brace heights should be grouped together. It' s not really fair to do a comparison of a 8.5" brace bow, and a 6.5" brace one for a speed test.

All draw lengths should be exactly the same MEASURED length. I didn' t see where this was specified.

All bows should be at peak weight..not halfway down the draw weight range..as this affects brace, pre-load, etc. Many manufacturers like Hoyt & Darton rely on that preload more than some other company' s designs.

The range of testers was too great. They took 12 guys...did they ALL have the same exact 28" draw length? Being under or over-drawn can have a drastic results on how a bow feels. Bows that are set too short often kick harder (giving the impression of more recoil) because your form get' s out of alignment. Same with going too long.

My point is, such tests are never going to be " fair" . There are too many variables to take into account, and much of it is subjective to each individuals tatses. If you want to test techincal matters fine, but you have to control the variables, but even that did not seem to happen in this " test" .


As Frank said..I give KCS an " A" for Effort..

But a " D-" for execution, IMO.

I' m not overly concerned about what they sell being a biasing factor, but the control methods are poor at best

{end rant}

[Kanga]

Jeff.

You should really stop taking those " rant" pills

But I do agree with you

[BowTech_Shooter]

What the heck Jeff... You' re dissin me... While I ought to... Bing- Bring out your dead.... Bing-Bring out your dead...LOL...

Anyways, if I' m not mistaken, the tests were done with the bows as they were received from the factories... (other than the draw weight)...

Hoyt' s come with Limb Savers, we use VibraBlocks, HC uses their own thing and some companies use nothing at all...

I' d say the testing done was kind of cool considering the bows wre basically tested (other than the 65 lb. draw weight) as a dealer would take it out of the box and hang it on the rack for sale...

What' s wrong with that?...

O.K. Jeff, now this time hit me in the right eye....

And BTW, From what I read on Bowsite, the testing was only sponsored by Keystone Country Store and not performed by them... One of the testers lives here in Ohio down by Columbus...