Well, when most of you seem to be buying bows like beer (the fresher the better), I usually like the aged like wine approach. Of course, bows do not increase in value like wine can.
Having put together a Frankenstein bow with Black Knight cams, I succombed to curiosity, and bought an actual Oregon Black Knight recently. It is not the original, cast riser model, but one of the machined riser versions. The bow is certainly an interesting one. The first shot with it sounded like a gun, but after taking off the overdraw and heavy, old school sight, which wasn't quite tight enough, plus the addition of Limb Savers, etc. it has a pretty acceptable noise level. Noise wise, it seemed pretty much like the Patriot Dually I had. The bow, with its straight riser, and pretty much vertical limbs, has some forward jump, but it is not nearly as bad as the carbon riser Diamond Marquis that I had last year. The brace height is less than 6", but I've yet to feel the string against my wrist. I even shot it a bit with a fairly bulky nylon jacket on with no arm guard, and the string hit nothing. To me, that means there is little torque going on. I need to add that the draw length of the bow is nearly 1" too long for me. The draw is tough, especially holding on to peak weight way back into the draw, but it drops pretty smoothly for all of the energy storage. Not much valley, but a decently firm "wall." Shooting the bow is pretty enjoyable, not quite as shock free as newer bows, but still not all that much different. The bow seems to shoot accurately enough for a bow that is really too long of a draw, and not much harder to shoot well than many other bows I've had with more generous brace heights. Again, it seems to be pretty torque free. Should be a decent 3D bow that shoots flat to help with range estimation. While the cams are modular, it seemed almost impossible to get modules when I had my other bow, so I will probably end up selling this one after the curiosity is satisfied. One thing that suprised me a little was the look of the bow and machining, etc. I was under the impression that Oregon bows were very high quality and high priced bows. The riser on this bow is pretty simple, and blocky. Though I am impressed with the torque free nature of the riser, it does kind of make most modern bows look like works of art. There is some beveling on the edges of the limbs that looks kind of rough. Somewhat less impressive overall than many of the Hoyts and High Country machined riser bows from the '90s. Of course, it is WAY FASTER! Re-sell this piece of history, or get some aluminum and make some modules to correct the draw length? Decisions, Decisions.
