ORIGINAL: PA Hardwoods

Well last night I finally had the opportunity to get to the shop I work part-time and get my hands on and shoot the new Mathews Drenalin.

The Mathews Drenalin:
The Drenalin is a very interesting bow, upon initial inspection I found the finish to be just about flawless. It even seemed to be slightly thicker than most other companies finishes on their bows. The narrow limbs deffinitly thow you for a loop after looking at the wider limbs Mathews used for so many years, But it does not make the bow look ugly. Even with the redesigned limb pockets it still looks alot like the other Mathews bows out there. As far as the overall mass weight it is quite a bit lighter than the Switchback XT obviously due to the slimmed down limbs.

Ok now on to the shooting. Upon initially holding the Drenalin I noticed that it seems to have a slightly slimmer grip than the Switchback XT. It actually felt very natural and comfortable in my hand. The draw cycle on the Drenalin is just as smooth as I expected with a nice solid back wall. The break-over was crisp but in my opinion not quite as crisp as the Vectix, it was just lightly more gradual. The cams also did not want to roll back over when you did not use the right amount of back tention to hold them at full draw. You know the feeling guys of those harsh draw cycle bows that wanted to rip the string from your hand. Well the Drenalin doesn't do this. I proceeded to shoot many arrows out of the Drenalin and imediately noticed some vibration and hand shock, and surprisingly there was some string buzz. I really did not expect this since the switchback and the switchback XT have no string buzz at all. But this is not something that can not be fixed by a set of string leeches or cat wiskers. I really attribute the hand shock and string buzz and vibration to the lower overall mass weight of the Drenalin. But all in all it was a nice shooting bow. Also I forgot to mention the Drenalin was set up with a sims s-coil stabilizer, so I'm sure there might even be a little more vibration or hand shock. Don't get me wrong this is still a very nice bow, and all of these minor problems can be fixed by using some limbsavers ond some other bow quieting and vibration reducing products.


Head to Head:
I then proceeded to shoot the Drenalin and a Hoyt Vectrix XL side-by-side. These two bows really have virtually the same draw cycle in my opinion. With the Drenalin just being ever so slightly smoother. But I was really splitting hairs to pick one that was smooter. I would say this is a tie in this area

As far as speed It seemed to me that the Vectrix XL was slightly faster. Both bows were set up at 70lbs. I didn't shoot them through a chrono but to my eyes the Vectrix XL seemed faster. I will try to shoot the Drenalin with the same 350 grn arrow at 70lbs like I did the Vectrix in my previous review of the Vectrix. Winner Vectrix to be verified at alater date.

The real difference came on the shot when there was virtually no handshock on the Vectrix XL while the Drenalin actually had some with a string buzz. To me the Vextrix wins out in this department.

As far as the grips go the both grips feel very nice and comfortable, This was one of my complaints with both Hoyt and Mathews in previous years and they seemed to adress this. So lets call this a tie.

Overall weight deffinitly goes to the Drenalin which really is no surprize considering the lighter and smaller limbs. Good for hunters how hike long distances with their bows.

The overall finish also goes to the Drenalin, very smooth and thick with no pin holes and no scratches from assembly like the Vectrix XL I shot.

And finally the price tag. Both the Drenalin and Vectrix XL are selling for $749 at my shop. But if we are comparing apples to apples the shorter Vectrix which I found to shoot just like its bigger brother is selling for $729. So as far as bang for your buck I would say the Vectrix wins out.

Conclusion:
But in conclusion I do have to say that both of these bows are very nice and will be at the top of each companies sales lists this year. It seems like to me that Mathews and Hoyt reversed rolls this year. Lat year I found the Trykon XL and the Trykon to have more vibration and not quite as nice as the Switchback XT. But this year I find the Vectrix to have less vibration and noise than the Drenalin. And these issues along with draw cycle are what I feel carry more weaight when comparing bows. So I have to give the nod to the Vectrix as being a slightly better bow IMHO. I some one had a switchback XT from last year and was looking to purchase a new Drenalin I would probably reccomend that they keep their Switchback XT and wait to see what Mathews has in store for 2008. This is just my honest opinion guys so take it for what it is worth.