Heh..Ruger. Gosh I’ve always loved the lines of a Ruger but I never owned on or sold one that would shoot worth a crap. Number 1s, Number 3’s, M77’s…Never tried one of their shotguns. Oh yeah I could kill a deer with one, but I never could get one to shoot better than a 3” group at 100 off a bench, even with friends hot-rodding ammo for me. Yet, I could take a stock M700, M70, or Browning and find some off the shelf ammo that would shoot 1.5” groups or less.

But I digress, back to the subject at hand.

As far as I’m, concerned the major players this year are Hoyt and Bowtech. Archery Research is very hot with some dealers, and many PSE dealers are pissed off over the line, as well as PSE putting some of the better bows in their catalog line rather than the Pro-shop line this year (Primos STL for starters). I don’t think they will do as well as they hoped. Probably better than PSE ahs done with thier top end bows in recent years, but no matter how nice they are built or feel, Mathews clones are a dying breed. They will need to adapt and design new cams and risers.

Mathews: Well, I don’t ever underestimate Matt McPherson. I still believe he can pull something out of his sleeve. Unfortunately his marketing department is cutting off his arms before he can. The blatant cut downs in the catalog and advertising are hurting the company’s rep, and also by going even farther with a symmetrical cam and idler (The Icon from last year, and this years XP cam) he’s helping to prove everyone’s point that there’s some serious advantages to a hybrid or dual cam system. The LX is a neat shooting bow though. It feels like a Legacy with another 8-10 FPS tacked on. The draw stop ala Bowtech’s I-cam (and the old Jennings supercam) is a nice touch. But they still need some refinement. The machining I’ve seen is “sharp” in that it’s starting to cut into strings and cables. They’ll fix that though. The Black Max II with its sub 6” brace is really a design that’s way past it’s prime, and will those really nice new pockets be THAT much better on the C3? Seems like they keep trying to reinvent a design that doesn’t need to be reinvented: the original Conquest Pro was the best incarnation yet.

There are some other interesting things out there: Merlin’s hybrid for one, but the company has little impact overall in the US market (so far), despite the extreme high quality.

Martin seems to be doing very well with the near complete re-vamp of the product line. I know I’ve been very impressed with line compared to the last 3 or 4 years. The new Cougar III and Scepter III in their various configurations are some nice shooting bows.

So my vote goes to Hoyt with their excellent C.5 and tweaks to the Tec risers, and Bowtech’s complete slim down of risers and grips, new cam designs, and increased speed with increased brace heights. Martin’s revamped line would be my third choice.