Hi All:
Dont ask me how, but I ended up getting ahold of a demo Swiss Twin Bow for some testing. It just showed up yesterday evening and I spent last night reviewing the manual and got a chance to do some quick testing this morning before it got past 85 and the thunderstorms hit. I will do more detailed testing once it cools off a tad later this week. Anyway, here is an initial review:

This particular bow is a demo, so it was not packaged in a "new bow" fasion, rather wrapped in bubble wrap and plastic and shipped to me assembled. My first impression as I unwrapped it was "WOW!!!" This thing is stinking cool!!! It is surprizingly elegant and hi-tech while at the same time being an extreamly simple design. The "bow assembly" attaches to a forward rocker with two bolts. Pretty much that is the assembly. Other than attaching a scope, that is it. Rather than using cams, the Twin Bow uses one long string that crisscrosses between the two limbs and rides on pulleys so there is no "rollover" associated with the traditional compound. The string has the coolest serving, almost like a flat catgut or something...I gotta check into this and I will give more detail later, but this alone may be somethign to look into.

Basic dimensions: 16.5" wide (this is at the widest point uncocked to the outside of the pulleys) 34" tip to tip and including a red dot scope weighs in at 8.6lbs. It is a bit funky at first to shoulder since it is all tubes and such, but it shoulders amazingly well once you figure out where to put your hands and such. There is an adjustable wood cheek piece that is held onto the rear stock with a band clam and that can be slid up and down the stock to adjust for diferant people. It is very well balanced and since the forestock is set at an angle, offhand shooting is dead simple since your elbow is already turned towards your ribs holdign steady is very comfy.

At this point I will note that the manual goes into many details about ethics, hunting techniques, and safety that are more akin to a hunter safety course, but good info for the complete novice, but other than that, the manual is a "must read". Cocking the bow alone is VERY weird and requires alot of concentration (note in the pic below, and I did not do this on purpose, that my shirt is pinned by the butt of the bow...I clamped my shirt between the butt and the tube a couple of times cocking it.) It requires several muscle groups to effectivly cock the bow. It is very fast to re-cock, but it is like swinging a big nut cracker with tension on it. You need lots of room to swing and anyone that is not very strong or has limited movement will not be able to cock this bow. Aparently you can un-cock it the same way, but you have to be able to hold the tension of the bow. I have yet to try that.

The arrows need to have the cock feather trimmed to clear the strings (not a big deal) and they recomend moon nocks and I can see why. It only has a 8" power stroke and the string sits off the rail abit so centering the nock on the string on this bow is pretty critical. They noted that they have had rollover issues with flat nocks in the maual. I basicly took an old Parker bolt I have in my "gotta re-fletch some time" pile and trimmed off the cock feather and out to the yard I went...

OK...once the bow is cocked (again, more detail on this later) this bar pops out of the back of the pistol grip. That is the safety. The idea is to grasp the pistol grip and compress the bar when you are ready to shoot and then you can pull the trigger. This takes some concentration to not grab safety and bump the trigger while you are reaching for the grip. It is actually pretty cool once you get used to it, but I myself would prefer a button or something that was not part of the trigger assembly. I can see where in a moment of excitement with gloves on a unintentional discharge may occur. Anyway, they claim a 1.1lb trigger. So I carefully keep my finger away from the trigger and compress the safety and gently pull the trigger. Now, in general, creep on a crossbow trigger is your pulling and pulling with tension on the trigger till it finally comes off the sear. This does not do that. The trigger pulls back to a point with absolutly no resistance and you kinda hit a wall. At that point, it is one of the best triggers I have ever used on a crossbow. It is very light, crisp, no creep, and no real travel after release. I think that the gap with no resistance infront of the sear may be able to be taken out. If it can be, Moonkryket would LOVE this trigger . It does take some getting used to, but once you know where the wall is it is very nice.

Moment of truth: with a 417gr 20" arrow (they recomend a 16-20" arrow and as low as 320gr and up to 600gr) it shot 298.5fps average. Not too shabby. Even with the crappy arrow I was using (the fletchings look like lasagna noodles) it is a tack driver. I was pulling 2" groups at 35yrds and the arrow is crap. It has no hand shock, and has only a slight recoil, but here is the impressive part...84.7db!!!!! That is 4.2db less than a Desert Stryker!!! There is a "ting" from the bolt clip (that in itself is an intersting piece of engineering) that some silencing should take care of ( I stuck a piece of felt on it for the moment and it helped)

Anyway, this gives a few intital impressions and I will have more details later when I have more time and cooler weather to fully check this thing out...My initial conclusion is that the same people interested in the Horton Recon would probably be very interested in this bow. Retail is like $1599 by the way.

More to come.
Wyvern[/align]