As you all know I had a terribly frustrating time with my Alphamax- so I took the advice of some others and took a couple of weeks off from shooting it. Totally different animal than the 2 Binary cam bows I had.
Last week, I was geting ready to put it up for sale, and after thnking about it rationally, decided I would come into the bow fresh one more time before I gave up on it. I knew the bow shot well (my particular one, as well as others), I;d seen what others did with my bow- and I had my moments of extreme accuracy as well- it was all me , I knew it was not an issue with the bow, and dagnabbit, this stubborn SOB was NOT going to let the bow shoot ME.
I put the TT back on, timed it, reinstalled my sight,took the grip off, and practiced-drawing and aiming-arrow nocked with the very real danger I could send one through the wall or patio door of my(rented) condo! I took note of how the bow did and did not torque (i.e. bets grip) , where my "tightest anchor" with my nose on the string was , etc.
Today I hit the shop- and after a few arrows to get my sight in the ballpark I came to two conclusions-
1) not all of my half dozen ICSH 400 group- even after turning nocks [:@]
2) My "at home practice" helped
Once I figured out the goofy arrows and culled/marked 2 of them (3 group perfect, 1 shoots a bit low every time, and 2 shoot high right about 2 inches but group together) - My groups were excellent- I shot about 50 arrows, and my lefts and rights were very tight- and my ups and downs as long as I did not pull out of the peep which I did a few times. I found myself about halfway through the session getting a little sloppy with my follow through and again mentally worked myself through it and I was back to shooting tight groups- as I knew while the bow was tuned, I was not attuned to the bow. Here's a pic of the 1st group I shot once I culled the arrows and got the sight dialed in (I was aimig at where the white ring meets the blue, I have astigmatism and cannot really see an X on a target at 20 yards or more)
Before I left I chronoed the bow (had not done so previously). If you are lucky enough to have a #2 cam and a 29" draw length you will be a happy SOB with this bow speed-wise- it surprised me. I ended up putting the 28.5 module in mine when I took off the grip and am STILL very happy.
For comparisons sake, my GT500- 28.75" AMO, 62 pounds, 301 grain CT Cheetah, loop, meta peep, tie in nock point, the best I could get with extreme cam tuning was 312 FPS. It shot my 386 grain ICSH at 279-280 FPS.
My AM35 dead nuts at 28.5" AMO (with the grip on). 60 pounds even, Meta peep, loop, tie in nock point, and one Fuse silencer shot 311 FPS. My ICSH at 388 grains (they vary about 4 grains). shot 279-280. So considering the AM35 is 2 pounds less draw weight, and has a heavy silencer on the string and is 1/4" less in draw length- well Hoyt has definitely underpromised and overdelivered. I suspect with the 29" module I was at 315-316 FPS
I'm going to continue to work with the bow and narrow it down to either the Alphamax 35 or the Admiral.