When I bought my ' 99 Maverick I looked at all the bows the local dealer had and I narrowed it down to the Mav and an MQ1. I was standing there with both in my hands, compairing the weight and length and fit and finish and couldn' t really make up my mind. The Mav was $499.99 and the MQ1 was $649.99. I had shot the dealer' s own personal Mav because it was all set up and the new one I was looking at was just pulled out of the box. He didn' t seem to want to let me shoot the MQ1 so I just asked him which was a better bow, forget about the money. He said," I really can' t fault the Maverick" . He could have sold me the MQ1 and maybe made a little more money but I thought he was being truthfull and I liked that! I bought the Mav and later on found out that he was right about the speed of the Mav. I' ve owned two different MQ1' s since then and they were both about 12 fps slower than the Maverick. The Maverick is only slightly less forgiving than the MQ1' s were and I didn' t find the MQ1' s all that much more quiet than the Mav. The Darton did have more hand shock but it was lighter also