Newberry B1 with S.A.T Hybrid Cam System
I am attempting a short report on the Newberry B1 bow. Although it certainly will not compare with Jeff B's long, boring bow reports, I will do my best to share my experiences with this bow for anyone who may be interested. My intent is to give you the facts, with minimal "Like Dude, this bow is awesome. It is the best bow I've EVER shot."
The Newberry B1 is made by Archery Pro L.L.C. It wears Skyline Apparition Excel camo, which certainly has a little different look than all of the bows that are using Mossy Oak or Realtree. The bow specs from the web site are 36.5" ATA, 7.25 brace height, 3 # mass weight. The bow I have is 36.625 ATA, 7.25 brace (pretty accurate, IMO), but closer to 4 #, which is actually good news to me. The draw weight of my bow was a nominal #60, and peak with the limb bolts bottomed is #63-64, depending on the draw length. The draw length is 28 - 30.5. Measurements taken on my crank board indicate that these draw lengths vary less than 1/8" from stated specs.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157493
The B1 has a riser that measures just short of 23.5" between the outermost parts of limb pockets, which are separate, pivoting pieces. The riser is machined aluminum with very nice, if not fancy machining. There is a 6" sight window, recessed fully for its entire span (no separate arrow pass cutout). The riser is noticeably thicker than some other bows, at 11/16 side to side for most of its length. It certainly has a very sturdy feel to it.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157501
The limb pivots are very close to 2" in front of the low point of the grip (reflexed). The bow (to me) seems well balanced with no tendency to roll forward or back. The limb pockets seem very well machined, with very close fit between the pockets and riser.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157518
The limbs fit into the pockets with virtually no gap at all. These pockets are fitted with two features. One is a thin, black pad, which seems like some sort of dense, vibration-reducing material at the point where the limbs would be exerting maximum downward force toward the limb pockets and riser. Each pocket also has a rectangular gel-type insert in the pocket around the limb bolt. This gel insert also extends into a recess in the riser between the limb bolt hole and the limb pivot of the riser.Richard Batdorf, the owner of Archery Pro LLC told me that this technology was licensed form HCA. No doubt this is also for noise and vibration reduction. The pockets have no "end cap" on them. The butt ends of the limbs do not appear to be contained by the pocket itself, but by the limb bolt. The limb bolts are long enough that the bow can be taken down by loosening the limb bolts until the string/cables loosen up. This would seem to be a worthy feature for a hunting bow if any serious work needed to be done far away from a bow press.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157515
The grip is different than the ones pictured on the website. It is a 3-sided wood grip with a thumb rest on the right side. The grip feels comfortable to me, although it is a little thick side to side.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157519
The website shows the bows with a gold-anodized cable guard rod, but mine has a non-adjustable carbon rod that is well rounded on the back end. I was told that the centershot was 3/4" out from the sight window. The cable clearance measured 7/8" to the center of my arrow. Fletch clearance should not be an issue with this bow. The limbs are described as "14" carbon tough limbs. They are pre-stressed approximately 3.375" (from straight) at the axle location. The S.A.T. Hybrid cam system looks very much like the Hoyt Cam.5 system.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157507
It has what appear to be Teflon bushings instead of the sealed ball bearings that Hoyt uses. I was told that the bushing material is called Ertylyte TX, a self-lubricating material that Archery Pro has tested. They are of the opinion that these bushings compare favorably to the bearings used by other manufacturers. Otherwise, the cam system looks almost identical to the Hoyt, except for the color.
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=157510
When I first got the bow, I wanted to shoot it without any silencing aids just to get the feel and sound of the bow. I quickly tied in a nock point, and installed a Centerest flipper rest, and an inexpensive Cobra sight. As soon as I nocked an arrow, I knew there would be some string noise. There was, but it was not as bad as expected. A small pair of catwhiskers did a nice job of taming the string vibration. Later, I installed a set of Limb Savers Ultra for solid limbs. With these accessories installed, the bow is very quiet, with just a very faint, high-pitched hum at the shot. The day following the chronograph testing, I put a string leech in the power cable just above the serving. I was please to hear that the hum had been totally eliminated. Recoil is also very low, on par with bows like the McPherson 38 special and Bowtech Pro 38. There is just a bit more recoil than say a VFT bow, but it is really very slight and, IMO, does not affect the shooting in the slightest. I was shooting some of my "toughest to tune" Nitro Traditional arrows without fletching. I've only had a few bows that will shoot these well bare-shaft, and most of those bows needed a stabilizer to do it consistently. Within three small adjustments, these bare shafts were flying nice and straight, something that took lots of time and patience with most bows I have owned (when I could achieve it at all). In my experience with this bow, I would say the qualities that stand out the most are the stability and tunability. After switching to my favorite ACCs and a Whisker Biscuit QS rest, the bow remained quiet, and stable. I was able to consistently shoot bare shaft arrows into the same groups as fletched arrows, even without a stabilizer attached to the bow. The bow seemed to shoot very accurately, never putting an arrow out of the group unexpectedly. Any accuracy test is probably meaningless when you consider that just about any bow can shoot better than the shooter can, but this bow does inspire confidence. Thanks to PABowhuntr, I was able to chronograph the bow to get a feel for the performance capabilities. The arrows shot were ACC 3/60s with various fletching and point combinations. The weights ranged from 494 grains to 378 grains. To see about light arrow speed, I had one old Quick Strike 59 with a 75 grain point that was unfletched, and weighed in at 315 grains (5 grains under IBO for a #64 bow.) I had only a minimal tied-in nocking point and catwhiskers on the string.
Newberry B1, S.A.T. cams / 64#
Arrow weight Speed @30" Speed @ 30.5"
494 gr. 250 253
455 gr. 260 263
399 gr. 276 279
378 gr. 283 286
315 gr. 310 313
There were a few things about the performance that I thought were worth mentioning. First, the speeds were very consistent. With the 315 gr. arrow and the cams set for 30.5" for instance, the chronograph never varied from 313 fps. Second, the speed increase with lighter arrows, was greater with the Newberry than it was with the Hoyt and Bowtech bows that I was also testing. The Kinetic energy barely dropped at all from the heavy to the lightest arrows with this bow. There also seemed to be little change in noise or vibration when going from the heavier arrows to the lighter ones. I have no plans to shoot this bow with any more sub-IBO weight arrows, whether it is warranted to shoot below 5grains per # or not. I just found it interesting that the bow seemed to remain quiet and well-mannered even with the lightest arrows that I had. To top off the morning of chronograph testing, I shot some of my ACCs at 20 yards. The 399 gr. feather fletched arrows impacted about 4" above the bull in Frank's target. The follow-up 455 grain arrow hit in the X ring, but high and left. I pulled those arrows, and shot two more 455s (vane fletched and 125 gr. points) Two more X ring shots (left side), and one shot through fletch. OK, accidents will happen, I know, but for a pure hunting setup with a trimmed B1 Whisker Biscuit and no peep sight, I think I will take it!