As some of you may recall, I am trying to see if there is a way I can get another year or two out of my current Diamond Hornet. The hornet flings an arrow with authority, it's 30.5" ata and 7.5" brace lend itself well to a tree stand, and generally it's a pleasure to shoot. It utilizes the Bowtech PF cam, so the FDC is a tad stiff by today's trend towards smoother draw standards, but not a deal killer by any means.
After shooting a Mathews Outback and getting a taste of this "just sits there with no handshock" feature many of the new breed of bows promise to deliver, I was curious if I could bring my hornet somewhat closer to this style of performance. PABowhunter graciously offered the use of a set of NVs to see if they could address the tad bit of shock the hornet still has after installation of an 8" stealth, which I took him up on. Since the NVs require taking the bow down, and the only press I had could do no such thing, it required a trip to the "local" "Pro" shop. I shot the bow quite a bit before hand, to imprint the feel pre- NVs, then took my bow in. Got it back the next day or so, eager to shoot right away and compare what I felt the NVs brought to the mix, only to find they had my bow seriously screwed up. A couple weeks of sulking and a money order later, I had a bowmender press from WWAG sitting here. Got REALLY busy, it sat here until recently, when I finally put my bow back in order. Have been shooting it quite a bit lately to get things re-tuned and set in, and have come to the following conclusions-
The addition of the NVs seem to have eliminated the little bit of shock/vibration I noticed before their installation. However, this is also the first time my bow has had everything set to the factory specs, so I can't say with 100% certainty that the NVs and not this fact are responsible. Quite possibly a mix of the two.
The NVs look to be relatively simple to install provided you have the equipment to break your bow down. You simply press your bow, remove string and cable(s), unpress, remove the limb bolts and washer, put the NVs in place and tighten up with your limb bolts. You don't reinstall the washers, and reassemble.
They look pretty cool on my bow. I've seen pics of them on PSE's ads, don't necessarily like them on their bows, but they look much smaller and unobtrusive on mine. The greenish PSE brush camo matches my hornet's mossy oak pretty well, actually.
All in all, they seemed to have helped quiet my already quiet bow and remove the last bit of shock/vibration. I'm still getting recoil, which I see as a factor of my bows light mass weight of 3.2#s (versus the 4.3# of the outback) and high energy cam. My next step is to play with mass weighting to see what it brings to the table. I have a plan on how to do this, just need to track down my brother first. Report to follow...
