They are really nice bows for the money. A few years ago a friend and I were looking at bows. I shot the ultra light 31 and a SQ2 which was pretty much the same thing in the Mathews line up. There was also the MQ32 which was close. Also shot the Magnum 33 from darton and one of the shorter proline bows, Mountain 31 or 32 or think. I forget the axle to axle to axle on that one.

I like the parker alot. I went to shoot a generation 3 or what ever it was called. The one with the 3rd cam designed by bowtech, but parker was selling them as well. My buddy wanted to shoot the UL 31. I ended up liking the UL31 better. We shot it and the mathews on the same day, maybe 3 hours apart. The parker felt lighter and more balanced in your hand. I also thought it drew easier. The one I shot had a 28 inch draw length (I shoot 26 inches) and I could draw 70 lbs on it, normally I can't pull that much at that draw length. It did have some handshock and recoil to it however.

The mathews was absolutely dead in your hand! Very nice shooting bow. It was a bit slower than the parker, maybe 20 fps if I remember correctly, and the draw length was wrong. It was almost an inch longer than what the cam indicated. This used to be fairly common with some mathews bows, I don't know any longer. And it was more expensive, by almost 100 bucks I think. If you had the extra cash and every ounce of speed was not important to you, the mathews would be the way to go. But if you wanted a bow that shot just as well, was lighter, and you didn't mind a little recoil after the shot, the parker was an excellent bow. Not to mention it was camo from tip to tip.

I also shot the MQ32, that is by far in my opinion the best bow I have ever had in my hands. I love that little thing (am little though). Very smooth, very quiet, holds and shoots nice. Just not very effecient is all. They don't make them any more any way. Heck I don't even think they make the SQ2 any more. They change their line up more than cabela's moves it's freakin displays. Well maybe not that much, you but you get my point.

The short of it is the UL31 is an excellent bow, you should be very happy with. I would venture to guess they are as fast if not faster than most mathews. Unless mathews sped up thier line up in the past few years. I think the UL31 has a IBO speed of 314 or 316, something like that. That was a few years ago, it may have changed.

Good luck,
Paul