ORIGINAL: RoyD
The Bowsite forum will be doing a bow test on these bows and hopefully have the results in the near future. They take 12 archers and blindfold them so they don't know what bow is being shot. They each rate them on recoil, smoothness, speed and balance. The speed is done comparing apples to apples as far as arrow weight, draw lenght, poundage. I looked at the last two years and found Bowtechs speed claims to be just that, a claim. The Mathews LX beat the Bowtech VFT even though Bowtech claimed the VFT to be amost 8-10 feet faster IBO. The Outback won the overall rating and was allso the fastest. Beat Bowtech LIberty also, there bow with same braceheight. After all is said and done, you still need to shoot what feels good to you no matter what brand it is. Bowtech makes a good bow, but don't put alot of stock in all the HYPE you read here and there. Good Shooting.
You're right, the Outback did shoot faster than the Outback in this test and it did win the test as well. Keep in mind that all the bows in this test were set at 28" draw, 60 lbs. using a 540 and 350 grain arrow, plus the bows were shot with the factory installed string accessories which includes a brass nock, 2 eliminator buttons and hush kit on the Liberty, bare string on the Outback. The test tells me that yes, the Outback was a little faster as the bows were set up but moreso it tells me that the HP cam (or whatever cam the Outback uses) is perhaps a little more efficient than the ultrasmooth (nice valley) FreedomCam.
Again you're correct in saying that the Outback won the blind test that Bowsite did and the Liberty did come in 2nd which is good, but have you checked out the test that Outdoor Life conducted this past summer where the testers were compiled of a NASA Engineer as well as some very high tech testing equipment where they electronically tested for sound and vibrations along with speed.
There were 21 bows tested (instead of 10 like the bowsite test) and the Liberty won the Editors Choice Award, I'd say that's pretty impressive since it was picked over the other 20 bows.
To see some of the testing you can click
here
And here's a picture of some of the testing equipment used
