BeltedMag

First let me say, sorry for such a long post

Im in the market for a new hunting bow. Hopefully i will be purchasing it with a month or two. I am not a speed freak, im conserned more with accuracy and forgiveness. I prefer a bow with a longer axle to axle, nothing less than 35"s and a minimum of 7" brace height. This has made it kind of difficult to find a new bow since the trend is for bows short enough to fit in your pocket. I hunt from the ground or from my ground blind so i dont need a super short bow for swinging around in a treestand. The best shooting bow i ever owned was 41 inches long with a 7/12 inch brace height, it wasnt super fast but it was a tack driver and greatly improved my target scores.

Almost everyone i know shoots Mathews or Bowtech, and they make awesome bows. But its hard to find one that fits my lenght and brace height requirements. They are either too short but with a good brace height or the right length with a short brace height. If Mathews or Bowtech would make a 35-38 inch bow with a 7inch plus brace height i would own one in a heart beat.

I visited a pro shop and looked at 2 bows which i decided that one of which would be my new bow. The Hoyt Trykon XL and the Ross Archery CR337, both of which met all my standards. I have never been a big Hoyt fan but the trykon has alot of great features and the Ross looks just like a Mathews/Bowtech bow but in a longer axle to axle. I knew that my next bow would be one of these two choices.

I just visited ArcheryTalk.com to read the reviews on these two, this was my first time visiting the site.

The Hoyt had alot of reviews, very mixed reviews, some loved it others totally hated it. The main complaint kept being, weight, hard to tune and lumpy draw cycle. Everyone said it had no shock and no vibration. One person who works at a pro shop said that it was almost impossible to tune and he would never own one even if it was given to him. I have never really liked the whole split limb thing and some of the posts seconded my opinion. From the reviews i got this opinion of the trykon, very shock proof and stable in the hand, but heavy, untuneable and not very smooth to draw.

Now on to the Ross. It is a great looking bow with very good features from the factory. It feels very smooth. The reviews were great everyone gave it a high score and the only bad things said was that it wasnt real fast...oh well. Everyone gave it a great review. It was called extremely smooth, accurate, forgiving and well made. The hoyt had so many negative things said about it and all they could say about the ross was that it was a little slow, well so is my PSE and i have had no problem taking deer with it.

I know everyone is going to tell me to shoot both bows for myself and see what i think before i take others opinions. I definetly plan on doing this. The local shop sells both and two of their employees shoot the hoyt and ross and swear by their choice. I will definetly see for myself which one performs better when i go to buy. But after reading the reviews from people who already own, shoot and hunt with these bows they have greatly infuenced my decision.

The chances are really high that i will pick up the Ross. Thanks for listening to me go on and on and feel free to give me any of your opinions or feed back on these two bows or basing my decision on others reviews and opinions.

Dave

BGfisher

Hey, I don't mind reading something like this. It's nice to see someone doing their homework and then choosing a bow instead of the usual thing of buying and whining.

I'm on AT a lot and know of what you are saying. There are a ton of "archers" over there that know their stuff.

Yeh, I'll say try them both and nothing against Hoyt, but I'd get a Ross just because all I've read this year is "Trykon this and Trykon that". Like it's the greatest thing that ever happened to archery when it's just one more choice from the hundreds of bows manufactured.

Here's one for you. How about a Rytera Bullet X or Martin Razor X Elite?

BeltedMag

Thanks BGFisher, i checked out the Rytera bows, the bullet X looks really nice, i could live with a 34 1/4 inch axle to axle. They must be made by Martin, i notices some of the same parts and they are built in Walla Walla where Martins headquarters are. I havent completely closed out Martin from my list, they are in the back of my mind. The 41 inch bow that i used to have that shot so great was a Martin Firecat. It was really accurate and quiet and pretty fast, but it was hard draw and would wear you out really quickly. I wonder how harsh the draw is on that rytera with the dual hatchet style cams? My buddy is looking at getting the new Slayer Extreme, he is a big Martin fan and shoots an older Martin speed bow and cuts holes with it.

TerryM

You are in the middle of a process I went through also this spring, buying a new hunting bow. You state that a generous brace height and longer ATA is what you are looking for. But for some reason you don't think that is available from bowtech. You have just looked at the best sellers I think like the Tribute and Allegiance. The Old Glory is 36 3/4" inches ATA, has an 8" brace height and can be outfitted with the smooth modules. That would be an amazingly smooth, accurate and still fast bow. The other I would look at is the Ross CR337 which has very similar specs. I personally didn't like the Trykons much just couldn't warm up to the draw cycle and the MAthews would have done nicely but the Bowtechs just have more features that suited me like modular adjustable draw lengths which allows more expirementing in 1/2" increments without the hassle of switching cams like the Switchback and Trykon. It also makes the bow easier to sell when the next greatest thing comes along.

VA HEAD HUNTER

isnt archery talk .com our enemy lol all hail huntinet

cartman308

What about the Bowtech OldGlory or Constitution doesn't fit?I thought their brace heights were 7 1/2+???? the BT website isn't dialup friendly so i can check [&:]

just suffered through the download of the BT site. The Old Glory is 36 3/4 ata and 8" brace height. Constitution is 40" ata and 8 1/4" brace height. Check them out! btw i have nothing against Ross or Hoyt either. The Bowtech Tribute just felt better to me than the rest. That why there are so many choices!

JeramyK

You can't really go wrong with any of the bows mentioned. But your best bet is to get one in your hand and try it out. I've shot quite a few bows that have looked good on paper but didn't feel well in my hand.

One thing I'd suggest is to not give up on the shorter ATA bows. They may be physically shorter but some of them feel like you're shooting a 40+ ATA bow.

BGfisher

Dave,

If you're not interested in speed then you don't want to shoot the Nitrous cam from Martin. It's a speed cam, but not a harsh drawing speed cam. I shoot it on three different bows, two of them with the shoot-thru cables system. It's on my hunting bow and target bow.

The other guys here have mentioned some pretty nice bows, too. Thing to consider is that axle/axle being somewhat an issue for you, the longer riser bows and parallel limbs give a longer FEEL to the bow and a bit more stability. I think one of the biggest things to consider with some of the shorter bows is the accute string angle and how it can mess up how you anchor at your face. Sometimes you just can't touch your nose to the string if you like without extending the drawlength of the bow to a point where your body alignment is out of whack.

If you get interested in some Martin bows you can get on their website. Do some fishing around and look at the options some of the bows have. There are different limb/cam options that can make one bow anywhere from 32" to 40" or so with different brace heights to match.
I'm not a real big fan of the DynaCam, as I've about had my fill of all single cams and their own little problems. That's why, when I started shooting for Martin I went back to a dual cam setup. Believe me, with the right strings and cables a dual cam can't be beat. And with the Nitrous cam I've been able to maintain the same speed as past bows except that I was able to drop the peak weight about 7-10#, making the bow a dream to shoot.
Now if your one of those guys that just have to shoot 70# then the Nitrous maybe gonna be a little rough. I shoot it at 58# in my hunting bow so it's no problem.And my 3D bow, a53# SlayR, 27" draw, smoking 299fps is easier yetIt's something you'll have to find out for yourself. I'm just stating some of my findings.

I'll tell you another bow that is nice is the Pearson Bishop with the hybrid cam.

Oh yeh, for some of these bows today you better have your drawlength down to a tee. Some are drawlength specific and if you need to change by 1/2" you need to change the cam. Just so many things to consider--------.

Good luck.

xp32bow

bass pro sells a xp-35 with a 7 5/16 brace ht. these bows shoot awsome and they are made by reflex and has a ibo speed of over 300 plus you can get a good package for 549.00, this bow only weights 4.4 lbs,they are very forgiveing,straight nock travel and very quiet release,and no vibration,fitted withhybrid slam and 1/2 cam system

BeltedMag

Thanks everyone for all the info. I tried checking out the bowtechs after reading a few posts, but like cartman308 said the bowtech site doesnt like my dialup. I couldnt get anything to load on it. I did look at the bowtech constititution last year but its a little too long for my liking, just like the Mathews Ovation. I have several friends that shoot bowtech and i asked them about the Old Glory with the Binary Cams, they had nothing but good things to say. Is it a true dual cam or like a cam and half system? I really dont have anything against speed, ive just always been under the impression that you cant have both pinpoint accuracy and blazing speed. That you either have to have perfect form and technique to get great accuracy out of a fast bow, or go to a slower one for forgiveness and accuracy. All this insight will help make me a more informed consumer when i do go to buy my next bow. I havent bought one in almost 10 years and the way the archery industry changes, thats like a hundred years. This will probably be my last bow for a really long time, especially after my wife see' s the bill, so i want it to stand the test of time and provide many years of blood trails and tatered x rings. I have also checked out the Martins in bow shops, i really like the look and feel of the slayr, but it seems that most martins have such a super short brace height.