There are a few that can be, and then there are those who constantly dog them and say they lie to the public, both are bad, which one is worse? The on sticking up for Mathews in a fanatical sense, or the one spreading the rumors?

I am a fan, not a fanatic as well, I shoot what I like, others don't dictate my choice!

Alright here goes my little $0.02.

First. I do not deal with ANY dealer that puts down other brands. To me, it is plain out bad profesionlism.

When Iwas in the market for a new bow last year Mathews was my first choice, but I stillkept my mind open toall the major names and a few smaller names. This quickly changed because every time I checked out a Mathews dealer, I would get a weird feeling in my stomach. It was like if you didn't have on a pair of kahkkis, a $500 pair of sunshades around your neck, hair gel, andpull up in a $50,000 truck yougot "overlooked".Sure the dealer would talk to you, but it was like their minds were already made up, "This guy is in a pair of jeans, t-shirt and driving a Tacoma...Whats he in here for". This made my mind up that I didn't want to be recongized as a "mathews shooter". I have seen what others on here have stated. A lot of the guys around here who shoot Mathews shoot them for the name and like to "brag" about their Mathews, but can't shoot a 4'' group on their best day.

I am not bashing Mathews b/c they help set the standard for today's bows, but I do think that some of their shooters are ruining their image.

Someone stated that its like this with all bow names, but its not. Not around here anyways. I've never seen a BowTech, Ross, or Martin shooter prance around at a range like heownedit andwhen it came time to shoot, he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The BowTech, Ross, and Martinshooters were the ones out there kicking ass on the score board.

I think that at one time in the bow world that Mathews was the best bow, but that day is gone. You can buy a bow that is just as quite, fast, smooth, and forgiving.

Prime example. One of my hunting buddies has three bows, a Drenlin(sp), a Patriot VFT, and a Q2. He will tell you that theBowTech is just as good as the two Mathews are and most of the time the BowTech sees more time in the treestand.

I was shooting side by side with him yesterday afternoon.MyBowTech is just asquite andsmooth. His bow is setat a higher draw weight than mine and heavier arrows and I was still sinking arrows2'' deeper into the target than he was. This would be fine and gravy if Iwas shooting a higher endBowTech thathad an identical price tag, but I'm not. I am shooting the cheapest bow that BowTech makes, the Tomkat.

Am I saying that BowTech is the best? No.

Today'sbow market has a lotto offer. Look at it. Mathews' pitch issmoothness. BowTech's is speed. Hoyt is their amount of wins.

If you look at the recent polls and recent comparisons done by independents, Mathews isn't on top anymore, espically since the Guardian came out.

It's like this:

The local pro-shop here in town got turned down by Mathews when they first opened, but they had Bowtech and Hoyt. I would go in there to shoot my Mathews, and the guys would rip on me..calling my bow junk/over-priced/over-rated/etc...

Last year a Mathews dealer up the road from me closed..and the one in my town got the ok to be a Mathews dealer. Every one of the staffers shoot Mathews to date.

I now drive 35 minutes to a different pro-shop, instead of 5 minutes. It was funny last fall seeing the local guys have their pictures on the wall in their shop..Mathews in hand next to their animal. Fools.

Despite that the Drenalin is the MOST efficient bow on the market, 2nd being the Iron Mace. 87% for the Drenalin, the Guardian does not even come close to its 86% mark...

If I shoot a $200 bow and kill with itevery time I release an arrow, what improvementswill an $800 bowmake for me?

On a recent trip to New Zealand, I was confronted by a fellow from Canada (he was very proud of his Mathews). He was there hunting fallow deer. He had been huntinghardfor five days straight-no luck (so he said). As I began assembling my bow (I shoot a PSE. I paid exactly $2 for it-won it in a raffle) from its case, this fellowINSTANTLY began talking down to me. I have learned over time to bite my lip!, For me, actions speak louder than words. Little did he know that this bow had, just days before, handled some of New Zealand's most coveted trophies and didsowith ease ( red deer, chamois, and tahr-all free ranging). Again, as I was being lectured, I simply held my tongue.I politely asked him what he found so challenging about the fallow deer he had be hunting. I'm always "all ears" for tips. Long shorty short, I could have killed five different gold medal fallow deer within the first hour of hunting. I was covering the same ground this guy had been on for five days prior.

It's not the bow...

Markup on a Mathews is just about exactly the same as most bows on the market. This is not an accurate statement at all. Trust me I know..........and it's not as much as you probablythink.

One other thing to add as well...............

I have seen a lot of people mention that Mathews buys up all the shooting staff/hunting shows. They do invest in this heavily, however if/when you look around you will see there are many other companies out therethat do this MUCH more than Mathews. Hoyt has probably more professional and amatuer level "National Shooting Staff" membersthan any of the bow companies out there, and there are many other brand names that also have a tremendous amount of amatuer level shooting staff as well that push bows on the local grassroots level and on the internet.

If you add up professional hunting staff/shooting staff as well as amatuer level sponsored staff for the top 5 brand names of bows out therethe total number of sponsored people for Mathews would be near the bottom of that list..............they don't havethe amatuer level shooters and simply don't sponsor them.

Its Not all marketing but that is a great deal of the problem when people think their bow is better than someone elses. I work in retail furniture and its the exact same thing. Its called "product knowledge". Its not just Mathews, its all the companies. You put you name out there in as many ways as possible in front of people. But thats not all. You have to have a good product as well.

But I can almost gaurantee he got burned the mathews and has some disdain towards them. My owner did the same thing. the sales rep burned him and he quit selling them all together even though it was a quality product. it took us almost 5 years to change his mind..

And you have to remember this guy is trying to make a buck himself.If he can change someones mind about mathews and get them to buy one of his bows all the better for him. Ultimately it will begin to hurt his business but i know his mentality. The same as my boss.

I know at least one former dealer who sold a pile of Matthews bows each year that would tell you differently.

I don't necessarily want this to be a brand wars type thread although I know it can't be helped that folks will give there opinion about Mathews Hoyt, Bow Tech or any other bow manufacturer for that matter. So speak your mind it's ok with me.

That said, I just found it strange how he never said a word about ANY other brand bow I shot. I even had my Fred Bear Code there a few weeks after I bought it to shoot at his range. We got to talking about stuff before I went to the rangeand he asked "what ya shootin?" I said a Code, he never blinked an eye and we continued on with the conversation. He doesn't sell Fred Bear so obviously hedidn't get this sale from me.

Fast forward a few weeks later, here we are talking again only this time I brought my Mathews to shoot and the story goes as I've outlined before on this thread. So I know it was the Mathews that got his goat. I just think it was in very poor taste for a Pro Shop owner to pull something like that.....no matter what brand of bows he sells.

Again, I've owned this bow for a short period of time and have gotten moresnotty remarks and looksin that time than I have in all the years I've been shooting archery with many different bow brands. Is it a coincidence that ALL of the folks whohave beensnotty have either shot or were affiliated in some waywith the two other big name bow companies who's names will not be given,what gives?

As far as the whole "Mathews cost too much." That's been dismissed as there have been plenty of folks herewho have chimed in about the selling prices by them. To the "It's all marketing" frame of mind people....What's wrong with marketing?? Owning a small business myself I'm all about marketing any chance I get. But with marketing comes responsibility too. I put my brochures out there and make claims about what my company can do. Let me tell you, if I don't do what I said I was going to, I wouldn't be in business too long!

If Mathews was "all marketing" and didn't put out a great product, after a while no one would buy it!

You know marketing is a strange beast....you can haveaproduct and tout it as being all this and all that, but if you don't market it well not many people will know about it and you can pretty much continue onwith your claims uncontested. Same product, same hype butnow your marketing isnation wide and getting to lots of folks. You'd better be able to back up your claim about how your product performs because if it doesn't as advertised someone is going to call you out on it.

We are seeing this example right now with this legal action against Scent-Loc.