JOE PA

Rick:

You mentioned a valley in an earlier post. Could you comment on the valley this bow has, compared to say, the Constitution or Allegiance?

I have picked up a used Q2 XL, and it has a sort of nondescript valley, very short with a solid wall. Not as much to my liking as the hybrid cam bows I also have at the moment.

Rick James

This bow has a decent valley when compared to a binary tuned to 65% letoff. Most shooters using a hinge/back tension style release will prefer higher holding weight to maintain proper form and execution of the shot, I like to have about 22lbs holding weight if possible. When you tune most cams that aren't designed specifically for 65% letoff to these holding weights, it makes the valley almost non existant. My Constitution, and Old Glory were setup this way........and if you creeped even a tiny bit they would rip your arm off, the valley was very shallow. The Allegiance I had was set up for hunting however and I had that at 80% letoff, and it had a slightly deeper valley than thisApex.The Apex cam valley is not as deep or noticableto a binary that is set up and tuned to 80% letoff, however I would not say that any Mathews cam I have felt was "nondescript" except for a black max 2. Are you 100% sure that your cam is tuned? What is the max draw weight right now and what is the holding weight at full draw?

gibblet

matt, i really like the grip on that apex 7 also, but the shooters around here, except the short draw folks, have gotten rid of them. something about a torqueing issue that is hard to resolve with the bow. have you noticed this at all?

Rick James

I have done a lot of blank baling with it so far and don't seem to notice anything of the sorts. When you say torquing, I assume you mean with the bow hand because of the grip design? I honestly think I like this grip better than the shrewds at this point, it seems to allow me to keep the grip on the pad below my thumb a bit better and away from my lifeline which is crucial for me to keep my fingers at a 45 degree angle. I will be able to tell you next week Wed evening because I will be doing quite a bit of blank baling on camera to look over to make sure everything is working and setup well, but for the time being I don't seem to notice any problems like this.

The one gripe I have with the bow is that I *think* the 30" cam is definitely longer than say a bowtech 30" cam. I am feeling like my draw is longer than what I have on my Constitution. I have a setup at the club I belong to that will allow me to draw the bow and lock it in full draw so I can measure from throat of the grip to nock point, I am headed there tonight to check this out and further tune it. I may need to swap this 30" cam out to a 29.5" cam to keep my rear elbow slightly above the line of the arrow.

JOE PA

Rick:

Thanks for the response. To answer your question, the Q2 XL that I have has a 30" cam, and like your Apex, seems a bit longer than that to me. It appears to me to have an aftermarket string on it, and the holes to measure cam position show that the cam is underrotated compared to the desired position. Since I don't want to lengthen the draw, I have left it this way. This could be part of the issue, though this nominal 60# bow peaks at 65# when the limb bolts are bottomed. The valley is definitely shorter than my Champion or McPherson hybrids, and the draw peaks later too. The valley seems less distinct. The bow will tug gently when I ease up on the string, but it actually is an easy bow to let down. I have a 29.5" cam coming, which may solve the problem. Thanks again for your answers, and best of luck with the 7.

Rick James

Joe,

I would get the bow in specs on the set of strings you have now and then make a judgement call on whether you need a different dl cam or not. Then once you get this all figured out have Gibblet here make up a fresh set of his strings/cable for it, and it won't be needing timing work for quite some time after that.

The fact that your draw weight is out of whack makes me really think it must be out of tune quite a bit, after setting up a couple dozen Mathews in the last few weeks I have found that they are generally VERY accurate in their stated draw weight. Make sure your ATA and Brace height are at 38" and 7.5" on that bow first of all. Once these are adjusted properly then set draw weight, and holding weight at full draw.

For timing, your two timing marks when connected with a straight edge should be completely parallel to the string. If your cam is under rotated (cam rotated towards string) adding twists to the cam end of the string will fix this. Then once cam position is correct if you still need to add poundage, you need to add twists to both the cable and string. Add 2 twists to the string for every 1 twist in the cable. Keep in mind this will increase your brace height. Make sure the bows limb bolts are bottomed out as well when making these changes. Things will change when you back the limb bolts out after setting up, but this is normal. Then check your draw length and if it still needs to be shorter, put that other cam on and start all over again with the tuning process.

gibblet

the q2xl comes with 2 different string and cable lengths as follows:




String/Cable Length
String 97 3/4" Cable 40 3/16"
String 99 1/8" Cable 40 1/2"
(30 1/2" & 31" Draw)

Rick James

I did quite a bit of work on camera tonight and I don't see myself torquing the bow at all. I have other things to work on...lol...but I don't think torquing is one of them. I have the vids up in my journal for anyone that is interested.

The string/cable are crap. Tonight I really put a good tuning on the bow and after maybe 400 shots on the bow since I got it the release loop has already seperated the servings. This hasn't happened on a gibblet string to me w/ 10,000 shots on it. I don't think I am going to fight with this stock string just to prove a point. I don't know if the material will creep on me, but the servings suck. I am going to have gibblet send me one out that is 20 strands on the cable, and served w/ something thin in diameter to prevent the bottom cable serving from getting eaten up which these bows are notorious for. Other than the string/cable, the bow is perfect and probably the best 3D bow I have ever owned. I like it quite a bit and am excited to see how I do with it in a couple of months.

Also, before I mentioned that I thought the draw was a bit long compared to what they say on the cam. Once I got the cam timed tonight, it was right on spec. It is now in specs for brace height, ATA, and holding weight as well as shooting a perfect 1/4" left/high tear and walkback tunes to 60 yards perfect. It is not quite 65% letoff though, I am holding 22lbs on a 70lb draw weight so it is actually like 69% letoff.