RB,

BowTech allready does go to that extra step. Check out the downloadable manuals at www.bowtecharchery.com

Pretty well covered here. BK is gonna be the fastest, but doesn' t posess the letoff you seek Corb. My reccomendations fro the BowTech line would be the ExVFT and the 2004 Patriot singlecam. RB mentioned some other good manufacturers to try..Darton in particular.

P.S. Kevin Strother. VP of Engineering/Designer for BowTech has been posting here on the boards in the BowTech threads.

So what is the letoff on the wheelie? I am guessing 65% now that you guys mentioned it but I could be mistaken.

Throw my vote in for the ' 04 Pat SC when letoff is factored in.

Frank, The Wheely has either 80% or 65% mods. Whichever one prefers. The advertised speeds are tested at 80%.

In the owners manuals, BowTech rates their bows at 70 lbs. (unless that particular model doesn' t come in 70 lbs). When a 60 lb. model is built and tested it' s rated 4-6 fps. slower than the 70 lb. and a 50 lb. model is rated 7-10 fps. slower.

These tests are done using a 5 grain per pound arrow.

Corb, If draw force isn' t a factor, I' d look at the Extreme VFT. It can be set at 80% let off or less if so desired.

Ah..after readiong Pat' s post, I see you meant different poundages as well RB. I thought you meant just different draw lengths. My apologies.

Thanx for clearin' that up Pat.

I understand Jeff, it' s early in the mornin' ... Oh but wait... That post was written last nite... No excuses Jefro...[>:]

So be it. Sorry I butted in.

So based upon everyone' s replies and JeffB' s post on the 2004 Bowtechs, it looks to me like the Extreme VFT or the 2004 Patriot VFT, at least on paper, would be the main contenders in the Bowtech line.

So does anyone have either one of these bows that they can set down to 50# and see what the speed derating looks like?

Jeff, I' m glad you cleared that up before I had to go check for myself, again

For some reason, I can' t view all the PDF owner' s manuals, they are too low on the page and the page doesn' t load with a scroll bar. Plus, the last time I looked, the one I could get to and download was for the 2002 model year... I don' t know what' s wrong.

For what it' s worth, I assume the part I can' t get to is also where they keep the catalouge request link, cause I can' t find it anywhere on their site...

Can someone help a guy out?

Arthur,

I wasn' t tring to dismiss your guidance here. It is just that I don' t feel much discomfort when drawing 45-50lbs but I feel the strain while holding the bow at full draw. I' m sure you are right in that a draw force curve could be so excessive that it will cause me unnecessary stress and pain. I did draw a Bowtech at my dealer (I forget the model) and the draw curve was hard but the breakover was wonderful. I could hold that bow set at 50# easier that I could hold my Firestorm Lite at 45lbs.

For me, an ideal draw curve would be no force for the first part of the pull. My maximum pulling strength is about 3/4 of the way into the draw. This is where I can exert the most force with the least strain. So you are correct, the curve will matter to some degree.

I am certainly not a speed freak and could never be But 210fps is a bit slow. If I can flatten my trajectory to ensure that 5yd estimation errors are negligible then I will be happy.

So, all I was trying to say is that I am setting my max draw weight at 50# and will probably never exceed that. Given this, and the fact that different bows will have different efficiencies at low draw weight and IBO speeds cannot be used to predict the performance, I am trying to find a fast bow at 50lbs.

But you are right, I do not want a bow that is going to cause me shoulder problems now or in the future.