Pinwheel 12

Rangeball--

Merlin did design a bow similar to the one pictured that would honestly do over 320. But it was a bear to draw, and was very touchy, just like most other high-speed offerings. For those who only care about what the chronograph reads, we would have sold a few, sure, but most hunters who sit in a tree for hours on end would've complained after they tried to draw their bow. Making a fast bow is easy----making a bow with decent brace that is very smooth, quiet and forgiving, yet still shoots decent speeds, is another animal altogether. If you compare this bow to others of the same configuration, and taking into account the fact that Merlin's drawlengths are DEAD-ON AMO, and they don't Streeeetch ratings for a sale, I think you'll find that they are very competitive with other bows of the same configurations found anywhere.Ask anyone that shoots a Merlin about this, their bows are almost always faster than the advertised speeds. We will be offering a slightly lower letoff module (true 65% instead of 72-73%) which will give you a few more feet along with a bit more holding weight,(which is why we are offering it, some shooters like a bit more) but the cam will stay the same.

As far as KE goes, this bow has plenty. Don't be mislead by "approximate" IBO speeds as to what the performance quotient of a bow actually is.


Thanks for the assist Frank on the pics, and the thumbs up. Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

Rangeball

Sniped this out of Ben's thread at AT-

Pinwheel, what's the FDC feel like on the Max Extreme? Would you say it has the same perceived feeling of less draw weight than actual that people are saying about Bowtech's F-cam or even Darton's CPS?

Pinwheel 12

Rangeball-

I don't know yet, other than what Ben has stated to me. I expect my first ones in within the next week or two in my first dealer stock shipment . The guys at the factory are very hyped about this bow and how smooth and quiet it is, and they don't normally get all hyped unless there is good reason, I know this from experience with them. They rated it the same as the Quest 35....Hmmm. This also tells me a bit more about the advertsied speed ratings,(they mean little) because the Quest 35 quite easily gets 290+ at IBO legal, yet offers quite imperceptible shock and recoil itself, so when I get a phone call and cannot understand the tech on the other end of the line because he is psyched and cannot talk straight,(not just because he's British) then yeah, I'm itching to get one in my hands, certainly.

I will have much more hands-on info for you in the coming days, as soon as I get some of these in. Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

Rangeball

Sounds good, will wait for your shipment and subsequent "report"

JeffB

I'm with Frank, the Max Extreme looks cool!

What is the Lamination layer? And where is the lamination?..face and back?? Otherwise are the limbs the same as the Pro-Fusion? or the all-glass limb?

Nice looking bows. Hope I'll be able to handle 'em at the ATA show.

And glad they got rid of the blaze orange limb pockets

Pinwheel 12

JeffB-

Yes, we're hoping the MaxXtreme will do well this year. The Max 3000 and Supernova, along with the Quest 35, are all solid performers, so we hope this one and the Vision will settle into their designated applications as well.

Yep, the laminates are front and back, and underneath they are the Pro Fusion plus Carbon limbs. (2nd generation) All glass limbs have been eliminated from the Merlin lineup.

Stop on by at the show. I'll take ya down to throw a few arrows out of one. Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

bbahunter

Kevin,
How much will the 33" maxxtreme weigh?
The bow does look sweet!

Pinwheel 12

Brian-

The MaxXtreme weighs right around 4lbs according to the specs. Yep, you'll have to come up when they arrive and we can play a bit. Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

Straightarrow

I'm impressed.

We have a thread about innovation awhile back. Most companies have tweaked designs, but haven't added any real new technology. It's nice to see Merlin has actually given us something other bows don't have. They look great, but I really liked the light camo from last year. It was truely invisible. You could lose your bow if you laid it on the ground during a 3-D round. Even so, the current offering is a much better pattern then the dark blob stuff other companies put on their bows.

Why did Merlin go away from the recurve limb on the Max Extreme? I must say the one thing I really like about Merlin is their great looking bows. The recurve limbs added a lot to this perception.

Pinwheel 12

SA-

Thanks for the thumbs up.

The parabolics were designed to compete with the market of parallel designs, and in fact go one step further by making them further advanced. USA hunters have been fed straight limbed glass or power-tuff limbed bows for so long that it seems anything else the main populace doesn't want to look at, so Merlin decided to give them something for 2004 that they certainly WOULD want to look at.

The rest of us all know that the recurve limb design is very smooth, and will always look very sharp along with holding it's own with other designs. But as you so adeptly stated about the parabolic design-- it's new, it's cool, and it will certainly grab attention. Plus, from what I understand it is a phenominal shooter, too, especially when of course coupled with the Omega systemthat offers absolute straight and level nock travel. I know I'll be lugging one to my hunting stands this coming year, and I haven't even held one yet! Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

Edit--BTW, the camo isn't all THAT much darker than last year, and still disappears in the woods.