** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

I just finished reading the newest comprehensive bow review as done by Outdoor Life magazine:
REALLY interesting stuff! Now that we've beat the Bowsite shootout to a froth ;)here is the skinny on Outdoor Life's version of a "Bow Shootout"

This wasn’t a completely subjective blindfold style test like the last one discussed here…..After setting each bow up identically and to the exact same draw weights they used a Spot-Hogg shooting machine and a button activated release to do all of the Objective tests: The following equipment was used to grade the bows in the shooting machine:

Speed: A Pro Chrono digital chronograph
Noise: A calibrated Vernier sound level meter
Vibration : 2 calibrated Vernier 25g accelerometers were used to read horizontal and vertical vibration for each bow!!

Objective tests were overseen by Dr. Daniel Woodard who is a research engineer at the Kennedy Space center![:-]
These objective readings made up 60% of the testing

The remaining 40% of the grading was made up by 5 Outdoor Life editors and one of the country’s top bow technicians (Ed Schlimme).
The bows were evauated on:
1. Fit/Finish,
2. Balance/Grip (overall comfort level),
3. Smoothness(Ease and efficiency of draw cycle),
4. Full Draw comfort,
5. Shootability (how the bow feels during and after the shot)

The 21 bows tested are as follows in Alphabetical order:
Alpine SVX
Archery Research AR-34
BowTech Liberty
Browning F-5 Tornado
Cabela’s PL-1.5
Champion Scorpion
Concept 99
CSS Contender
Darton EXT
High Country TSSR
Hoyt Xtec XT
Jennings CK 3.5
Kodiac Bow Logic 32
Martin SlayR SE
Mathews Outback
Parker Phoenix 34
Pearson Dagger
Pro-Line Stalker
PSE Scorpion
Reflex Grizzly
Renegade TR-4

How they finished:

#1 The BowTech Liberty finished 1st with a high score of 92 out of 100 and earned the ‘Editor’s Choice” award.(“Teflon Smooth” draw cycle, very little vibration and second quietest to the Xtec)

#2 Mathews Outback finished a close second (did well in every category)

#3 Hoyt Xtec came in 3rd (quietest by 3 decibles and least overall vibration)


The rest of the top 10 in no particular order, consisted of:
High Country TSSR
Kodiak Bow Logic 32
Pearson Dagger
Proline Stalker
PSE Scorpion
Renegade TR-4
Reflex Grizzly (was named the editor’s ‘Great Buy’ with many of it’s scores exceeding bows that cost twice as much.)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Interesting stuff. Is the article up on the web anywhere yet? Would love to read it, no place around here to get OL :(

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Range,
I don't think it's on the web and I'm not getting in trouble for scanning it here!;)
I have heard about this review for a few days now and just got my copy of Outdoor Life in the mail today.
Interesting read!

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Guess I'll have to scrounge for an issue of it.

As for scanning, worst case you go to prison. As long as they let you take your ASAT leafy suit, you could probably safely drop the soap :)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Interesting. Was this in the July Outdoor Life? I'd like to read the complete article.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

On the speed testing, was it a who's fastest or who actually gives you what is advertised?

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Adams, the newest August issue.

Range......prison is not an option ASAT suit or not. [:o] The speed appears to be fastest as tested by AMO standards (30"/60# 540gr arrow)

One of the coolest things they did was list the actual vibration measurements (both horizontal and vertical seperately) and decible meter levels for every bow so you can see exactly how well each model did.:)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Very interesting
One thing is for sure... they seem to have all grounds covered as for technical measurements. From a technical standpoint, you can't get much more accurate. I mean using scientific equipment to measure sound and vibration really does get to the bottom of all the this bow is quieter, more vibration free than that bow. I didn't see the article yet, but how close were the results in each catagory?

pretty cool, pretty cool

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Blasphemy !!!!!! [:@] I know the Outback is number one........the test was flawed.........the editors are biased and paid by Bowtech..........this is an outrage.......rediculous..........!!!!!!!!!!![:'(]

Just kiddin' !! [:o]:D

No ,really it seems to back up what most of us have been saying all year........the Liberty , Outback, and X-tec are close company .......and it seems in both test they rank accordingly out of the pack ! The Liberty and Outback are getting ranked so close it's kind of funny !! ;)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Matt i read the same artical you did in outdoor life! they called it the 2004 bow shootout! they sead they put 21 bows through the ultimate test! All bows were shot with a 60-pound draw and a 540-grain arrow? They did say that the outback from mathews finished a close second to the bowtech libery?;) And the bowtech liberty was listed the editor`s choice[8D]

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Muzzy,
With respect to noise there was a 16.7 decible difference between the lowest (Xtec @ 81.6db) and highest (Kodiak 32 @ 98.3bd)
That's quite a bit considering they tested at AMO specs.

Vibration was REALLY interesting![:-] They measured horizontally from a low reading of 58.6 m/s sq. to a high of 168.4 m/s sq.!!, and vertically from a low of 25.5 M/s sq. to a high of 76 m/s sq.

They also averaged vibration (horizontal + vertical / 2) Only 3 bows came in under a total reading of 60 m/s sq. , the Xtec, Liberty , Outback.


The worst average vibration score was a 129 for the AR-34, followed by the High Country TSSR @ 116.9 m/s sq.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

sound slike a good test, I may have to pick up a copy.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

I told you so................. - no body believed ME:D:D[:o]

Damn rattle trap....LOL:)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

I heard about this too..Folks from BT are going to send me a copy soon.

The top results don't surprise me at all. I'm anxious to see what the actual category scores are. As a "for instance", though I have an XTec and a Liberty (and have shot the OB on several occasions), I would say the OB is the quietest of the three with the Liberty close in 2nd. I have an 70 pound X-Tec totally decked out w/ Sims gear including Sims Xtreme limbsavers and my 80 pound Liberty still sounds quieter to my ears..even when both bows are shooting 400 grain arrows!

But that''s based on my ears (which aren't so good, and the reason subjective tests..are..well..subjective)..not a decibel meter. Of course I suspect some folks (not neccessarily here, but in general) will B#tch cause thier fave bow feels alot better than the test would suggest. Then again, I'm sure these would be the same people who balked at the "feel" test done at the Bowsite too. I see over at AT the fans of bows who did not do so well are already saying the test is bogus :eek:

I wonder if the test took into account the Hoyt, Mathews, AR,PSE, Champion, Jennings, Parker , Pearson, and BowTech have silencing gear of one kind or another on the bows out of the box?

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Outdoor Life has also named the sun the world's biggest source of light and heat and Judge Judy the most foul, nasty creature on the planet. It seems they've changed their format to simply stating the obvious. :);)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

This really perplexes me. About a month ago, I tested a Kodiak (36" model). Without any doubt in my mind, it was the quiestest bow I've ever heard. And it wasn't just me. The same judgement came from the other 10 guys that were at the shop at the time. However, it also had a great deal of vibration in the grip, on the shot. Now, this test says the Kodiak was the loudest, yet good enough in other areas to score high in the test! All I can say is, that either there is a lot a variation from bow to bow, or the setups did not include identical vibration control accessories. The results of this test are so far out of line with my experience on this bow, that it leaves a lot of doubt in my mind, as to the value of someones else's opinion of a bow.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

I'm not suprised that the Liberty and Outback were very close. In actuality, these bows are carbon copies of each other in overall design. What really suprises me is the AR bows didn't fair well in the tests. Again, very similar to the Liberty and Outback. Another thing that wasn't mentioned is string materials of the bows. I know for a fact that Hoyt uses a more traditional D75 material. If I recall, Bowtech uses a Pre-stretched string? Not sure what Mathews is putting on theirs from the factory nowadays. In that case, the X would probably be quieter. The prestretched strings a little louder. I replaced my stock strings on my X and noticed a little more noise.

Noise dampening devices will also make a difference depending on where they are placed on the limbs. Optimal position is critical on quieting the bow. Did they mention where they were placed?

One thing I can honestly say is I'm not suprised about the vibration results. I shot the Liberty side by side with my current Xtec and thought the Liberty had more "kick". But thats just me.

These test are nice FYI articles. But honestly I don't think you can go wrong with any of the three top bows they listed. Hoyt, Bowtech and Mathews clearly stand out, year after year, and, for good reason.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

It's about time someone did a report like this! I'll be buying my first issue of OL in quite a long time tonight.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

I just got my hands on the review. I have a few observations. First, I am a bit confused on the scoring. Were all the raw numbers converted to the fair, good, very good, excellent system? Also, each rating(fair, good, etc.) has a 10 point range, but we are not shown the actual points to see if some were low within the range, while others high.

I was surprised by some of the speeds. For instance, the Parker Phoenix, which I looked at in person yesterday and am/was very interested in, has a similar design and cam(looks anyway) as the Outback and a little bit shorter brace, yet it shot at 224.6 while the OB was at 238.6. Not only that, the advertised speed of the Parker is 310 IBO while the OB is only 308.

Again on speed, and I realize not everyone wants the same thing out of a bow, but the winner of this test only received a fair speed rating, while 5 received excellent. To me, when a bow is that much slower, it would seem easier to reduce noise, vibration and shock. No?

No bow in the test got an excellent on fit/finish nor on balance/grip. Hmmm.

Although none of the bows received an overall fair rating, the Browning got 7 fairs. I was surprised to see a CSS bow receive 6 fair ratings.


The three highest scoring bows all got only fair on weight. Is mass weight one way or the other necessarily bad? Looking closely at this, I also am confused on this particular scoring. The Alpine weighed in at 3.9 and got an excellent. The Liberty was only 4.2, yet got a fair, which is the total opposite of the spectrum. Four bows weighed 4.1, and they all got very goods. No bow got a good. :D The two heaviest bows were 5.5 and 5.6 respectively and they too got fairs. Hmmm.

In the end, I am very glad this was done, if only for the raw numbers. I will totally forget the subjectives, and shoot several bows over the next two weeks before I buy.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

I just got done reading the review and it sure looks like they went to great lengths to record data. Scoring was a little odd but in the end,,, some of us knew the results before the test was even thought of;) I still wonder how the BowTech Patriot VFT would have measured up:D
Quote; "We found that it's Freedom cam resulted in a teflon-smooth draw cycle. And though testors are supposed to keep their comments to themselves to avoid inffuencing others, a few were caught smiling as they drew and felt the Liberty's solid back wall, which was judged to be the best in the group." End of quote.
Buy this magazine to see how a test should be run;)

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

As an AR shooter (by choice), I was more than a little perplexed by the results. As was my huntin' buddy who's shot my AR (he owns two Bowtechs), the Justice (not the Liberty), the Outback, and the Hoyt. We've shot just about everything and I still contend that my AR is as quiet and has as little vibration as any of 'em. Seriously. And I think my bow's grip is more comfortable than any of them, except for the Hoyt (which is really comfortable to me as well).

The one thing that didn't surprise me was the non-objective ratings. They even said that the testers either loved or hated the AR. I'm curious; for those of you who've shot an AR and own one of the others, what did you hate about the AR?

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Matt.
Thanks for posting this.

One test I would like to see done would be doing the same as this one but using the different companies speed bows.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

That is a great article. I agree with Ausie, I would like to see the "speed" bow test myself.

RE: ** New Bow Review to discuss!....Outdoor Life's Bow Shootout
 

Yea,,, speed bows!!!!;)