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I had the chance yesterday at an indoor range to shoot several bows with a chronograph.

After about an hour they all started blending in and I could not make sense of the opinions I was trying to formulate. Simply put, nothing stood out as "WOW " so much better then anything else.

Actually when I think back to the Switchback I just don't see enormous improvement. Even with the new Elite Bow I have , there is just not an enormous leap in Velocity and draw feel that seems to justify all the new stuff on the market. I suppose there are specialty features and speed, but from an accuracy, speed,and draw feel they just seem to blur after a while.

I think that a fella needs to shoot one bow for a while before any decision can be made. It's a shame that you don't usually have this much time with a bow. Over all I do not think that there are awful options. Most of these are just great. It's why there is so much hype in marketing I guess.

One thing is for sure. The owner of a bow will seemingly defend it to the edge of the earth as the best choice. Each guy seems to be unreasonably passionate about his personal choice. It makes the ford VS Chevy debate seem simple!

I've been shooting a Parker Ultralight 31 for at least the last ten years. I just picked up an Elite Energy 32. I can't believe the difference between the two bows. I think I'm going to like this Elite.

You will...

You'll notice it if you ever get to shoot an Obsession. They have an awesome draw cycle, letoff is absolutely crazy, no hand shock, they are very quiet, and crazy fast. I shoot the 6" BH bows and in no way feel handicapped accuracy wise at all. They are an amazing product

I think most manufacturers and models have pretty solid performance in terms of smooth pull, speed, accuracy and being fairly quiet. Long way of saying its hard to pick a bad bow. The performance is gained lost by having it set up and tuned for you and using propertly spined arrows.

There have been a few bows that stand out. But when it comes time to choose between what I have and the performance or benefits of the new models, I am stumped at how to cough up the bucks for something that is 8-10fps faster, a couple ounces lighter, and no better in draw curve.

I am wondering when the next big performance engineering advance will come out. I kinda think it will be in Arrows not the bow. The advance of stronger lighter materials is not fully realized in arrows yet.

The Limbs have gone from near vertical to nearly horizontal, and actually they are now lower at the tips the the riser. Next step the limbs will be in front of the riser with some wacky string arrangement. The string will have to be in front of the riser!

JJHack, I think your right - they have re-invented the wheel to death. There will be minor advancements but the big bang is just not in the cards as long as a bow is described as it currently is. I think you will see more carbon bows but performance wise there is little to be had and still have a reasonable bow to shoot. In the recurve world super recurves are interesting and have a place. Expensive at this point but making ground.

There is still more to be had performance wise. And still maintain a shootable bow. Kevin Strother will be the man to break the 400fps mark with a production bow. He has already hit 600fps with one of his binary cam creations. True, it's a bow that won't be seen on the market, but I believe 400 fps is coming. I know most of you guys are stuck in the 40"ATA , 7+"BH world and think anything less is just plain unshootable. That can't be further from the truth. I can shoot the 6" BH, 29"ATA, Delta 6 just as accurately as I can the 34" ATA, 7" BH Addiction OBB. And most other folks will find that they can too if they give the bows a chance. Even with the short ATA Delta, it's easy to be deadly accurate out past 60yds.

Don't see too many 29" A to A bows on the line at Vegas or Nationals. Wonder why?

Probably the same reason you don't see bench rest shooters competing with 8# 300 win mags in sporter stocks.

I'm sure we'll continue to see incremental improvements and refinements, but ultimately there is only so much energy you can store in the limbs of a bow for a given draw weight and let off. They only way to accelerate the arrow more quickly is to reduce the mass of the moving parts, limbs, strings and cams/wheels. As material science advances, new materials and processes to use existing high strength to weight materials will be applied to those parts. But as those parts start moving faster to get higher arrow speed, they need to be brought to a stop and the trade-off of bow noise and hand shock rears it’s ugly head.

I think we’re well into the 90/10 phase of bow development where 90% of the performance has been gained with 10% of the cost. To make bows that gain another 10% of speed, we’ll be looking at bows that cost $2000-5000. There will always be a percentage of bowyers willing to pay the price for the fastest bow on the market, but considering most bows can kill effectively past where most hunters can place their shots, more speed likely won’t be a benefit.

Because a target bow and a hunting bow are totally different animals. Don't see any shoot through riser bows with long dovetail highly magnified sights sporting 30" front stabs and 1 or 2 12-15" back bars and several, several Oz of weights hanging from a tree stand either do ya? But the users of both bows are able to deliver shots at long distance with surgical precision. Wonder why that is????

How do you think they will get to 400fps? What type of advancements do you anticipate?

All I'm going to say is keep an eye on Obsession Bows and Mr. Kevin Strother. He's already there. Just a matter of when they decide to release it to the masses

Absolutely love my Obsession Phoenix. Never thought it would be that much better than my Switchback was but it is. Leaps and bounds over and above the Switchback.


Roy

Everybody has there own preferences, and bows have there own characteristics. For me personally, ease of draw, accuracy and sound are the qualities I want. I practice out to eighty yards, but don't intend to shoot game beyond thirty, as I just don't hunt that way. My two compounds shoot a 475grn arrow at 245 and 270fps and that is plenty fast. Do I need the penetration? Not usually, but it doesn't hurt to be able to shoot through a deer's shoulders and the heavy arrows really quieten the shot.

Agreed arrows well into the 400 plus weight range shoot more quiet, and penetrate consistently. I've shot some arrows in the 350-375 range fooling around. They are really impressively fast and are in the target at the instant of the trigger pull. Crazy high speed.

Pulling them out of the 3D targets and the Block they don't stick in nearly as far as the 425-480 grain arrows. There is a happy medium in this for all folks. I like the 500 plus grain arrows for penetration, but I don't care for the trajectory they have. So I use the 425-450 grain arrows most of the time. This kinda hits the middle ground for my needs.

As far as the practice at 80 yards, That is the same for me. There is a really great satisfaction in hitting small things at that distance with increasing regularity. I've never shot at game that far, can't imagine I ever will. When you shoot this way for about a half hour and then switch to a 20-30 yard range, it seems so easy. 20 yards is not even a challenge when you have been shooting at at 80.

Your hold feels Vice steady when you are shooting that "close", as well as your sight pin seeming really tiny again. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong at 80 yards! Even a slight issue with the release is a massive amount off target at that distance

Right? I've got a huge pine tree behind my target and it's unbelievable how far a Piledriver will bury a field tip when in it.