So far only John and Neale
have reviewed anything, but they have reviewed a fair bit between them.
So far only John and Neale
have reviewed anything, but they have reviewed a fair bit between them.
Shortcuts:
This was the first bow with a metal riser that I bought. Comes in a nice selection of colours, the one I had was 2-tone black and silver. I shot it for about 18 months and was quite happy with it. I found that the throat of the handle was a little too narrow for my liking (also one of the reasons I have never liked anything that Marksman have made). Whilst the limbs are quite smooth to draw they tend to be a bit snappy on release. Nothing on this bow is adjustable, good thing for a beginner, the Progress II has adjustable weight via a set of shims you insert into the limb pockets which are more trouble than they are worth if you ask me. I shot some quite good scores with this bow (including a 550 Portsmouth).
Good value beginner's bow. 6/10
I bought this bow with my student loan and it was money well spent. I shoot 66" limbs and my draw weight is 44 lbs @ 28". The limbs had to come from the USA as this is not a particularly popular limb choice. It took me quite a while to get into good enough shape to shoot this draw with effectively but worth it in the long run, my arrows fly nice and flat and I have got sight marks other people I know have had to buy A/C/Es to achieve. I tried out the standard limbs and the carbon+ (at a lower poundage) when I was buying it and there was a noticeable difference in the feel of it the carbon limbs are much smoother and felt quicker. With the 44lb limbs the bow has has a tendency to be a bit fierce on the shoulders and elbows upon release and needed a fair bit of stabilizing. I have recently bought a Browning mercury-filled damper which has brought it under control. There is a choice of grips in both plastic and if you are lucky wood, I have a standard grip in wood which suits me very well, nice and thick at the throat unlike my previous bow. The adjustment of the limb pockets to change draw weight and limb tiller is straightforward and effective (very easy to undo the cock-up you have just made of your set-up). I think that this bow is currently about all my shooting is worth I don't think that a CNC riser would make a whole heap of difference to my scores. The only thing I didn't like about this bow was the colour, so I repainted it luminous orange which has been quite successful (In horrifying everyone else in the club - NG).
About the best intermediate bow you can buy. 8/10
Good, cheap beginner's arrows. Not much else to say. 5/10
I had a set of standard X7s (1814) with my Samick bow which were a big improvement on the E75s I had previously. I got a much better tune and good groupings with them. I have recently bought some X7 Eclipses to use indoors they are 2212s and have been less easy to tune properly although I got them sorted out finally. The internal fit nocks are a bonus as I tend to lose a lot of nocks indoors and the easier they are to fit consistently the better as far as I am concerned. I have been regularly shooting 550-60 with these arrows. I was tempted to buy XX75s for linecutting but apparently they are less robust: you can punch holes in them if you have contact with subsequent arrows.
You'd struggle to get a better arrow exclusively for indoor shooting. 9/10
Fantastic arrows, unless you get a bad batch. After I heard that they were going to be discontinued I didn't feel like buying Easton PCs as I feel that they didn't have the history of making solid carbons, and wasn't rich enough to buy A/C/Es so I rushed out and laid in some stocks for the future. Then I broke several brand new ones in one day. This tends to be more the fault of the people who cut them rather than the arrows themselves, if they aren't exactly straight they smash at the point end if they go into a hard boss. This aside I have got fantastic sight marks using these, makes shooting at 40 yds a bit like shooting downhill though.
Shame they won't be making them for much longer. I guess I'll just have to get a proper job and buy some A/C/Es. Until then: 9/10
Don't buy it! Don't even be tempted. I know it's cheap, but it's crap. It cost me between 5 and 10 points every Portsmouth because the *@!#ing pin kept sliding sideways of its own accord. I had to correct it every end.
Now that I come to think of it, the screws that came with it were too short as well. There wasn't enough sticking out to hold it onto the side of the riser. So eventually they pulled out the threads and the entire sight fell off the bow. During a tournament.
(I later gave it (yes, free of charge) to someone else in the club. Who has also had quite a lot of trouble with it and is now looking to get a proper sight, even if it means paying for it.)
Leave this oh-so-humorously-named piece of rubbish well alone. You have been warned. 0/10
Very cheap sight and you get what you pay for. As well as having the cheesiest name of any piece of archery equipment in the history of archery equipment it rattles, drifts and generally falls apart if you so much as sneeze holding your bow.
Give up a few pints and buy a better sight. It'll save you drowning your sorrows later. 0/10
This, unlike the R10, seems fine. I risked buying Arten again when I saw that the Summit seemed to be much more sturdily constructed. I've had no problems with it sliding anywhere, and it doesn't even rattle. Reasonably cheap, too.
8/10
Pretty expensive and really a compound sight but after my experiences with the R10 I thought that I'd go for something really robust. Everything has double locks on, and this makes the thing really solid, although it is heavy and acts like a top rod. The lateral adjustment is a bit vague but doesn't move once you have positioned it.
The company is also really friendly and sent me a load of spares free of charge when I lost some bits on the grass at an outdoor shoot.
Was the best money I had spent in archery until I bought my Browning damper. 9.5/10
I have owned and/or experimented with a number of different types of stabilizers, a few of which I'll go into some details of. I started with a basic Arten tapered aluminium long rod, a pretty good value stabilizer all round (6/10), someone in OUCofA has probably got it about 4th hand now. I bought some Arten carbon Twins (8/10) and their V-bar with TFCs (6/10 - they were all the rage at the time) I have had good results with the twins and have only recently parted company with then for an upgrade to A/C/E twins (9/10). Neale is now very happy with the same carbon twins. (Certainly am. - NG) My V-bar has had its TFCs tightened up so many times that they are now jammed so they don't really move at all but work better (now 8/10), perhaps I'll get one of those J-Bar things (second cheesiest name of any piece of archery equipment in the history of archery equipment). I tried some of those fancy Carbofast Quadro-rods but wasn't entirely convinced, especially as they look really stupid (5/10). My current set-up is a 26" parallel carbon long rod (8/10) 10" ACE twins, 10" carbon toprod and Browning mercury V-bar extender (10/10!! Does exactly what it says on the tin). This seems to be working pretty well at the moment.
I loved this at first. It folds away neatly in about ten seconds and all the pieces stay attached to each other for simplicity. For outdoor shooting, a brief fiddle produces a spike to stick in the ground, although the design is so stable you hardly need it.
Unfortunately, a little bit of rubber has become worn away over time (about three years), meaning that attention has to be paid to make sure that the legs stick out firmly. I suspect that in another few months time it will get to the stage where it falls over all the time no matter how much care I take.
Nice while it lasts, but that isn't very long. 5/10
It may be named like a Terminator, but it's nowhere near as hard. When I got my first one I was assured it was almost indestructible and would last me forever. It lasted me for about a year, until something odd happened to my technique and I managed to destroy it in the middle of a tournament. I bought a replacement and a spare, and destroyed the second one after only nine arrows. The spare is still working a week later (and I think I have the technique problem sorted out) and may well last me forever, but I intend to buy something sturdier rather than take the chance.
Even when it was working it had a tendency to work itself loose and hang at an odd angle, causing a couple of wild shots before I noticed and fixed it.
Other people say they've never had any trouble with it, but the trouble it's caused me has been immense. 3/10
Home Page | Club Info | Social Events | Tournaments | Results | Club Records | For Sale | Reviews | Beginners' Mistakes | Bad Jokes | Drinking Game | Photos
This site is maintained by Tim Smith. Complaints, praise, suggestions and doughnuts are welcome.