2023 Bow Reviews/Impressions

[Hardware]

Thanks for the write up!

[Loneaggie]

CCR received their Hoyt Z1S demo a few days after Christmas. I made a beeline for the shop, and ended up buying it. The draw is slightly stiffer than the VTM, but its not hump and dump. It came with the longer mods, and I just got the correct mods this past Friday. I spent Saturday doing paper, bare shaft, and broadhead tuning. Then Monday I just put a lot of arrows through it. Its dang zippy. I ended up adding Lucky Stops to get letoff between the factory 80-85. That made it less jumpy than the 80% letoff but 2 more pounds of holding weight over the 85%. So far seems to hold well, and I think its going to chunk some VAP TKOs through some big pigs with ease.

[haas0311]

If you were in Corpus, I'd let you shoot my APA Black Mamba.. This bow is wicked smooth, quiet, and fast!!!

[JWF]

Good read and info. In the next month or 2 I’m going to go shoot all the Hoyts and PSEs

[gtsticker]

2023 Bow Reviews/Impressions

So I will be the outlier here and recommend a bow that many may overlook. I have shot almost every bow on the market. I did a bunch of research and decided to buy a bear Alaskan compound bow. The bow is dead in hand. Quiet and a very smooth draw cycle. I have not added a stabilizer yet to see what that does. But this bow is only 500 bucks. It doesn’t have a lot of gadgets but I am very impressed and will be confident in shooting it this year.


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[MathewsHNTR]

Legacy Archery in FW has a hoyt Zs1 in stock you can shoot if your still interested. Of course they have all the bows listed in your review as well as the Elite Era.

Personally, I hated the Omnia and Era for its draw cycle ... until I put the smooth mods on it and then they were both a pleasure to shoot.

[Loneaggie]

Legacy Archery in FW has a hoyt Zs1 in stock you can shoot if your still interested. Of course they have all the bows listed in your review as well as the Elite Era.

Personally, I hated the Omnia and Era for its draw cycle ... until I put the smooth mods on it and then they were both a pleasure to shoot.

I bought a Z1S back in January. It has already killed a few hogs

[Phorizt]

curious about the Bowtech grips that feels like cheap plastic. From what I've seen that bow has a skeletonized grip so it's just aluminum. I shoot a Bowtech SS and hate the skeletonized grip. I made some custom grip inserts for mine and it makes a huge difference for me. I don't think I could shoot one with the skeletonized grip. Just doesn't feel right.

[Loneaggie]

curious about the Bowtech grips that feels like cheap plastic. From what I've seen that bow has a skeletonized grip so it's just aluminum. I shoot a Bowtech SS and hate the skeletonized grip. I made some custom grip inserts for mine and it makes a huge difference for me. I don't think I could shoot one with the skeletonized grip. Just doesn't feel right.

Flat backed reasonably narrow grips are more repeatable, just not more comfortable

[jovani.f]

You mentioned that Hoyt ZTM 31 & 34 and Elite Omnia impressed you the most, and now you're considering either Hoyt or Elite for your next bow. Just curious, what is the most important factor for you when choosing a new bow: performance, adjustability, or something else?

[Loneaggie]

You mentioned that Hoyt ZTM 31 & 34 and Elite Omnia impressed you the most, and now you're considering either Hoyt or Elite for your next bow. Just curious, what is the most important factor for you when choosing a new bow: performance, adjustability, or something else?

Depends on the year. I like to tinker, so sometimes it is just trying something different. The history so far:

Reflex, Mathews SB XT, Mathews Chill R, Mathews Halon 6, Mathews Vertix, Bowtech Reckoning 35, Bowtech Revolt X, Prime Nexus 4, Prime Inline 5, and now Hoyt Z1S.

My DL is 27.5" so I wanted to see if I could get a little more oomph out of the Z1S. So far its worked out. I also had not played with any of the inline stuff (integrate rests or picatinny sights) so it let me try all that also. In general I want a reasonable draw (just not painful), a grip that I feel I can be repeatable with, and the bow holds well for me at my specs. I've chased adjustability in the past, but I know what I do/don't need to be able to tweak at this point. I have a press so with the Hoyt I can shim, adjust timing, tweak draw length using string/cables, etc and have not lost anything over the Omnia. The Z is actually a longer ATA than the Omnia, and to me has a more comfortable draw.

[Divergent]

Does anyone have an opinion on the Bear Execute? Would be really curious about the difference from the refine other that AXle to Axle length.

[jordangerous]

Thanks for the write-up and insight. Gonna go shoot whatever Elite bows my local place has this week to start the process of upgrading.

[TheSchwartz]

If I could choose any bow from the 2023 line-up it would be the SS34 (I love Bowtech, and this one has the absolute perfect specs for me). Second place would be a tie between the Omnia and VTM.

[JerryR]

Thanks for the info sir