Okay so I was just down at my local pro shop to talk to them about buying a G5 Prime bow. I have previously shot one of them, don't remember which one it was. Anyhow my local pro shop where I've bought every bow I have ever owned which is about 4 different PSE's and my current bow which I've had for like 7 years or so is a Ross Cr331. My local pro shop sells PSE and Bear Archery mainly, but they have Prime, Quest and Winchester for a few years now. I was talking to one of the guys about the Prime bows and discovered that they don't even have any on the wall and he didn't know if they had any in the back. I asked what was up with that and he said he didn't think they were going to carry them anymore. They weren't really selling very good and they had several issues with them. He told he me he personally saw one of them "lock up" on a staff member there and he had to hold it at full draw because it wouldn't let down so they got it into the bow press while at full draw and then from there had to mess with it to figure out the issue. He personally didn't work on it and didn't know why it did it. He also told me that the Prime bows aren't draw length adjustment friendly. Like most bows you move a screw and it adjusts. With the Prime bows you need to buy different mods for the cams which costs a lot just to change draw length. Now this is coming from an employee there that I know pretty well but he is not the owner. I had talked to the owner last week who I know really well and I always get smoking deals from because I shop exclusively at his shop for everything bow wise. I asked him what kind of deal he could give me on a prime and he told me to come down and we will talk. So I went to talk to him today but He's not back in until Tuesday. When I go online and look on websites or reviews on you tube I don't see a single person saying anything about crappy draw length adjustment or about bows locking up. Some of those reviews I have seen in particular are done by pro shops themselves. I personally think G5 is a fantastic company in general and I believe they are gonna be huge in archery in the future. I'm just really torn on what I should do. My local pro shop which I trust very much says that Hoyt and Mathews are overrated for the price and they don't carry them for me to get a great deal on. I really don't care to get another PSE, even though I could get a fantastic deal on one. I know at least six of my friends or relatives that shoot a DNA and I don't want to go get the same stuff they have. I don't want to affect my relationship with the owner by going out and buying a Hoyt from ebay or something since I have seen some deals on there that interested me. If I buy a Hoyt I would want them to work on it and tune it which I feel could cause an "issue". Bottom line is what and the hell should I do ????? Obviously on Tuesday I'm gonna go back up there and talk to the owner about the Primes and see what he tells me...... any advice would be taken into consideration. Thanks
be careful buying new Hoyts off ebay. If their a true Hoyt dealer...their not allowed to sale on the internet. Might affect the warranty not sure. As far as Prime bows...I don't know much about them. I'm a PSE & Hoyt guy...and Hoyt's are some sweet bows. I would get what fits you best....for me its PSE & Hoyt. Good Luck!
Hands down, my Prime Centroid is the best bow I have ever shot. It's long distance accuracy is second to none. I have no idea what the guy in your pro shop is talking about. I'm guessing they aren't selling many because they don't have them on display and they obviously have not been trained on them. You need to talk to someone that knows more about the Prime bows. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
Ive shot a few and have some friends that own them...prime bows are top notch shooters imo....I would not hesitate to own one Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
First thought...Paragraphs buddy. Secondly some thoughts on Prime: on resale....I have only owned one 2013 Prime Defy, bought it second hand last July and sold it this December. It took me from Sept to December to sell it locally. I paid 600 shipped to my door, the guy that bought it new had it for a couple months and then resold it. figured he took a hit of about 300 give or take. I sold the bow for 600 locally and I ended up having to swap the cams out for the new owner. So yes resale sucks for the most part. Your slightly off with the draw length adjustment, Primes are current cam specific for draw length as apposed to many bows being modular. Whats the mean? With a modular adjust you only swap out part of the cam( a 40-60 new Item) as apposed to the entire cam in the case case of prime bows. The difference is two fold, first it costs a lot more, Prime cams are running about 125-150 if you cant find someone( a dealer for example) to swap you even up for yours. Secondly The amount of work and know how is slightly more doing a cam swap as apposed to a mod swap. Also if your doing it your self it becomes two part process...remove the old cams...then make the swap...either by mail or in person. The reassemble. In other words. It as pain in the ***. Onto the bows locking up...sorry but the guy doenst know what he is talking about. Can you lock them? Yes. but if you are its because you dont have the stops adjusted properly. That is set up error not the bows fault. The bow it self....Ran 3/8 short in DL, put it on the draw board and it was short and unless I swaped cams there wasnt anything I was doing to fix it. .....No valley to speak of, good back wall. Do not creep or it would pull you arm out....finish was super . held solid for a shorter bow. Had a nasty twang/ vib to it that took way to much weight up front to get rid of. Didn't care for the grip as it too tacky and too much bulk. Ended up taking it off and putting a wrap of hockey tape on it.....all things consider I didnt like it. The 6 months it took to resell it, mostly because of the BS cam swap was icing on the cake. Unless they go modular I most likely wont give Prime another look. The parallel cam will be their undoing, they can stay all they want about it being more stable no cam lean ect ect.....that said other platforms can and will shoot circles around them in the right hands, ......So unless they can refit this cam to be some what more user friendly then I don't see it taking off.
I hunted with a Mathews Creed last season and I just bought a 2014 Prime Impact. It was a tough decision between the Impact, the Alloy and the Mathews Chill R. Draw stops on a bow are crucial for me and I also wanted to try a dual cam bow this upcoming season. The Chill R was really nice and even without draw stops, the back wall was pretty good. I felt the draw was a little stiff but I also don't think that particular bow was tuned correctly. The 33" ata was appealing but I have always thought short risers look weird and the Chill R has the PSE look (not that there is anything wrong with that). The Alloy was the next contender. First off, its the new bow, it has a new riser design and some new tech on it. It has the same ata as the Chill R but the longer riser looked better to me. It was noticeably heavier than the Chill R. Draw cycle was totally different than anything Ive shot. It didn't blow my socks off, but I didn't hate it either. The back wall is SOLID. I was pretty much sold but.. Ive been reading up on the popularity of longer ata bows and wanted to shoot the impact before I pulled the trigger. The riser design is unique and its weight felt "sturdy". The string angle was welcomed. The back wall was rock solid (draw stops) and it had the same draw cycle as the Alloy. I left with a Prime Impact ordered and I am very happy that I did. It'll be nice to try a new company. The bow looks sweet and shoots sweet. Now, I just need to get it dipped in Kuiu's Verde camo and I'll be set!
The reason why the bow locked up is because the employee drew the bow back without the draw stop mods in place. He should have known better because on every piece of Prime paper, owners manual, warning stickers, etc., it says not to draw the bow back without the stops in place. 99% of problems people experience with modern day bows are user induced.
I had a 2013 Prime Defy. The bow was a sweet bow, I shot it real well, the back wall is as solid as they come too. I got it in April and got rid of it for my Chill in August. For some reason even thought I shot it very very well I had zero confidence with it, and wasn't comfortable with it in the woods. If it works for you they are great bows, my father has an Impact and really likes it a lot.
The first red flag is an employee saying that Hoyt and Mathews are overpriced for what you get compared to other bows. Coming from a dealer that sells PSE, Bear and whatever else they carry I find that totally laughable. Both Hoyt and Mathews are top tier companies with top tier products...over priced I can see an argument for that reasoning but not hammering quality of the products.
There is one for sale in the classified section on this site, the bows look great I would like to shoot one and see myself. Not really sold in my area.
Dear Marine, I know this might be a little late, but I sure hope you haven't made up your mind yet... I'm not going to get into the Matthews/Hoytt dispute here, because I believe in any bow that performs for ME. I can usually tell after 6-8 arrows if I'm going to buy a bow or not. Before I say anything else I want to say that I have owned several bows from other manufacturers and loved them all as they served me well in the field, no badmouthing here. I just picked up a Prime Rival a few weeks ago and here is what I can tell you: Prime bows are Cam specific. This means that resale might be slightly more difficult if they don't have the same draw length as you, other than that, no issues here. Prime/G5 has excellent customer service and will send you a care package upon registration of your bow and a new set of strings/cables every 2 years! FREE! All strings are factory fired 100 times to prevent string stretch after you put on your peep sight. This bow has an incredible draw to it and let off is now adjustable up to 85% The accuracy is outstanding, even out to 80 & 100yds. Dead in the hand and doesn't want to rip your arms off when you want to let it down. Its quiet, fast and the new Riser is machined to perfection. I've shot my bow consistently now since its purchase indoors and outside in controlled and freezing Temperatures (I live in Vermont-these are realistic hunting temps). This bow has not once given me issues. Nor do I believe it will. I have heard of one person that had a bearing issue with a 2014 model and they replaced the entire bow, no questions asked. With a 35 inch A2A I'm using this bow for indoor and 3D shooting as well as hunting. I've already tested it inside my groundblind for Turkey season and its not too tall for groundblinds, but if you want a shorter model, the ION is identical in features, but slightly shorter and I think a slightly longer brace height. I'm shooting around 285fps with a 30" draw, set at 63lbs and shooting Maxima reds (350) with a 100grn field tip. Plenty fast enough for a pass through. This bow will kill deer this year and for the next 10 years! NO PROBLEMS HERE. Other than that my friend, best of luck making your choice whatever it may be.
