Before I start my personal review of the Garmin Xero, I know there will be people who will give me and others hate for having an electronic bow site, for those people, don’t hate on a product unit you first try the product. Next, this product IS NOT legal to use for hunting in all states, please check your state regulations before you huny with the Garmin Xero. I originally used a Spott Hogg Fast Eddie XL on my Mathews Z7 then upgraded to the Mathews Triax, so I decided to upgrade the sight and hopefully help improve my shooting, since my vision is getting worst. Once I picked up the Garmin Xero a1i, I put it on the bow, but failed to read the manual ( thought I knew better). Well, lets just say it didnt go well my first 50 or so arrows trying to set up. Once I got over my discouragement of my shooting, I read the book thoroughly and reset the sight from settings. Once I followed the directions and set up center, I started ranging from 20yrds, all the way back to 50 yrds (along the way, i needed to follow the directions of up and down to ensure zero at each yardage), like I stated earlier, my eye sight is not what it used to be so 50 yrds is my max accuracy. I have now shot 150+ arrows ( FMJ 400 28”) at different yardages with great accuracy. I have also set the sight up to shoot Axis arrows as a backup, to include downloading the information onto the Garmin app. Now for how it works, I push the button and can either use singal pin or click the button again for multi pin ( yes it can get anoying switching back from multi to single because the finger button it sensitive). As far as the pin brightness, I recommend takinging it off auto brightness, as I did, and turn pin brightness all the way up, do the same with the backlight. In practice mode, my bow is averaging 81db with quiver on (haven’t figured how to make it even more quieter), but my arrows shoot very flat and fast, so I do not think noise will be a big issue. I have been using the torque to improve my shooting, especially past 30 yrds to improve my shooting. I am from a warm weather state so I do not know how it will react in the very cold snowy conditions, but it has rained during my shooting, without effecting the sight or bow. I took the bow/sight from a cool air conditioned house to 89 degrees very humid and drizzling. The Xero did not fog or have any electrical issues when the buttons were wet. Final thoughts for now about the Garmin Xero: This has all been my personal opinion, so take my opinion with a grain of salt and try it for yourself. The Xero feels about same weight as the fast Eddie XL, but do not quote me on weight. The Xero is expensive, but if you can afford one, I would recommend getting it, even if you are only allowed to use it for practice in your state (it should help improve your shooting as it has helped my shooting). In the future, Garmin should add an arrow speed mode to help shooters see the FPS of the arrow to help bow tuning. Hopefully I will add a long term review of the sight sometime in the future. Good luck.
Copperhead, I used the wrong words regarding this; In the “shot Dynamics” mode you can check “roll” which is tilt of your bow when shooting. I certainly did not mean to mislead anyone, I just didn’t have the book available at the time I was writing the review. I hope this clears up things.
All, there is one issue I had to overcome; the bow with the Xero attached fits very snug or will not fit in some Flambeau bow cases. I have heard others say they have the same issue. Luckily I have a larger plastic bow cae it fits in.
Since my last review, I started having an issue about the system freezing up while shooting in practice mode ( did not see it freezing in any other mode ). I saw a YouTube video of onther person having a simular issue. When it froze up, I would hold down the off button until it shut off. I went to the APP to download my shooting and noticed there was an update (thanks GARMIN for failing to notify me of this update; yes I dis register my XERO). Appearently the update fixes the problem, because I have not had the issue since. I figured since this is first gen of this device there would be some small issues popping up. Overall, I am still happy, the ranging is accurate and fast. I would still recommend this device to anyone.
