I’ve been wanting a new bow lately, and since it’s slow at work I went to a couple shops around OKC. I have an Elite 35, and was tempted just to call in an order for the option 6 since when I bought my 35 there was absolutely no comparison to the competitors bows my shop in SC (PSE, Bowtech, Mathews, Martin). At least not for the money. The next to smoothest and solid bow available was the no cam which was $1600 at the time. So I went in and shot the Option 6. I was very unhappy with the cam on the back end. It was just as smooth as the 35 but was terribly jumpy and it was a 65# bow. Now I have a left shoulder tear that doesn’t help, but that doesn’t matter since I shot the other bows as well. The Elite is an Elite. Super smooth but the jumpy cam caught me off guard. It’s not a full throttle but if you’ve shot an Elite you probably know you can hold most of their bows at full draw out in front of your body with no problem but this bow is a good bit faster and is not bad, just didn’t expect it to be like that. With my personal hand release it wouldn’t be as noticeable but I get lazy with the $20 trigger they gave me to use. But again I used it with all of them. The new triax was super smooth and had a Great Wall but it’s just way too short and I felt like I had to strain to keep the bottom from kicking out on the draw. Add a couple inches on the ATA and it may get more consideration from me it’s just that tipping is not okay with me. Plus I’m not very confident in the accuracy it would have past 30 yds since it’s so short. Then he handed me the hoyt hyperforce. It was a good bow but at the same price as the Elite option 6 it wasn’t even close. Spongey back wall and had a noticeable “hump” in the draw. I told him I really didn’t like the wall and he handed me the redwrx turbo. It was a little jumpy but at 70# it wasn’t as noticeable as the 65# option 6 that was probably closer to 60# or less since it wasn’t even maxed out. I was very impressed with the Hoyt. It was smooth had a good wall, not as great as my 35 but it was solid nonetheless. It wasn’t as smooth as the 35 either but then again they aren’t exactly the same “kind” of bow. The biggest flaw on the Hoyt is the price. I understand it’s carbon and $1100 for the option 6 isn’t exactly cheap either but $1600 is a big jump. That would take a fully outfitted bow well over 2k. I’m not getting one anytime soon hopefully that price will come down in the spring. So all that said I probably will get a redwrx maybe not the turbo but those are some awesome hunting bows. I’ll keep my Elite if I get back into competitions. Anyone have any suggestions on other bows that would compete with those? I hope that book I wrote helps someone else out there. I’m just looking to get something faster shorter and slightly faster than the 35 but it seems like they don’t make them shoot less than 340 anymore. And if they do there’s a spongey wall or maybe a hump or just some trade off to make you get their top product.
I'm a Mathews guy, so a bit of bias here. I'm still shooting the Z7 and am in the market for a new bow as well. I haven't shot the Triax, but have shot the Halon 32 a few times. If you liked the draw and backwall of the Triax but are leery of the short ATA, try shooting the Halon 32. I have also shot some of the G5 Prime bows, and if you like a dead solid backwall then you need to shoot one of these!
I go in and shoot whatever new boys the shop has every year, typically after hours with the owner as he is a friend of mine....and I'll be honest. I've yet to shoot a bow that has made me willing to part with their brand new sticker price on ANY of the main manufacturers (Mathews, Bowtech, Hoyt main ones he has). Everything you wrote, leaves me wondering why get one, if the 35 if liked more than all of them?
Shoot a mathews halon 32. I love mine, and then go to Davenports archery in Prague Oklahoma. They have the best prices I’ve seen in the entire state of Oklahoma.
I’m not completely in love with my 35. It’s just slow which is the main reason I want a new one. I’ve done a lot of hog hunting and the 35 just doesn’t push the arrows hard enough for my likening on these hogs, and I shoot a 500go arrow. For deer i have no problems but I’m also looking at going to Alaska in a year or so for moose and the whole lot of animals I can. And I completely agree on that price thing. I’m hoping these competition shooters bring their bows in when the 18s come out. I really just wanted to share my thoughts and bounce them off of others on here.
I did not shoot the Elites but I did shoot the Triax, Hyperforce and RX-1 offerings. I chose to order the 32 inch RX-1. Hoyt really made a great bow this year.
Prague is a little bit of a drive for me but I got that way duck hunting a lot. I’ll give them a try. I haven’t even seen a halon in person. So that must be good since they’re always selling. Or it could just be that they’re a Mathews and people buy them because of their name alone. Either way. I’d love to shoot one.
No doubt they’re great bows. If they work on that back wall it’s a grand slam. I’m probably going to get one myself.
I agree, I would have a hard time justifying the price tag on a brand new bow. I've been looking on Ebay and you can find the Halon 32 for as low as $700, some with rest and sight included.
None of the local shops had a Hyperforce in the 40 - 50 lb rating that I wanted. So I wasn't able to shoot one. But I spent the last 6 weeks pouring over all the reviews I could find. I talked to one of the people that works at my indoor range. He has a Hyperforce but 70lb draw weight which I can't pull. I did get to hold the bow and it felt great in the hand and very well balanced. The reviews were very good on the Hyperforce with a few nit picks here and there but overall very good. So I had one of the bow shops order me a 40 -50lb Hyperforce about 4 weeks ago. Hoyt told him about 6 - 10 weeks delivery time. The shop says they are getting Hoyt bows in sooner than that, usually about 6 weeks. So the waiting continues!!
