I had a chance to stop by my local Bowtech dealer this past weekend and low and behold, I was greeted by the shop owner with the new Insanity. It also just so happened that I had my release in the truck. First thing I want to say is that on paper, I am not a fan of 6" brace height or sub 33" ATA bows. For me 33-35 ATA and 7" BH bows are a norm. The fit and finish of this bow is outstanding. Over the years, I've had one gripe with Bowtech. They built outstanding bows, but in some areas, they just didn't look "finished". They worked fine, but it didn't look like a high end bow is some places. The Insanity is just an awesome bow to look at. The riser cutouts, the cams, flex guard, you name it, looks top shelf. We adjusted the bow down to 65lbs and I shot the bow off the string. The arrow was a Gold Tip 5575 at 29" with a 100gr point. Draw Cycle: For a speed bow, I echo some of the others comments here. Very nice draw cycle with no real pronounced humps or drops. The cams felt nice to pull with a fast ramp up to peak weight and then a nice fall off to the draw stop. The only thing I noticed, and I know I can adjust this, is the valley was a bit short for my liking. It allows you to creep, but not much at all before its coming forward in a hurry. All in all, I'd give the draw cycle a 9.5 out of 10. If I could improve anything, I'd like to see the peak build a bit sooner in the cycle. This of course is personal preference and by no means something I can't get used to. It's minor. The Shot: Dead. Dead. Dead. Not sure what to say here except that the shot itself is very impressive for a speed bow. For a bare bow, I expected a little buzz from somewhere. There was none. The shot felt very solid and authoritative. I spent some time just shooting with my eyes closed at close range and couldn't believe this was a 6" BH 355fps bow. Balance felt pretty good, though it did fall forward a little quicker than I expected. Very little noise as well. There was a bit of a "slapping" sound from the string hitting the suppressor, but other than that, it was extremely quiet. This bow is ungodly fast. I didn't chrono it as the shops chrono was shot by someone a week ago. But you could definitely tell the raw speed of this bow was up there. Overall: This bow amazed me. There was only on thing I didn't care for. The valley in the draw cycle. I am pretty certain this can be tweaked a bit though. Being a larger brace height and longer ATA fan myself, I'd probably opt for the XL version. I'll wait till this bow comes in to shoot it as well. If its anywhere close to how this bow felt, I believe it will be the ultimate bow for me. I really liked the grip of this bow as well. I've always been a fan of the narrow grips with side plates. Hats off to Bowtech. I'm not saying this as a fanboy; but I really think they hit a home run with this bow. Fast, quiet and vibe free in two different configurations.
Thanks for the review!! I have not been to my local bow shop yet to try the insanity out. I (like you) am a fan of a little longer ATA and brace height than the specs on this bow but am very interested in shooting it as well as the XL.
Shot one about a week ago also. Good bow, but not IMO great. I shoot the Invasion, so kind of biased a bit towards that. Again, liked it, not loved it. What was stated above I'll pretty much second. Fit and finish very good (better than the old stardards), draw cycle a bit better than the Invasion, and reallllllly dead in the hand. (There are a couple tweeks they did to the Flex that you can add to the Invasion for free to help out there also.) When I was looking last year to upgrade, it was between the Z7 magnum and the Invasion which just blew me away. This is a next gen Invasion IMO.
Insanity CPXL You should try the BowTech CPXL. It's a longer ATA (36") and is a much better fit for IMO than the Insanity CPX or the Invasion. Just my opinion.
This is a great review! I own an Invasion and went this weekend to shoot both the Insanity CPX and the Insanity CPXL. Both are awesome bows, i prefer the Insanity CPXL because it has a longer ATA and feels better for 3D shoots as well as a hunting bow.
