I stopped by my local shop this weekend, mainly to shoot and compare my Allegiance to a Destroyer again. I'm on the fence right now, thinking about upgrading to either the Destroyer or Invasion and wasn't expecting to see an Invasion there yet to compare. Well, low and behold, when I walked in, the shop owner saw me and said here... shoot it, tell me what you think, and handed me the Invasion. :-) The initial feel and look of this bow is well, awesome. It really is a sweet looking rig. Machine work and fit and finish were outstanding on the one I held. We set the draw length to 28" and turned the poundage down to 64lbs and away I went. Draw cycle was smooth, with no noticeable bumps. Just a steady build to peak and break into the valley. As someone else mentioned, you can creep a little with this bow and not have it try to rip your arm off. Not sure if it was just the way this one was setup or if all are like that, but it did give you a bit of wiggle room here. This is where I differ most from most other guys. This bow was setup almost identical to my Allegiance with smooth mods. Shot side by side, the Allegiance felt smoother and easier to pull at the same weight. I've always felt the CP bows were much stiffer to pull than non-CP bows. Not saying its a bad thing. But for me, this would take some getting used to. I've grown quite fond of the smooth, easy pull of the Alley and I use it as my benchmark when I shoot new bows. The shot itself, IMO, was every bit as quiet and shock free as the Guardian or other CP bows. Simply amazing. This with a bare bow and only a cheap TM hunter rest mounted on it. I really enjoyed shooting this bow in terms of the release. The 31" ATA might scare many. I will say this. As with most parallel limb bows, it shoots and balances like it is much longer than its ATA. Combined with the oversized cams, IMO, felt like it was closer to 34-35 ATA in my hand. I'm going back to shoot it some more. I did shoot a Destroyer 340 again as well and honestly, I prefer the draw cycle on it to the Invasion. Especially when compared to the Allegiance. Bowtech really is doing some nice things these days and looking at these two bows in particular, its obvious that they're raising the bar for themselves and the competition. For now, I'm still trying to find a reason to put the Alley on the rack and pic up a new one, but so far, the Alley is still king for me.
Great review of the Invasion. Did you happen to get any speeds out of it while you were shooting it? Any idea of how much speed you loose with smooth mods? I'm really debating on staying with smooth mods on my new bow to help make the draw that much better, or if it's worth the extra 4-5fps to use the speed mods.
I also preffered the draw cycle of the destroyer 340, both are great bows though. Thanks for the review!
I didn't have time to get any speeds out of it. My initial impressions are that I am not gaining a tremendous amount to my Allegiance. IBO specs on both support this. However, I am losing a bit with the smooth mods. But the easier draw for hunting more than makes up for 5-7 fps IMO. I love the looks of the Invasion. Just not a fan of the CP bows draw cycle stiffness. Man, I have that new Bowtech itch, but its really hard to find enough reasons to put the Allegiance down. ;-)
The Allegiance and 340 are my two favorite Bowtechs. You can't beat their smooth draw and shock free shot IMO. I went to the pro shop Saturday to try to shoot the Invasion or Assassin. He didn't have either one. I gotta wait another month before I shoot one. It's gonna take alot to impress me more than my 340 though.
Good write up. Myself, I've been out of bow hunting for around 20 years but got the bug back now that the kids are gone. Boy how things have changed. I think I've narrowed my search down to the Bowtech 340 or 350. I also like the Hoyt carbon matrix. They all feel good to shoot but the numbers look a little better for the Bowtech. I just can't feel enough difference to justify the extra money for the Hoyt. Any feedback?
The Hoyt Carbon Matrix is a smooth shooting bow, but there is nothing about it that justifies the $$$ in my opinion. Was at the ATA show in Indy and the only real difference between the CM and the CRX is the carbon risers. The carbon risers provide a warm to the touch feeling no matter what the ambient temp is outside...Check out the CRX or the Maxxis from Hoyt, lower prices and same great Hoyt quality.
Thats the exact question I ask myself every year and so far, the answer is no. The only thing about the new binary system is the tunable yoke cables that I see may be an advantage for tuning. However, I've gotten pretty good at binary tuning/tweaking and have no issues with the Allegiance shooting BH's with field points out to 60 yards. I'm leaning toward buying a new set of strings and cables for ol' Alley and keep on keepin' on. ;-)
I'd absolutely NEVER buy a bow just based on spec's or anyone else's opinion of it. One of my favorite bows of all time is a bow that a lot of guys never cared for, and my second favorite is one the a LOT of guys really liked. Got to a couple shops and shoot EVERYTHING you can get your hands on, and then make a decision based on what feels best to you...... Not really being a BT guy, I think the Allegiance and the Black Ice (I currently have) are two of the 5 or 6 best shooting bows I've ever laid my hands on. Ironically, the best bow my hands ever judged is in my possession. That Allegiance or Black Ice will be tough to beat though, and I think too many times we get caught up with the "new bow bug," only to find that we may have really not gotten any upgrade over what we already had in our hands before.....
I am a big fan of my Alley also. Its a 2007 but feels right for me. Recently I started toying around with a Destroyer 350 and 340 at the local shop. Cant say I was a huge fan of the 350 riser design but liked the 340. It shot great, draw cycle was smooth and it just felt right. I put a 2010 340 completly set up on layaway. I liked the idea of having 2 bows that have my confidence completly set up. hard to tell which one will be joing me in the fall for walks to and from my treestand. Good luck with your choice.... the Alley is a great bow. Dave
Doug, I have a Trykon XL, a Trykon XL w/ a Z3 cam set, a pair of AM35's, and the Black Ice, and yes, I still like the ORIGINAL Trykon XL very much...... And it's NOT a tuning fork, it's WAY TOO HEAVY to be a tuning fork!!! :D
C'mon Doug... I think the one I shot three years ago is still ringing in the shop after I hung it back up. :p
To each his own Greg, I'm still yet to see a Trykon with a busted limb though, so I supposed that "tuning fork" feel must be a good thing...... Add an STS, a stab, and a vibration dampener in the sight, and they Trykon XL feels very nice to me, but I'm also shooting 420 - 465gr arrows out of them which tend to absorb the energy of the bow a little better than light arrows. The Trykon w/ the Z3 cam set is REALLY nice, smooth draw, smooth shooting, shock-free, almost as nice as my AM35's, but that's why I built it that way, because I knew it would be NICE. I even picked up a higher #-age set of limbs to swap the whole configuration over since the one is custom dipped, I was limited in what I could do to change the #'s because the Z3 cams dropped my draw 14#, when I swap up to a set of 70-80# limbs and install the Z3 cams and it's gonna pull right around 67-68#, and perform real similar to a Katera XL, nice smooth draw, heavy bow = nice absorption of energy and no "tuning fork" feel like you get with those "light" bows...... I think it looks pretty nice, I even had the limb pockets powder/ceramic powder coated in matte black.....
It is a nice-looking bow Doug... like the black limb pockets MUCH better than those awful rust coloring it originally came in.
