So I stopped in at the shop Friday night to do a little shooting. I got a text earlier in the day from the shop manager telling me the new Monster was in. I love my Hoyt, but just had to shoot this bow. I mean how could I not at least shoot it with all the hype that has surrounded the release of this bow? As I said, I love my Hoyt's, but I also know that Matthews has put out some great products, such as the DXT. I had been saying that I thought that Matthews was taking a step backwards by getting into the speed game, getting away from what made them a great bow company. I am man enough to admit that I was wrong. Here is my honest opinion of the Monster. Speed - As fast as all the hype built it up to be. The DL was 29" set at 63lbs, we shot a 420 grain arrow at 332fps. Draw - IMHO, the draw on this bow is really smooth, which surprised me since it was a speed bow. However, there was a very noticeable "drop" into the valley, which I did not care for. Overall, the draw was so much better that I would have thought for a bow capable of these kinds of speeds. Vibration - I am not going to say that it had none, because it did. However, you have to remember we are talking about a bow capable of shooting 350+fps. What I will say it was so much less that what I expected. I was expecting for the bow to want to jump out of my hand, which it did not. In fact, it held very nice. As I stated, there was some hand shock with the release, but not as much as one would think and less than a lot of other bows that are not capable of these speeds. All-in-all, IMHO this bow lives up to the hype. The extreme speed does not interest me has much as it interests others, so I can safely say there will not be one in my house any time soon. For those that are looking to go fast, this is the bow to do it with and do it without losing the shootability. I feel very dirty now, so I am going to go shoot my Hoyt for a bit and ask for forgiveness.
I've heard close to the same thing coming out about the Monster reviews. I am sure I might know what to expect with the draw as it seems, without shooting it, like the Trykon draw cycle with the Zephyr cams. Even though you said you aren't interested in the speed, it is hard to argue with the "hunting setup" you were shooting the Monster set at. You weren't shooting the light arrow, had the poundage dropped, and on top of that, instantly took off another 10 FPS for draw-length. That is pretty cool! Thanks for the honest review. The local Mathews dealer just opened a NICE shop much closer to my house now. It pains me to shoot there as it really is "Mathews or nothing" when it comes to selling bows. Indoor range, out to 45 yards, rectifies that. :D When they get the Monster in, I'm gonna have to try it out.
Did you guys see the pictures of the monster that was dry fired over on AT? Crazy how much energy these bows are storing throughout the draw cycle. Nice review, though. I would certainly try it out if I was in a shop that had one.
Yep! Was that the cam that looks like it when into a car crusher? :D Like someone said, using lightweight materials to help achieve fast speeds certainly doesn't help with strength. Granted, any dry fire can produce some carnage and destruction, but just the cam looked smashed. And from what they said, nothing really happened to anything else.
Great review! This will probably be my next bow. I still have to shoot them all before I decide. Question: Where is the pic of the blow'd up cam???
Nice unbiased reivew. Very honest. I might look at, just out of curiosity. The bowtech gods might look unfavorably on me if'n I even touch one of them Mathews.
I saw it over on AT. I went to search for just the picture to post here, couldn't seem to find it today. I don't know if they removed the thread or not. Who knows. Anyways, it was a dry fired Monster and the string track on the cam was spread open and part of the cam itself was bent pretty bad. The cam took a beating, but the rest of the bow seemed to pull through okay. That is, as far as they can tell. Who knows deep down what actually happened to the rest of the bow??
Yeah I searched yesterday and couldn't find it, either. Weird. Yeah the cam looked like it was run over by a car.
Awsome pics! I've seen about 4 or 5 dry fires in my day, but i've never seen one bend a cam like that.
Honestly, while I'm not one to bash a bow company, and like I said, with the amount of energy being stored in today's bows, who's to say that any of the speed monsters (sorry for the lack of a better term...no pun intended) wouldn't suffer the same damage upon a dry fire? All I know is that is certainly some nasty carnage.
