Bowtech SS34 Review

Editors' review

Bowtech named this bow for a single feeling. SS stands for Super Smooth, and everything about the SS34 is built around a draw so quiet and so free of hump that most shooters stop noticing the poundage halfway back. It is a 34-inch axle-to-axle (ATA - the distance between the two cam axles) hunting bow from Bowtech's 2023-2024 flagship line, and it takes the brand's real strengths - vibration damping and dead-simple tuning - and pushes them as far as they go. This is not a speed bow chasing the top of the chronograph; it is the do-it-all metal-riser hunter you tune once and forget, then shoot all season without a fight. Whitetail hunters who value a silent, steady shot over a few feet per second are the natural audience, and 3D shooters have quietly adopted it for exactly the same reasons. If you already know a Bowtech shooter, you have probably heard the pitch: it holds like it is nailed to the target, and it is dead in the hand on the shot.

Finish

The SS34 ships in a deep bench of finishes: solid Black, Flat Dark Earth, OD Green, and Smoke Grey on the practical side, plus Mossy Oak Country DNA, Realtree Edge, Optifade Subalpine, Kryptek Altitude, and Kuiu Verde 2.0 for hunters matching a specific terrain. That is a wider camo spread than most flagship hunting bows offer at launch, and Bowtech's mix-and-match program lets you combine riser and limb colors, with custom decoration available at an upcharge. The machining underneath the finish is genuinely clean - the riser shows no visible tool marks, and the graphics on the limbs are among the sharpest in the lineup. One owner did note a pair of small chips picked up during handling, so the coating is not indestructible, but that is a normal caution for any hunting bow that lives in a truck and a treestand. For most buyers the harder decision is which of the nine finishes to pick, not whether the finish will hold up.

Riser

The riser is the whole story of the SS34's stability. At 34 inches ATA it runs a long, heavily bridged aluminum riser - roughly 32 inches of riser between the limb pockets - and that length is what makes the bow aim the way it does, letting the pin settle and stay rather than float. Bowtech mounts the Integrate Mounting System (IMS) dovetail on the shelf, so an IMS-equipped rest drops straight into a machined channel and repeats its position without shims or guesswork. In my experience that dovetail is the single biggest setup time-saver on the bow - the rest indexes itself, and you spend your bench time tuning instead of aligning. The Dual Lock Pockets tie the structure together: the limbs lock into the pockets and the pockets lock into the riser, so the whole bow behaves as one rigid piece under load. FLX-Guard cable containment holds the strings clear of the vanes while reducing the sideways pull that induces cam lean and hand torque. The result is a chassis that feels big and planted in the hand - a lot of bow, in the best sense, built to reward a steady hold.

Grip

Bowtech's Clutch Performance Grip is a detachable, straight up-and-down design that sits low and neutral in the palm, encouraging a repeatable, torque-free hand position - helped by a subtle groove machined into the front of the riser for the bow hand to reference. It feels like a familiar Bowtech grip, so anyone stepping off a recent Bowtech will be at home immediately. The Clutch part is literal: the grip panels pop off, and a kit lets you change the angle or push the grip further out to suit your hand. The trade-off is that the surface is smooth and slick rather than rubbery, so shooters who like a grippier, tackier feel may want to explore that. Aftermarket options fit readily - Tim Gillingham's grips, for example, are a popular swap for shooters who want a steeper or warmer surface. It is a grip built for consistency first and personal tuning second, which fits the bow's whole personality.

Limbs

The SS34 uses split limbs seated in the Dual Lock Pockets, and the near-parallel geometry is a big part of why the shot is so dead - the limbs cancel much of their own motion at the end of the stroke. Draw weight comes in 50, 60, and 70-pound peaks, each typically adjustable down about 10 pounds, which covers the vast majority of hunting setups without special-ordering. Buyers who need more punch should note that Bowtech built the same 34-inch chassis into a separate 80-pound model, the SX80, which adds the beefier Reckoning limb-pocket system for durability at that weight - it is its own model, not a version of the SS34. Adjusting draw weight is a simple limb-bolt turn, but there is one habit to learn: the DeadLock system includes a lock on the pocket that must be released before you make any cam adjustment, or you can fight the hardware. Across Bowtech's DeadLock lineup this limb-and-pocket design has proven rigid and consistent, and on the SS34 it delivers a shot that stays quiet as the weeks add up.

Eccentric System

This is where the SS34 earns its name and its niche. The DeadLock Cam System is the headline: the cams slide left or right along the axles with a turn of a screw, then lock in place, so you set horizontal nock travel and repeatable accuracy without pressing the bow for that lateral move - the easiest tuning system many shooters have used. On top of that sits the FlipDisc, a reversible disc on the module that lets you choose the bow's character: run the comfort side for the smoothest possible pull, or flip to performance for a more aggressive profile worth roughly 10 fps. That swing is real and repeatable on a chronograph, and it costs nothing extra - the same bow gives you two personalities. Rotating Mods handle draw length from 26 to 31.5 inches without a press or new modules, so growing shooters or a shared bow can be re-fit in minutes. The published IBO speed (IBO is the industry-standard chronograph rating at a fixed 30-inch, 70-pound, 350-grain setup) is up to 331 fps; in the real world the comfort disc measures around 315 fps with a 350-grain arrow at 70 pounds, climbing toward the high 310s to low 320s on the performance disc, while a heavy 548-grain hunting arrow still clocks 261 fps - plenty of momentum for big game. Let-off (the percentage the holding weight drops to at full draw) runs about 85 percent and is adjustable, giving a long, restful hold. Against the faster 33-inch flagships, the SS34 gives up those 8-ish fps largely to its taller 6.75-inch brace height (the string-to-grip distance) - a deliberate trade of speed for forgiveness that suits the bow's whole design.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

Drawing the SS34 on the comfort disc, I kept waiting for a hump that never arrived. There is a touch of poundage in the first inch, and then the cam simply rolls, building to peak and easing into a wide valley with no wall of resistance to punch through. The valley is deep enough that you can let the bow sit at full draw and hold almost nothing - one of the reasons target and 3D shooters keep gravitating to it. The back wall is firm but not concrete; a few shooters describe a hint of give at the very end, which most hunters find friendly and hinge-release shooters actually prefer, though anyone wanting a rock-hard flagship wall should shoot one first. What stays with me is what happens after the shot: almost nothing. The Orbit dampeners, placed in-line with the string path, leave the bow dead in the hand with no hand shock, and the shot measures a quiet 94.9 dB - owners routinely compare its hush to the quietest Mathews bows. On target the long riser pays off - the pin settles fast and holds, staying steady even when the wind picks up. Flip to the performance disc and you trade a little of that glassy smoothness for speed; the end of the draw gets slightly more pronounced, but the shot stays just as dead. For a bow this long and this quiet, it is remarkably easy to shoot well right out of the gate.

Usage Scenarios

The SS34 is a genuine do-it-all, and its best home is the treestand. Picture a whitetail hunter twenty feet up on a cold, still morning: the shot has to be silent and the hold has to be steady through a long wait, and this is exactly the bow for that moment - quiet on release, planted on the pin. Its 26 to 31.5-inch draw range covers short-draw shooters and tall hunters alike, so a household can share one bow, and the tool-free draw-length change makes handing it between shooters easy. Western hunters and spot-and-stalk shooters will appreciate the stability, though the full 34-inch length is more at home in the open than crammed into a tight ground blind. On the 3D range the SS34 is quietly excellent - the deep valley and steady hold let club shooters grind through a full course without fatigue, and the comfort disc keeps the draw pleasant on arrow number eighty. It is not built to be a max-kinetic-energy speed rig for the longest shots, but with the performance disc engaged and a properly matched hunting arrow it carries more than enough energy for elk-sized game at sane ranges. For a hunter who wants one bow to hunt in the fall and shoot for fun all summer, it fits the whole calendar.

Bowtech SS34 vs Mathews V3X 33, Hoyt Ventum Pro 33

Bow	Bowtech SS34	Mathews V3X 33	Hoyt Ventum Pro 33
Version	2024	2023	2022
Picture
Brace Height	6.75 "	6.5 "	6.375 "
AtA Length	34 "	33 "	33 "
Draw Length	26 " - 31.5 "	27 " - 31.5 "	26 " - 31 "
Draw Weight	40 lbs - 70 lbs	50 lbs - 75 lbs	40 lbs - 80 lbs
IBO Speed	331 fps	336 fps	334 fps
Weight	4.7 lbs	4.67 lbs	4.67 lbs
Let-Off	85 / 87%	80 or 85%	80% or 85%
Where to buy Best prices online	$650 to $1550 Compare prices	$999.99 to $2690 Compare prices	$714.99 to $1300 Compare prices
	compare more bows

Cross-shopping the SS34 usually comes down to two other flagship-tier do-it-all hunters, and the choice is a genuine priorities question. The Mathews V3X 33 is the direct rival on feel: a 33-inch, 6.5-inch-brace bow rated at 336 fps that launched around the same 1,299 dollar tier, and in a comfort-mode head-to-head it runs roughly 8 fps faster than the SS34 while its Switchweight modules and bridge-lock accessory integration give it a different tuning and setup philosophy. The Hoyt Ventum Pro 33 comes at it from the speed-and-adjustability angle: a 33-inch, 334 fps aluminum flagship with a 1,349 dollar launch price and an unusually wide 40 to 80-pound draw-weight span, built around Hoyt's HBX cam and in-riser accessory mounting. Where the SS34 pulls ahead of both is smoothness, hush, and tuning simplicity - the DeadLock cams and the comfort-versus-performance FlipDisc give it a range of personality neither rival matches, and many shooters rate its shot the quietest of the three. The V3X 33 and Ventum Pro 33 both give up a little of that glassy draw for a touch more raw speed and their own accessory ecosystems. The decision comes down to priorities: the SS34 for the shooter who wants the smoothest, quietest, easiest-to-tune hold; the Mathews V3X 33 for the buyer who wants a hair more speed with Switchweight flexibility; the Hoyt Ventum Pro 33 for the hunter who wants the widest draw-weight range and Hoyt's speed profile.

Summary

At a launch MSRP of 1,299 dollars in 2023, the SS34 was priced as a flagship, and it spends that money on comfort rather than chasing the chronograph. The published 331 fps IBO becomes about 315 fps of real-world speed on the comfort disc and climbs into the low 320s on performance, but speed was never the point - the point is a 34-inch bow that draws like glass, holds like it is bolted to the target, and goes dead-quiet on the shot. DeadLock tuning makes it one of the simplest bows to get shooting straight, the FlipDisc lets you decide between an all-day smooth pull and a little more speed without spending another dollar, and the wide finish range lets you dress it for any terrain. What I keep coming back to is the silence after the release: you genuinely do not know you have made the shot, and that stillness is what turns a good hold into a good hit. It is an excellent bow for the whitetail or 3D shooter who prizes a quiet, rock-steady shot and one-and-done tuning over top-end speed, and it is forgiving enough to make a mid-level shooter look better than they are. Buyers who want a few more feet per second should also look at the Mathews V3X 33, and those wanting the widest draw-weight range should weigh the Hoyt Ventum Pro 33 - but for pure smooth, quiet, tune-it-once shooting, the SS34 is hard to walk away from.