Hoyt 38 Ultra Compound Bow

The Hoyt 38 Ultra was the one-year-only speed half of Hoyt's 2007 pair - the faster, lower-braced twin of the 38 Pro, built around the hotter Vector Cam and a half - and today it is a rare, rewarding used buy for the archer who wants a long all-around bow with more velocity than a pure target rig. The core numbers make the case: a 310 fps IBO from the smooth Vector cam, a forgiving 38-inch axle-to-axle and a 7.5-inch brace, laminated XT1000 limbs on a machined TEC riser, a wide 40 to 80 pound and 27 to 32 inch fit range, and buyer-selectable 65 or 75 percent let-off. Hoyt published neither a mass weight nor a launch price and built the bow for a single season, so the honest read is a scarce used-market chassis you judge on condition and buy for its cam - a bow that came with the StealthShot and RizerShox damping most of its contemporaries made you add yourself. Drawing it against its sibling, what stays with me is how the Ultra keeps the long bow's forgiving hold while asking for just a little more at the shot in return for real speed. This is an excellent bow for the all-around 3D, field and precision-hunting archer who wants a stable, quiet, genuinely quick used chassis and does not mind hunting down a rare example and refreshing its string, particularly strong for the shooter who wants one long bow to cover both the range and longer hunting shots. Buyers who rank pure target forgiveness first should also look at the Mathews Conquest 4, and those chasing the fastest, most compact all-arounder of the era should weigh the Bowtech Allegiance... read full review