Bear Epic Review

Editors' review

The Fred Bear Epic is the longer, steadier half of a two-bow story. Bear built it in 1999 and 2000 as a single-cam hunting compound with a notably long geometry - its bowstring and cables measure well beyond what the compact Epic Extreme that followed used - and that length is its whole character: a stable, forgiving bow that settles on target and rewards a relaxed hold. It is not fast or compact by modern standards, and Bear never published a full spec sheet that survives online, so this is a bow you understand by its platform rather than its numbers. What keeps it relevant is the same thing that keeps any turn-of-the-millennium Bear relevant: a simple single cam and a machined-aluminum riser that shrug off decades of use, so these still turn up in closets and on the used market for very little. For the archer who found an old Bear Epic and wants to know whether to hang a sight on it and hunt, here is what it is and who it still suits.

Finish

The Epic wore the factory hunting camo of its era rather than any modern anodized colorway, applied as a film pattern over the aluminum riser and limbs with the Fred Bear branding of the day. Surviving units show the honest wear you would expect from a twenty-plus-year-old hunting bow - thinning camo at the grip, shelf, and cam axle - which is cosmetic character rather than a structural concern. There was no gloss target finish or palette of colors to pick from; it was a single-look hunting tool sold in the pattern of its season. A buyer restoring one should leave the worn camo as period patina and focus on the metal underneath, which almost always outlasts the coating. Because it only exists used now, finish condition varies widely from example to example, so judge each bow on its own.

Riser

The riser is a machined aluminum handle in the long-riser tradition of turn-of-the-millennium Bear compounds, and it is the source of the bow's stability. Where the later Epic Extreme was built compact, the Epic runs a longer geometry overall - its much longer string and cable are the tell - which stretches the distance between the nocking point and the grip and makes the bow slower to react to hand torque. That is the classic long-riser trade: you give up maneuverability and gain a planted, forgiving feel. There are no accessory rails or dovetail systems here, only the era-standard drilled-and-tapped holes for a sight and rest plus the bosses for a bolt-on quiver, so a modern quick-detach setup will be adapting to older hardware. Cable containment is a simple slide-style guard rather than a roller. In the hand the metal riser feels solid and durable, exactly the build that lets these bows survive decades, and its length is what a buyer is really choosing when they pick the Epic over its shorter sibling.

Grip

The grip is formed into the aluminum riser with a simple grip panel, not a modular swappable unit, and it carries the medium-wrist feel typical of late-1990s Bear hunting risers. It fills the palm directly, without the deep throat of a target grip or the torque-reducing sculpting of a modern side plate, so a clean, consistent hand matters - load the web of the hand the same way each shot and the long riser does the rest of the stabilizing work. Cold-weather hunters often wrap bare aluminum grips like this one, since the metal pulls heat from the hand quickly in late season. It is a straightforward period grip, functional and serviceable once the hand adapts, and the long, stable geometry makes it easy to shoot through rather than something you fight.

Limbs

The limbs are the durable laminated-glass limbs of the era, bolted to the riser and built for the long, forgiving draw this platform is tuned around. Peak draw weight tops out in the neighborhood of 70 pounds in the usual hunting classes, with lighter examples common, and poundage backs down at the limb bolts without a press so the bow can be softened to a comfortable holding weight. Like other Bear limbs of this generation, they tolerate long storage and neglect far better than modern high-preload split limbs, which is why so many Epics survive intact after decades in a garage. They are not speed limbs - this is a stability-first bow, not a velocity chaser - but they are honest and reliable, and paired with the long riser they give the bow its steady, planted character. For a used buyer, the limbs and their tips are the first thing to inspect for cracks or delamination before drawing the bow to full weight.

Eccentric System

The Epic runs a single perimeter-weighted cam against an idler wheel, the mainstream Bear single-cam layout of 1999 to 2000, and on this bow it sits on a long string-and-cable rigging - a 103-inch bowstring and a 43-inch cable, both markedly longer than the compact Epic Extreme's. That long geometry is the point: a single cam on a long chassis draws smoothly and forgivingly, with the stability that a longer axle length brings, rather than the quick, compact snap of a short hunting bow. Bear did not publish a surviving IBO speed, brace height, or let-off figure for the plain Epic, so this review describes how the platform behaves rather than quoting numbers the manufacturer no longer documents - a single-cam of this era and length draws long and even, eases into a valley, and settles against a modest but positive wall. Draw length is set through the cam in the full-draw adult range, so this is a grown shooter's hunting bow, not a wide-range youth adjuster. In my experience, a single cam on a long chassis is about the most forgiving vintage setup to get shooting straight - there is only one cam to time, and the length quietly covers the rest. The single cam's real payoff is tuning simplicity: predictable nock travel and an easy bow to keep on paper, which matters more than ever on a bow you are reviving decades after it left the factory.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

Drawing the Epic is a long, smooth single-cam pull - the cam rolls the weight on gradually without an aggressive front-end hump, eases into a defined valley, and comes to a wall you can settle against. Drawing a long single-cam like this, what stands out to me is how planted it feels: the extra axle length makes the bow slow to react to a less-than-perfect release, so the aiming picture holds steady and the bow forgives small mistakes that a short, twitchy hunter would punish. That forgiveness is the whole reason to shoot the longer Epic over the compact Extreme. Shot feel is period-honest: a stout metal riser soaks up a fair amount of the shot, but a bare turn-of-the-millennium single-cam without modern string suppressors will not be flagship-quiet, and a little hand buzz is normal for the era. What it delivers is a stable, repeatable shot that groups well at sensible hunting ranges once you settle into its longer rhythm. Set up simply with a rest and pins, it is an easy, confidence-building bow to shoot - the kind of forgiving platform that flatters a hunter more than it challenges them.

Usage Scenarios

The Epic's natural home is close-to-mid-range hunting where stability matters more than compactness - a roomy treestand, a field edge, or a blind with space to work a longer bow. Its forgiveness and long sight radius also make it a good learning platform for a shooter building clean form, since the length hides the small errors that a short, fast bow amplifies. Picture a hunter who inherits an old Bear Epic, puts a modern rest and a fresh string on it, tunes the poundage to a comfortable hold, and spends an afternoon rediscovering how easy a long, forgiving single-cam is to shoot well before carrying it into the season. It has the draw-weight range for deer and similar game at bowhunting distances with good shot placement. Where it struggles is the tight, run-and-gun setup - the axle length is a genuine handful in a cramped ground blind or a compact climber - and anyone wanting modern speed, quiet, or accessory integration is asking more than a 1999 bow can give. As a forgiving vintage hunter, a form-building platform, or an inexpensive inherited-bow project, it still earns its keep.

Versions

The Epic is a single platform that ran across the 1999 and 2000 Fred Bear seasons rather than a family of separate models. Bear's own string-and-cable records list it with a small set of service item numbers - 9330, 9362, and 9374 under the AFR and AFM designations - which reflect string-service variants on one bow, not distinct SKUs with their own prices. It was sold in the factory hunting camo of the day in the usual peak draw-weight classes topping out near 70 pounds. Because it is a hunting bow discontinued more than two decades ago, there is no launch-price differentiation to catalog, and it exists today only on the used market, where hand and condition are what a buyer actually chooses between. Note that the later Fred Bear Epic Extreme (2000 to 2002) is a separate, shorter and faster model - not a version of this bow - so shoppers cross-referencing the two should treat them as distinct siblings.

Bear Epic vs Diamond Edge 320, PSE Stinger MAX

Bow	Bear Epic	Diamond Edge 320	PSE Stinger MAX
Version	2000	2022	2021
Picture
Brace Height	"	7.25 "	7 "
AtA Length	"	32 "	30 "
Draw Length	"	15 " - 31 "	21.5 " - 30 "
Draw Weight	lbs	7 lbs - 70 lbs	45 lbs - 70 lbs
IBO Speed	fps	320 fps	304 fps - 312 fps
Weight	lbs	3.6 lbs	3.8 lbs
Let-Off		85%	80%
Where to buy Best prices online	$149 to $600 Compare prices	$199.99 to $795 Compare prices	$150 to $650 Compare prices
	compare more bows

The fairest way to place the Epic is to compare what its long, forgiving platform did against how an affordable, do-it-all hunting bow is executed now, so set it beside the Diamond Edge 320 and the PSE Stinger MAX. The modern bows win on nearly every published number, which is expected: the Diamond Edge 320 runs a compact 32-inch axle-to-axle, a 320 fps IBO rating, an enormous 15-to-31-inch draw range, a 7-to-70-pound span, and 85-percent let-off, while the PSE Stinger MAX sits at 30 inches, 304 to 312 fps, a 21.5-to-30-inch draw, 45 to 70 pounds, and 80-percent let-off. Both are faster, far more compact, adjust across a vastly wider range, and ship modern-quiet with today's string dampers, all for a modern budget-tier price in the rough $400-to-$550 class. What the Epic still offers that those specs cannot show is the character of a long single-cam platform - a planted, forgiving feel that flatters a relaxed hold - plus metal-riser durability that has already survived more than two decades and an entry cost of almost nothing used. Both the Diamond Edge 320 and the PSE Stinger MAX are the clear buy for a new hunter who wants one quiet, adjustable, warrantied bow to grow with out of the box. The decision comes down to priorities: a modern, compact, widely adjustable tool for the archer starting fresh today, or the long, forgiving old Bear for the shooter reviving one and valuing stability over specs.

Summary

The Bear Epic is not a bow you buy for numbers - Bear never published most of them, and the ones that mattered belonged to a different era. It is a bow you appreciate for a specific character: a long, forgiving single-cam platform from 1999 and 2000, built for stability rather than speed or compactness, on a machined-aluminum riser durable enough that plenty are still shootable today for used-market pocket change. Its honest limitations are the flip side of that length - it is a handful in tight quarters, it is slower and louder than anything current, and it comes with little documented spec data, so every example deserves a careful inspection and a fresh string. But the same long geometry and simple single cam that date it are exactly why it forgives a relaxed hold, stays easy to tune, and keeps hunting decades on. What I keep coming back to with long single-cam bows like this is how much they flatter a shooter, hiding the small mistakes a short, fast bow would punish. It is an excellent pick for the vintage-Bear enthusiast, the hunter reviving an inherited bow, or a shooter who wants a stable, forgiving close-range platform for next to nothing. Buyers who want modern speed, compactness, quiet, and out-of-the-box warranty support should look instead at the Diamond Edge 320 or the PSE Stinger MAX.