Browning Mirage Review

Editors' review

Few Browning nameplates were rebuilt as often as the Mirage. Across its 2001 to 2008 production run, one badge covered a long 33-inch single-cam value hunter, a premium step-up SX, a target-oriented ZX on a different cam entirely, a hybrid-cam 1.5 that broke the 33-inch mold, and finally a ground-up 2007 redesign on the compact Trance Cam at just under 30 inches. These are not trim levels of one bow - they are several different bows sharing a name, built during the decade when PSE held the Browning archery license. That makes the Mirage less a single model than a family tree, and it is the reason a used listing needs reading carefully before you buy. This review traces the whole arc, era by era, and keeps the vintage 1990s Browning Ballistic Mirage - a separate, pre-PSE bow - firmly out of the picture. What stays constant through every version is the recipe: a camo-first, single-cam-leaning hunting bow aimed at the value-to-mid tier rather than the flagship shelf.

Finish

Browning kept the Mirage visually consistent even as the engineering underneath it changed repeatedly. Mossy Oak New Break-Up was the standard camo across the entire run, from the 2001 Mirage 33 through the 2007 Trance redesign, which keeps the family looking of a piece despite the mechanical overhauls. The premium SX leaned on a laminated-wood grip for a dressier hand feel, while the target-minded ZX of 2003 was the one era to step outside camo, offered in red and blue target colors alongside the standard Break-Up pattern. Coatings on PSE-built Browning bows of this period held up reasonably in the field but were not the hard-anodized flagship finishes of the era, so surviving examples often show honest wear on the riser edges and cam faces. For a buyer today, finish is less a selling point than a dating tool: the color and pattern help confirm which year and variant a used listing actually is.

Riser

The riser is where the Mirage's era-to-era differences show up first. The 2001 to 2005 bows used a forged, machined aluminum riser built around the long 33-inch-class geometry, paired with Browning's Radial-Lok limb pockets and ImpacStop damping (originally branded Sorbothane in 2001). That long riser is the root of the platform's forgiveness - it spreads the geometry out and keeps the bow steady at full draw, which is the character these value single-cams were built to deliver. The 2004 Mirage 1.5 kept the machined-riser approach but shortened the whole platform to 32.5 inches to suit its new hybrid cam. The 2007 Trance redesign is the sharpest break: Browning moved to a compact chassis with the Hyperlite Unibody limb pocket and past-parallel limbs, dropping axle-to-axle to 29.875 inches for a far more maneuverable bow. Reading the Mirage's riser history is really reading the whole story of the model - Browning never left this platform alone for long.

Grip

Grip treatment tracked the price tier rather than the year. The step-up SX of 2001 and 2002 carried a laminated-wood grip, the dressier option in the lineup and a nod to the "advanced archer" buyer Browning aimed it at. The core Mirage 33, the ZX, the 1.5, and the 2007 Trance used the standard molded grip of their respective chassis, shaped for a repeatable hand position rather than for show. None of these are wide, blocky target grips; they sit in the moderate, hunting-oriented profile typical of PSE-built bows of the period. On surviving examples, the grip is one of the easier things to refresh - aftermarket and side-plate options from the broader PSE parts pool often fit the chassis, which matters more on a bow this old than it would on a current model.

Limbs

Through the 2001 to 2005 eras the Mirage ran Browning's Contour XP limbs - roughly 15-inch limbs on the SX - in a conventional working-recurve-to-past-parallel progression that stored energy for the 285 to 312 IBO range these bows were rated to. Draw weight was offered in overlapping brackets: 50-60 and 60-70 pounds on the Mirage 33, 60-70 on the ZX, and a notably broad 60, 70, and even 80-pound peak option on the 2004 Mirage 1.5 before the 80-pound bracket was dropped for 2005. The 2007 Trance redesign moved to past-parallel limbs in the Hyperlite Unibody pocket, a stiffer, quieter arrangement that suited the shorter, more aggressive 29.875-inch chassis. Draw-weight adjustment across all eras is the standard limb-bolt range, no press required for weight changes within a bracket. For a discontinued bow, the limb designs here were mainstream PSE engineering of their day, which is reassuring on the used market - there is nothing exotic or failure-prone in the limb story.

Eccentric System

The cam is the single most important thing to pin down on any used Mirage, because Browning changed it more than once. The 2001 to 2002 Mirage 33 and SX ran the original Cyber Cam SX, a single cam (Browning's tables call it a "one cam") rated at 300 to 305 IBO with a fixed 65 or 75 percent let-off - the percentage of peak weight the holding weight drops to at full draw. For 2003 the base bow became the Mirage 33 S on the new Cyber 5 cam, which added five inches of draw-length adjustment and, importantly, moved let-off to an adjustable 65 to 80 percent range. The same year the premium ZX arrived on a completely different eccentric - a Split-Harness One-Cam with a twin-idler setup, rated 300 IBO in 2003 and dropping to 285 for 2004, and carrying the longest brace in the family at 7.25 inches. The 2004 Mirage 1.5 introduced Browning's Cyber 1.5 Hybrid Cam, a two-cam hybrid system rated 310 IBO in 2004 and 312 in 2005 - the fastest Mirage on paper. Finally, the 2007 Trance Cam returned to a single cam but a modern one: four inches of draw adjustment plus a short inner module reaching down to 25-26 inches, an 80 percent let-off, and a 315-to-307 IBO rating depending on setup. No independent chronograph data exists for any Mirage era - these bows predate the YouTube chronograph-review era - so the IBO figures above are the manufacturer's own ratings, not real-world measured speeds, and a used buyer should treat them as the ceiling rather than the number they will see across the chrono.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

Shooting character on the Mirage follows directly from the geometry, which is the honest way to describe a bow with no surviving hands-on test footage. The 2001 to 2005 eras are long-and-forgiving by design: a 33 or 32.5-inch axle-to-axle with a tall 7 to 7.5-inch brace height is the classic recipe for a settled, stable hold that tolerates small form errors, at the cost of the raw speed a short-brace flagship chases. The move to adjustable 65 to 80 percent let-off from 2003 onward is the single most useful shootability change in the family - it lets a shooter dial a longer, more relaxed valley for hunting or a firmer hold for practice without changing bows. The hybrid-cam 1.5 would have given the crispest back wall of the pre-2007 bows, a consequence of its two-cam system versus the softer single-cam feel. The 2007 Trance is the outlier: at 29.875 inches it trades some of that long-ATA forgiveness for maneuverability in tight treestand and ground-blind quarters, and its 80 percent let-off and past-parallel limbs point to a quieter, more modern shot than the early single-cams. What I keep coming back to when I map the Mirage's evolution is how deliberately Browning kept nudging it toward easier holding and quieter shooting across the decade, even as the platform underneath kept changing.

Usage Scenarios

The Mirage was, in every era, a hunting bow first. The long-ATA 2001 to 2005 versions suit the whitetail hunter who values a forgiving, stable hold from a treestand over chasing the fastest arrow - the kind of shooter who would rather make the 25-yard shot count than brag about IBO numbers. The adjustable-weight brackets make them workable for a range of builds, and the 80-pound option on the 2004 1.5 even reaches toward larger game for a shooter who can pull it. The ZX, with its longer brace and target colors, nods toward the archer who shot spots or 3D in the off-season on the same platform they hunted with. The compact 2007 Trance is the one to reach for if maneuverability matters most - a ground blind, thick timber, or a smaller-framed shooter who wants a short, adjustable bow down to a 25-inch draw. Today, realistically, the Mirage's largest audience is the used-market and collector buyer: someone restoring a PSE-era Browning, keeping a first bow in service, or picking up a forgiving single-cam cheaply as a backup or a loaner. For all of these, the one thing it cannot be is a current-spec speed bow - judged against modern flagships it is slower, heavier, and louder, and it should be bought as the honest value hunter it was.

Versions

The Mirage name spans six distinct configurations across 2001 to 2008; there is a one-year gap in 2006 when no Mirage appeared in Browning's lineup. Pin the exact year and variant before buying, because the specs diverge sharply.Mirage 33 (2001) - original single Cyber Cam, 33-inch ATA, 7-inch brace, 300 IBO, launch MSRP $475 (add roughly $16 for left-hand).Mirage SX (2001-2002) - premium "advanced archer" step-up, Cyber Cam SX, 6.875-inch brace, laminated-wood grip; launch MSRP $675 in 2002.Mirage 33 (2002) - brace tightened to 6.75 inches, 300 IBO, launch MSRP $499.Mirage 33 S (2003) - new Cyber 5 cam with five inches of draw adjust and adjustable 65-80 percent let-off, launch MSRP $539.95.Mirage ZX (2003-2004) - Split-Harness One-Cam, longest 7.25-inch brace, target option; 2003 MSRP $749.95 camo and $799.95 in target colors.Mirage 1.5 (2004-2005) - Cyber 1.5 Hybrid Cam, shorter 32.5-inch ATA, 310-312 IBO, the fastest Mirage; Browning did not publish an MSRP on the archived pages.Mirage TC (2007-2008) - ground-up Trance Cam redesign, compact 29.875-inch ATA, 80 percent let-off, launch MSRP $549.99 (part 0716TC); carried into 2008 before the model was retired.Note for buyers: the vintage 1990s Browning "Ballistic Mirage" (magnesium riser, often listed as Mirage XE or with XGT-prefix part numbers) is a separate, earlier bow and is not covered by this review.

Browning Mirage vs Browning Illusion, Diamond Black Ice

Bow	Browning Mirage	Browning Illusion	Diamond Black Ice
Version	2008 Mirage TC	2010	2010 FLX
Picture
Brace Height	7.6875 "	6.5 "	7.25 "
AtA Length	29.875 "	33.5 "	31.75 "
Draw Length	25 " - 30 "	25 " - 30 "	25 " - 30 "
Draw Weight	60 lbs - 70 lbs	50 lbs - 70 lbs	40 lbs - 70 lbs
IBO Speed	307 fps - 315 fps	326 fps	310 fps - 318 fps
Weight	4.1 lbs	4.5 lbs	3.8 lbs
Let-Off	80%	80%	65% - 80%
Where to buy Best prices online	$95 to $395 Compare prices	$59.99 to $500 Compare prices	$110 to $299.99 Compare prices
	compare more bows

The Mirage's closest in-house relative is the Browning Illusion, the other PSE-era Browning single-cam hunter, and the two make a clean side-by-side for anyone shopping the brand on the used market. The Illusion is the more focused bow - a 33.5-inch forgiveness-first single-cam with a 6.5-inch brace, 326 IBO rating, and 80 percent let-off - where the Mirage asks you to first decide which era you want. If you know you want a long, stable Browning single-cam and do not need to sort through variants, the Illusion is the simpler pick; if you specifically want the hybrid-cam 1.5 or the compact Trance redesign, only the Mirage offers them. Cross-brand, the Diamond Black Ice is the natural value comparison: a single-cam hunter at 31.75-inch ATA and a tall 7.25-inch brace, rated 310-318 IBO, but with far wider adjustability - 40 to 70 pounds of draw weight and a 65 to 80 percent let-off range that covers more shooters out of one bow than any single Mirage era does. The Black Ice is also the one of the three still readily supported with parts and strings, which matters for a buyer who wants to actually shoot it rather than collect it. The decision comes down to priorities: the Illusion for the shooter who wants the simplest forgiving Browning single-cam, the Black Ice for the value buyer who wants the widest adjustability and current parts support, and the Mirage for the buyer drawn to a specific era of it - the forgiving 33-inch hunter, the hybrid 1.5, or the compact 2007 Trance.

Summary

The Browning Mirage is best understood not as one bow but as a decade-long series of them, built while PSE held the Browning license and aimed squarely at the value-to-mid tier rather than the flagship shelf. It began in 2001 as a forgiving 33-inch single-cam hunter, grew a premium SX and a target ZX, broke its own mold with the hybrid-cam 1.5 in 2004, and ended as a genuinely different, compact bow on the Trance Cam - which arrived in 2007 at a $549.99 launch MSRP. Across all of it the throughline is a camo-first, forgiveness-leaning hunting bow that favored a stable hold over raw speed, with Browning steadily adding adjustable let-off and more draw-length range as the years went on. No chronograph or hands-on field data survives for these bows, so the manufacturer IBO ratings are the ceiling, not a promise, and any purchase today is a used-market or collector decision that should start with confirming the exact year and variant. What I find genuinely interesting about the Mirage is how restless Browning was with it - few single nameplates of the era were reinvented this many times. It is an excellent pick for the PSE-era Browning enthusiast or the value hunter who wants a forgiving single-cam cheaply, and it is particularly strong as a stable, easy-holding treestand bow in its long-ATA eras. Buyers who want the simplest version of that same forgiving Browning single-cam should also look at the Browning Illusion, while those prioritizing wide adjustability and current parts support should look at the Diamond Black Ice.