Bear Epic Compound Bow

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... read full review