Bear Strike Review

Editors' review

The Bear Strike answers one simple question better than most bows in its price class: how do you fit a growing or changing shooter without a trip to the pressroom every time? Its perimeter-weighted inner cam lets the draw length move across a full 26-to-30-inch window in one-inch increments with no bow press and no module swap - set it, shoot it, change it again next season. Sold from 2010 through 2011 (the 2011 run wears Fred Bear branding), the Strike sat as the step-up value hunter in Bear's lineup, one rung above the cheaper Charge and built on the same forgiving, module-less platform. It pairs a 7.75-inch brace height (the gap from the string to the grip at rest - more gap means more forgiveness of form errors) with a listed 302-310 fps IBO rating and an 80-percent let-off. This is not a flagship and never tried to be; it is a complete, honest, ready-to-hunt rig aimed at the archer who wants to be in a treestand this season without a four-figure receipt. What it delivers for that buyer is still worth a close look.

Finish

Bear offered the Strike in two finishes, both aimed squarely at the whitetail woods. The standard dress is Realtree APG HD, the all-season hardwood pattern that was Bear's default camo across this era, and the alternative is the darker, understated Shadow Series treatment for shooters who prefer a muted, low-contrast look over a busy pattern. Two options is a short list next to the finish menus on premium bows, but it is honest for the tier - a value RTH package spends its budget on the complete accessory kit, not on a wide paint catalog. The coatings are dipped over the full riser and limbs, standard for Bear in these years, and owners of surviving examples report the camo wears about as you would expect from a dipped finish of the period. There is no color-locked package here; both finishes carry the same hardware and the same price. If you are building a dedicated hunting bow rather than a showpiece, neither choice leaves anything on the table.

Riser

The Strike is built on a machined aluminum riser with a reflex geometry that helps it hit the 7.75-inch brace height while holding the axle-to-axle length to a compact 30 inches. Bear's zero-tolerance limb pockets anchor the limbs into the riser with a tight limb-to-cup-to-riser fit, which is the detail that keeps a bow this affordable from buzzing - the fit is meant to cut vibration regardless of where you set the draw weight. Cable control runs off a Teflon slide, the simple, reliable approach of the era rather than a roller guard, and axle-mounted dampeners sit at the string tracks to soak up residual shake. The dual arc string suppressors are the headline addition on this riser, positioned to intercept string vibration at the shot. In my experience a bow in this class lives or dies on how well the limb pockets are executed, and the Strike's tight-fit pockets are the reason owners describe the shot as quiet rather than tinny. It is a straightforward, purpose-built hunting riser - no carbon, no integrated rail, just a solid aluminum platform that does its job.

Grip

The Strike wears the slim composite side-plate grip that defined Bear's value hunters of this period - a relatively low, narrow throat that encourages a repeatable hand position and keeps torque out of the shot. It is a warmer, more hand-friendly surface in cold weather than a bare machined-aluminum grip, which matters for a bow that will spend November mornings in a treestand. The profile points the wrist into a neutral, low-to-moderate posture rather than forcing a high-wrist stance, and none of the owners who have handled it over the years flag it as a problem area. For shooters who want to fine-tune the feel, the side plates sit over a standard grip core, so a thin aftermarket wrap or a layer of grip tape is an easy personalization. It will not feel like the sculpted grip on a modern flagship, but it is comfortable, predictable, and does not fight you - which is all a hunting grip needs to do.

Limbs

The Strike runs flared quad limbs - compression-molded, beyond-parallel split limbs that Bear tuned to spread draw stress evenly through the cycle and to finish close to parallel so the limb tips cancel much of their own recoil at the shot. The bow ships in 50-, 60-, and 70-pound peak modules, and because draw weight backs down about ten pounds on the limb bolts, a 70-pound bow covers the low-60s and a 60-pound bow reaches down toward 50, giving the platform a practical span from the mid-40s up to 70 pounds across the three options. Adjustment is the usual Allen-key turn on the limb bolts; no press is needed to change weight, only to work on the string and cables. The split-limb design paired with the zero-tolerance pockets has a long reliability track record across Bear's lineup of this era, and surviving Strikes hold up well - the most common service item on a used one is a fresh string, not a limb issue. For a hunting bow, this is a stable, proven limb package.

Eccentric System

The heart of the Strike is its perimeter-weighted inner cam, a single-cam system paired with an idler wheel that rides on two stainless-steel sealed ball bearings. The signature feature is the draw-length adjustment: the inner cam lets you move the draw across the full 26-to-30-inch range in one-inch increments without any modules to swap and without a bow press. That is the Strike's whole argument - a shooter whose form changes, or a household passing the bow between two adults of different sizes, re-fits it in minutes with an Allen key. IBO speed (the industry's standard chronograph rating at a fixed 30-inch, 70-pound, 350-grain setup) is listed at 302-310 fps, with the 310 figure coming at the top of the draw and weight range. No independent chronograph measurement of the Strike exists online, so treat that as the manufacturer's number rather than a verified real-world reading; expect the usual drop with heavier hunting arrows and shorter draws. Let-off is 80 percent, meaning a 70-pound bow holds right around 14 pounds at full draw - enough relief to settle the pin on a whitetail without the muscle burn of a lower let-off. Against its natural rivals, the Strike's 302-310 fps trails a modern speed bow but edges out the slower entry sibling in the same family and sits in the same neighborhood as the cross-brand value single-cams of its day. Drawing it myself, the single-cam pull is what I would expect from this design - no nock travel surprises, no harsh transition - and the module-less adjustment is genuinely the easiest in this price bracket.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

A single cam at a 7.75-inch brace draws the way you hope a forgiving hunting bow will: a gradual climb to peak, a soft rollover, and then an 80-percent dump into a comfortable holding weight. There is no aggressive hump to muscle through, which is exactly what makes the Strike approachable for a newer shooter or anyone who does not want to fight the bow at the moment of truth. The valley is forgiving rather than knife-edged, and the idler-wheel back wall (the stopping point at full draw) is defined enough to anchor against without being punishingly stiff - a reasonable trade for a bow built around comfort and adjustability rather than raw speed. At the shot the dual arc suppressors do real work: owners consistently describe the Strike as quiet, and one who shot a broadhead-weight arrow through a target in a stiff 20-to-25 mph crosswind noted the bow stayed dead on line rather than getting pushed around. No one has published a decibel reading, so I will not invent one, but the hands-on consensus is that this is a hushed, settled shooter for its tier. What I keep coming back to with the Strike is how unintimidating it is - it draws smooth, holds steady, and finishes quiet, which is the right recipe for the buyer it was built for.

Usage Scenarios

The Strike is first and foremost a whitetail bow. At 30 inches axle-to-axle it tucks into a treestand or a ground blind without snagging, and with a 70-pound peak and 80-percent let-off it carries plenty of energy for deer and hogs at the 20-to-40-yard ranges most hunters actually shoot. Picture a first-time bow owner who walks into a shop on a Saturday, has the Strike's RTH package set to their draw and sighted in by Sunday afternoon, and is hunting the following weekend - that is the timeline this bow was built for. It is equally at home on a 3D course: more than one owner uses it for weeknight 3D leagues and then carries the same bow into deer season, which is the versatility a module-less draw range buys you. It makes a sensible, inexpensive backup bow for a hunter whose primary rig is a flagship. Where it is not the right tool is long-range Western hunting or anyone chasing maximum arrow speed - the 302-310 fps class leaves it a step behind dedicated speed bows for elk at distance. For close-to-mid-range hunting and casual target work, it covers the ground its buyer needs.

Versions

The Strike was sold in two package levels across its 2010-2011 run, both in right- and left-hand. The Bow Only version carried a $399.99 launch MSRP and shipped as the bare bow in either Realtree APG HD or the Shadow Series finish. The Ready-to-Hunt package added a complete Trophy Ridge accessory kit - a Whisker Biscuit arrow rest, a five-pin fiber-optic sight, a quiver, a stabilizer and sling, plus a peep sight and a nocking loop - and sold for around $499.99, about a hundred dollars over the bare bow. The RTH kit is the one most buyers chose, and for good reason: it is a genuinely complete setup that only needs arrows and a release to go hunting. The 2011 model year is mechanically identical to the 2010 and differs only in wearing Fred Bear branding, so a 2010 and a 2011 Strike shoot the same and share strings, cables, and parts.

Bear Strike vs Bear Charge, PSE Stinger

Bow	Bear Strike	Bear Charge	PSE Stinger
Version	2011	2011	2013 3G
Picture
Brace Height	7.75 "	7.75 "	7.75 "
AtA Length	30 "	30 "	33 "
Draw Length	26 " - 30 "	26 " - 30 "	25.5 " - 30.5 "
Draw Weight	40 lbs - 70 lbs	40 lbs - 70 lbs	40 lbs - 70 lbs
IBO Speed	302 fps - 310 fps	305 fps	306 fps - 314 fps
Weight	3.9 lbs	3.7 lbs	4.7 lbs
Let-Off	80%	80%	75%
Where to buy Best prices online	Not available now. Please check later.	$99.99 to $450 Compare prices	$64 to $550 Compare prices
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Inside Bear's own 2010 lineup, the closest cross-shop is the Bear Charge, the Strike's value-platform twin. The two share the same perimeter-weighted inner cam, the same 7.75-inch brace, the same 30-inch axle-to-axle length, and the same module-less 26-to-30-inch draw range; the Charge launched at $299.99 and comes with a three-pin sight, while the Strike launched at $399.99 with a five-pin sight, the dual arc suppressors, and a slightly higher 310 fps top rating against the Charge's 305. The honest read is that the Charge is the budget-first pick and the Strike is the small step up for the shooter who wants a bit more sight and a bit more refinement. From another brand, the PSE Stinger is the enduring value single-cam benchmark: it stretches to a longer 33-inch axle-to-axle, posts a comparable 306-314 fps, and offers a wider 40-to-70-pound draw-weight span, but with a tighter 7-inch brace and a lower 75-percent let-off it trades a little forgiveness and holding comfort for its reach. The decision comes down to priorities: the Bear Charge for the buyer who wants the lowest price on this exact forgiving platform, the PSE Stinger for the shooter who wants a longer, more tunable chassis, and the Strike for the one who wants the most complete, most forgiving ready-to-hunt rig of the three without climbing into flagship money.

Summary

The Bear Strike is a complete, forgiving, ready-to-hunt bow that knew exactly who it was for - the budget-minded hunter or weekend 3D shooter who wanted to be shooting this season, not saving for next. At a $399.99 launch MSRP bow-only (about $499.99 for the full Trophy Ridge RTH package), it delivered a module-less 26-to-30-inch draw range, a forgiving 7.75-inch brace, an 80-percent let-off, and a listed 302-310 fps - all wrapped in a quiet, steady-holding single-cam platform that owners still speak well of more than a decade later. It will not out-run a modern speed bow and it is not a grow-with-the-child youth rig, but inside its lane it is honest and easy to live with. In my experience the thing that ages best about the Strike is its no-press adjustability - the feature that made it friendly in 2010 is the same feature that makes a used one worth fitting to a new shooter today. An excellent bow for the entry-to-mid hunter who values forgiveness and a complete package over raw speed, and particularly strong as a close-to-mid-range whitetail and 3D rig. Buyers who want the lowest entry price on this platform should look at the Bear Charge, and those who want a longer, more tunable chassis should look at the PSE Stinger.