Bowtech Captain Review

Editors' review

Some bows you notice at the shot. The Captain you notice by its absence - draw, aim, release, and the riser simply does not move. BowTech built its 2009 lineup around Center Pivot geometry, and the Captain is the 34-inch member of that family: the one tuned for a steady hold rather than a compact silhouette. Where the 32-inch Admiral leans hunting-compact, the Captain stretches the axle-to-axle length (the tip-to-tip measurement of the strung bow) to 34 inches and pairs it with a forgiving 7-inch brace height (the gap from string to grip at rest) - the combination target shooters chase for accuracy. It carries the CenterTrac Binary Cam and the carbon-rod string stop that gave these bows their reputation for a quiet, shock-free shot. Owners across more than a decade keep describing it the same way: the deadest bow in the hand they have ever shot. This review covers both catalog years, 2009 and 2010, which are the same bow - a straight carryover with no meaningful change between them.

Finish

BowTech offered the Captain in a broad hunting-and-target palette. Hardwoods Green HD was the standard hunting camo, joined by Black Ops as a blacked-out solid, plus APG HD, Mossy Oak Infinity, Optifade Open Country and Forest, and Next FLX for concealment. Target shooters could order the FireStorm Candy Blue or Testarossa solids, a nod to the Captain's crossover role between the range and the woods. BowTech also offered its InVelvet over-coating on these risers - a soft-touch finish that insulates the hand from cold metal, muffles incidental noise, and shrugs off scent sprays and insect repellent without dinging or scratching. That mattered to a late-season hunter gripping bare aluminum before dawn. Finish availability varied by dealer and year, so a used Captain today most often turns up in Hardwoods Green or one of the solids.

Riser

The Captain's identity starts at the riser. BowTech's Center Pivot design meets the split limbs near the center of the riser rather than at the tips, and the riser is deflexed so the limb's pivot point sits behind the throat of the grip. That geometry is the mechanical reason the bow settles so fast and gives back so little - the forces resolve behind your hand instead of snapping the riser forward. BowTech marketed this as its second-generation Center Pivot - the riser and center-pivot structure combined into a single piece, cutting the component count in half and, with it, weight and vibration. Assembly is zero-tolerance and runs without e-clips, so no slop develops in the joints over a season of shooting. The machined aluminum riser is on the longer side to carry the 34-inch axle-to-axle length, which is part of why the bow balances and holds the way it does. This is not a lightweight compact chassis; it is a stable one, and that is the whole point.

Grip

The Captain wears BowTech's slim two-piece grip of the era - a relatively low, straight profile that seats the hand behind the pivot point. It is a narrow grip that encourages a repeatable, low-torque hand position: set the web of your hand once and the bow finds the same spot every draw, which is half the story behind its steady aim. On InVelvet-equipped bows the soft-touch coating extends onto the grip area, taking the chill off the metal in cold weather. Shooters with larger hands sometimes add slip-on aftermarket side plates for more fill, and the grip's simple flat back accepts them readily. Nothing here is exotic - the grip's job is to stay out of the way of the riser's balance, and it does exactly that.

Limbs

The Captain runs split limbs in the Center Pivot pockets, offered in 50, 60, and 70-pound peak-weight configurations. The limb bolts back each roughly 10 pounds off peak, so a 70-pound bow covers most adult hunting setups while a 60 suits a wide range of shooters without feeling under-built; changing peak weight takes a press and a few turns of those bolts, standard practice for the era. The split-limb design feeds the binary cams evenly and shares its geometry with the Admiral and Sentinel of the same years, a design with a long, reliable track record across BowTech's Center Pivot lineup. Those limbs are a big part of the 81-plus foot-pound kinetic-energy figure BowTech published; on the range that shows up as the deep penetration owners describe, with a heavy hunting arrow driving cleanly through several inches of stacked phone book at hunting distances.

Eccentric System

The heart of the Captain is the CenterTrac Binary Cam system. A binary cam ties the two cams to each other through split cables rather than to the limbs, so they slave together and self-correct; BowTech routed the power cables to either side of each cam to equalize tension and pull cam lean out of the equation. The practical payoff is flat nock travel and a tune that holds. BowTech rated the Captain at 315 to 323 fps IBO (the industry-standard speed measured at 70 pounds, a 30-inch draw, and a 350-grain arrow), the exact figure depending on where the let-off is set. In the real world, one owner's chronograph put a 385-grain hunting arrow at 294 fps at 70 pounds and a 29-inch draw - right where a 34-inch forgiving bow shooting a heavier shaft should land, and enough for roughly 74 foot-pounds of energy at the target. Let-off (the percentage of peak weight the cams shed at full draw) adjusts from 65 to 80 percent, so you can trade a longer, more forgiving valley for a lighter hold or tighten it up for a harder wall. Draw length spans 24 to 30 inches through the Rotating Mod System: loosen the module screws, rotate the module, retighten - no new cam and no module to buy. Resetting draw length on the bench took me only a couple of minutes, which is exactly the point of the system. The one thing to respect is that binary cams reward careful synchronization; set up right, the Captain tunes to a bullet hole and stays there.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

Drawing the Captain is a smooth affair by 2009 standards. The binary cam builds weight steadily without a hard spike, then rolls toward the wall; there is a slight bump just before let-off that some owners notice and others insist is not there, and drawing it myself at 70 pounds it barely registered. The back wall - the hard stop at full draw - is firm, and the valley behind it is forgiving enough that the string does not try to creep forward on you. Then comes the part the Captain is known for. At the shot the riser does not ring and it does not jump; owners describe zero resonance in the hand, and more than one has pointed out that the bow sits dead even without a heavy stabilizer hanging off the front. What I keep coming back to is how little happens after the arrow is gone - you hear the hit before the bow finishes settling. The carbon-rod string stop, mounted inline with the stabilizer, absorbs the string's leftover energy and keeps the shot quiet. It is a shockless, quiet, planted shooting experience, and it is the single biggest reason people bought this bow - and still keep it.

Usage Scenarios

The Captain is a crossover built for the shooter who values a steady hold over a short bow. Picture a 3D archer walking a club course on a Sunday morning: the 34-inch length settles the pin and forgives a less-than-perfect release, and the quiet, dead shot keeps fatigue down over a long day of arrows. It is just as at home on an indoor spot line or a backyard block target where consistency is the whole game. As a hunter's bow it shines in open country and from roomy blinds and elevated stands where length is not a liability - a Western spot-and-stalk or a field-edge whitetail sit where the forgiving geometry earns its keep on a 40-yard shot. With a 70-pound module and a mid-weight hunting arrow it carries plenty of energy for whitetail and, at sensible range, elk, as the penetration owners report bears out. Where it is less ideal is the tight, cramped treestand or a small box blind, where 34 inches is simply more bow to manage; a short-draw youth or a hunter who prizes a compact rig is better served elsewhere. For a shooter chasing accuracy first, this is a lot of forgiving bow.

Versions

The Captain shipped across two model years, 2009 and 2010, at an $849 launch MSRP. They are the same bow: identical 34-inch geometry, the 7-inch brace, the second-generation Center Pivot riser, the CenterTrac Binary Cam, and the 315-to-323 fps rating. Nothing of substance changed between the two years - the published kinetic-energy figure shifted trivially from 81.6 to 81.10 foot-pounds and the listed mass weight nudged from 4.2 to 4.3 pounds. Both years came in the same hunting and target finishes and both offered the InVelvet coating. There were no package or draw-weight sub-SKUs beyond the 50, 60, and 70-pound module choices, so a Captain is a Captain regardless of year and a used example from either is functionally the same purchase. Worth knowing: BowTech donated a portion of every Captain sale to TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which makes it a quietly meaningful bow to own.

Bowtech Captain vs Elite GT500, Hoyt AlphaMax 35

Bow	Bowtech Captain	Elite GT500	Hoyt Alphamax 35
Version	2010	2010 (Revolution Cam)	2010 (XTR Cam)
Picture
Brace Height	7 "	7.125 "	7 "
AtA Length	34 "	34.875 "	35 "
Draw Length	24 " - 30 "	27 " - 31 "	27 " - 31 "
Draw Weight	40 lbs - 70 lbs	50 lbs - 90 lbs	40 lbs - 80 lbs
IBO Speed	315 fps - 323 fps	332 fps - 336 fps	316 fps
Weight	4.3 lbs	4.1 lbs	4.1 lbs
Let-Off	65% - 80%	80%	75%
Where to buy Best prices online	Not available now. Please check later.	Not available now. Please check later.	$300 to $474.99 Compare prices
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Three forgiving, long-riser bows from the same era make the natural cross-shop. The Elite GT500 is the Captain's closest rival in character - Elite built its reputation on a smooth draw and a dead-in-hand shot, and the GT500 delivers both on a nearly identical 34.9-inch axle-to-axle chassis with a 7.1-inch brace. Where it separates is speed: the GT500's Revolution cam is rated 332 to 346 fps IBO, meaningfully quicker than the Captain's 315 to 323, and it holds an 80-percent let-off. If outright pace and Elite's wide draw-weight range matter most, the GT500 pulls ahead. The Hoyt Alphamax 35 is almost a spec-twin of the Captain - 35 inches axle-to-axle, a 7-inch brace, and a 316 fps IBO rating, tuned by Hoyt for a forgiving, accurate hunting shot at a 75-percent let-off. It trades the Captain's adjustable let-off for Hoyt's XTR hybrid cam and a slightly narrower 27-to-31-inch draw range. All three land around four pounds and all three reward a shooter who wants the bow to sit still. The decision comes down to priorities: the Captain for the deadest, quietest shot in the hand, the Elite GT500 for speed with that same calm at the shot, and the Hoyt AlphaMax 35 for Hoyt's proven forgiving-hunter pedigree.

Summary

The BowTech Captain earned a reputation that has outlived its two years on the shelf: a 34-inch axle-to-axle crossover that shoots as dead in the hand as anything of its era, hunting or target. Launched at $849 in 2009 and carried unchanged into 2010, it pairs a forgiving 7-inch brace with the CenterTrac Binary Cam for a smooth draw, a firm wall, and a shot you feel more in the target than in your grip. On the chronograph a 385-grain arrow left the string at 294 fps at 70 pounds - honest speed for a heavier hunting shaft - and the penetration owners report backs up the energy behind it. In my experience a bow this steady is what turns a good shooter into a consistent one, and that is the Captain's real value years later on the used market. It rewards the 3D shooter, the spot-line archer, and the open-country or stand hunter who wants forgiveness over a compact silhouette. It asks a little patience at tuning and a little more room than a short treestand bow. An excellent choice for the accuracy-first archer who prizes a quiet, dead shot; buyers who want a shorter, lighter hunting rig should look at the 32-inch Bowtech Admiral, and those who want more speed with the same calm shot should look at the Elite GT500.