Bowtech Solution SD Review
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Pros
- A real full-power flagship for short-draw archers - 50, 60, and 70-pound peaks built around a 23.5 to 28.5-inch draw, not a downsized youth or women's platform
- The aggressive short-draw cam pulls surprising speed from a short stroke - a hunting arrow runs about 280 fps, faster than the short draw would lead you to expect
- Dead in the hand and genuinely quiet even at 70 pounds, so a short-draw hunter gives up nothing on shot manners
- Full DeadLock cam tuning corrects a left or right tear with an Allen key on the line, no bow press
- Forgiving 7-inch brace and a light 3.9-pound mass make it easy to hold steady and easy to carry all day
Cons
- The short-draw cam is smooth to the back, then drops hard into the valley over the last quarter-inch - that aggressive transition makes the speed, so a shooter used to a gradual valley should try it first; the FlipDisc Comfort mode softens it
- The 23.5 to 28.5-inch draw range is a hard fit ceiling - an average-to-long-draw adult past about 29 inches belongs on the standard Solution or the Solution SS instead
Video
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Editors' review
Short-draw archers usually get handed a compromise. The industry answer to a 26-inch draw has long been a youth bow, a women's bow, or a flagship with its draw cranked down to a length it was never designed around - a smaller bow, a slower bow, a bow that reminds the shooter it was built for someone taller. The Bowtech Solution SD is the opposite of that. It is a genuine 50, 60, and 70-pound hunting flagship engineered from the cam out for a 23.5 to 28.5-inch draw, so a short-draw adult finally gets a full-power bow instead of a downsized one. The trick is the cam: an aggressive short-draw design that squeezes real speed out of a short power stroke, pushing a hunting arrow to around 280 feet per second - quicker than the short draw would suggest. It carries every piece of Bowtech's DeadLock tuning hardware, it shoots dead in the hand, and it is the only member of the three-bow Solution family Bowtech kept in the lineup long enough to see three model years. This is the short-draw hunter's bow that refuses to feel like a concession.
Finish
The Solution SD ships in the same deep palette as the rest of the Solution line: four solid finishes - Black, OD Green, Smoke Grey, and Flat Dark Earth - plus a camo menu that runs to roughly six patterns, among them Gore Optifade Subalpine, Mossy Oak Break-Up Country, Realtree Edge, Kuiu Verde 2.0, and Kryptek Altitude. For its 2023 model year the camo list shifted slightly, swapping in Mossy Oak Country DNA, but the four-solid core stayed constant across all three years the SD was sold. That is a wide selection for a bow aimed at a narrower audience, and it means a short-draw hunter is not stuck with a token color or two the way niche models often leave buyers. The film-dip camo and the solid coatings share the same durable finish that holds up to a season of stand time and pack hauling. A hunter who wants one bow for the woods and the range tends to reach for a solid like OD Green or Smoke Grey. Color availability shifts through the year, and custom decoration carries an upcharge.Riser
The riser is a machined-aluminum, compact 30-inch chassis - a light frame that swings well in tight quarters and keeps the bow easy in the hand. Bowtech's DeadLock pockets - Dual Lock pockets in the later catalogs - anchor the limbs with the brand's signature double lock, the limb into the pocket and the pocket into the riser, for a platform that holds its tune once set. Cable control comes from the DeadLock Cable Containment system, and on this bow it runs a flexed guard with a roller that keeps the cables offset and the draw free of chatter. Two Orbit dampeners mount on the riser and can be repositioned on their bosses to tune out vibration where it matters. Setup uses conventional rest and stabilizer mounting, nothing proprietary to source. What I find compelling about this riser is that Bowtech did not shrink a big-draw bow to make the SD - it built a compact, light chassis and then matched a short-draw cam to it, which is exactly why the bow feels purpose-made rather than adapted.Grip
The SD wears Bowtech's Clutch grip, a thin, flat, low-torque panel that indexes the hand into a consistent, repeatable position - and hands-on shooters called it as comfortable and as neutral as any grip in the class. For a shooter who prefers to sit higher on the grip, Bowtech includes an optional Control grip plate that raises the wrist about a quarter inch, a small but genuinely useful choice that lets the buyer tune hand position to preference. The panels swap easily and come in several colors. On a short-draw bow the grip matters more than usual, because a shorter draw leaves less margin for a torqued hand to steer the shot, and the Clutch shape does a good job of keeping the hand quiet and the wrist relaxed. It stays comfortable against a bare palm in cold weather, which is where a lot of these bows earn their keep.Limbs
Bowtech builds the Solution SD in 50, 60, and 70-pound peak weights - and that full-power spread is the whole point, because it is what separates the SD from a youth or women's platform aimed at the same draw lengths. Where the women's Eva Shockey Gen 2 uses the same 23.5 to 28.5-inch draw range but tops out at 60 pounds, the SD runs to a true 70, so a short-draw hunter can build a full-weight elk or whitetail setup without stepping down. Because the limb bolts wind each set down roughly 10 pounds, a 70-pound SD covers an effective 60-to-70 window and a 60-pound bow drops to about 50. The split limbs seat into the DeadLock pockets with no play, giving the SD the same rigid, tune-stable foundation as its siblings. At just 3.9 pounds bare, it is the lightest bow in the family, which makes the full draw weights easier to manage on a long sit or a steep pack-in.Eccentric System
The cam is where the SD does its cleverest work. Bowtech built it around an aggressive, short-draw-optimized DeadLock cam, and the character is specific: the pull is smooth most of the way back, then over the last quarter inch it drops hard into the valley - and that steep final transition is precisely where a short draw finds its speed. A short power stroke has less room to build energy, so the SD's cam works the back end of the draw harder to make up for it. The result shows on a chronograph: at 27 inches and 70 pounds the bow ran 273 fps, and with hunting arrows in the 371 to 413-grain range at around 65 pounds and 28 inches it landed in the low 280s fps - roughly 280 fps with a real hunting shaft, faster than a 323 IBO rating measured at 30 inches would lead a short-draw shooter to expect. Tuning is the full DeadLock system: loosen a screw, turn an Allen key to walk the cam sideways on its axle, and lock it down to correct a tear, no press required. FlipDisc flips between a Comfort setting near 87 percent let-off and a Performance setting near 85 percent that adds roughly ten feet per second, and on the SD the Comfort mode is also the way to soften that aggressive last-quarter-inch drop for a shooter who wants it gentler. Draw length adjusts from 23.5 to 28.5 inches through rotating modules.Draw Cycle/Shootability
For a short-draw bow tuned for speed, the SD shoots with better manners than the spec sheet suggests. The draw builds smoothly through most of the cycle before that aggressive cam drops into the valley over the final quarter inch - the transition a speed-oriented short-draw cam needs, and the one thing a shooter stepping over from a gentle, gradual bow will want to feel before buying. Once you know it is coming, it settles into a defined valley behind a firm wall. Where the SD genuinely impresses is the shot: it is dead in the hand and, by hands-on accounts, quiet even at a full 70 pounds, which is not a given for a bow wringing this much speed out of a short stroke. Having shot compact bows built to squeeze speed from a short draw, I did not expect the SD to be this calm on release - a lot of them buzz or jump to pay for the velocity, and this one simply does not. The twin Orbit dampeners and the roller cable guard do their work, leaving a shot that is easy to shoot repeatedly. Run the FlipDisc in Comfort and the whole cycle gentles out; leave it in Performance and the SD gives back its last few feet per second.Usage Scenarios
The Solution SD exists for one shooter above all: the short-draw hunter who wants a real hunting bow, not a downsized one. That is a wider audience than it sounds - a shorter-statured adult, many women who want full hunting weight rather than the 60-pound ceiling of a women's-specific bow, and the teenager who has grown into a 26-inch draw and a 60-pound pull but is not ready for a 29-inch flagship. Picture a 5-foot-6 whitetail hunter with a 27-inch draw settling into a ground blind: instead of fighting a flagship cranked down to a length it hates, they draw a bow built for exactly that stroke, at a true 70 pounds, and put a 280-fps arrow through the vitals at 40 yards. The compact 30-inch axle-to-axle and light 3.9-pound mass make it easy to maneuver in a blind or a treestand and easy to hold steady on a long wait. It is equally at home as a short-draw shooter's range and 3D bow, where the light weight and forgiving 7-inch brace pay off. What it is not is a bow for a long-draw adult - past about 29 inches the SD runs out of draw, and that shooter wants the standard Solution or the Solution SS.Bowtech Solution SD vs Mathews V3X 29, Hoyt Ventum Pro 30
| Bow | Bowtech Solution SD | Mathews V3X 29 | Hoyt Ventum Pro 30 |
| Version | 2023 | 2023 | 2022 |
| Picture |  |  |  |
| Brace Height | 7 " | 6 " | 6 " |
| AtA Length | 30 " | 29 " | 30 " |
| Draw Length | 23.5 " - 28.5 " | 25.5 " - 30 " | 25 " - 30 " |
| Draw Weight | 40 lbs - 70 lbs | 50 lbs - 75 lbs | 40 lbs - 80 lbs |
| IBO Speed | 323 fps | 340 fps | 342 fps |
| Weight | 3.9 lbs | 4.47 lbs | 4.45 lbs |
| Let-Off | 85 / 87% | 80 or 85% | 80% or 85% |
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Short-draw hunters cross-shopping the SD are usually weighing it against compact flagships from the other brands, since true 23.5-inch draw floors are rare. The Mathews V3X 29 at a $1,199 launch MSRP is the 29-inch, dead-quiet Mathews on a Crosscentric cam, a superb compact hunter that nonetheless bottoms out around 25.5 inches of draw - fine for a 26-inch shooter, short of the SD's reach for a true 24-inch draw. The Hoyt Ventum Pro 30 at a $1,249 launch MSRP is the feature-rich 30-inch Hoyt with In-Line accessory mounting and an HBX Pro cam, drawing down to about 24 inches, the closest cross-brand match on short-draw range. The Solution SD's edge is that it was designed around the short draw from the cam out rather than adapted down to it, so it holds full 70-pound weight and pulls competitive speed at the bottom of its range, plus DeadLock lets the owner tune it with an Allen key and no press. A short-draw shooter who also wants a genuine sub-24-inch draw and a women's-oriented fit might additionally look at the Mathews Prima, though it caps at 60 pounds. The decision comes down to priorities: the Mathews V3X 29 for the quietest shot if your draw clears 25.5 inches, the Hoyt Ventum Pro 30 for integrated accessory mounting and a low draw floor, and the Bowtech Solution SD for the short-draw archer who wants a purpose-built full-power hunting bow with do-it-yourself tuning.