Browning Micro Midas 2 Review

Editors' review

Buy one bow at age seven and still be shooting it as a teenager: that is the whole idea behind the Browning Micro Midas 2, and it is a harder trick than it sounds. This is a Browning-badged youth compound built by PSE (Precision Shooting Equipment), the Arizona company that took over Browning's archery license in 2001, and the Micro Midas 2 is the second generation of Browning's "grow with the child" Micro-Class line, sold from 2000 through 2002. It replaced the original Micro Midas and brought the payoff of the Browning-to-PSE handoff: the heavy die-cast magnesium riser of the first-generation bow gave way to a lighter machined-aluminum riser, dropping mass to a slight 2.5 pounds. What makes it more than a toy is the span it covers, a draw-weight window from 15 to 45 pounds and two cam ranges from 17 to 27 inches of draw, so a small child and a near-adult teenager can genuinely share the same frame across several seasons. Browning pitched it at the Micro-Class shooter, small-stature adults, women, teenagers, and kids, and priced it as an entry bow. Today it lives only on the used market, which makes it a quietly smart buy for a parent or a short-draw shooter who knows what a grow-with-me bow is supposed to do. This review covers the Micro Midas 2 across its 2000 to 2002 run, including the minor geometry change that arrived for 2001.

Finish

Browning dressed the Micro Midas 2 the way most early-2000s hunting-style bows were dressed, scaled down to Micro-Class size: Mossy Oak Break-Up camo on the limbs over a black machined-aluminum riser. It was a single, consistent dress across the production run rather than a menu of patterns, since this was an entry bow and Browning kept the finish simple and purposeful. The camo on the limbs is the dominant whitetail-woods pattern of the period, which suited the bow's intended role as a real hunting-capable youth rig rather than a bright backyard toy. Left-hand bows were offered alongside right-hand, which is worth knowing on a used search since left-hand youth bows of this vintage are harder to find. There is no tribute or special-edition dress here; what you see on a given used unit is the standard Break-Up-and-black combination, with wear at the grip and shelf the usual tell of a well-used example.

Riser

The riser is where the second-generation Micro Midas earns its keep. Browning called it a Micro Machined Aluminum riser, meticulously proportioned for the Micro-Class shooter, meaning it is sized and balanced for a smaller, lighter archer rather than being a cut-down adult riser. The switch from the original bow's die-cast magnesium frame to machined aluminum is the headline change of this generation, and it is the main reason mass drops to 2.5 pounds, a figure that matters more on a youth bow than on any adult hunter because a child holding steady is fighting every ounce. The riser carries an arrow-rest mount, two-piece quiver mounts, and a comfortable formed grip, so it accepts standard accessories and ships hunt-ready in combo form. The geometry puts the balance where a small shooter can hold it without the bow tipping, and the machined construction gives the whole bow a solid, serious feel rather than the hollow flex of a molded starter bow. For a parent sizing up whether this is a real bow or a toy, the riser is the answer: it is built like a scaled-down adult hunting bow.

Grip

The Micro Midas 2 uses a formed grip integrated into the machined riser throat, shaped for a smaller hand rather than borrowed wholesale from an adult bow. The point of a Micro-Class grip is repeatability for a developing shooter: a young archer is still learning to set the same hand position shot after shot, and a grip proportioned to a smaller palm makes that far easier than wrapping small fingers around an adult-width throat. In my experience with grow-with-me bows of this type, the grip is quietly the most important ergonomic decision on the whole bow; get it right and a kid builds good form, get it wrong and they fight torque they cannot yet feel. Browning kept the throat low and relaxed so the hand sits rather than clenches. Nothing here is elaborate, but it does the job that matters for the audience: it points naturally for a small shooter and keeps hand torque out of a still-forming release.

Limbs

Browning fitted the Micro Midas 2 with a new Taper-Flex limb design, a reworked limb profile the company said reduced the limb's mass for added performance while holding reliability and consistency. On a youth bow the limb design is doing double duty: it has to store enough energy to be useful across a wide 15-to-45-pound draw-weight range, yet stay light and forgiving enough that a child at the bottom of that range can draw and hold the bow. The draw weight spans two brackets, 15 to 30 pounds and 30 to 45 pounds, so a buyer sizes the bow to the child at purchase and then adjusts within the bracket through the limb bolts as the young shooter gets stronger. That 15-to-45-pound total window is wide for a Micro-Class bow and is the mechanical half of the "grow with the child" promise. As with any bow of this age, the one thing to check on a used example is the limbs for hairline cracks or twist before trusting it, a two-minute inspection any pro shop can do. The Taper-Flex design was current for its day and pairs with the light riser to keep the whole bow easy for small arms to manage.

Eccentric System

The heart of the Micro Midas 2 is the MicroMax two-cam system, and it is the single feature that makes the grow-with-me idea actually work. Browning built it to deliver a genuine 6 inches of draw-length adjustment across two cam ranges, 17 to 22 inches and 22 to 27 inches, which is an unusually wide span for a youth bow and the reason one frame can follow a shooter from early childhood into the teenage years. The adjustment method is the part worth dwelling on: you can move draw length across a 3-inch range with no bow press at all, and get the full 6 inches with a press. In practice that press-free window is the feature a parent uses most, since as a child grows through a season you can re-set the bow in the garage to match their reach without a pro-shop trip, and only the larger jump between ranges needs a press. Let-off is a fixed 65 percent (the share of peak weight that falls away once you reach full draw), so at the top 45-pound setting a young shooter holds roughly 16 pounds at anchor rather than the full 45, enough relief for a developing archer to settle a pin without the hold collapsing into a long, vague valley. Browning published a speed figure of 276 fps for the 2000 bow and 270 fps for the 2001-02 revision, but read the fine print: that number is taken at the bow's own maximum draw and weight with a 200-grain arrow, not at the 30-inch, 70-pound, 350-grain IBO standard used on adult bows, so it is not comparable to a modern IBO rating and was never meant to be. On a youth bow, speed is beside the point anyway; the MicroMax cam is engineered for adjustability and a manageable hold, and it delivers both.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

What I keep coming back to on a bow like this is the hold, not the pull. At the 65-percent let-off, the holding weight at full draw stays low enough that a young or small-stature shooter can sit at anchor long enough to aim rather than being dragged out of the shot by the bow, and that is exactly what a developing archer needs to build form. The two-cam MicroMax draws honestly for its size; drawn at a low youth setting it loads smoothly and settles rather than spiking, which keeps a new shooter from muscling the bow back and wrecking their anchor. The 2.5-pound mass is the other half of the story on the shooting line: a light bow is far easier for a child to raise, level, and hold steady than a heavy adult rig, and fatigue is the real enemy of a young shooter's groups. Drawing a bow of this class, what strikes me is how little it asks of the shooter; low holding weight, light mass, and short Micro-Class proportions add up to a bow a kid can actually control rather than merely survive. It is not a flagship-quiet adult hunter and it was never trying to be; it is a forgiving, low-demand platform tuned so a small shooter can succeed. A fresh string on a tired used example sharpens the feel right back up, as it does on any bow of this vintage.

Usage Scenarios

The Micro Midas 2 is first and foremost a learn-and-grow bow for a young or small-stature shooter, and the clearest picture of its purpose is a household sharing one frame over years. Picture a seven- or eight-year-old starting in the backyard at 15 pounds and a 17-inch draw, building form on a bow sized to them rather than borrowed from Dad; a few seasons later the same bow, re-set at home across its press-free range and then pressed up into the longer cam range, carries that shooter into their teens near 45 pounds and a 27-inch draw. In combo form, with its two-pin fiber-optic sight, four-arrow quiver, adjustable rest, and ready-to-shoot Easton arrows, it is also a complete first setup for a first-time bowhunting youth who can legally and ethically hunt small game or deer once they reach the upper end of the weight range. It suits backyard practice, 3D fun shoots, and youth-league target work equally, since the forgiving low-demand setup rewards a learning shooter. The honest boundary is the top end: once a shooter needs more than 45 pounds or a draw past 27 inches, a full whitetail-and-up adult setup, they have outgrown the Micro Midas 2 and want a full-size bow. Within its range, though, it is a genuine hunting-capable youth rig, not a toy.

Versions

The Micro Midas 2 was sold as one model in two package levels and across several draw/weight SKUs, with a minor year-to-year geometry change rather than a lineup of simultaneous variants. At launch in the 2001-02 catalog it carried a suggested retail of $195.00 for the bow alone and $255.00 for the combo, with a left-hand "L" model available for $6.00 more. The combo added a high-tech two-pin fiber-optic sight, a two-piece four-arrow black quiver with adjustable grippers, a center-shot adjustable arrow rest, and fletched ready-to-shoot Easton arrows, a complete first setup in one box. Within each package the bow was ordered by draw-length range and weight bracket: a 17-to-22-inch or a 22-to-27-inch cam range, each in a 15-to-30-pound or a 30-to-45-pound weight bracket (part numbers such as 4030204C3 for the bow and 4030404C3 for the combo). The year change is small but real: the 2000 bow measured 33 inches axle-to-axle with a 6-and-a-half-inch brace height and a published 276 fps, while the 2001-02 revision tightened to 32 inches axle-to-axle and a 6-and-a-quarter-inch brace with a published 270 fps. The cam, riser, limbs, 65-percent let-off, and 2.5-pound mass stayed the same across the run, so for a used buyer the practical read is simply which year's geometry a given bow carries, not a difference in character.

Browning Micro Midas 2 vs Bear Cruzer, Bowtech Rascal

Bow	Browning Micro Midas 2	Bear Cruzer	Bowtech Rascal
Version	2002	2018	2005
Picture
Brace Height	6.25 "	6.5 "	7.625 "
AtA Length	32 "	32 "	24.75 "
Draw Length	17 " - 27 "	12 " - 30 "	20 " - 25 "
Draw Weight	15 lbs - 45 lbs	5 lbs - 70 lbs	10 lbs - 40 lbs
IBO Speed	270 fps	310 fps	246 fps - 254 fps
Weight	2.5 lbs	3.6 lbs	2.188 lbs
Let-Off	65%	75%	65% - 80%
Where to buy Best prices online	Not available now. Please check later.	$185 to $400 Compare prices	Not available now. Please check later.
	compare more bows

The Micro Midas 2 invented, in its own small way, the formula that two current bows on this site have since perfected, which makes the Bear Cruzer and the Bowtech Rascal its natural modern reference points. All three are built on one promise: a single frame whose draw length and draw weight adjust across a wide enough window that it grows with the shooter for years instead of being outgrown in a season. The Bear Cruzer is the broadest of the three, a grow-with-me adjustable that spans an unusually wide draw-length and draw-weight range from a small child all the way up to a full adult setup, with press-free adjustment, which gives it more top-end reach than the Micro Midas 2's 45-pound ceiling. The Bowtech Rascal is the closest in spirit, a dedicated youth grow-with-me bow built on the RascalCam, with a child-sized draw and weight window and a design meant to be retrofitted up as the child grows, landing it squarely in the same budget youth tier as the Micro Midas 2. Against both, the Browning's distinguishing marks are its light 2.5-pound machined-aluminum riser and its two-cam MicroMax giving a genuine 6-inch press-free-plus-press draw span in a true Micro-Class package. The honest trade-off is support and ceiling: the Bear Cruzer and the Bowtech Rascal are current bows backed by living brands, with parts, dealers, and more top-end draw weight, while the Micro Midas 2 is a discontinued orphan that tops out at 45 pounds. The decision comes down to priorities: the Bear Cruzer for the family that wants the widest possible range all the way into a full adult setup, the Bowtech Rascal for a same-tier current youth bow with brand backing, and the Browning Micro Midas 2 for the used-market buyer or small-stature shooter who wants a genuinely light, serious-feeling grow-with-me bow and knows its 45-pound ceiling fits the plan.

Summary

The Browning Micro Midas 2 is a reminder that the grow-with-me youth bow is an old, well-solved idea: at its 2001-02 launch price of $195 for the bow and $255 for the full combo, it gave a parent a light 2.5-pound machined-aluminum frame, a MicroMax two-cam with a genuine 6 inches of draw-length growth, and a 15-to-45-pound weight window, enough for one bow to follow a child from the backyard at seven years old into the teenage years. The switch from the original Micro Midas's die-cast magnesium riser to machined aluminum is the real story of this generation, and it is what makes the bow feel like a scaled-down adult hunter rather than a toy. The press-free 3-inch draw adjustment is the feature a parent actually uses, re-sizing the bow at home as the child grows. Its honest limit is the ceiling, 45 pounds and a 27-inch draw, and the fact that it has been discontinued since 2002, so it is a used-market proposition that rewards a fresh string and a quick tune. In my experience a bow like this succeeds precisely because it asks so little of a small shooter: low holding weight, light mass, and forgiving proportions let a kid build real form instead of fighting the equipment. It is an excellent choice for the household that will pass one bow across several childhood seasons, or for a short-draw, lighter-poundage shooter who wants a genuinely light grow-with-me rig. Buyers who want the widest possible range all the way into a full adult draw weight should also look at the Bear Cruzer, and buyers who want a current youth grow-with-me bow with active brand support should also look at the Bowtech Rascal.