Mathews MQ1 Review

Editors' review

Twenty-plus years after it left the lineup, the MQ1 still turns up on veteran bowhunters' lists of the best bows they have ever owned, which is a strange thing to say about a bow that rates 308 fps and carries a 7.5-inch brace height on a 37-inch frame. By the numbers those are target-bow proportions, not a modern speed hunter, and that is exactly the point. The MQ1 was Mathews' second perimeter-weighted single-cam bow after the Z-Max, and it arrived when most of the market was still fighting two-cam timing. Its StraightLine MaxCam pulls smoothly, holds still, and stays in tune season after season because there is only one cam to keep honest. It became the bow half the weekend 3D line was shooting and the deer rig a lot of hunters never saw a reason to replace. This is a review for the archer eyeing one on the used rack, or the owner deciding whether the old faithful in the closet is still worth setting up. Read on for what it does well, what it asks of you, and who it still fits.

Finish

The MQ1 shipped in the Mathews camo patterns of its era, with the machined-aluminum riser, limbs, and cam carrying a full dip so the bow reads as one continuous pattern from grip to limb tip. A camo dip on a machined riser holds up well to brush and treestand wear, and on a bow this age the finish is the single most useful thing to judge from a photo: a clean, unfaded dip with sharp edges usually points to a bow that lived an easy life, while heavy rub-through at the shelf and grip is the tell of a hard-used trade-in. There was no elaborate color program in this period the way modern bows stack two-tone options, so expect a straightforward hunting finish built to break up outline in the woods rather than to catch a buyer's eye on a shop wall. For a used purchase, the finish also flags handling history worth checking: chips or a small circular paint mark on the riser can be the fingerprint of a past dry-fire, so inspect closely before you commit.

Riser

The riser is machined aluminum with the reflex geometry Mathews used across its single-cam hunting bows of the era, and it is the backbone of the MQ1's forgiving personality. A long riser inside a 37-inch axle-to-axle bow keeps a large share of the overall length between the shooter's hands, which spreads the string's nock points farther apart at full draw and quiets small aiming errors. The reflex profile pushes the grip toward the target to claw back a little of the speed that a long, forgiving layout would otherwise give up. Accessory mounting follows the traditional Berger-hole approach of the period rather than any integrated rail, so the MQ1 takes standard prong and drop-away rests without adapters, and it accepts the add-on string and limb dampers of the day that many owners bolted on. It is a simple, honest riser with no gimmicks, built to sit still and take a beating over a couple of decades of seasons.

Grip

The MQ1 wears the slim Mathews grip of its generation, a narrow profile that fills the hand without the bulk of a modern molded grip and lets a shooter index the same hand position draw after draw. Consistent hand placement is where accuracy quietly comes from, and a grip you can locate the same way every time helps a shooter torque the riser less and hold a steadier pin. Many owners simply added a wrist strap and left the grip as-is for decades, while others wrapped it for warmth in cold weather; either way the narrow shape is easy to live with on long sits. Shooters who prefer more or less material can shape or replace it, since the grip comes off with a couple of screws. For its time it is a comfortable, low-torque grip that rewards a relaxed hand over a tight one.

Limbs

The MQ1's limbs come from an earlier chapter of Mathews design, predating the deeply past-parallel limb layouts the brand adopted in the mid-2000s. Draw weight is ordered by peak in 40, 50, 60, and 70-pound options, a span that covers a lighter-drawing shooter all the way up to a full-power whitetail and elk setup. The limbs seat in solidly machined pockets that proved durable across the brand's single-cam bows of the period, which is why so many MQ1 limbs are still shooting true after twenty-plus years. On a used bow, though, the limbs are exactly where to look hardest: run a cotton ball along each limb to catch hairline cracks, since a past dry-fire most often shows up here, and walk away from any limb with a splinter or lifted lamination. There is no exotic material story here, just dependable, well-understood limbs a home tinkerer or any pro shop can service.

Eccentric System

At the heart of the MQ1 is the StraightLine MaxCam, Mathews' single SoloCam of the era: one cam at the bottom limb, a round idler wheel up top, and no second cam to time or synchronize. That is the whole premise of the SoloCam design, and it is the reason these bows earned their reputation for staying in tune season after season, because there is no two-cam timing to drift. The cam is perimeter-weighted, a design Matt McPherson has counted among Mathews' most important, and the StraightLine geometry aims to move the nocking point in a straight vertical line for cleaner arrow flight. Let-off is module-selectable at 70 or 80 percent (let-off is the share of peak weight the bow sheds at full draw), so a hunter can choose an easier 80-percent hold for long waits or a firmer 70-percent feel that some target shooters prefer. IBO speed is 308 fps and the older AMO rating lands near 235 fps, which by design is moderate: the long 37-inch geometry and 7.5-inch brace trade raw speed for stability, and real-world speed with a hunting-weight arrow sits below the IBO figure, as it does on every bow. One quirk of the period matters to a buyer: draw length is set by the cam itself in half-inch steps, so changing your draw length means fitting a different cam rather than turning a module. In my experience with single-cam Mathews bows of this vintage, that is the honest trade you are making: you give up on-the-fly draw adjustment and a handful of feet per second, and in return you get a drivetrain that shrugs off tuning drift.

Draw Cycle/Shootability

Drawing the MQ1, the character that stands out is a smooth, gradual build rather than the aggressive front-loaded ramp of a modern speed cam. The single cam rolls weight on evenly and eases into a comfortable valley, and at the 80-percent setting the holding weight drops far enough that a hunter can sit at full draw waiting on a step-through shot without the pin dancing. This is the trait owners talk about most: pull after pull, the MQ1 was regarded as the smoothest bow of its day, and shooters coming off it years later still reach for that word first. The back wall is defined by the cam and cable rather than a hard limb-stop, so it feels positive with a touch of give; a shooter stepping off a modern flagship's concrete wall will notice the difference, while anyone raised on single cams will feel right at home. Where the long riser and tall brace earn their keep is at the moment of aim, when the pin simply floats less and small errors do not punish the shot the way they do on a short, twitchy bow. The shot itself is calm, the perimeter-weighted cam giving the MQ1 its long-remembered low-recoil feel, and the light 3.75-pound mass means whatever vibration remains is easy to manage with a modest stabilizer. I find a bow like this flatters a developing shooter: it is not demanding, it does not jump, and it lets you concentrate on the pin.

Usage Scenarios

The MQ1 is a whitetail and general big-game hunting bow first, and a weekend 3D bow second, which is precisely the double life it lived in its prime. At a 60 or 70-pound peak it stores plenty of energy for deer, hogs, and black bear at typical treestand and ground-blind ranges, and its forgiveness makes the calm 25 or 30-yard shot easy to execute after a long, cold wait. Its long, stable geometry and light carry suit the hunter who walks in far and sits long, since the bow does not fatigue the arm and it holds steady when the adrenaline climbs. On the 3D range that same forgiveness is why so many shooters in the Bowhunter Release class ran one, planting the pin for known-distance targets down a shooting lane. It also makes a genuinely good learning platform: the wide 40-to-70-pound span across the peak options means a household can set one up light for a smaller-framed shooter or heavy for a full-power hunter, and a new archer can grow into it. Where it is not the right tool is flat-trajectory speed shooting or any situation that prizes a chart-topping fps number, since the moderate speed and forgiving-first design point the other way. For a used buyer who wants a proven, low-drama rig that will not need constant tuning, it still fits the treestand life well.

Mathews MQ1 vs PSE Nova, PSE Spyder

Bow	Mathews MQ1	PSE Nova	PSE Spyder
Version	2002	2011 (NI Cam)	2010 (NI Cam)
Picture
Brace Height	7.5 "	7.625 "	7 "
AtA Length	37 "	32.75 "	31.5 "
Draw Length	24 " - 30 "	25 " - 30 "	25 " - 30 "
Draw Weight	40 lbs - 70 lbs	40 lbs - 70 lbs	35 lbs - 70 lbs
IBO Speed	308 fps	295 fps - 303 fps	310 fps
Weight	3.75 lbs	3.8 lbs	3.5 lbs
Let-Off	70% or 80%	65% or 80% (Adj)	65% or 80% (adj)
Where to buy Best prices online	$199.99 to $800 Compare prices	$55 to $300 Compare prices	$65 to $250 Compare prices
	compare more bows

In the MQ1's heyday, the archer cross-shopping a smooth single-cam hunter was almost always weighing Mathews against PSE, and the PSE Nova and PSE Spyder frame the choice cleanly. The PSE Nova is the definitive PSE single-cam value hunter, built across the same long window as the MQ1, and it runs a similar forgiving 7.625-inch brace with the same 40-to-70-pound span; where the MQ1 pulls ahead is length, adding more than four inches of axle-to-axle over the Nova's 32.75 inches for an even steadier hold, along with the polish of that perimeter-weighted MaxCam draw. The PSE Spyder is the closer speed match, rating 310 fps against the MQ1's 308 from a shorter 31.5-inch, 7-inch-brace package, so it answers the MQ1 nearly stride for stride on the chronograph while giving up the longer bow's aiming stability and reaching a touch lower to a 35-pound floor for smaller-framed shooters. All three are dependable single-cam hunters of the same era, and the decision comes down to what a shooter values. Choose the PSE Nova for a compact, forgiving value single-cam, choose the PSE Spyder for near-identical speed in the shortest, snappiest frame of the three, and choose the Mathews MQ1 for the longest, steadiest hold and the smooth, low-recoil draw that keeps it on veterans' all-time lists. Note that the shorter-riser MQ32 is the MQ1's own in-house sibling for hunters who want the same cam in a more compact 32-inch bow.

Summary

The Mathews MQ1 is the smooth, forgiving single-cam hunter that defined an era, and time has been kind to what it set out to do. Built from 1998 through 2002 with unchanged specs, it pairs a long 37-inch axle-to-axle and a tall 7.5-inch brace with a 3.75-pound carry weight and a StraightLine MaxCam that rates 308 fps IBO, moderate speed traded on purpose for a bow that holds still and stays in tune. Its 70 and 80-percent let-off options and slim, low-torque grip round out a shot that owners remember as the smoothest and calmest of its day. What stays with me about a bow like this is how little it asks of the shooter: no cam timing to chase, no short-brace twitch to fight, just a steady pin and a settled release. It is an excellent used-market choice for the whitetail hunter who walks in far and sits long, and for the developing archer who wants a forgiving platform to build form on, particularly strong as a dependable, tune-and-forget treestand and 3D rig. Buyers who want a compact, forgiving value single-cam should also look at the PSE Nova, and those chasing near-identical speed in a shorter frame should also look at the PSE Spyder.