Compound Bow Reviews

The Bottom Line:At a $1,299 launch MSRP, the Bowtech SR350 is a flagship-tier hunting bow that delivers genuine 350-class speed without the punishing draw that usually comes with it - 342 fps with a light arrow in Performance, 300 fps with a real hunting shaft, and a dead-in-hand 96.9 dB shot that belies the velocity.... read full review

The Bottom Line:At a launch MSRP of 1,299 dollars in 2023, the SS34 was priced as a flagship, and it spends that money on comfort rather than chasing the chronograph. The published 331 fps IBO becomes about 315 fps of real-world speed on the comfort disc and climbs into the low 320s on performance, but speed was never... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bear Whitetail Legend Pro takes the smooth, value-minded Whitetail Legend platform and elevates it with the EKO cam, and the result is a bow that punches well above its $559.99 launch price. It backs up its up-to-339 fps IBO claim with a real 333 fps chronograph reading, holds a quiet 97.1 dB shot,... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Mathews V3 31 is the steady, forgiving half of the 2021 V3 platform - a 31-inch flagship that holds like a target bow, shoots like a hunting bow, and whispers like nothing else in its class. At $1,199 launch MSRP it sits squarely in the flagship field and earns its place with a dead-solid hold, a... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Mathews V3X 33 is the steady, forgiving half of the 2022 V3X platform - a 33-inch flagship that holds like a target bow, shoots like a hunting bow, and whispers like nothing else in its class. At $1,299 launch MSRP it sits squarely in the flagship field and earns its place with a dead-solid hold,... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bear Epic Extreme is not a bow you chase for modern refinement - it is one you appreciate for being quick and light decades before that combination was common. Across 2000 to 2002 it delivered a genuinely fast single-cam hunter, near 303 fps IBO, on a machined-aluminum riser that still comes in under... read full review

The Bottom Line:Launched for the 2021 model year at a $1,199 launch MSRP and carried unchanged into 2022, the Solution SS is the Super Smooth member of Bowtech's three-bow family - the one that trades about fourteen feet per second of IBO speed for the easiest draw the brand made that year. A smaller, rounder DeadLock... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Mathews Atlas is a purpose-built answer to a question the industry ignored for years: what does a real flagship hunting bow look like for an archer with a 32 to 34 inch draw? At its $1,349 launch price it delivers a long 34.75 inch axle-to-axle chassis, a forgiving 7.75 inch brace height, and a published... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Hoyt REDWRX Carbon RX-5 Ultra, launched in 2021 at roughly $1,699, is the long-axle, maximum-forgiveness build of Hoyt's 2021 carbon platform - and the bow that quietly outshot its own spec sheet. Its 334 fps IBO was the slowest of the year's flagships on paper, yet it chronographed 328 fps and tied... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bear Escalate is the mainline bow that got the flagship's cam. For a $779.99 launch MSRP - bow only, with a Ready-to-Hunt package also offered - the buyer gets Bear's EKO system with selectable 75-to-90-percent let-off, an honest 300-plus fps with hunting-weight arrows against a 339-fps IBO rating,... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Mathews V3 27 is a compact flagship that refuses the usual compromise - it delivers the silence, speed, and steady hold of a much larger bow in a 27-inch package built for tight country. At $1,199 launch MSRP it lands in the heart of the flagship class, and it earns the spot: a real 326 fps with... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Mathews TRX 38 G2 is the Gen 2 refresh of the bow that anchored the middle of the TRX target ladder -- the same forgiving 38-inch platform, now driven by the C3X Crosscentric cam and carrying the new-for-2021 75% let-off mod the original 2018 bow never had. Launched at $1,849, it pairs a 329 fps... read full review

The Bottom Line:Launched for the 2021 model year at a $1,199 launch MSRP and carried unchanged into 2022, the Solution is the fast one in Bowtech's three-bow family - and the one that shoots least like a speed bow is supposed to. It rates 346 fps IBO, chronographs in the low 310s at a realistic 60 pounds and 29 inches,... read full review

The Bottom Line:Launched for the 2021 model year at a $1,199 launch MSRP and carried through 2022 and 2023 - the only Solution to see three model years - the SD is Bowtech's answer for the short-draw archer who refuses to settle for a downsized bow. It packs full 50, 60, and 70-pound hunting weights into a compact 3.9-pound... read full review

The Bottom Line:Sold from 2021 through 2023 at a $1,199 launch MSRP, the Eva Shockey Gen 2 was Bowtech's answer to a long-standing gap: a women's-specific hunting bow that gives up none of the brand's flagship engineering. It is the Solution SD platform - DeadLock cams you tune with a wrench on the line, a FlipDisc... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bowtech Amplify is the rare budget bow that spends its engineering where a shooter actually feels it. At a $599 launch MSRP in 2021 and a $649 starting price in the 2026 lineup, it delivers a hard limb-stop back wall, an 85 percent hold that leaves only about ten and a half pounds in your hand at... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bowtech Carbon Zion did something rare in its 2021 debut and held it through 2025: it put a real carbon riser - the light, durable, corrosion-proof material usually locked behind $1,500-plus flagships - into a hunting bow that launched at $749.99 for the bare bow, with the fully-kitted Carbon Zion... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Hoyt Ventum 30, launched at $1,199 for 2021, is the bow that quietly argues you do not need carbon to get the carbon-flagship feel. Built on the same all-new HBX binary cam, In-Line accessory system, XACT grip, and hunting finishes as the carbon REDWRX Carbon RX-5, it trades the hollow-carbon riser... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Hoyt Ventum 33, launched at $1,199 for 2021, is the long, forgiving aluminum hunter of Hoyt's two-bow Ventum line - the one owners kept calling the best Hoyt they had shot in years. Built on the all-new HBX binary cam, the In-Line accessory system, the XACT grip, and the same hunting finishes as... read full review