Youth Compound Bow Reviews

The Bottom Line:The BowTech Constitution is one of the mid-2000s' definitive long target and field bows - a 40-to-41-inch, 8 1/4-inch-brace platform built on the Binary Cam System and produced from 2005 through 2008. Its headline is that it does not follow the usual long-bow bargain: it is the forgiving, dead-still-on-aim... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Hoyt 38 Ultra was the one-year-only speed half of Hoyt's 2007 pair - the faster, lower-braced twin of the 38 Pro, built around the hotter Vector Cam and a half - and today it is a rare, rewarding used buy for the archer who wants a long all-around bow with more velocity than a pure target rig. The... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bear Code is a long-riser, single-cam whitetail bow that chose forgiveness over fps and reliability over flash - a 34-inch, 7.38-inch-brace hunter with patented quad limbs, factory Sims damping, and a 306-310 fps IBO rating that was never the reason to buy it. It launched as a value bow in Bear's... read full review

The Bottom Line:At a $729 launch MSRP when it was new in 2004, the Outback was a flagship-tier Mathews hunting bow; today it is one of the better values on the used market, routinely trading for a few hundred dollars in clean condition. What that buys is a 31.5-inch, 4.3-pound single-cam hunter with a tall forgiving... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bowtech Justice VFT is a mid-2000s hunting bow that has aged into a genuinely useful budget and backup rig: a forgiving 8-inch brace, a quiet Vertical Force Technology shot, a lively low-300s speed, an adjustable let-off from 65 to 80 percent, and a light 3.75-pound mass, all sold for around $639... read full review

The Bottom Line:The BowTech Liberty VFT is a mid-2000s hunter that has aged into a genuinely appealing used and backup rig: a long 33-1/4-inch chassis, a quiet VFT limb shot, a smooth FreedomCam draw, let-off adjustable from 65 to 80 percent, and a target-color option that lets one bow hunt and shoot 3D, all sold for... read full review

The Bottom Line:The BowTech BlackKnight is the bow that built a company: BowTech's first product, the one it wheeled up to a chronograph in 2000 to announce itself, and the origin of the "fastest bows in the world" reputation that still follows the brand. Priced at $749 in its 2005 form, it delivered a 342-350 fps IBO... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bowtech Patriot matters because it is where Vertical Force Technology started, the platform that first turned Bowtech's cancel-the-recoil idea into a production hunting bow, and two decades on it still shoots soft in the hand for exactly that reason. From 2002 to 2005 it delivered IBO speeds from... read full review

The Bottom Line:The BowTech Mighty Mite is the small-but-mighty hunter of the brand's early-2000s catalog - a bow named after a premature baby who beat the odds, built to prove that a genuinely tiny bow could carry full 60-to-70-pound hunting power and a 310s-to-320s IBO speed. For roughly $600 in the mid-2000s you... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bowtech Extreme is worth understanding on its own terms: a single-cam hunting bow, fast for its generation at 325-333 fps IBO, whose VFT name points to a limb technology for a smoother shot rather than to any cam or let-off spec. Across its life - the 2001-2002 Extreme Solo, the short-draw variant,... read full review

The Bottom Line:The Bowtech Black Knight 2 is an early-2000s dual-cam speed bow that turned out to be a better aimer than its spec sheet promised. It rates 342 to 350 fps IBO, holds real weight at a 65 percent let-off, and stops against a hard, defined back wall - and the long riser turns all of that into the steady... read full review