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Picking a used Mathews

Sgt. Beardface said:
Are you dead set on Mathews?
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That is a good point, while I only have Mathews bows simply because whenever I was in the market for a bow, the one that end up in my hand was a Mathews. There are other good bow out there too, but with your $500 budget, a Mathews might still be the best bang for your buck in regards to quality due to there are TONS out there.
 
Sgt. Beardface said:
Are you dead set on Mathews?
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Not necessarily. My brother has had a great experience with his Mathews and our local dealer. I have always thought Mathews made top of the line stuff so I thought I would look into used Mathews bows as opposed to a new, cheaper bow with my budget.

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here in regard to bow manufacturers. I'm sure most manufacturers makes good stuff.

This sounds really petty - but I like the look and design of alot of Mathews bows as well.
 
HaunSolo said:
Not necessarily. My brother has had a great experience with his Mathews and our local dealer. I have always thought Mathews made top of the line stuff so I thought I would look into used Mathews bows as opposed to a new, cheaper bow with my budget.

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here in regard to bow manufacturers. I'm sure most manufacturers makes good stuff.

This sounds really petty - but I like the look and design of alot of Mathews bows as well.
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I'm guilty too!

Hoyt looks like a bunch of plumbing tube braided together!

Not within your price range(or mine), but I think the Mathews Safari has the most unique design ever. Doesnt help that its one of the fastest bow ever....

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If you have a good shop close by, I would encourage you to go shoot everything there in your price range and pay no attention to the name on any of them. You will know when you are shooting the right bow for you. If they dont have a bow that is the one, find another shop and repeat.
 
HaunSolo said:
Not necessarily. My brother has had a great experience with his Mathews and our local dealer. I have always thought Mathews made top of the line stuff so I thought I would look into used Mathews bows as opposed to a new, cheaper bow with my budget.

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here in regard to bow manufacturers. I'm sure most manufacturers makes good stuff.

This sounds really petty - but I like the look and design of alot of Mathews bows as well.
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I think the most important thing is to make sure whatever you decide on fits you. I'd be certain what my draw length is before buying a bow. You can change cams out but that adds expense.
 
HaunSolo said:
Not necessarily. My brother has had a great experience with his Mathews and our local dealer. I have always thought Mathews made top of the line stuff so I thought I would look into used Mathews bows as opposed to a new, cheaper bow with my budget.

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here in regard to bow manufacturers. I'm sure most manufacturers makes good stuff.

This sounds really petty - but I like the look and design of alot of Mathews bows as well.
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I've had a PSE brute, a mathews creed xs and the mathews halon 32 I currently have. Killed deer with all of them but If you want speed a double cam will be faster, but a single cam will be smoother draw.
You may also want to look at new bows in that price range not mathews to compare. Tech advances fairly fast in the archery world and may find what you want in a new package. Alot of guys like the bear THP bow and it's about that price range
 
HaunSolo said:
Not necessarily. My brother has had a great experience with his Mathews and our local dealer. I have always thought Mathews made top of the line stuff so I thought I would look into used Mathews bows as opposed to a new, cheaper bow with my budget.

I'm not trying to open a can of worms here in regard to bow manufacturers. I'm sure most manufacturers makes good stuff.

This sounds really petty - but I like the look and design of alot of Mathews bows as well.
Click to expand...
Looks are important in bows, I think. That's not petty at all. Your spending good money for it, and you gotta look at it!

I'm with @HuumanCreed , hoyts are ugly! They do draw and shoot nice though
 
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I'm all for enabling new purchases if that makes you happy, but what about the current bow makes it incompatible with heavier arrows?
 
thedutchtouch said:
I'm all for enabling new purchases if that makes you happy, but what about the current bow makes it incompatible with heavier arrows?
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Nothing. I just would like to purchase my own bow as a present to myself, and I figured if I am going to buy a bow I wouldn't mind something a little faster, especially since I will be shooting a heavier arrow.
 
Keep in mind that most, not necessarily all, bows in this price range/age will probably need new strings and cables... As a recommendation, look for a Halon 6 (32 or 30) or a Vertix. Vertix will probably get you the most bang for your buck at this point, if you can swing it.
 
Most of the Mathews modern single cam bows are draw length specific so be sure to get one the fits you. If not, you will need to find another size cam and possibly a new set of string and cable. Mathews stated draw lengths on their single cam bows are usually off by 1/2" to 3/4" so you can't always depend on what is on the limb tag. Mathews was pretty good about overrating their single cams bow speeds by 10 feet per second or more and once you correct the draw length, your speed difference could be 15 to 20 feet per second slower than advertised. Advertised speeds are with a 30" draw length. If your draw length is shorter than 30", you can subtract another 10 feet per second for every inch of draw length.

My advice is to buy a newer Mathews with the cross-centric binary cams as the performance is a lot better and the cams are more adjustable.
 
BTaylor said:
If you have a good shop close by, I would encourage you to go shoot everything there in your price range and pay no attention to the name on any of them. You will know when you are shooting the right bow for you. If they dont have a bow that is the one, find another shop and repeat.
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Can’t second this enough. All my buddies but one swear by matthews and hate hoyt. So by association I thought I needed a matthews. Blind shooting I almost picked out a bear then the hoyt axius hit my hands and in 3 shots I was in love
 
Here's the deal, I got an HTR , 70 lbs, and it's the quietest bow in the state behind a recurve, however my Elite Valor at 62 lbs is equally as fast and as smooth but not as quite. I got the Elite at 550 new, and those Elite's can be had at a great "used " price.

Good luck
 
Fuse Dude said:
Here's the deal, I got an HTR , 70 lbs, and it's the quietest bow in the state behind a recurve, however my Elite Valor at 62 lbs is equally as fast and as smooth but not as quite. I got the Elite at 550 new, and those Elite's can be had at a great "used " price.

Good luck
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Elite make good bows too. Honestly you can't go wrong with any of the modern bows. There will be some lemons out there but at this era of compound bows, anything will kill. Which is why I think looks plays a big part in loving what you shoot because I don't think most of us are at a level that we can shoot better than the bow.

Having a shorter compact bow helps too. I used a loaner Mathews V3 27 last season and it was pretty damn convenient.

I say get a Mathews Creed XS or a Triax, both are 28ATA. The Triax might be easier to find but a little more expensive.
 
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