The best compound bows of 2023 (2023)

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for 2022field and riverMain bow test, Instead of waiting until spring to put the newest bows on the wringer, we were able to get test models in late fall before many were available to the public. This means we had more time to photograph them, test them and even hunt with them. it doeskill a deer with a bowaffect your score? well it all dependssize of your horns. Just kidding, of course. But with the bows in the fieldfezHelp us evaluate bow performance where it matters most.

However, the heart of our testing took place in theCargo engineering servicesLab in Mason, Ohio, and mineFarm in southwestern Kentucky, where we turn all the arcs and face each other. Our test panel included engineers from Stress's outdoor division, as well as myself; former pro shop owner and archery technician Danny Hinton; and Zach Bell, a serious bow hunter and marksman. This is exactly what we did.

How We Tested Legendary Compound Bows

Each bow was set for a draw length of 28 inches and a draw weight of 60 pounds. Upon completion, we prepared the IBO (5 grains per pound draw weight) specification, 300-grain darts to measure velocity and noise and vibration. We used Whisker Biscuit supports and a D-loop for all objective testing, but the bows were otherwise empty. We also weigh each bow (with arrow rest and D-loop only) on a Lyman digital trigger scale.

Under stress, engineers used a soundproof camera and a bow-mounted accelerometer to measure noise and vibration. They also mapped the pull force curves that affect our pull cycle results and measured the efficiency of each arc. Back home in Kentucky, we measured velocity by averaging three shots on a chronograph. (Remember that with the 30-inch IBO spec, you can expect an additional 20 fps or more to be added to the velocity ratings listed in the arcs below.) To test accuracy and tolerance, we have five groups of three shots averaged per shooter and bow. This test was conducted indoors at 25 yards over three days with hunting-spec Carbon Express Maxima Red darts, HHA scopes, and Peep scopes installed. As we filmed, we took each bow and compared them based on subjective things like fit, finish, and handling.

Finally, we rate the arches on a 100-point scale in the following categories with the following values:

• Accuracy and Forgiveness:20 points
• Speed:20 points
• Character Cycle:20 points
• Noise (lack of):10 points
• Vibration (absence):10 points
• Fitting and processing:10 points
• Balance, handling and grip:10 points

Our test is an invitation and some brands are missing because they did not respond to our invitation. Putting an arc through our test takes courage, and I congratulate any company that has done it.

Top Compound Bow Trends for 2022

In a few years new trends are evident. Improved adjustability and new fit systems were important in 2020. Other years like this mark just another steady step in overall performance. Which is not a bad thing. Some big improvements made by individual companies have livened things up for 2022, and one or two oddities caught our eye.

Belt heights "Forgive me"

For example, we had some sling-height longbows called "Forgivers" in the mix that shot pretty well, but no better than the sub-6" speed bow that also shipped. There was a time when 7-inch was considered the go-to. magic number for belt height but that was a long time ago as best I can tell you that the only thing that will guarantee you a 7 inch riser height is a slower arrow.

shaft to shaft length

Another piece of conventional wisdom that may be disappearing is the idea that a long axis-to-axis length ensures greater accuracy. The riser design now seems more important than the overall length of the bow. As proof, the most accurate bow this year was the shortest at 29 inches long, and the second shortest bow at 30 inches was the second most accurate. What I mean is that the specifications are no longer enough to distinguish this bow from that one. If you really want to know what's going on, you have to shoot them all. And if you don't get the chance, this review is for you.

price tags...

Finally, a note about the price tags, which I'm sure readers will complain about when the sun goes down. Nearly $1,000 separates the last place winner here. This is not alien to us. But we didn't take price into account when ranking bows in this test, as it can skew the results so that the best performing bow doesn't get what it deserves. A main bow is, by definition, the best a given manufacturer can build, and it's expensive. Are there $500 bows that would serve deer hunters well? Sure, and we tried them too. Just not here. These are not the best deals of the year. These are thebetter2023 new arches, period.

Test results:field and riverThe best compound bows of 2023

1)Editors Pick: Hoyt Carbon RX-7

Hoyt Carbon RX-7

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(Video) Top 6 Best Compound Bow for The Money 2023

• Specifications:321fps | 30" axle to axle | 6" belt height | 4 pounds, 11 ounces | $1,849
• Efficiency:81,3%
• final result:95,5

I spent much of the 2021 season huntingHoyt Vento 30, which showcased the brand's HBX binary camera system. EITHERCarbon RX-7There's a slightly modified version, the HBX Pro, that's gotten even better, and the bow itself was good enough to take top honors in this year's test.

As is often the case with our winning flagship, the RX-7 won because it basically did nothing wrong in any of the objective categories and was a crowd favorite in all of the subjective categories. He missed the fastest bow by a few meters per second and was among the most accurate shooters in the event (and for me personally).omore precisely, with average clumps of just under an inch). The RX-7 has several built-in anti-shake features, and they work. This bow feels dead in the hand, and according to a Stress Engineering test, only the elite bow had less vibration. The RX-7 was louder than some of the competition, but in a still field of arcs, the difference in sound was something none of us could tell without measuring voltage.

The pull cycle is a bit demanding up front but smooth throughout, with a perfect chase valley and a solid rear wall. In this category, this bow shared with the Xpedition Smoke as the test panel favorite. Add in perfect fit and finish, light weight, and convenient dimensions, and the RX-7 won by less than a full point. But still he won.

2)Matthew V3X 29

• Specifications:315fps | 29” axle to axle | 6" strap height | 4 lbs., 14 oz. | $1,299
• Efficiency:80,9%
• final result:95

The Mathews CrossCentric series is the most successful arch design of the last decade. Starting with Halon 2016,these bowsthey have won our test every year except 2017 when they finished second. EITHERMatthew V3Xhe missed out on this year's win by a half point, but if you said this was the best fighter model in the series, I couldn't disagree. I even used it to shoot a nice 8 in Tennessee the day after taking it out of the box.

In terms of performance, the V3X is nearly identical to last year's V3. At 29 inches from axis to axis, it was the shortest bow in the test and also the most accurate. Bell scored a ¾-inch panel average with it, the best overall in the test, and as a panel, ours averaged 1.04 inches. The V3X was also the quietest bow, but it landed a few bows further down the list due to a lack of vibration. That was really his only stumbling block, besides being slower than the winner.

The V3X is characterized by its excellent accessory design. For example, their stay-on-field system uses a series of attachments on the chambers and a short string that allows you to push the bow down the field without the need for a traditional vise (you'll have to back off the limb bolts a few turns). first). ). Of all the home tuning systems I've seen over the years, this is the simplest and most practical for most bow hunters. Most hunters do not adjust the tilt of their camera. Almost all of us have had to pull a string to straighten a cross at some point.

The V3X also features a Bridge-Lock sight system that mounts the scope directly to the riser instead of the side and is equipped for an Integrate-style arrow rest. The LowPro case system is the most compact quiver I've tried, but if, like me, you prefer to remove the quiver once it's in the holder, get the detachable 5-arrow version instead of the fixed 6-arrow version. I had a test sheet.

3)Best value: expedition smoke

• Specifications:324fps | 32" axle-to-axle | 5.375 in. belt height | 5 lbs., 4 ounces | $1,099
• Efficiency:86,8%
• final result:94

oexpedition smokeIt's a low-rise, uncompromising speed bow that nearly won the test. It features a hybrid cam system that is specific to the length of the train. Ours came from the factory at 27.5 inches. Normally we'd scale this to the 28-inch spec used in our review, but that wasn't possible here. And even with that handicap, Smoke was long the fastest bow of 2023. It also had a remarkably smooth draw cycle that was consistent from start to finish. Hinton and I rank this as our favorite character cycle from the test. Zach Bell didn't like it very much as the shallow valley made him a bit nervous in the full draw. So we average these things out.

The Smoke was in the middle of the table in terms of (lack of) vibration and noise, but it was also by far the most efficient bow in the test. He was a good shooter, with a group average of 1.23 inches. I was hunting with Smoke for a few days and found him a bit big and heavy in the cabin. In the end, we all agreed that it wasn't exactly up to par with some of the other bows in the test, particularly the ones that finished first and second, in the categories of handling, balance, and grip, as well as fit and finish. Still, he was a point and a half behind the winner and costs $750 less. The fastest bow of the year also gets our vote for the cheapest big bow of 2023.

4)First in line 1

• Specifications:311fps | 31" axle to axle | 7" belt height | 4 pounds, 13 ounces | $1,199
• Efficiency:80,9%
• final result:91,5

If we were to give it the Most Improved award, the Prime Inline series would beat it by a mile. The Prime's parallel-cam system, like that of the 2015 Ion, which clinched Test victory this year, has long been known for a good pull cycle and particularly strong rear wall. But it was actually designed to reduce cam droop and improve bow shooting. We've never had any complaints about the Prime Bows being hard to shoot, but the dual cameras havefezthey have their flaws. The bows with them tended to be noisy with a lot of vibration, and the chambers themselves were large and heavy. But they are gone.

The new in-line series replaces the more conventional single top and bottom cam parallel cams in a binary system, but when pulled from the bow, the cam module actually shifts the cables under the chord and toward the center of the stock , which Prime calls balancing the Chamber in the same way as the parallel system. It is much more simplified.

Our half-time snack? The Inline 1 is a lightless shooter (especially in Hinton's hands). We averaged a full 1.22" groupset with it. It was also light and almost perfectly balanced (we all love grip) and tied with the Elite for the second-quietest arc in the test. It finished the race fluttering in the middle. from the field, but had she had a little more speed, the Inline 1 would have been contested for the win.It loosened up more than I like in a hunting bow (it's one of those bows that actually feels stuck in the full aperture), but that's a subjective and minor complaint.

5)Bowtech SR350

• Specifications:315fps | 33" axle to axle | 6" belt height | 5 pounds, 1 ounce. | $1,199
• Efficiency:81,1%
• final result:90,5

The SR350, like other recent Bowtechs, features an adjustment system called DeadLock, which allows the user to adjust the bow by moving the cam along the axis and locking it in place. We first tested it in 2020 on the Revolt X, which came in third in this year's test. It works just as well as the Elite S.E.T. system, but in my opinion it is more complicated to use.

The SR350 has a half-inch shorter strap height and a higher IBO rating than the 2020 Revolt X, but it's a similar bow. My gripe with DeadLock isn't the system itself, but that Bowtech ditched a lot of true dual-chamber bows (including the Realm SR6, which won the 2019 test) to accommodate it. Newer bows that use a binary system are actually easier to tune at home, but they don't work as well.

Still, the SR350 is a great bow, finishing at the top of the field in the noise and vibration categories. It was pretty fast too. Although we averaged 1.35-inch groups with it, the SR350 missed a few points in the accuracy and error tolerance test. Simply put, other bows were easier to shoot. It also deducted points for a comparatively difficult draw cycle.

For years newer Bowtechs have come with a rotating disc module that allows the user to cycle the pump to either a comfort (slower, but easier) or performance (faster, but more challenging) setting. Since this bow was sent to us running, we tested it like this. While it's smooth and has a good back panel, the extra effort required towards the end of the cycle was uncomfortable in the field, and something you wouldn't want in the woods. To be fair, Hinton switched to the comfort setting and went hunting. It's a pleasure to shoot like this, but the performance lags behind. At the end of the day, some of the faster bows in this test were also easier to shoot.

6)Elite-Vision

• Specifications:299fps | 31" axle-to-axle | 6.875" belt height | 4 pounds, 15 ounces | $1,199.99
• Efficiency:79,9%
• final result:90

The Elite Kure came in second in our 2020 test, and the EnKore, its faster successor, got my vote for the best Elite bow of all time. I spent most of the fall of 2020 hunting with one. Like its predecessors, Envision uses the intuitive S.E.T. Adjustment system that allows adjusting the inclination of the camera on the arch with screws, making one or the other of the divided elements of the arch more flexible. With this system, the paper setting process is really fast and accurate.

The Envision has a much more robust elevator and shorter, stronger limbs than its predecessors. In fact, his profile is not unlike that of a younger Mathews. This squat profile helps achieve a short shaft-to-shaft length while also making the bow easy to shoot.

Performance wise, the bad news first: This bow is surprisingly slow. That only made him fall down the rankings. The good news is that if you're primarily looking for a quiet, easy-to-shoot compound, the Envision is your bow. It had the least vibration of anything we tested and was second-quietest after the Prime Inline (the Mathews V3X was first). We shot well, averaging 1.28" groups. The lower limb has a habit of swinging towards the target after the shot; some shooters might like that, but I personally don't. The bow also features a modular system that allows a 1/4-inch draw length adjustment (most bows adjust half an inch at a time.) Overall, the Envision design cycle has been pretty good, but previous models have been better.

7)Use Refine EKO

• Specifications:304fps | 33" axle-to-axle | 6.375" belt height | 5lbs | $999
• Efficiency:79,3%
• final result:80

The Refine EKO is the latest in the Bear's Legend series and I think it's a big step up from the Divergent EKO, the last model in the series we tested in 2020. Refining is more efficient and scores a full 5 points more in our test . It features a wide range of adjustments, with a module that allows draw lengths from 26.5 to 30.5 inches and lift-off values ​​from 75 to 90 percent. The bow comes with two handle inserts so you can easily swap it out for whatever you prefer. We managed to hunt a few days with this bow and found it worked well in the woods.

Still, it lagged behind in several performance categories. It was the second slowest bow in the test, and while it was fairly quiet, it vibrated almost two and a half times more than the Elite Envision - the deadliest bow in the test. This created a difference in recoil that we could feel at the test range and also seemed to affect bow accuracy and forgiveness. We averaged 1.5-inch clusters with the Refine EKO, which isn't bad. We just shoot all the other bows better.