Washington Hunter

Not when it comes to Mathews.

Have they come out with any real innovations in the last four years?

It seems the put out the same bow year after year with a different name, maybe a new riser design.

Rick James

It's the limb material they are using that drove the cost up. Much much higher quality limb material than anything else out there on a hunting bow right now and they cost much more for materials. These are not bottom of the barrel Gordon Glass limbs like almost every manufacturer out there uses and they cost more because the blanks aren't produced in massive enough quantities to supply several bow manufacturers.

Rickmur

Then how does that justify this?

excalibur43

I am in the market for a new bow as well. I have always shot Mathews, but I try to keep an open mind, and buy the best bow for the money, that shoots and feels the best to me. I will be shooting the new Vectrix and the new Drenline, along withlast years Switchback.I will just let the bows speak for themselves, and make my decision after shooting them. Our pro shops here in Ohio have the Drenline available now for $699.00. I am not sure on the price of the Vectrix.

hardcorehunter

I myself couldn't notice any noticeable weight difference between the two bows. The limbs are very thin on the Drenaline and it wouldn't surprise me if it is less weight than the Vectrix; just something I couldn't feel. I shot one bow and then would grab the other and shoot it. I didn't have any knowledge that one felt lighter than the other; there was just no denying the very noticeable hand shock and vibration on the Drenaline though. Sure, this is not going to affect your hunting, but if am going to drop 8 bills on a new bow, than there had better be no hand shock. The Vectrix was easily a better shooting bow and I went in with an open mind on which bow to choose. The Hoyt has a lot of new innovations this year and the Mathews is basically the same old bow as the 4 year old Outback. I don't see Mathews' Switchback owners racing out to buy this new bow; not enough difference worth the $ IMO.

GMMAT

I can buy the new Mathews for $635 + tax at my shop. Now who's the crook??? I'd talk to my shop owner HCH....

My '05 Switchback has "gotten it done" four times, this year. Not bad for an inferior weapon.

When I gave my impression of the '05 SB vs. the Trykon....I said it felt like the trykon was going to lurch out of my hands. My thoughts were dismissed by the Hoyt guys.....and now I read this. Laughable.

Of course....if I was getting raped by my bow shop by being charges those kind of prices.....i guess I'd look like a fool if I said something negative about what I was shooting.

Justification.

Jeff

Rick James

$680 is not making much money at all on that bow and honestly selling them at that price is only hurting the dealer. I am not at liberty to discuss dealer pricing but he really isn't doing well at that price point and I don't know how people can keep the doors open at super low prices like this. We will probably sell them at $729 or so. Also, keep in mind the MSRP on an XT is $795, we sell them at $689 putting nearly $100 back in the pocket of the customer. Most shops don't charge nearly MSRP and pass on the savings to their customers.

$635 is way below dealer minimum resale pricing. As part of being a Mathews dealer you agree to not sell below a certain price and that is below that number. They are actually in violation of their agreement w/ Mathews as a dealer there and are only making pennies on that bow anyhow.........literally. For the money a dealer has tied up into inventory, if they are going to only mark things up at that margin they are better off taking the money and putting it into a 12 month CD at the bank and making 5% at the end of the year.........they will actually make more that way and don't need to pay a lease, electric bill, or other peoples salaries to make that $$$.

It's amazing to hear people say that a dealer is a crook with prices. This business is their livelyhood and honestly no dealer is making any serious cash in this business. I am in the books all the time at the shop and we are one of the 2 better off shops for probably 100 miles and the amount of money at the end of the month when the bills are paid off is really not that much. I made more money in my first job out of college than I would if I owned the shop I work at. The dealers are not in it for the money...........thats for sure.

Rick James

Glad to see you go in with an open mind. Do yourself a favor and add Darton and Bowtech to that list as well and see what you like. You can't go wrong with any of them. I need to get my hands on a Vetrix as well, I hear lots of good things about them from credible sources and am anxious to see what they are all about.

hardcorehunter

That is right Motown; I wouldn't want to have to survive on solely running an archery shop with all of the high overhead costs, not to mention that you rarely get to hunt because you have to be open to take care of your customers. My buddy isn't getting rich by any means. Not to mention these bow manufacturers give you asuppossedly protected, exclusivearea to sell their bows in and then a huge company like Scheelscomes into your area and they let them sell the bows too and compete with you.I keep my $ with the little guy; Scheels doesn't get my bow $ business.

Rick James

HCH,

I think to say the hand shock and vibration is very noticable I think is a bit of an overstatement w/ the drenalin. It really has no more than an XT or regular switchback, I have shot all 3 now extensively and none of these bows have extensive handshock/vibration. I do think Hoyt hit a home run with their factory standard STS type device though and I think this is what is making the difference in the percieved hand shock difference you felt, the capabilities of a device like this are amazing and can even make my Apex 7's feel like a parallel limb bow. I am pretty confident that if an STS is installed on the Drenaline it will feel about the same, or if the factory suppressor on the Vetrix was removed it would feel the same as well. Kudos to them though for adding it from the factory, that's a cool option.

Can you adjust the distance that STS type device sits from the string. If you slightly change brace height while twisting cables to get that perfect draw length, can you reset that supressor to sit the appropriate distance from the string?

What kind of speed was gotten from the two rigs setup the same? Has anyone done this yet? Which is faster?