PABowhntr

The title was meant to be taken in the best sense of humor I assure you.

Gentleman,

Let me start off by saying that there are only a few times in my life that I can honestly say that I have been "giddy as a school girl" to quote a friend's commonly used phrase..... Example of this would include starting my career...spending time with my wife (before I married her.. ), buying my first car, etc.... Now I can add another one to the list.

I received my 2004 Bowtech Mighty Mite VFT yesterday!!!

"Santa Claus" came early this year.

I was at home yesterday as my son came down with a wicked fever over the weekend. After leaving the doctor's office I stopped down at the local shop to pick it up. I proceeded to set the bow up (with my son's help...he is 19 months old I might add). Let me just say that I am in love with this bow. I know...I know...it sounds like a JeffB reaction but it is true. I think the balance on it now, barebow, is perfect. Gone is the top-heaviness of some previous year models and yet the benefits of the long riser/short, parallel limb design could never be more evident.

The bow handles very well. It is light in weight but not super-light like the Parker Ultralite 31. The long riser definitely makes it feel like a longer axle to axle length bow and since the mass weight is distributed along a larger portion of the vertical plane it also shoots like a typical bow of much longer dimensions.

I don't want to get too detailed just yet as I want to save much of this for my full review of the bow however.....

- the new grip feels great. I have to put it side by side with my 2003 Patriot to check the angle but the composition and texture are different enough for anyone to notice the change.

- the attention to detail is exceptional. Other than the "small paint dots" evident on a few places on the riser I can really find no fault in it from a manufacturing standpoint.

- the new camo looks really cool. It does look a bit different than the Advantage Timber but not enough for me to worry about having the stabilizer "clash" with riser.... It is a bit darker than the AT but this is really subjective as it is difficult to compare two camos of this nature on such a small area like a compound bow's riser or limbs.

- noise levels are moderate to low....vibration and recoil levels are on the low side....and accuracy was superb in my hands.

The only areas of concern for me at the moment are the overall width of the new riser and the stiffness of the draw cycle on the new Infinity cam. The bow came shipped at a 71.3 lb draw weight. At 71.3 lbs this bow feels like a bear to draw back. I have not been shooting for a couple weeks so I am sure that is contributing to it to some extent. I will see how it feels as time passes. For now I cranked the limb bolts back a turn and a half to where they feel comfortable. I did not check the draw weight at this point as I did not feel the need to. At this setting the bow felt much easier to draw and the pockets were only backed out about 1/8th of an inch.

Second, the new riser design is very wide so, as others have mentioned, some rests/sights might not work well on it as they do not offer enough horizontal adjustment. I had to ditch my favorite Toxonics Solotrak sight as it fit into this scenario. Luckily, I had a more recent version of the same sight that offers slightly more adjustment and does work well on the bow. I also tried a Copper John Deadnuts hunter and a PSE Apex sight just for ....s and giggles. Both offered enough adjustment.

However, there is also the rest adjustment issue. The GKF Golden Premier I was using did give me enough adjustment but I had to reposition the actual launcher arm as it enters the base of the rest to obtain it. By doing this I did not have to move the rest to its farthest left (right handed bow) setting via the microadjustment knobs. This gave me a little room to play with when I do any microtuning. I also tried the Standard GKF TM hunter rest on the bow and it also gave enough horizontal adjustment though a similar model Tiger Tuff rest did not. I am going to try one or two others on it, including the Whisker Biscuit, when I head down to the shop tomorrow morning.

I cannot wait to use this bow for the our late season bow hunt!!

Merry Christmas to all if I don't get a chance to get on after today.

Frank

Rangeball

Can't wait to hear the full blown love fest, Frank

By any chance for comparison, did you draw back your Patriot to see if the new I-cam was indeed any smoother than last years offerings?

Big John

Geeez Frank, usually your kinda business like, when you test a bow. Now your like a school girl!!!!!!!! It must be something to have you jumping around....at your age.

buckeye

Can't wait for your review!!

Any plans of shooting through a chrony???

IL_BOW_MAN

Atleast it wasn't a Hoyt!!

And thanks for the great mental picture. I am just picturing you in a little plaid skirt with white panty hose up to your knees and pig tails.[X(]

BowTech_Shooter

Baaaad mental picture, Baaaad mental picture... Please make it go away...Please...

Especially if you mean an azz showing mini skirt when you say "little plaid skirt"[X(]


Frank,

I hope we get to see an in depth report after you've put it through it's paces...

JOE PA

So, Frank:

Did you like the bow or not? It is so hard to tell when you keep beating around the bush.

PABowhntr

Rangeball,

You have to take into consideration the fact that last year's Patriot Single cam was unique to the Patriot bow and was not the same Infiniti cam used on the other single cam Bowtech models. Having said that, I think the single cam found on last year's Patriot was smoother than the single cam found on this year's MM VFT. I really need to shoot both side by side to get an accurate feel though my statement above stands on my limited shooting yesterday. The geometry of the cam definitely looks different.

I promise to keep it PG rated...

Ok, chalk that up to the anticipation of receiving the bow prior to our late archery season BJ. I promise to be very business like in my full review. Ofcourse, it is going to be somewhat interesting in that I also have an Xtec in my possession which I also plan on reviewing.

Hopefully before New Years...

PABowhntr

Sorry for not replying to the other comments sooner but I had the reply window open for awhile.

IBM,

Somehow I just knew that you were always thinking of me in a little plaid skirt.....not that there is anything wrong with that......I would sort of expect it from a Mathews shooter.....LOL.

Pat,

No comment...I know your true feelings for me...

....hopefully the report will be done in the next week or so. I want to take it out hunting with me for a bit before I really comment in detail.

Jeff,

I know...I know...I was being cryptic. Let me put it this way....this one could be up there with the Hoyt Havoc Redline...

silentassassin

and that night we spent in Boston[:-]