Rangeball

In my ongoing saga of trying to rationalize and justify keeping my Diamond Hornet a while longer, I set about on a quest to see if add-ons could reduce the level of recoil/vibration to that of the Mathews Outback I shot. Say what you want about Mathews. The Outback is one seriously fine bow, with only the itty bitty valley as the main "flaw" in my opinion.

Loved the way it held on target and simply sat there without movement after the shot. A pure joy to experience. However, one of the benefits of being a cheap bast, er, skate is you force yourself to ask lot's of questions. Well, not really force, after awhile it becomes second nature

Like, Yeah, it draws smooooth, but what poundage do you have it set on? 60# you say? Well, let's bump that baby up to 70#.

How heavy is this test arrow you're having me fling? 550 grains you say? Well, let's have something sub-400, thank you.

Granted, even with these changes, the bow still shot superb. A bit not as easy to draw, but still smooth. A bit faster, but still just sat there with no noise and almost imperceptable movement. A worthy weapon, not doubt, and the kind of modern day characteristics many manufactures seek to deliver.

So coming home, wrestling with spending the cabbage for it or one like it and equally as expensive, I decided in order to be fair, I need to tweak my Hornet to get it as close to apples to apples as possible.

I put up my testing results with the NV system, they (or my bow tune/set to spec or a combination thereof) eliminated the last tad bit of recoil the stealth didn't. I was happy with the result. However, I was still getting an amount of recoil, so on to test #2-

The bare bow mass weight of most bows that report low to no recoil hovers around 4#. The outback is 4.3#. My Hornet is 3.2#. Big difference. Thinking it would be easy to add 1# to my bow, I went looking for my wifes 1# each ankle weights from a life of working out that never quite developed , only to find that they'd been sold at a yard sale. Damn the bad luck.

Another thing about being a cheap bast, er, skate is you become resourceful. Remembering the last time my brother and I melted lead to mould our own shotgun slugs, he had poured the balance of the melted lead into and ingot tray, so I thought I'd grab two 1/2# ingots and tape them securely to my bow. Unfortunately, he had long since turned the ingots into sinkers, but he had some that were 3 oz, so I grabbed 6 of them.

I took three, and enclosed them in duct tape. Did the same for the other three, then weighed them. Each bundle came up 9.6 and 9.5 oz respectively, close enough for me That gave me 19.1 oz of mass weight, which would bring my hornet up to 4.4#s, close enough to the Outback for my purposes.

I shot three shots to get a feel for the recoil imbedded in my mind. I then used electrical tape to secure the two bundles to the lower part of my riser. I used electrical tape as I figured it'd leave less residue when/if I removed it. I wanted to keep the weight low as I figured it would enhance the pendulum effect to keep the bow from canting, and be closes to the power release of the cam.

From the first shot I released post weight gain, I started smiling. Recoil was WAY reduced, and the bow aimed like a rock. 4 shots later I noticed I was drilling the same hole, accuracy was definitely enhanced. The bow did still have just a tad of jump to it, but the hornet is a higher powered bow than the outback.

I had previously calculated that to match the energy output of the Outback, I would need to back my limbs of 2 turns, putting me around 64#s (wish I had a scale... ).

Bow was very easy to draw, comparable to what I remember from the Outback at 70#s, almost as smooth. Released the arrow, and the bow hardly moved . Several more shots to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and it wasn't I can only imagine if I backed the Hornet down to 60#, to match a 65# Outback's performance. The Hornet remains extremely quiet, even without any string silencers.

The hornet probably has just a little bit more recoil than the Outback, but I suspect that's a function of the little less vertical limb angle it has, and was entirely expected. Certainly not a deal breaker by any means.

So, in the end, I am plenty satisfied shooting my Hornet for awhile longer. Once they make a bow with the Outback's characteristics but with 20-30 more fps, I'll need to look again. Maybe Just a matter now of fancying up my weight addition and discussing the NVs with Frank

walks with a gimp

I'm goina' bet in 2005,,, you'll be dealin' out those old moldy 100 dollar bills like a Vegas gambler

Rangeball

Well...

New bow was at the top of the list, as it should be. It then fell notch to braces for the daugher. then two more for softball and cheerleading camps for the daughters. Then another for family vacation. Then another to new furniture for the wife (however, I do get a bigger screen TV in this deal, and some other, uhm, favors ). "Wife's" car is trying to horn in on the deal with a new fuel pump.

Hopefully 2005 will bring several new clients or some winning lotto numbers

nub

Can I see a pic of this duct taped contraption?[]

Rangeball

No.


















I have no way of showing you one, otherwise I would.

JeffB

I've been trying to tell people that for years, but most of them complain they can't carry that extra pound on the 200 yard walk to the treestand

Mass weight=stability plain and simple. But you just can't add it with a stabilizer because it then messes up bow balance.

I hear guys at the shop B&m'ing about the weight of the OB. I think that's it's best feature and why it's so shootable for such a short bow.

:shrug:

Rangeball

I agree. You should tell them to butch the @$#& up...

PABowhntr

Nice post RB. I have to agree with your findings. I have been playing with adding some weight to one of my bows to make it more stable. As it turns out I can shoot very accurately with it to the point that I might just have to say it is the most accurate bow I have ever shot...including the Havoc Redline...though I do believe the correct draw length had something to do with it as well.

There is a forum member whose bow I was able to handle last summer. My first comment after being handed the bow was along the lines of "Geez, what does this weigh...5 or 6 lb?". It felt that heavy...but then again I guess that is one of the reasons why he is so accurate with it.

JeffB

My current bow is a little over 6 pounds.

My Defiant when set up was 7 pounds.

People were/are screaming about the Martin SlayR over on AT because of it's mass weight, but anyone who owns one or has shot it will tell ya "so what"...the bow aims like a rock, has very little recoil and is extremely accurate (and fast as all heck on the A & B cams)...

I think (and hope) the days of ultralight bows are fading. Guys who shoot alot are realizing the added stability is worth the extra weight. I can understand the guys who hunt out west and hike 20 miles up and down mountains all day wanting them, but for the masses of whitetail hunters, light bows IMO are a handicap.

Black Frog

There's mass weight for recoil reduction, and then there's mass weight for helping with aiming steadiness.

For recoil reduction- you can never have too much mass. The more mass you have, the more energy it takes to move that mass into felt recoil. Modern bows have been designed with getting them light, yet fairly recoil free.

For aiming steadiness- that's an entirely personal thing. You definitely can have too much mass real quick. I found that out through lots of shooting over the last few years. There's a point in the mass weight addition that I start to hold less steady than a lighter version of my setup.

I was always of the mindset that heavier is better, so I'll just build up my holding muscles to be able to hold that heavier amount steady. So I had extra weights that I milled out put here and there on my bow and stabilizer system. It balanced beautifully in my hand, but if I tended to go long on my shot- I'd really start to drift. I'm hard-headed, but after enough of something not quite working I will try something else. So I stripped off a lot of weights and shot some rounds and realized that I was holding steadier longer. Maybe not quite as rock solid at the initial draw, but throughout the shot I was able to maintain sufficient holding for good accuracy. So just keep in mind that for some people looking for that holy grail of mass weight steadiness for target archery, it can be a long process of trial and error. Too little, and too much of mass weight can both be detrimental to your score. Every individual has to find their happy medium that works for them.