That's a very professional review. Beware the 7000 series aluminum alloys are up to 80% higher tensile strength material, and also more rigid (stiffer, higher E modulus), thus the residual vibration, it is normal and expected. It can be disipated by rubber dampener type stabilisers (doinkers). Do you think it would fit someone with 31 1/8" draw? Thanks
For this year I am trying out a Mathews Lift 33. In year's past I have shot PSE and Hoyt, so my goal was really just to try something new for the season. That said, this should not be taken to necessarily mean that the LIFT is deemed the best performing bow within this segment. I still have 3 more bows to review before I make that determination :)
Unfortunately, I do not know of anything. Sometimes you can find individuals who will create or 3D print knock-off versions of the Mathews Limb Legs - although doing so (and selling them) violates Mathew's patents on it. That said, I've seen people do this for Hoyt bows in the past.
Have to give kudos to Mathews and Scheels….. Mathews figured out the problem on the batch of limbs and they are replacing my bows and my sons bow!! Great customer service by both companies!
My LIFT33 has turned out to be somewhat disappointing because I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW IT SHOOTS…….. I made the comment earlier about my limbs being replaced 4 times and Mathews (SCHEELS The Colony TX) replaced my bow. Only to have the limbs on that bow splinter also. Those limbs were replaced on Monday and today (Wednesday) my limbs splintered again! Nothing out of the ordinary here; 31.5/72/85….. 29.5”/472 grain Sirius Gemini arrows w/ 50 grain podium titanium half out and 125 grain field point.
Wow - super sorry to hear about this experience! It does seem that there are accounts of splintering limbs on the Mathews LIFT bows that I have seen on social media. I would guess that the new, lighter (thinner) limbs, combined with the RPD material is causing some limbs to fail. I hope that Mathews comes up with some modification to fix the issue for people who experience it. Fortunately, I have had a LIFT33 in for long term review, and I have shot thousands of arrows through it with no issues. I am shooting: 65.8 lb. draw, 80% let off, 30" draw length, and a 413 grain X-impact arrow at about 295 fps. I am going to keep an eye on those limbs though!
New subscriber! I enjoyed the in depth technical review. With an engineering background myself I'm looking forward to watching more of these. I shot an Alpha X 30 Saturday and enjoyed the draw cycle so much more than the Lift 29.5!
I really appreciate you depth! Had the opportunity to run a few arrows through this platform today (as well as a couple other models) I didn't notice the vibration you spoke of. I am really impressed with this bow. I do shoot an older model X33. The new ownership has really changed the game I was shocked by the difference. Thank you sir!
Out of curiosity, since you have mentioned it. How wide are the limb sets on it compared to the other brands ? Bowtech seems to like wider limbs as well. Thanks
GREAT Vid, mate!! Thank you very much for all your effort showing and mentioning all the data and informations! To me personally, the Bowtech and Darton compoundbows are very...very awesome bows. Have a nice day and kindest regards.
Love your reviews, what tool do you use to graph a bows power curve. Would love to do something similar that’s easier than a load scale and tape measure taking data points.
Had the same problem with mine but that was a couple of years ago so I can’t quite recall correctly but can’t you slide the whole quiver up a little bit?
Thank you! We are trying hard to be as tidy and objective as we can. I want viewers to have the facts so that they can make the best decision based on what's important to them in a bow.
I think you have the BEST reviews of any I have seen on RU-vid - but please add a subjective "shoot ability / practical field accuracy" comment when you wrap up this series. You might also show a 5 lb "tare" of your handheld bow scale. I have a bit of experience with scales and I don't think those scales are very precise. I've been shooting compounds more or less since they were invented and I am in process of considering an upgrade from my 2010 Model year Hoyt Maxxis. I've watched tons of reviews from all the likely suspects. Many folks have some kind of personal touch or angle that makes there videos interesting and of value. But, I must say again that I think your reviews are the best overall. And yet, you have among the fewest subscribers. I hope many others discover your channel soon. There is another fellow out there who does good reviews with value, and yet he does kind of half *arse measurements that frankly do not match your measurements, and he then penalizes bows if they don't match up to advertised specs. I value and appreciate what he does, but it often seems like he puts his thumb on the scale ... or maybe he is just a little sloppy (but he does not seem like a sloppy minded fellow...). In contrast, you actually use precise instruments and use them properly to take precise measurements, etc. Since you are being so precise, I would ask that you consider showing the viewers a "tare" of your handheld bow scale because in the video's I've watched so far, the weights are consistently coming in about .2 lbs "heavy" vs advertised weight. I don't trust hand held bow sales to be precise when measuring a dynamic hanging weight. I have a few scales and I KNOW they do not match each other. They might be "repeatable" but they are not super accurate. Your reviews of the high end, long ATA bows have been principally focused on measurable analytics with only a few subjective comments and those comments are typically backed up with subsequent measurements with "real" instruments. I hope that when you do your final wrap you add a longer discussion of your personal opinion on "shoot ability" or whatever you want to call it. Sadly, it seems as if there have not been significant gains made in raw speed since I purchased my Maxxis in 2010. In your own reviews, the "hot" Matthews Lift is "only" running about 7-8 fps faster than the Alpha X and 9 fps faster than the RX8 Ultra using IBO arrow weights that are rarely used for hunting... and that supposed speed "advantage" is immediately cut by about 2.5 fps when the Matthew speed is normalized (reduced) to account for its exaggerated 30.25 inch draw. BTW, the engineers at Matthew know darn well what the actual draw length is. No doubt the "rounding error" to a "30.25" draw was deliberate in order to add a few "fake" fps. Take those normalized arrow speeds (adjusted for Matthews longer draw length) and then look at the differences at normal hunting arrow weights of around 500 grains +/- perhaps 50 grains and the difference between the "hot" 33" Lift and the extremely forgiving RX8 Ultra is likely only about 5-6 fps at most (again after adjusting for draw length). Sure, I'll take all the speed I can get, but I won't trade much "shoot ability" for 5-7 fps. Speed appears to no longer be the key competitive driver on bow competition. Shootability and practical hunting accuracy are likely more important today.
Appreciate the thoughtful and thorough comment and feedback! One note about the scale I use: I am fairly optimistic that it is accurate because I use it to check poundage on bows, which is again verified when I put the bows on the dyno/drawboard - and the poundages always come in nearly identical (e.g. a bow that pulls 70.0 lbs on the hand scale will show 70.0 lbs when checking the draw force curve with a very accurate scale). But I do agree that it would be good to check weights multiple times - perhaps across 2 different scales! I'm certainly going to add a bit of added subjective thoughts when I do the wrap up video summarizing the longer ATA bows. That said, I want to present this information to be as objective as possible so that the viewers can make the best decision for their equipment based on what they want/value in a bow.
Nice! I shot the RX-7 Ultra for the prior 2 seasons and really enjoyed that bow. The RX-8 looks like a nice evolution of the platform. I think you'll enjoy it.
Have you decided on a bow for this season? I ended up ordering a sequel 33. The lift has a much more squared riser near the grip and I couldn’t get a comfortable thumb position
This year I am trying out the Mathews LIFT. Not because I've decided anything regarding the best bow (I still have 3 to review!), but mostly because I've shot PSE and Hoyt in the last 4 years and wanted to try out a Mathews. So far, I'm getting along with it really well. It's lighter than my Hoyt RX-7 Ultra, so I've been playing with more stabilizer weights and a longer front bar.
Very informative review. Good job. What you says about vibration i can see the bow comes without limb dampeners. I guess with stabs and some limb dampeners this bow must be incredibly quiet... Wnen i watch my old 2018 evolve the cams are so similar. I think evolve cams and others binary cams weren created by Darton. One of the smoothest 2024 bows The bow come with extra shims??? Very detailed review Thanks
I own a Mathews Chill-X (35” ATA) and it’s a reported 4.2 lbs bare. My Mathews NoCam HTR is 32” ATA and 3.8 lbs bare. Both could be considered “modern” bows, and Mathews themselves used to consider the NoCam to be their most accurate and efficient hunting bow (up to 2019 at least). I’m just making the point here that it IS possible to make a lighter and longer aluminum bow if you’re not building the riser to survive 80#s draw weight. Hoyt is doing just that with their Eclipse, which is light, fast, accurate, and maxes at 60#s. What the newer Mathews bows are is quieter. By a LOT. Several club members have the Lift, V3X, Tactic, and a few Bowtech Carbon bows too and they are all crazy quiet. Let me know if you’d like to test my Chill-X or NoCam HTR one day.
Just subbed to the channel!❤ What an amazing and in depth now review. I would so appreciate you doing sights/ attachments reviews as well. My wife and I are both buying a bow this year and I was floored the difference from this bow in store compared to my old hunting bow in my teens of the Matthew’s LX/ switchback circa 2004-2008. 20 years had completely changed how modern bows feel and I couldn’t be more excited to hunt again this year.
Correct. My understanding is that Darton actually has so many patents on various bow components that it licenses something like 70% of the licenses IP across the industry.
sounds like a fantastic bow, but so is my v3x that my amazing wife gave me as a gift a year ago. I -think both are close so not changing this year or next....
I'm a big fan of most modern bows, and I love the review process. That said, bows have been terrific for years. If you have one you love, it's most important that you simply get out and shoot it!
Really? So research design and development are incurred costs, and they don't need to be included in the cost? Obviously, you don't own a business and probably should not. 😂
You don't have the vibration supresser on the bow and thats how it comes. I've shot this bow and didn't get the vibration anywere near what your talking about although vibration is subjective , good review .
Thanks for the comment. As a rule of thumb, we are removing all stabilizers (including those that are supposed to help with vibration) so that bow weights and shooting experience between brands are as similar as possible.
Just got my first compound bow. And it’s the Alpha X 33 Tombstone. Feels like a tank in hand and looks like a fighter jet. I absolutely love this bow. Had a hard time choosing between Mathews Lift and Alpha X. But glad i went with the Hoyt.
Your draw graph was very interesting. When I shot the Lift 33 I felt two humps one about the 30% through then again just before it dumped into the valley. It wasn't near as smooth as I thought it would be. Mathews bows just aren't for me. I gave them a fair shot, I shot the Mathews twice as much as the others.
Thank you for such an in depth review. I really appreciate this!!! My question is why did you choose to test this bow without the small doinker stabilizer it came with. I am so very curious how this bow shoots with it on. You said vibration lasted 3 seconds, how long would it last by adding the small stabilizer?? Also all the reviews say how light this how is, but I wonder how quiet the bow would be by adding this stabilizer. If you tested this bow with it on please tell us your results on sound and vibration
As a general rule, I am removing the lower stabilizer weights that come with bows such as the PSE, Hoyt, Xpedition and Darton. This is because their primary purpose is as a weight/stabilizer to lower the center of mass of the bow. To be fair and compare bow-to-bow across brands, I would rather see what the realistic system weights are than worry about minimal changes in vibration. The Xlite 33 is the lightest bow we've had on test - but it would not have achieved this honor without removing that lower stabilizer. In my opinion, lower system weight = more bragging rights than less vibration would. This is because vibration is going to be radically reduced by adding accessories to the bows anyway. Actually, of all the lower stabilizers I have seen, I am least convinced that the Xpedition version would do much for vibration. Where some of the other companies are offering versions that mount the actual weight to some rubber/elastomer (which would reduce vibration as the bow seeks to transfer energy to the suspended weight), the Xpedition version is a solid weight wrapped in rubber. I don't think this design will reduce vibration any more than simply adding an equal weight stabilizer.
Any chance at you getting a PSE Evolve 33 DS? You're doing great with these videos! Really appreciate how thorough and unbiased they've been. Also one of the few that mentions string angle which I appreciate (getting nit picky but when you're spending this kind of money I think we should be).
I am trying to get the Elite Ethos, Prime RVX 34 and the PSE Evo 33 DS in ASAP! I agree - I like to get nit picky and detailed. But when you are spending $1200-2100 on a bow, you should be.
Just stumbled upon your channel, love your pragmatic approach to the reviews. I live in Conifer and go to Bear creek regularly since its my closest shop. I do most of my own bow work at home, but I ironi ally almost bought these Go Stix at Bear Creek a week or two ago... I think they could still serve a purpose for the new mach 30 I've ordered. Im trying to keep the bow light and am surprised/glad to see theyre somehow lighter than the limblegs for Mathews.
Just got the Hoyt go stix in. Put them on a PSE EVO XF 33 E2 with a 12" shrewd front bar. Cam stand is the only way it'll work. It would be nice if Hoyt made another version where the legs could extend like rifle bipods for anyone willing to add the extra weight.
Good deal. I will look forward to that review. I have a REVEX 34 and it is a very solid bow. Prime take a bit to get used to with the center grip (which really changes the string angle) but if a person gives a Prime some time, they are among the most shootable bows out there in my experience. @@ApexArchery
