Wolf is a Chinese release aid company. They make affordable thumb releases. We look at this release compare it to the expensive US releases and shoot the release so you will understand the difference. archeryshop.com...
I think you have nailed the purpose of this Chinese release, we get exactly the same in the UK and as I’ve never even used a thumb release so I brought a cheap one to see if I like and can get on with a cheap one. However I will definitely be buying a much better branded release with its value for money. Thank you for doing this video.
Not every price cut is from quality cut, while looks hold a bit of significance, it's function over form, also cost of living, customer support and taxes like import taxes(increased on every term too), sales tax, each of those differ from country to country, and holds a huge weight on it's price. And the highest price bumper are sponsoring costs.
The only good thing with this cheap stuff is it get's people into archery the problem is because it is cheap and crappy when it breaks or after a few week's they haven't improved they get out of archery. I explain to new people at the club that we shoot the gear we do for a reason.
I understand quality and cost etc.. but the small differences that high end release brands charge 5-8 TIMES the price of the cheaper ones for is ridiculous... These products are NOT anywhere near reasonably priced. I really don't know how some archery products are sold at such stupid high prices. This technology is basic stuff these days, so is the manufacturing. No excuse except making all the money they can giving people a really nothing special product. 1st class piece of simple metals.. hardly any functional difference, and stronger? Sure but both far exceed any beating they'll get.
Well, just got my hands on the wolf release, the inside parts are from a lower HRC steel, somewhat corrosion resistant, the outside shell it's really well made, and I can barely take it apart, it doesn't have that much play, so I got lucky. an original carter costs 1200 Ron and this cost 129 Ron and the quality is somewhat similar without the adjustments, 300$ vs 30$ and the 30 is better than I expected....I also have a Trufire wrist release , made in America, 30$....I threw it into the garbage. The calipers are misaligned, they barely close and out of the box the spring was somewhat squeaky. But the finish on the trufire is 20 times better than on the Chinese release but I can anodize it whenever I feel like it so no problem there.
I will say buy the best you can afford. I was using an old one years ago that someone had given me and the thing exploded at full draw and a piece of it missed my eye by half a inch. It was a good American make but about 4th hand . I have a tru ball now and have been using it for 20+ years and still working like new
It's a copy of the newer version of the Carter Just b cuz & just cuz series which has the same spring system as the chinese Wolf you have. The new Carter uses the system of swapping out different springs for different tension not a screw system anymore. Agree with everything else you said on the video. You can buy a 2nd hand Carter for the same or less that the Chinese product ;)
I purchased the Chinese version to see if the feel was what I wanted. 1st shot, good.2nd, arrow flyer, thought it my fault. 3rd shot,pulled halfway back and bang. No 4th shot. Trash bin. Bought my Carter and happier than ever.
bought one, complete waste of money. If you want to loose 40$ it is your choice. If you disassemble it you will see complete garbage inside. Better to pay another 30-40$ and got , tru ball or spot hogg friday night delight, saturday night delight or whipper snapper
Holy crap.... people are actually complaining about China making cheaper versions? It's China! How similar are wrist releases from one manufacturer to the next? Or hinge releases? Pretty fuckin' close. Anyone could make the argument TRU BALL ripped off TRUE FIRE. Scott ripped of Stan. Anyone bitching about that? Nope. Because you still need to pay big bucks, so people still feel special owning one. Fucking archery snobs. So Steven should send business to Amazon and eBay? Why? Because YOU want thumb releases to be an "elite" thing. You paid a shitload for a bit of metal and some springs. Others might think that it's stupid to pay 5 times more money when they both do the same basic thing. "Oh! Poor Carter! Steven, how could you!?!" STFU! Carter can sue and file injunctions if they feel they're being fucked over. They sell lots of releases at a very high price. They can afford the legal fees. If they don't seem to care, why would anyone else care, as long as it's not being advertised as a direct comparison? I request all the crying children actually go and look, touch and shoot one of these. You will see, because they feel so cheap by comparison, it's not going to hurt big name companies. This might actually help sell better releases to archers. If you give new archers a chance to try something out for cheap, they will decide whether or not they like it. If they do, they will almost always upgrade to something better. But they might not spend a dime to try if the price is too high. So everyone pretending to be offended by China doing what China does.....go suck an arrow puller and change your diapers. You have no business telling anyone how to spend their money or run their business. So piss off. Steven, you presented that just as you should have. Well done. If your customers create a demand, fill it. They will thank you for it and keep their money off eBay and Amazon. Good shops are hard to find, mate. Again, well done.
Hi Steve, if you don’t know the name I will give it one. CHINESE CRAP. I’m am sick of stuff from China . I would rather not have a product, than buy Chinese. I’ve been shooting for 36 years, and have a carter , just b cuz, fantastic. I’m a bow hunter,and it’s the only release I use. The others I own are in my draw. I would like a few more reviews on other carters as I would like to own them all. Regards Robert.
Indeed you don't know about alloys as you describe the cocking lever as aluminium when its obviously stainless steel from the machining marks - its not a trigger either, its the cocking lever. You call the release hook/jaw the trigger! The quality of anodizing isn't related to the quality of the aluminium its on, yet you say the aluminium body is finer on the Carter - there is no way to tell either way without destructive testing - and its not crucial to function anyway. The anodizing is completely irrelevant to function, you obsess on this as if its the most important thing :) The tension can actually be changed, the end block comes out if you unscrew the screw under the thumb lever, and the spring comes out. Internally the mechanicals look well made, not super engineered (warning putting it together again is not for beginners - I used to disassemble mechanical watches as a kid and put them back together successfully!). The bearing pins are chromed and look fine, but are a little thin, meaning the internal levers may wear faster then they need to. The main issue I saw is that some of the internal parts don't look like stainless and could rust (and its not clear if the springs are stainless). My other observation on the Wolf is that the release hook isn't highly polished or shaped very smoothly - this is going to be harsh on the D loop - its worth putting some metal polish on a piece of string and running across the hook for a while to improve the smoothness. My caveats would be - this probably isn't going to like getting wet on a regular basis, and you're spot on with the wear rate - but it should get a reasonable life if treated well. [ If you do want to disassemble something like this, it will eject springs at speed - wear eye protection or better place in a plastic bag before opening up to catch everything. ]
I've been using this (and still am) for the past 8 months, paid $45AUD. I've run into 2 issues so far: All the adverts/photos and even the packaging the damn thing came in, showed a (travel adjustment)screw behind the trigger but mine didn't have it. I messaged the seller and they refunded me $10... The material the cocker is made out of is probably mild steel, it's started to rust. Besides those issues, I've have had no problems mechanically or performance wise. You can adjust the tension, with 1 of the the allens on the side. I can definitely understand the need for cheap gear, I just wish there was an alternative to China-made products. Because it is a product of China, I've always had a worry about it's longevity in the back of my head. It has made me realise and appreciate just how much of a difference in quality there is in the more expensive brands though.
really you cant see the anodizing because its black , pick one the same color? who cares anyway as long as it performs excelant isnt everyone looking for lighter anyway?
Had a Wolf 4 finger release.. hung up on me twice in a row. Lost two of my Victory arrows on top of that. I threw that thing across the road. Waiting for my Blackout 3 to arrive in the mail. No more cheap stuff for me..
You get what you pay. Can't compare two products that have such a diferent values... if you use it for recreational shooting, that's fine... if you want to a release for competing, then you have to step up with the money and open your pocket wide open. Don't complain about china products, you get what you pay. Simply as that.
Thanks for the video. I’m figuring out what to buy I was thinking of the cheap one first cause if I don’t like it I can put it away and don’t mind spending the few euros on one but it opens my eyes that it ain’t adjustable like the real one so I’m going for the original Carter and make it fit
Im asian sometime i buy thing from china but if come to archery product ,motorcycle or car i dont gamble myself to buy product from China .China product the quality is very poor quality .
a student has the stan knock off version from wolf. is is NOT as good as a stan. the main issue is the screws are so soft that when you make any adjustment the hex hole rounds. i agree that for a beginner it is still way less than half the price of a used stan. i have students with parents that hem and haw about having matching arrows let alone a decent release . this kid has now upgraded to a HM Stan SX3, night and day in quality. only out 40 bucks for a back up.
So, we are looking on two chinese releases.. 😉.. Both were Made in China.. One has label Carter.. (I am not against mention, that 10x more expensive, so it has 10x higher quality and usability..)
Great video Steven. Been seeing these all over Amazon and eBay and wondered how that release would be. I'm looking at buying a quality release like a Carter so this isn't even a thought but still was curious.
After watching this I decided not to order one. As it so happened, my local shop owner had a Stan Islawski thumb release that he used but preferred a different release. He sold it to me for $100 and I love it after a couple hours of shooting it. I do have a spott hogg Chinese copy and it does work OK for the $40. I spent on it.
If that trigger play can't be adjusted out, that is a concern. If after a good trigger release, far better to pay a little more for a second hand Stan or Carter.
Hi guys, I've had two of my club members approach me with these wolf releases, the newest came to me with a burst lip, i tried the release, unless you had a dead horizontal release and anchor! It worked fine, but as soon as you you put any kinď of rotation on release when you anchor, bang it slips the sear and fires! The other club member who approached me, let's say after s try to shoot one arrow it went in the bin! Please stay clear!
I got one and it started releasing prematurely on draw from the second shot. The sear mechanism wasn't up to it. I got one of the four finger version & it works ok but you don't get a very clean release...
I just bought mine and I’m waiting for it to come in the mail in a few days. Which one did you order? I got the green one from Amazon. Are you able to adjust the tension of the spring / sensitivity of the thumb trigger?
I'm just getting into archery, i have a cheap wrist release and i want to try and hand release, i will not pay $250 to try something out. Thank you for your honesty, my local archery store gave me a big lecture on how everything from ebay was dangerous and that i should never buy it.
There are wrist releases cheap. It all depends on your budget. Most of my customers are recreational archers with cheap bows. I did have a problem with a Wolf release. I replaced the release.
Well thank you again, I like a bargain but I also like to support local business. Good advice and a sense of community is definitely worth a drive to the shop. If you can trust the merchant it feels good to spend money with them.
How can it possibly "Work just fine" if it chews your D loops? If it chews your D Loops it makes a safe release aid into a terrifyingly dangerous bit of kit! With a weak D loop you never know if it will release properly or just snap and have a premature firing! One busted compound with a £200 repair bill or, heaven forbid, an injured person is never acceptable for risking this crap. if it chews D Loops it is dangerous and therefore should never be used!!
The biggest problem I have with Chinese knock-offs other than their blatant willingness to reverse engineer anything, cheating the rightful designers out of their profits. Is their flagrant dishonesty about materials and/or their composition. Luckily for consumers it is now possible to CNC machine an aluminum part cheaper than a making a stamped tin part. Could you imagine this release aid with a stamped tin sear? I'd bet my last dollar the Carter has a hardened steel sear or exotic material. The Wolf most likely is an anodized, if that, sear. And as you can see their anodizing is one micron thick.
Carter, Tru ball , Stan and Scott are all as far as quality of production Equal . Chinese products aren't even close. As far as copying Stan , that is like saying everyone is copying darton cam technology or Bear farther back.
All the top 4 copy ea other so get over it. The difference being that those top 4 companies produce a top quality product. They are about, copying, improving & out selling ll at the same time. The Chinese knock offs are about reproducing a cheaply built product that looks the same using inferior materials.
It's not the anodizing so much as the quality and lack of preparation of the aluminum... Also the trigger lever parts are stainless steel... The cheap Chinese ones have just been deburred with a sanding wheel where the Carter's parts have been nicely polished. That Chinese one will last a week or month or whatever and fall apart of break... The Carter will last many years if not a lifetime.
Whoa!! 20 years of selling Carter release aids...And then you sell a blatant copy. Don't sugar coat it with marketing and quality, it is a copy, plain and simple. Its a slap in the face to Carter. Shame on you archery supplies. You wouldn't appreciate it if someone copied your business (logo etc)
This is not a copy. It is a cheap release. Carter have a lifetime warranty, as I said I have had the same Carter for30 years. Carter has trigger and tension adjustment. The quality is not close. The facts are people are buying this release as a copy on ebay with no knowledge. I would say 95% of archers are recreational and they dont want to spend big dollars on a release. 95%of releases sold are$40 and under. By shops having these it allows customers to make an informed decision On the second part. When I name Archery Supplies there were none in Australia and non in the world. Now everyone uses Archery Supplies. It is like Carter they have a great product and continue to make a huge range of quality products. yes I don't even have archerysupplies.com.au
@Benj_1_am cheap release/whatever gadgets bring people closer to archery.. (or any other activity). Otherwise, someone will not do it either.. So, and to have moře archers is good, or not? Later he/she could buy more expensive stuff.. Btw.. Can you tell me pls., if you sell 20 years this stuff, you will know, in which us city is it produced? 😉 Or produced in China (low cost), and price is added to gain extra margin for produce and reseller.. Bigger price = bigger margin..
