March
21
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Mathews Phase 4 review
My Mathews phase 4 review:
Its been a couple of years since I’ve been really excited about a bow and not because I didn’t like the last few bows they just didn’t have any real leaps in technology or features. My last favorite bow was my Vertix which until this bow came along was my best shooting bow to date.
Well I have been playing around with this bow for about 2 months now and I feel like I have done it justice by giving it every opportunity to disappoint me, but it hasn’t! I was little concerned that being a 33″ bow it would be harder to wield especially from the ground but its limb design really gives it more of a compact feel and even sitting I am able to shoot it very well.
Although the bridge lock technology is a carryover I wasn’t utilizing it on my VX3. I outfitted this bow with a dovetail style sight and I used the new bridge lock stabilizer system which I am finding is pretty badass for fine tuning the feel of the bow . Of course having everything centered makes the bow have a more balanced feel. After shooting a 6″ brace height for the last two years with the VXR and VX3 the extra .5″ of brace height was really noticeable in the forgiveness department especially for those who don’t always follow through with their shots.
The 336 IBO rating at first concerned me even though its only 7fps less than the VXR 4FPS less than VX3 as hunters we always wanna see more speed. However I was pleasantly surprised on how efficient this bow was.. Let me explain… My VXR Shoots 294 FPS with my light deer arrow set up at 29″ draw and with my elk arrow it shoots 281 FPS. Here is where the efficiency comes in, out of my Mathews Phase 4 with the light set up I am shooting 290 FPS ( so slower as to be expected) with the lighter deer arrow and my elk arrow I am shooting 281 FPS exactly the same FPS as my “faster” VXR the loss of speed is less the heavier I go. I also made a distinction that dropping in poundage from 70-60 had less of percentage of speed loss. Although I didn’t personally test it I’ve been told that the speed loss from 31.5″ draw down to 27″ is less then previous models which also shows its efficiency.
Now lets talk about the real gem of this bow which is the Resistance Phase Dampening aka limb dampeners. This is straight from the Mathews website RPD stops vibration at the source – resulting in our smoothest shooting archery system to date. This first of it’s kind innovation tackles excess energy directly in the limbs – significantly deadening and silencing post-shot vibration. What these fancy words mean is that this sucker is quite… I mean really quite! But an awesome side affect is how little hand shock and how calm the explosion of the bow is. This coupled with the smoothness of draw that Mathews has not only pioneered but perfected in my opinion makes this one of the most enjoyable bows I have ever shot.
Of course you get all the other cool features that Mathews has been updating over the past few years, the grip, dove tail rest, true parallel limbs and integrated dampening in the riser. But another cool new feature is the 1/5 once S.A.S Stay Afield System. This is a servicing cable that connects to the newly modified cams that allows backcountry hunters to safely remove or repair their strings and cables in the field without the use of a bow press. It was designed to be an emergency bow kit to keep you in the hunt. I’m sure this will be utilized by many of backcountry guys. I have yet to test it out so other than concept I dont have any feedback for you.
In conclusion if you haven’t bought a new bow in a couple of years now would be a good time to have a look at the Mathews Phase 4 I’m sure you will be impressed as was I…
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