All of the top bow companies make great products.

Saying any particular bow company is superior over any other is purely opinionated. The reality is that all of the top well-known bow manufacturers create excellent products. Take a look at competition wins and they have all won. The manufacturer’s job is to create great bows and our job as hunters and archers is to pick the bow that best fits us. For some, it may be a Hoyt for others it may be a PSE, Mathews or some other brand. The point is bow brand wars are pointless.

With that said this article is not a review just an example of great products from 2 different companies.

Preference and fit.

A few years back I was in the market for a new bow. I went to 2 different bow shops and shot the top (most expensive) bows they had in stock for left-handers. I shot Bear, Hoyt, and couple different Mathews. At that time the Mathews felt best to me but I couldn’t decide between solo cam or dual cam. In the end, I ended up going with the solo cam Creed XS. It looked wicked being only 28 inches axle to axle, shot great and was a huge step up (leaps and bounds) from my old Golden Eagle Preditor.

The Mathews Creed XS has been good to me.

Over the last couple years I have shot way over 15,000 arrows throw that Creed XS, shot a few deer and small game and extended my target shooting from 30 yards, to 70 the first year and to 150 the following year. This year in spring I shot even further breaking 200 at 210 yards. Every time I change it up, whether its distance or size of the target it just adds that much more fun to the shooting. In fact, I have no plans on not shooting it anymore. I love shooting and it is a great shooting bow, it will just get fewer reps, which means I will not have to change strings as soon.

Funny change of fit.

At my age the size of my hands and arm’s length is not changing. But I was in the market for another top bow and this time instead of shooting all the options I knew what I wanted. So I forced myself into it and just bought a Hoyt Pro Defiant 34 without even shooting one first. By just buying it there was no going back and changing my mind. What I liked about my Creed XS was the fat handle which felt great in my hand, but is also the opposite of Hoyt’s skinny handle. But what I realized is if I really wanted to change it up, try the Pro Defiant and give it a fair chance I would have to buy so I was forced to shoot it and learn to like it. After 900 arrows in the first few weeks throw the Pro Defiant, I can honestly say things have changed and that my Mathews now feels awkward in my hand with the fat wooden handle. So the Creed XS handle will most likely get changed soon.

Top Bows Perform Great Period.

I did some speed and sound tests between the Hoyt Pro Defiant 34 and the Mathews Creed XS. I think you will be as surprised by the outcome as I was. The tests were completed with 2 arrows with the same arrows shot throw each bow. The tests were done multiple times with very little variance.

The first arrow was a very light BloodSport Hunter 350 that weighed 371.8 grains. The second arrow was a heavier Carbon Express PileDrive Pass Through Extreme small diameter which weighed 476.2 grains. Both arrows had 100-grain tips included in the weight.

I first started by turning both bows up to almost max draw weight around 72 pounds on each. During the tests, it was back and forth and so very close. Sometimes even exactly the same. Below is the table with my final results.

Test Results

Video of the Tests

You can see a full Camp10 Extreme Review on the Creed XS here

In closing I’ll just say that it does not matter what the price is, company, brand, model, etc… As long as you know the bow is a quality product, trust the equipment and it fits you or you can adjust to it, that’s what counts. Keep in mind that almost any change will require you to relearn that muscle memory that makes you accurate through lots of practice. That is the key to being deadly accurate, muscle memory!