mdwest
AH ambassador
On my previous 3 bows I have used a pretty typical 6" "Stabilizer".. to be truthful I've never really been able to tell much difference between shooting any of those bows with or without the stabilizer attached... They did a little to absorb shock I suppose.. but I never really felt like the bow itself was easier to handle, keep steady, etc.. and I never saw any visible difference in accuracy or tightness of groups..
A buddy of mine asked me to try out his 10" front stabilizer and 8" rear bar... I noticed an immediate difference in using the longer (albeit not any heavier) front bar... keeping the pin on the target was noticeably easier.. I toyed around with the rear bar for about a week, but never really saw much improvement in helping with torque or rebound like the interwebs tell me I should be seeing...
My overly simple brain said "if a 10" bar improved things that much over a 6".. maybe a 12" bar is what you should try"... so I bought one... and even just those extra 2" have further improved shot stability (or maybe it just appears that way... placebo effect? the truth is I have been shooting 25-40 arrows a day, every day, for the last couple of months.. some of the improvements I would guess are coming out of repetition and practice...)..
Ive now decided to give the rear/side bar another try and picked up a 10" bar for that..
The principle complaints I see online against longer front bars and adding on rear bars are the obvious... extra weight on the bow.. and the bow becomes a larger overall package, making it more difficult to maneuver in tighter quarters like a bow blind or a tree stand..
For me.. Im built like a sasquatch (6'4".. 250lbs.. long armed, long legged)... so stands and blinds are already tight quartered regardless.. but at least in practice (havent deployed the bow on a hunt yet with the new attachments) I havent seen anymore or less maneuver challenge than already experienced.. and in terms of adding weight to the bow.. while I know theres roughly another pound hanging out there now between the two bars and their mounting brackets.. Im finding that the better balanced bow is actually easier to hold out in front of me at full draw than it was when it was a bit lighter..
Is anyone else out there using longer stabilizers? most of the bows I see on the racks at places like Scheels and Cabelas that are "hunt ready" packages all still come with a basic 6" variant of some sort.. doesnt matter if we're talking an elite, prime, matthews, hoyt, bear, or PSE.. but most of the pros and celebrity type bow hunters out there (John Dudley, Cam Hanes, Chris Bee, etc..etc..) all seem to be shooting long (some longer than mine) bars in the front and back..
A buddy of mine asked me to try out his 10" front stabilizer and 8" rear bar... I noticed an immediate difference in using the longer (albeit not any heavier) front bar... keeping the pin on the target was noticeably easier.. I toyed around with the rear bar for about a week, but never really saw much improvement in helping with torque or rebound like the interwebs tell me I should be seeing...
My overly simple brain said "if a 10" bar improved things that much over a 6".. maybe a 12" bar is what you should try"... so I bought one... and even just those extra 2" have further improved shot stability (or maybe it just appears that way... placebo effect? the truth is I have been shooting 25-40 arrows a day, every day, for the last couple of months.. some of the improvements I would guess are coming out of repetition and practice...)..
Ive now decided to give the rear/side bar another try and picked up a 10" bar for that..
The principle complaints I see online against longer front bars and adding on rear bars are the obvious... extra weight on the bow.. and the bow becomes a larger overall package, making it more difficult to maneuver in tighter quarters like a bow blind or a tree stand..
For me.. Im built like a sasquatch (6'4".. 250lbs.. long armed, long legged)... so stands and blinds are already tight quartered regardless.. but at least in practice (havent deployed the bow on a hunt yet with the new attachments) I havent seen anymore or less maneuver challenge than already experienced.. and in terms of adding weight to the bow.. while I know theres roughly another pound hanging out there now between the two bars and their mounting brackets.. Im finding that the better balanced bow is actually easier to hold out in front of me at full draw than it was when it was a bit lighter..
Is anyone else out there using longer stabilizers? most of the bows I see on the racks at places like Scheels and Cabelas that are "hunt ready" packages all still come with a basic 6" variant of some sort.. doesnt matter if we're talking an elite, prime, matthews, hoyt, bear, or PSE.. but most of the pros and celebrity type bow hunters out there (John Dudley, Cam Hanes, Chris Bee, etc..etc..) all seem to be shooting long (some longer than mine) bars in the front and back..