Kris87
Senior Member
Ok, I did a lot of testing, shooting, measuring, then a lot of redoing all that. I'm sure I will leave out a lot, so ask questions about certain topics, or certain bows if you have them. I will probably write more about new bows for this year, since you can find info about older bows elsewhere. Also, if you don't like my chrono findings, then do your own test. 
I like chrono speeds for comparison purposes, and tuning changes only. Ok, that's out of the way. Couple more things...some of the bows I had were personal friends, and they had heavy peeps, etc...I made adjustments for those variables. Only one bow was not the same DL, made that change. I had a couple of bows down on poundage, so noted that. I won't get into draw comparisons too much because of that, only the ones that were same DW.
So here goes my $.02 on what I had....
Gonna start with the Defiant 30. Its the bow on the left.
I'm gonna make this short and not sugar coat anything. I hated this bow. Been a long time since I hated a Hoyt. Or really any other bows, but this one I didn't care for at all. I was very let down on what Hoyt did this year. Here are the positives...its super quiet, most quiet bow they've ever made. Its not a barn burner, but not slow. Has a good BH, a relatively easy draw, no dump into the valley. I liked the limb stop. It is the firmest back wall Hoyt has ever had. I'm not 100% sold I shoot them better over terminal cable stops, so the verdict is still out. I forgot to mention the string angle. Its legit. A nice improvement. It actually has the same string angle as my CS34 at full draw. I put both in the draw board and measured where the string comes off the cam. The bad...it has very little letoff in the B slot on the #3 cam at 28.5" DL. I know this has to be a popular length, and it just sucked. The cam felt like it didn't rotate to where I wanted it to in the draw curve. I've shot enough Hoyts to know, and it just fell short. It really had less valley than my CST ZT from last year which is saying a lot. I think its ridiculous that you have to have special presses for this bow....Lame! I do appreciate the limb pocket change they made, they're the best in the business. And I still love the grip. Hoyt hands down has the most comfortable, repeatable grip of any company. I do love that. I also like the bridged riser, and the offset stabilizer hole. It really balances the bow...which other companies would offset the front stab hole. Bottom line, the bow is an underperformer. There are bows out there now that are faster, just as quiet, just as nice a draw as this one, and have a better valley and letoff. When that's the case, I just don't see what the draw to this bow would be. Its just very blah to me...brutal, I know. Here were the specs for the Defiant. 68.2#, 28.5 DL, 7 1/8" BH, 15# of holding weight, 309fps with 350gr arrow, 279fps with 430gr arrow, 332fps IBO.
Ok...next up is the Xpedition Xcentric 7. Not sure how I missed taking a pic of this bow, but I did. I had never had one of these, but really wanted to knowing they were similar to Obsessions but with hybrid cams. The bow really blew my socks off. Its a sweet design, very easy to tune as long as you have a draw board. I basically made one change to the control cable to get the cams starting position right, then I set the bottom limb stop at the desired DL, moved the top stop into position, and it shot a perfect bareshaft bullet hole. I was like, is that all I have to do? Dang, that's awesome. The bow draws very smoothly, but stacks weight at the back of the cycle. The fit and finish was very good, it was stupid quiet. The grip is good, very narrow, not much torque that I experienced. Ok, the bad...and there's only one, but it was big for me. It DUMPED into the wall. So bad, its audibly noticeable when the stops hit the limbs. If you're not paying attention, then the stops literally slam into the limb making noise. I was very intrigued by this. It was mostly noticeable when I shot other bows back to back against it. If I shot it by itself, I could manage it, so maybe it wouldn't be a big deal if its all you shot. I just know what it did for me. But all in all, this bow is a shooter. Its quiet, easy to tune, and fast. Here were its specs.... 64.8#, 28.0 DL, 6 7/8" BH, 10.8# holding weight, 303fps with 350gr arrow, 276fps with 430gr arrow, 342fps IBO.
Gonna go grab some dinner and hopefully throw the Obsession M7 up tonight. Its the bow I spent the most time with. Some good stuff on it.....standby.
I like chrono speeds for comparison purposes, and tuning changes only. Ok, that's out of the way. Couple more things...some of the bows I had were personal friends, and they had heavy peeps, etc...I made adjustments for those variables. Only one bow was not the same DL, made that change. I had a couple of bows down on poundage, so noted that. I won't get into draw comparisons too much because of that, only the ones that were same DW. So here goes my $.02 on what I had....
Gonna start with the Defiant 30. Its the bow on the left.
I'm gonna make this short and not sugar coat anything. I hated this bow. Been a long time since I hated a Hoyt. Or really any other bows, but this one I didn't care for at all. I was very let down on what Hoyt did this year. Here are the positives...its super quiet, most quiet bow they've ever made. Its not a barn burner, but not slow. Has a good BH, a relatively easy draw, no dump into the valley. I liked the limb stop. It is the firmest back wall Hoyt has ever had. I'm not 100% sold I shoot them better over terminal cable stops, so the verdict is still out. I forgot to mention the string angle. Its legit. A nice improvement. It actually has the same string angle as my CS34 at full draw. I put both in the draw board and measured where the string comes off the cam. The bad...it has very little letoff in the B slot on the #3 cam at 28.5" DL. I know this has to be a popular length, and it just sucked. The cam felt like it didn't rotate to where I wanted it to in the draw curve. I've shot enough Hoyts to know, and it just fell short. It really had less valley than my CST ZT from last year which is saying a lot. I think its ridiculous that you have to have special presses for this bow....Lame! I do appreciate the limb pocket change they made, they're the best in the business. And I still love the grip. Hoyt hands down has the most comfortable, repeatable grip of any company. I do love that. I also like the bridged riser, and the offset stabilizer hole. It really balances the bow...which other companies would offset the front stab hole.
Bottom line, the bow is an underperformer. There are bows out there now that are faster, just as quiet, just as nice a draw as this one, and have a better valley and letoff. When that's the case, I just don't see what the draw to this bow would be. Its just very blah to me...brutal, I know. Here were the specs for the Defiant. 68.2#, 28.5 DL, 7 1/8" BH, 15# of holding weight, 309fps with 350gr arrow, 279fps with 430gr arrow, 332fps IBO.Ok...next up is the Xpedition Xcentric 7. Not sure how I missed taking a pic of this bow, but I did. I had never had one of these, but really wanted to knowing they were similar to Obsessions but with hybrid cams. The bow really blew my socks off. Its a sweet design, very easy to tune as long as you have a draw board. I basically made one change to the control cable to get the cams starting position right, then I set the bottom limb stop at the desired DL, moved the top stop into position, and it shot a perfect bareshaft bullet hole. I was like, is that all I have to do? Dang, that's awesome. The bow draws very smoothly, but stacks weight at the back of the cycle. The fit and finish was very good, it was stupid quiet. The grip is good, very narrow, not much torque that I experienced. Ok, the bad...and there's only one, but it was big for me. It DUMPED into the wall. So bad, its audibly noticeable when the stops hit the limbs. If you're not paying attention, then the stops literally slam into the limb making noise. I was very intrigued by this. It was mostly noticeable when I shot other bows back to back against it. If I shot it by itself, I could manage it, so maybe it wouldn't be a big deal if its all you shot. I just know what it did for me. But all in all, this bow is a shooter. Its quiet, easy to tune, and fast. Here were its specs.... 64.8#, 28.0 DL, 6 7/8" BH, 10.8# holding weight, 303fps with 350gr arrow, 276fps with 430gr arrow, 342fps IBO.
Gonna go grab some dinner and hopefully throw the Obsession M7 up tonight. Its the bow I spent the most time with. Some good stuff on it.....standby.
Last edited:
