Well I was at it again tonight in my quest for my new bow. I went to Rainier Archery and I had some great customer service from a guy named Jim and another guy whose name escapes me right now. I was a little apprehensive about the place from some of the comments I have seen posted here but I found them to be courteous and knowledgeable and they were willing to take plenty of time with me.
I tried out three bows tonight: The Elite Z28, The Hoyt Alphamax 32 and the Hoyt Alphamax 35. First off, all three of these bows were awesome. The bows were set up for 29 inch draws at 65 lbs. All three were very smooth shooting bows and seemed to be a smoother valley than the new Bowtech's I tried a couple weeks ago. The wall on the Z28 was the crispest so to speak. I could have held all three at full draw for a long while however. The Hoyt's seemed to have the smoothest draw into the wall however to me, if that makes sense.
The Z28 performed well and definitely has the speed advantage over the Hoyt's but The Alphamax 32 just felt the most natural in my hand. The wall on the 35 wasn't as solid as on the 32. With the 35 I had to make sure and pay attention to holding it back because if I let it creep it wanted to go. The one thing I noticed with the 32 that I didn't notice with the other bows or the Bowtech's that I had previously shot was some vibration within the riser once I made the shot. However after putting a stabilizer on the bow ended up taking care of the vibration. The weight of the three bows were all around 4 lbs. The 32 was 3.9 lbs, the 35 was 4.1, and I don't remember the exact weight on the Elite but it was right in there with the other two. The weight of the new Hoyt's was an improvement to me over previous heavier Hoyt's I have held.
As far as fit and finish all looked very nice. The Z28 was in the AT colors (black riser with camo limbs). From some of the photos I had seen of the Alphamax I wasn't impressed with how the tec riser curved around the back of the grip. Some of the photos I had seen made the gap behind the grip look bigger than it actually is. However, after seeing the Alphamax in person, it is very cool and sleek looking. Previously the Admiral had been at the top of my list for a new bow. As of right now it has been unseated from that spot by the Hoyt Alphamax 32 with the Elite Z28 a close second. I want to shoot the 32 and the Z28 one more time just to make sure tho.
