Often we make decisions in our lives that are life altering. These decisions often lead us down unknown paths, some of which may be good, and others bad. Past experience and pleasant outcomes are normally the driving factors in our decision making process. This thought process is what drives hard core hunters when partaking in hunt preparation.
I believed for many years in 2 different bow companies at which will remain nameless. One of which I held a staff position with. The purpose of this review is not to brand bash, but has been written to share my experience with one of the new companies on the block, Athens Archery.
When I first heard the sound of the UPS truck show up in front of my house my heart skipped a beat. I knew at that moment that the following days would be like going on a new and exciting expedition. Even with the new territory that lay ahead there was still that bit of reservation parked in my memory banks from all the successful hunts that I have experienced in the past. It is very difficult to ignore the pleasant outcomes and venture into new territory.
Before ordering my Athens Exceed bow, I was offered an opportunity to shoot a different model and was extremely impressed. Being a bigger guy I was interested more in the Exceed than any of the other bows that Athens offers.
My first night of ownership consisted of installing a Trophy Taker Pronghorn rest set to drop after the first 1.5 inches of travel, a peep sight, a Trophy Taker 7 pin sight and a string loop without tied on nocks. By not locking in the string loop allows me the added flexibility for tuning if needed.
I put the bow away and was going to wait for day 2 to complete the process of setting up my new bow. Of course like any kid with a new toy would do, I grabbed the bow and continued my quest for putting together the ultimate combination. I set the arrow to bisect the burger holes exactly down the middle and upon recommendation from Tom Parkinson, with Parkinson’s bow strings, set the center shot to 1/32 of an inch inside of 7/8’s of an inch. Using levels I set the arrow position to an exact 90 degree angle to the string. Though it was well beyond midnight at this time, the job would not be complete until I set the 2nd axis on my bow sight.
Day 2 brought mixed results in trying different stabilizer combinations. Stabilizer decisions and experiments are critical not only from brand to brand, but also model to model. I was used to a bow that tipped back with no added weight, The Athens Exceed is a bit top heavy with stabilizers of any weight. I quickly found that I was going to have to rethink my stabilizer situation for this particular bow. With my shooting style I like the feeling of a bow launching straight forward upon shot execution.
When shooting I not only like the bow to have a certain feel upon proper shot execution, I am also a stickler for being able to hold steady on the target without having to fight in an upward or downward direction. Ones bow should be able to hold steady on the spot without effort. Fighting outside forces would be detrimental to subconscious shot execution. With this being said I settled on a 7 inch Octane stabilizer with no added extra weight. This gave me a bit of added stabilization without extra weight to pull the bow forward. For reference purposes I was setting this bow up for hunting only. V-Bars or knuckle attachments would easily overcome the top heavy feeling for target shooters.
I pressed further into the tuning process. The first being tiller tuning. I struggled a bit to get the pin up into the target. This was easily remedied by adding rotations to the top limb bolt, and subtracting rotations from the bottom limb bolt. It took about ½ to ¾’s of a turn in the proper directions to settle the pin on the target without any struggle. Now that I felt I could hold steady and execute my shots properly it was time to move on to the next step.
We all have our beliefs and methods for bow tuning. I rely on one tuning method and that is bare shaft tuning at 20 yards. The one thing to remember when doing this is that form must be darn near perfect and remember to discount any wild bare shaft’s when proper shot execution is not accomplished.
With the bow being set at the above specs I was very surprised when right out of the gate I was stacking arrows without fletches, right with my fletched arrows. I now had a bow that would not only send an arrow directly into its mark without any form of correction (fletches), but also had a bow that would hold steady for subconscious shot execution. With the added confidence of having a properly tuned bow and the ability to concentrate solely on aiming, it was now time to start the next step.
Athens bows have awesome IBO speed ratings. Even with these higher IBO ratings I tend to be old school in a lot of ways. I find that I can shoot any fixed blade broadhead out of a properly tuned bow at 270 fps. I knew ahead of time that I would probably have to shoot on the lower spectrum of the poundage scale to achieve my desired outcome. With the bow set at 64 lbs and an arrow weight of 431 grains I was able to achieve 269.9 fps.
I ordered my bow at 28 ½ inches. Over the years I have found my draw length getting shorter and shorter. I like to pull very hard off the wall of the bow. The wall on the Athens Exceed is second to none with draw stops installed on each cam. I also found the claimed draw lengths of Athens bows to be right on the money!
The range in which I was shooting at was 2 hours from having their fun league. I was invited to participate in their event. I eagerly awaited their start time while doing final adjustments to my sight and verifying my tune by also mixing in bare shaft arrows. The 7:00 hour arrived and it was game on. By this time I was feeling very confident in my set up. (Even with “just for fun” events, I have a hard time keeping my competitive side from showing.)
30 targets were placed at various angles and positions within the building. As a way of preserving the targets, the individual that runs the league places small dots well outside the vitals. This dot represented an 11 on each target. I knew that it was critical for me to gain the needed confidence before heading into the bear woods this spring so I opted to shoot at only the 11’s and let the scenario play out as it may. After only 2 days of tuning and preparation I was pleasantly surprised to hit 22 of the 30 small dots with the remaining arrows being in close proximity to the dot.
With the outcome and setup process of my new Athens Exceed and playing out real life scenarios, I now have experienced enough pleasant outcomes to give myself the confidence in the path that I have chosen. I have erased any doubts in the capabilities of Athens Archery Bows in a very short period of time. If you read this review remember that there are other bow companies out there than can also make outstanding products! At the top of my list is Athens Archery!
Chad Baart/ Hunters Journey Magazine
