Chek-Mate Crusader T/D Review

Disclaimer: This is a review from one archer who's shot this bow enough to feel that she knows the bow well and thus is biased towards the short-draw archer who likes performance and comfort, preferably in the same bow.

Specifications
Bowyer: Marc Moriez
Length: 64"
Poundage: 48 lbs @ 28"
Design: 2-piece reflex-deflex takedown
Limb woods: Pacific yew with red actionwood core
Riser materials: Black phenolic with Pacific yew and red actionwood stripes
Arrows: 45-50 lb spined cedar shafts with 125 grain shafts
Interesting Tidbit: The limbs have a double taper in the actionwood layer.

For more information, go to http://www.recurves.com







The Story:
I pretty much fell in love with this bow when I test-shot it. Originally, I had actually been debating between this bow and the Chek-Mate Longhorn but opted for the more radical model out of curiosity. Suffice to say, it seems that fate has a way of doing strange things and I now have a Chek-Mate Crusader in my hand. I will openly admit that I do have a real soft spot for Chek-Mate bows because their grips are very comfortable and fit me extremely well.

The take-down mechanism is very discreet compared to other take-down mechanisms I have seen, although not quite as discreet as the socket mechanism I've seen on some other longbows. The bolt mechanism, while hard to see, does worry me a bit when it gets wet and thus I don't like to take this bow apart except when absolutely necessary such as to dry things out or when travelling in a vehicle that won't let me take it in one piece. The 64" length is a great length because it adds stability but is still short enough for me to fit into my little Honda Civic without too much trouble (ie, I can still have a human passenger in the car). The cut on the phenolic riser is also discreet and has been mistaken for "decoration", making this a very sleek and elegant 2-piece design. The downside to this design is that I can't change the limb weight/length, but given the applications for this bow, I'm not too worried about that.

The bow draws extremely smoothly and is hands-down one of the most comfortable bows I've shot from draw to follow-through. The bow isn't quite as center-cut as my other "Alpha" bow (ie, the Four Winds Phoenix T/D) but the increased comfort from a combination of the lower draw weight and longer length compensates for the slower speed. This is definitely not a particularly fast bow, but neither is it a slug.

After an initial learning curve in getting used to the bow and tuning in, I have found this bow to be a very consistent shooter. This bow feels a bit picky about what I shoot through it even with a relatively high brace-height (7.5") and it took a fair amount of trial and error to figure out that shaft/point and nock location and brace height combination worked best. Once tuned in, though, the bow itself is very forgiving -- it takes pretty poor form to really mess up the shot and as long as I'm consistent in my form, good or bad, my groups are tight. In a nutshell, if I get an outlier with reasonably matched arrows, then I know that I did something wrong and typically what I did wrong. This is an all-around a well-made shootable bow.

Pros: Very comfortable riser, very precise (when form is consistent), nearly silent when well-tuned, very forgiving, aims very intuitively
Cons: Can be a bit hard to find shafts that spine right, can be hard to maneuver in tight spots or cars, gets mistaken for a Black Widow, bolt can be misplaced
Best for: Target shoots of all sorts especially under 40 or 50 yards, both 3D and spots.
Recommended For: Archers who want a comfortable, stable, and forgiving bow with a blend of traditional and contemporary look.

Overall verdict: Easily one of the best bows I've ever shot and is tied with the Four Winds Phoenix T/D as my personal favorite bow. This bow may have the slight edge over the Four Winds because it is an easier bow for me to shoot in an endurance shoot and if old age drains my strength.

Coming up next: Chek-Mate Longhorn

Review of Four Winds "Phoenix" T/D Longbow

Disclaimer: This is a review from one archer who's shot this bow enough to feel that she knows the bow well and thus is biased towards the short-draw archer who likes performance and comfort, preferably in the same bow.

Specifications
Bowyer: Lester Pynne
Location: Silver Springs, FL
Length: 60"
Poundage: 42.5 lbs @ 24" (~54 lbs @ 28")
Design: 3-piece reflex-deflex takedown
Limb woods: Black walnut with elm core
Riser woods: Tigerwood and shedua with maple accent stripe
Arrows: Gold Tip Traditional 3555 with 145 grain points

For pictures, go here-- my camera seems to have decided to go on strike so old pictures will have to do.

The story: Four Winds Archery may not be as well-known as Black Widow, Morrison, Treadway, River's Edge, Chek-Mate, Martin, or Fred Bear, but the bows I've encountered from them are impressive. I pretty much fell in love the Phoenix T/D when I first laid eyes upon it and test-shot it for the first time. A friend of mine had one and being impulsively curious about bows that catch my eye, I just had to test-shoot it after making sure the draw weight was reasonable. I was already intrigued by the numerous bow designs from Four Winds, but something about that 3-piece take-down longbow mesmerized me. I had spent quite a bit of time discussing with Lester (over the span of a few months) what I'd want in a longbow and although I hadn't fully zeroed in on the Phoenix quite yet, something kept taking me back to that bow.

Initially, I got the bow at 45 lbs @ 24" (translating to around 56-57 lbs @ 28") and it did take a lot of effort to figure out where the nock point should go, what brace height to use, and what shaft/point combination was optimal. It was well worth the effort and I was amazed at the blistering speeds I got from this bow. I remember I put a 550ish grain wooden arrow (tuned for my 45-46 lbs @ 28" Chek-Mate Hunter 1 recurve) and ran that through a chronometer and got readings of around 160 feet per second. Eventually, I realized that I didn't have wooden shafts that were stiff enough for this bow even if I cut the arrows really short and put really light points on because it is a high-poundage, center-cut bow designed for speed and switched to some stiffer carbon arrows.

I did run into some problems early on with this bow with the finish cracking and bubbling in the limbs, but each time something came up, help was within a phone call and a 45 minute drive away to fix things up for me. On the last refinishing, after he had figured out how to deal with humidity issues that were affecting the finish's appearance, I also had him knock a bit of weight off because I wanted to be able to shoot this bow for more than 40-50 shots at a time. Plus I do have to deal with academics-related muscular atrophy and I wanted to make sure that I can shoot this bow even if my strength faded from too much time as a desk jockey.

Aiming this bow was a bit of a challenge for me at first because it shoots so flat and the center cut did throw me up, having been used to a Chek-Mate Hunter 1 for a long time. Once I got used to this bow, I was amazed at how I was able to easily shoot out to 50 and 60 yards. This was, of course, assuming that my form was really good and I hadn't been tenderized in the gym too much. When my form is good and everything's consistent, it's amazing with the kind of groups I can get with this bow. I swear, I've had a handful of times where I've had some really tight groups at 20, 30, and even 40 yards that made me wonder what on earth I was doing shooting a compound bow with a serious field setup. On average, I do get some solid groups, just that they tend to be in the wrong place on the target, but I do have my bad days where everything scatters and the great days where I actually get the tight groups where I'm looking. This is truly a bow that amplifies everything in the shooter, although it amplifies the good much more than the bad.

Pros: Very comfortable riser, excellent customer service, extremely fast, very precise (when form is consistent), nearly silent when well-tuned, versatility due to take-down design
Cons: A bit sensitive to errors in form and has a bit of vibration that can easily be corrected with sufficient tinkering, can be a bit picky with nock-set and arrows
Best for: Shooting long (=> 35 yards) distances, spot-shoots where precision is essential
Recommended For: Anyone who enjoys a comfortable and precise yet high-powered bow, is willing to make a long-term investment, and has a decent amount of patience and perseverance.

Overall verdict: Easily one of the best bows I've ever shot and is tied with the Chek-Mate Crusader T/D as my personal favorite bow. If I could change anything about the bow I have now, it would be getting an extra set of limbs for those days where I'm not feeling as strong or have an endurance (multi-day or 100+ shots) shoot.

Coming up next: Chek-Mate Crusader T/D

TBoF Fall Shoot 2008

As always, just click on the title for the full set of pictures at their "natural" quality -- I only posted selected pictures on this entry but there's a lot more really good ones on my website. I also have all of the pictures here on my Webshots site.

Attendance was really light this time around for various reasons but it was quite a fun event. I enjoyed not being backed up and being able to go from target to target. Of course, it does help when I shoot reasonably well too! I took my Chek-Mate Crusader T/D longbow (as of yet un-named but it should be "named" shortly) -- a nice 64", 48 lbs @ 28" reflex-deflex longbow that's just all-around comfortable to shoot. Usually I'll compete in the traditional class, which is recurve and/or non-plant (bamboo is a grass) arrows but this time I felt like mixing things up. I broke a handful of my previous records:

Total Score: 405 Previous High: 400
Minimum Number of Misses per Round: 1 Previous Low: 3
Total Misses Overall: 8 Previous Total: 11
Maximum Score in Single Round: 150 Previous High: 140
Number of Arrows Lost/Broken: 0 Previous Low: 2

So yeah, I shot really well overall, even if I wasn't able to pull ahead of my other half like I sometimes do with either of my recurves or Sparrowhawk!

Once I get around to it, I plan to start posting some reviews for the various bows I shoot. Of course, there's always a nice salt shaker full of salt to take with my reviews with because what works (or doesn't work) for me may completely back-fire on someone else.

Vehicular SN-2 Sucks

As much as I hate all the hassles of dealing with dingleberries who don't understand the concept of a space cushion in traffic and the woefully inefficient system of dealing with such entities, the one nice thing is that I get to drive vehicles I otherwise wouldn't get to drive. Admittedly part of it was because there was a shortage of small vehicles similar to a Honda Civic -- my choices seemed to be limited to van (which reeks of the horrors of being a mommy), SUV (also something that has the chained to a family vibe), some other horrendous family oriented vehicle (pinkish station wagon or full-sized car), or a truck. Being driven by balls I wish I had and not wishing to emit family vibes, I went for the truck. Plus it's great for hauling back any 3D targets I might win or otherwise get my paws on this weekend!