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
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