Hi everybody!
As I mentioned in previous posts, I haven’t really
gotten on with my Bowtech Brigadier despite my perseverance, and so I made the
decision to sell it. I listed it up on the Facebook ‘Archery Equipment
for Sale or Trade’ page as that seems to be quite busy, asking £300 for
it or open to trades for Bowtech Centre Pivot bows.
I had a couple of responses, and one from an archer that had
a blue flame 2008 Bowtech Commander in 50-60lb to offer. He was looking for a
more Target specific bow, and the Commander is exactly what I was looking for
in a bow – it is from the same family as the Guardian and very similar
but it is 4” taller and has slightly different cams. I took the plunge
and we set up the swap.
Now that is a bit more like it! I really liked this bow from
the moment I took it out of the package which is a really good sign. It feels
very familiar because I am used to shooting the Guardian and the condition was
superb so I got to work setting her up.
The strings are fuzzy and a bit shot out, but they will do
for the last few weeks of the indoor season and I will put new strings on it
before the next indoor season rolls around. I served the section behind the
string stop as this was bare and the string was getting worn from it, and I
fitted a peep and served it in. The cams were a little under-rotated as well so
I twisted up the cables to get this sorted.
I had a little free time one morning that I was off work so
I went up the club and did a walkback to get the centreshot correct, and set
the draw weight at 55lb. Shooting through paper gave a slight left tear but not
enough to get into a twist over – the arrow flight looks fine so I left
it alone for now. I had enough time to roughly balance the stabilizers and line
up the scope to get a sight mark before I had to leave for the day.
I was able to go up to the club the following evening and
got there nice and early, so decided to shoot a scored round to get a feel for
what this bow is like. I shot 2 ends of sighters and then went into a
Portsmouth round and started off with a string of 6 inside out 10’s and
shot a consistent round, finishing on 583/600 which is only 2 points off my
personal best. On the recurve 10 it would have been a 596/600.
I was very impressed with the performance of this bow,
especially considering it was its first serious outing and it has only had a
rough setup the day before. I really enjoyed shooting it, it didn’t feel
like hard work at any point and the draw cycle is great. The Guardian and the
CPXL have slightly harsher draw cycles, but they are both faster bows so that is to be expected.
My only criticism of the Commander is that it is quite
heavy. It is a tall bow with extra hardware for the centre
pivot mechanism which adds weight, but with the stabilizers balanced
it feels ok. Fatigue may become an issue on a long round, I did make a
few sloppy shots from my bow arm getting tired on that 583 but it was shot
quickly, in a real tournament everything is a lot slower so there is more
recovery time between ends and I expect it won’t be such an issue.
I am never thrilled about
letting go of a bow, but on this occasion it was the right thing to do and has paid off. I have a new bow for Target that definitely suits me better and is a dream to shoot. Unfortunately it has come as the indoor season is coming to a close, but that gives me all year to get new strings on it, get them settled and tuned in
ready for the next indoor season.
So there we are.. the Insanity CPXL for Field, the Guardian for 3D/Bowhunter and the Commander for Target - perfect!
