Brandon: All right, welcome back everybody. This is episode three of the Archer's Path. And on today's episode, we will be going over the archery industry technology, where it was when Jacob and I started and where it is now and the changes we've seen along our paths. ⁓ So I hope you guys enjoy the episode and ⁓ here we go. Alright Brandon, so when you started, you were talking about the equipment that you had. You've mainly focused on archery when you got, er, on hunting. Right. When you started. So what, compared to what you started with, to what you are now, I mean, how much difference is there on your hunting rig in itself? It's insane, to be honest. ⁓ So my hunting rig, like when I first started, it was, bare bones, nothing really fancy about it. You know, it was, I started hunting with, I want to say it was the brute, the PSE brute, was when I actually first started like getting into hunting. Probably sixth grade-ish, seventh grade maybe. But that hunting rig was nothing fancy. It was your generic whisker biscuit. And I'll be honest, I can't even remember the name of the sites that was on the bow, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. was probably, if I had to guess, some Walmart sites on it. no, that, those Walmart sites did the job. You know, that was the beauty of it is that everything was so simple. You know, the simplicity of a bow and the things that went on a bow, at least to my knowledge at that present time was what made it easy. You know, you could, if you broke a plastic housing on your site, you could run to Walmart, you know, and you'd go buy another set of True Glows for $25. You know, and within a half hour of throwing them bad boys back on the boat, you could be right back on target. Never once did I hear about running a back bar. ⁓ So it was the little like four inch, five inch little stabilizers. It wouldn't even stabilize. There's more of vibration dampener than anything. And just had that on the front. A whisker biscuit. Now that I mentioned it, it might've been true glow sights. probably were. Five pin horizontal, maybe four pin, but you you do the whole 20, 30, 40, and you figure out some reference points once you see a little daylight and then you you bank on not needing your rangefinder anymore after that. ⁓ yeah. Now my dad, ⁓ he tried to rely on judging. He got good at it. He did. It came with time. For him it was years and years and years of guessing, verify it with a range finder. Guessing, verify it with a range finder. And he wouldn't do that just at home, he would do that in the woods. He'd look and find a big oak tree or something and be like, 27 yards, throw a rangefinder on it, 28. You know, he'd get really close, you know, and he got really good at it. And when you're talking about deer hunting, mean, that's, that is, that's paramount. Yeah. You know, because not every time you don't have the opportunity to throw a rangefinder up every time. Yeah, for sure. Um, so yeah, like I said, my, setup was very bare bones, you know, I can't even remember the name of the index release I was using. I mean, this was, you're talking 20 years ago for me. Yeah. And Nothing super fancy. Yeah, I can't tell you how fast the bow was shooting. I can't tell you what my arrows weighed none of that because you know being the the backyard bow shooter we didn't care you you you threw some arrows together and You you dodged your bow to that arrow weight. Mm-hmm. That's really what it came down to you You know, we weren't out here trying to sling arrows at a hundred yards or we wouldn't speed chasing at the time it was get a bow that's accurate and make an ethical shot using it. But to see where it's come from then to even 10 years later, the amount of technology advancements in archery, when you've got... win was that 2004, 2005ish, you know, when I started hunting probably. Bows weren't really advertising wicked speeds. and the ones that were were blowing up. Right, you But I mean you still had your speed chasers, you know, and my dad, 100 % at one point in his life was a speed chaser. You know, I tell my dad now that my current hunting bow is like with a 430 grain arrow, I'm slinging it at 290 feet per second. And he's like, I was clearing 300 feet per second, you know, in the early 2000s, late nineties, you know, with a bow that when you let go of it, it's something like two bamboo sticks slapping together. He's like, it might've been loud, but it was fast. And you know that age old saying goes, speed kills. So he was a speed chaser at one point in his life. And ⁓ I don't know, you know, like, and I think I mentioned it in a prior episode of me kind of getting out of the archery industry for a while, just trying to get through high school, ⁓ trying to figure out what I wanted to do, you know? And I will tell you that when I finally decided to get back in it, the industry had changed so much ⁓ that it was quite overwhelming for me. I didn't know what bow to shoot. I didn't know what bow I wanted. I didn't know what a slider sight was. I'm like, what is this? What is the point of a slider sight? Like, why do I need the option to bring my sights up and down? You know, like what is the purpose of this? And I'll be honest with you, I'm still not entirely sure why it's a thing, but it is. I can definitely see it in the target industry being a very valuable feature on a bow sight. I shoot a slaughter site now with my hun bows, but even then I've got multiple pins that I can 100 % I can be like, okay, here's a 20, 30, 40. And part of me still wouldn't even take a shot on an animal further than 50. And that's just the ethical side that doesn't want to take the opportunity to present myself with a bad shot. There's a lot that can happen in 50 yards. Right, you you're talking about between you and that deer or that animal, your wind might not be strong, but 30 yards down range it might be. And it should be strong enough just to blow that arrow off course a little bit. And now you've got an unethical shot that's going to make that animal suffer. So I don't know, it's the technology in, in Bose has definitely come a long way, but for me, it was an overwhelming reentry back into archery. Well, and you're getting to make the choice this time, whereas I'm sure when you were younger, your dad made that choice for you too. Yeah, you know, because I didn't know what I was doing and what I really wanted, you know, it was more of a, hey, let's, you want to get into bows? Let's get into bows. Here's a bow. He was getting you something to get by. Yeah. And being able to have that choice now has definitely made things a little more difficult. ⁓ yeah. You know, and I will say, getting back into it, I definitely fell into Matthew's. And don't get me wrong, I've had my issues with the bow with the derail. Right. You know, and... Granted, I got really lucky that nothing catastrophic happened. I just needed new strings and cables. ⁓ being able to have that option to choose what I want was the most overwhelming thing about it. Because now I'm looking at, do I want to ease my way back into it with something that's not brand new and take a chance on something being wrong with the bow? Or do I want to just go ahead and just dive head first into it and buy flagship? When I first shot my new Matthews Lift, I was amazed, to say the least. Because I remember shooting my Brute. The Bo Madness you had. Yeah, I remember shooting the Brute and the Bo Madness. And I thought the Bo Madness was a great boat. And that was a 2014 model boat. And even at its time, Yeah, it was probably a phenomenal bow. Yeah in comparison to other 14 models but man that that 10-year jump in technology between the bow madness and the lift X and I mean you were shooting the bow madness two years ago. It's not like it was right, you know, it's not like it was 2016. Yeah, this was in 21 22. Yeah. I mean we're talking about me shooting this bow relatively recent. Yeah in time so when I made the decision to go down to the great outdoors, I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. I'm going to go down there and see what they have. Had no intentions on buying a boat. I just wanted to go look. But my dad always told me, you don't go shopping for a car unless you're going to buy one. And the same way goes for anything like that. So I went down there and I was looking and man, I seen that lift X and Bush green. 29 and a half inch axle to axle and fell in love with that thing. And that was something else different for me too is that I've always shot a longer ATA. So when I went to the shorter ATA, my peep angle changed, string angle changed. I actually ended up losing distance on that bow because of my peep height. So if I wanted to even remotely further distances with that bow, I actually had to change my anchor point. That was hard. So I had to force myself into a different anchor point for me to allow myself a higher peep. So all of these things, I'm sure were definitely something that was going on in the late 90s, early 2000s. But for me, it wasn't. To be able to experience these things on my own and to see these things has definitely opened my eyes into what actually entails for like what the archery industry has done over time. Because now I'm witnessing it firsthand. And like you said, it's one thing if somebody's like, hey, here's this, shoot this. But to be able to fully experience the technological advances between then and now, you 100 % have to do it yourself. So seeing bow speeds, you're talking, not granted, these are IBO speeds, but you're seeing bows now advertised at 340 feet a second. IBO, and that's insane. To think that a bow is even capable of that. And mean, now you've got the Sicario. The Sicario, think, is IBO 360. Yeah, well know that's what the Bow-Tech had the RPM 360 that they came out with, and they claimed 360 on that. You know, so, and I want to say there's been people out there with the Sicario shooting hunting setups, 450 grain arrows at 330 feet a second. Yeah. I mean, it's wicked. That long draw length. Yep. Long draw length. And of course they're drawing 80 pounds on it. But nonetheless, I mean, that's, that's insane to see that bows are capable of this kind of thing now. Yeah. And it's very seldom you'll see now, at least from what I'm seeing. that you don't see a bow that is not dead in the hands. I mean, you know, I've shot PSE most of my life and just to be able to shoot that Matthews and how smooth it was. Now, I will say the Matthews definitely has a more aggressive. like draw cycle. ⁓ Which is something I'm not a fan of. It is a very aggressive draw cycle. The back wall is super steep. You know, it is a very, very steep back wall. So once you get into it, it's almost like you're holding nothing. And if you go to let down, you almost have to push the string forward. And then when you're drawing that. So when you do that, and I believe that's 100 % the reason I derailed. Because I went to let down and it scared me when it finally let loose. And then I tried to fight it. And when I tried to fight it, it just... You torqued it. Yeah. So I think that was the reason it let down. It definitely wasn't Matthew's fault. But... Just not being used to that technology. Exactly. You know, that... I wasn't used to... think I'm shooting 80 % let off, 85 % let off on a 70 pound bow. I mean, you're holding nothing when you get back there. And I don't even think my bow madness, maybe 60%, maybe, I don't know. So letting down on it was not a problem. It'd run. It would, you let go of it and it was like, okay, here you go, we're going. So that, just the technology alone and being able to tune your boat without a bow press. Yeah, that's come so far. Just in the past five years, that's come so far. So like when I actually got back into it and I'm starting to like research some of these boats and I seen the LiftX come out with this cam shift technology. I'm like, what is that? You know, and it's like, ⁓ you just take these two little Allen key screws out of the top of your limbs up here and now you can shift your cam in or out for paper tuning purposes and not have to use top hats. That's wicked. You know, now granted. It's not something you do all the time, but to have that availability. you don't have a bow press, or you're not comfortable taking your cam off the bow and then shimming your... Well, and just taking that hassle out of it. Yeah. So it's pretty impressive to see even the technology and being able to tune your bow at home and not have to go to the bow shop to do it. Well, Eats got the Yoke system now that has the adjustable... tension in the yoke so you can time the bow without putting it in the press and pressing your and twisting your cables. Really? Yeah, it's incredible. See, I didn't know that either. Yeah, they've come up with some crazy stuff. Yeah, so I mean, it's just for me, even to this day, right? And really just being back into archery over the last couple of years, I'm still overwhelmed with it. You know, like what you are actually capable of doing to a bow without going to a bow tech and saying, hey, I want this done. Yeah. I mean, if a man has a bow press and a draw board at home, you don't need a, you don't need a bow tech. Right. I mean, a bow technician, you know, it's crazy. And really even with the technology now, just about a draw board is all a man needs. Right. Just so you can check timing. Yeah. I mean, because I want to say most manufacturers now are going to some like sort of technology so that you can paper tune your cams without a bow press. Adjustable mods that you don't have to press the bow to change. Right. And those mods don't just change your draw length. They change a lot. Yeah. On the Matthews. Yeah. So, I mean, just to see alone just where Matthews has come from, you know, with the whole solo cam. to no cam. No cam. Yeah. And then now we're back into dual cam and the cam shift technology and it's, it's just mind blowing. Yeah, for sure. and I'm even seeing like, like you put this bow, you know, with its age. I can't even remember when the gen one TRX came out. Maybe 2018, maybe something like that. You put that bow beside my lift X. And my LiftX makes this thing look ancient as far as like tune ability and technology. So you're looking at a decade almost between those two bows. And to see where Matthews has come from here to there. It's insane. Yeah. It's crazy. So, I mean, I'm sure you've seen far more than I have. Yeah. Being in the target industry, you keep up with it. Right. And I mean, in the target industry, you're tune ability on everything. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of technology that changes in the competition side. You know, just for me kind of starting out, I'll touch on my hunting setup. my first hunting setup was that I killed a deer with was a Bo-Tech Assassin. Yeah. I had, it was a setup. You bought the full kit, right? And so it had TruGlo Apex sights on it. It had a whisker biscuit, one of their octane whisker biscuits. The little three, three brush whisker biscuit. ⁓ And then I was shooting a, ⁓ a Fletch Hunter Release, super old school. It was my grandpa's. And then I was using bloodline arrows. And I would shoot this in competition too. This exact same setup. ⁓ For the most part. ⁓ But yeah, it's just crazy going from that. in a hunting setup now and just a little short front bar, know, ⁓ killed two deer with it. And then started, once I started getting into the target stuff, pretty heavy and figuring out going to these ASAs and seeing the technology and stuff, it changed. I incorporated some of that into the hunt setup. so that's pretty cool. Yeah. Cause it's when you learn about your bars, your stabilization, things like that. So on the technology side for what has changed when I started shooting it was I was shooting the Botec Assassin for competition and I would put on a like a 30 inch aluminum Easton aluminum stabilizer and no weights on it just had this little silver ball on the end and so I had that on there and then I had a old Sherlock sight and I'd run that thing it was a like a long maybe an eight inch or 10 inch bar. And I'd stretch that thing out there as far as I could. I didn't know any idea what I was doing. I mean, my peep, there's no way anything was centered up. I was just guessing. I just wanted everything as big as I could make it. And I shot that thing for a long time. you know, all of, I never had a Target bow almost ever until I got a job, started working, saved up some money and bought a Chrome. Bo-Tech Commander. Chrome. Chrome. was chrome. I mean, I used, this is how corny I was. used tire shine, or like chrome shine for your wheels to polish this baby up. And it had black flame limbs. I thought I was something. The draw length, the shortest the draw length would go was like 27 and a half inches. At the time I was shooting 26 and a half. But I just had to have the bow, because I just thought it was the coolest thing ever. So here I'm shooting a bow that's an inch too long. I fought with that thing. I never did shoot it great, but I wanted to shoot it good so bad I couldn't stand it. ⁓ So that was my first experience with a Target bow. Ended up trading that thing in for ⁓ a Prime Impact. Now the Primes had the dual cams. You remember those that looked like it had Looked like it had four cams on it. know? it took it up to Bows and Ballistics, which is a little bow shop up in Hilderbrand. And Matt was the guy that ran that store up there. And I would go up there about every day after school and I'd bug those guys. Matt and Bubba. Bubba would work back there in the bow shop. And I would... annoy those guys. I'd bring my bow up there and just drive them crazy with all the questions and stuff. But they talked me into getting the Prime Impact because it actually fit me. Now we had to order a set of cams for the bow because they were the cam specifically is what changed the draw. So you had to change the whole cam. Cam and everything. The mod was built into the cam. So we had to order a set of cams. But man, when I got a draw length that fit me after shooting one for Two years that didn't. Buddy, I was on. It was something. And here I am, was shooting like a 31 inch doinker, heavy, heavy doinker stabilizer, no back bar, still shooting the old Sherlock site. ⁓ And ⁓ I really thought that I was something. ⁓ Locally, I was, mean, was, know, a lot of these guys that know me. around here, I was shooting good for my age. mean, I think you were a problem around here. Yeah. mean the, you know, shooting a youth class. Yeah. But I mean the high score that I shot was, I shot 36 up on a range. And so, I mean, it was, it was good times. Yeah. You know, it was fun. Everybody always wanted to see what I shot. You know, they'd be stopping, asking me how I was shooting on the range and things like that. But, So from that technology, when I finally got the Prime Impact, I went to my first ASA. When I went to the ASA, it was like opening a door to a whole new world of technology. Because at the ASA, you've got vendor setups on all these things. And I'd never even seen a vendor booth. Like I'd never even, you know, I'd heard, but there was, I didn't even have social media or anything back then. So I didn't. I didn't see Facebook posts or Instagram videos of people doing these things and what they're selling. ⁓ you know, so I go to ASA and it's just like, I mean, it's like I'm in Vegas flashing lights, everything's new, shiny. And I was going around talking to everybody, looking at all the different technology, ⁓ the releases, the stabilizers, the back bars, the... the lenses, different scope apertures. I I spent three hours at the Shrood booth just touching and picking up everything that they had. I just couldn't believe it. Ended up leaving my first ASA with a back bar, a whole new scope aperture. bought a Shrood Nomad. I think it's the same, the exact same one I'm still shooting here. That thing I bought in ⁓ 2014. Wow. Exact same one, hadn't changed it. Damon put the screws in this thing back in the owner's shrewd. I mean, it's, I just haven't changed much, you know, and, ⁓ Sometimes you don't have to. Yeah. Once you find a setup that works. Yeah. And a lot of people still shoot the old Nomad scopes. That's what you're shooting. ⁓ I just watched a video of Tim Gillenham talking about, that's what he still shoots too, old Nomad scopes. ⁓ But. I was just blown away. I'd never seen anything like it. There was a lot to take in, all the different eras. Around the house, you had people shooting either East and Fat Boys, or they were shooting Gold Tip 22s. That's all anybody ever shot. You didn't see all these different eras when I was coming up. ⁓ And so to go there and see these people shooting triple Xs and X cutters. I mean, I'd pick them things, I'd pull them out of a target and think I was holding on to a log. And it was just crazy. All of my friends were shooting these friends that I made while I was there, were shooting these fancy bows, all these scopes. And I just had no idea. And all the different colors too. Around here, you see camo and black. You didn't even know there was such thing as a. you know, cherry red, green, I mean, you just didn't see it. You know, I had no idea. ⁓ So that was a huge culture shock. So then you go into the years spent at the ASA and learning and talking to people and asking why you're doing this. What does this do? You know, how do you, how do you know how to set your bars up? Learning, learning how to use the technology properly. You go through the phase of getting sponsors and you know, ⁓ It's not super easy, but there are people that you can talk to the right people and you can get sponsorships for just about any company. ⁓ So that was cool, getting into that. Then I started shooting for Pearson. ⁓ Had the Ben Pearson bows and loved those, loved those guys. The technology, we met a great bow. ⁓ Really probably where I've seen the biggest shift in technology, BowTech always had the adjustable mods. When I was building bows with Pearson, the individual mods seemed to be more... I don't like using this word, but more accurate. They just seemed that you could really get them more true. You could get a true time on them. Cause there was no chance of it being different. Does that make sense? So I think that's honestly why, like Matthews has stayed with that. There's a lot of patents in archery that are very broad that you have to either pay patent rights to. ⁓ We actually had one in Pearson we would pay to Darten for some patents that we would use of their stuff. So there's all kinds of the technology in that realm that I learned working for Pearson. Being able to help design and understand why they cut out holes, where they cut out holes in the riser. And so learning that aspect of it was really cool. But the... The cams has been probably the biggest change. The cams and the tenability of the bows in the hunting and in the target industry. Right. You know, just not to go back over, but just the cam shift technology that Bow-Tec came out with, that threaded axle where you can turn that axle in and out to shim your cam is phenomenal. ⁓ The new technology with the Matthews, I haven't got to mess with it yet. I've seen it. So it's newer, especially since I've been out for a little while. I haven't got to see it out in my hands. So I'm curious to see what that looks like. The Elite has a technology where you can shim the limb pocket or shift the limb pocket back and forth to... I think Darten does that too, don't they? I think so. Again, I hadn't really... Yeah. I think Darten does that too because I vaguely remember seeing something not too long ago about the Darten sequel. Fine looking bow. you know, because Matthews got cam shift technology, Hoyt does something very similar to Matthews. I think Darten kind of wanted to step out of that. And the same for Elite. They didn't want to follow that. that shifting of the cam. it's probably patent. Right. Yeah. You know, not that they didn't want to maybe, maybe they couldn't. couldn't. So they had to figure out a different way to do any kind of like tuneability in the bow without a bow press. So they did the whole limb pocket shift. that's, that's pretty cool. And I think that's okay if you're doing real micro adjustments, you know, but I personally, and a lot of the people that I've talked to in the industry, the just the simplicity of being able to only move your cam. Botec I think has really won that gold medal because ⁓ I think even with the new Matthews, I think there's one limb that stays stagnant and then you're pushing and pulling on the other limb that allows you to move that cam in and out. So they're really close to that technology too. I think it's probably the next best technology. ⁓ But when Botec came out with the threaded axle, was... it was game changing for the industry. There was nothing else like it. ⁓ And I mean, they're still using that same technology on all their bows, ⁓ but it's made tuning a bow for any of these manufacturers. It's made tuning their bows so much easier. Torque tuning ⁓ for people that don't have much experience in archery getting getting them to be able to shoot and have success and still torque that bow a little bit. So they can learn. It's really hard to get into something when you have a hard time being successful in it. It makes you want to give up. But the technology makes it easier for people that don't have experience to pick something up and shoot it better. And I've said it. A hundred times anybody that knows me, I've said, you can take any of these new bows, any of them and make them shoot. You might have to work a little bit harder on some versus others, but the technology and every single new manufactured bow, there is not one that I don't feel confident that with enough time I could pick it up and make it shoot. I just think it's, think, We're so far past the idea of one bow being able to tune better than the other. Like if you have the time and you have the skill to shoot a bow the way they're supposed to be shot, I think anybody or anybody that has those sets of skills can pick up any bow and make it shoot. Right. So, no, I totally agree. Kind of doubling back earlier when you said something about the risers. It jogged my memory with what Matthews did with Bridge Lock. ⁓ yeah. You know, that was a huge deal too. That was so new to me. Yeah. You know, and the concept behind it is awesome. ⁓ yeah. And I love that other manufacturers picked up something similar to it. I can't really say for sure if it was Matthews that came out with the whole streamline idea first, but I think it was. It was like Hoyt was either short to follow or Matthews was short to follow one or the other because Hoyt came out with like the pick rail. Yeah. You know, where most of your modern bows now don't have side mounted sites. Yeah. You they don't mount to the side of the riser. The stabilizer is inside the riser now. ⁓ Well, it keeps you from having to counterweight that bow so much. Right. You know, like both of ours, if you look, we've got these back bars that are kicked way off to the side with these gobs of weights on them. And, ⁓ it makes it super critical to get that positioning exactly right. With this new technology where you're putting everything in the center of the bow and keeping that weight off the side. I didn't even think about it because I haven't owned any of it, of that new technology, but I was talking with a friend of mine and I didn't understand. Why? mean, cause you know, kind of like what you were talking about with hunting stuff. mean, I've got the set of pens that I've been using for 10, 15 years and it's, they're a good quality set of sites. But I was talking to my buddy and he was like, yeah, I really, I'm going on an elk trip and I've bought the Matthews and I really need to get this, all this new, the bars and the new rest and the new site. And I'm like, I don't understand why. But then he said, well, think about it. taking just the quiver on my arrow and I'm able to move it in almost two inches tighter to the bow. Yeah, that Matthews Lowepro quiver is amazing. You're pay for it. Yeah, but if you're going out on a once in a lifetime elk hunt, you know, and you've got a pack in and you're carrying all this and you get down to one final shot, you want as little to... be pulling against you as possible and packing all that weight and having that stability of that bow. I mean, it totally makes sense. I didn't get it at first with the hunting setup. I didn't understand why you need all that technology. People's been killing them with stick and string for a long time. The compound bow the same way for the long time, but it makes sense. I mean, I thought at first maybe it was a little bit of a money racket, but for somebody that's going out and pursuing that long chase animal, I mean, it makes a whole lot more sense to me than it did before having that conversation. Yeah. You know, and it can play into the target aspect too. Oh, absolutely. You know, you want to talk about balance and, you know, forgiveness of the bow, not having that, that offset, that counterweight. I mean, I can definitely see it being a beneficial technology for sure. Absolutely. You know, something you said earlier too about arrows. Mm hmm. Arrows have come a long way. You said in the target industry, you know, you'd never really seen 22s, 23s, and then you start pulling them out and they're so thick. They're just so wide, you know? And then for me, I grew up shooting like your standard diamond or arrow. And then just getting back into it, I'm learning that you got four mil shafts, five mil shafts. And I just recently started shooting the Easton Five-O's. putty, five mil shafts. It's hard to go back. ⁓ yeah. After you shoot a five mil shaft. It is amazing. I mean, I don't know what it is about them, but it just that five mil shaft alone cuts so much weight and you can still maintain your spine stiffness. You know, all of it is, it is absolutely amazing to see what these people are capable of doing with an arrow now. The 1k carbon weave, you know. like mind blowing. Yep. It's crazy. It's all came such a long way in our short time. mean, imagine what it's going to be like in 10 more years. That's what I'm saying. Like, how can it get much better? And then when our girls get into it, you know, when, when I can actually put a bow in my oldest hands, you know, and it's like, granted that's five years from now, maybe, you know, when, you know, eight, nine ish when I can put a youth bow in our hand. and start trying to get her into it, it's like, where's it gonna be then? What is a youth bow gonna be capable of? Because you think about it, in five years, Matthews may very well come up with something different. ⁓ they will. They have to. They have to, to continue to make a different product. to see that Matthews, to think that in five years, where Matthews could be with their bows, and maybe the mission. will then have Bridge Lock. And the whole, the integrate system for rests, you know? So I mean, maybe the mission adopts that when Matthews picks something else up. know? We'll look at, I mean, our equipment will be dated. You know, just to think that is like this top end, high end equipment that you could go out and buy today. You could go out and spend all the money in the world on this archery setup. and five years, 10 years, dated. There's gonna be something new. Something I'll be honest, there's an argument to be had about your equipment being dated when you walk out of the store with it. Yeah, that's true too. You know? Yeah. I mean, when you walk out of the store, like let's say for instance, I bought my LiftX the day it released. didn't, but let's say I did, right? Everybody and their brother knows that Matthew's already had another plan. Oh yeah. They already had another one in the works. So they came out with the lift and they immediately knew they were going to have a second generation of a lift coming right behind it. That was a tad bit faster, a little bit quieter, different color options maybe. But when the LiftX came out, everybody knew. They wanted the LiftX. Everybody wanted the LiftX. Especially Matthew Shooters. You take, you walk out of the store with the LiftX, day one it releases. It's dated. Because there is a bow already manufactured and in testing for the very next release date the following year that's gonna take its place. Yeah, granted, you might have the flagship bow of the year for Matthews, but that's it. You're just gonna have it for a year. I'm, you know, we're getting into the 3D season now and I feel like bow tech. is a little bit behind the ball because I've talked to several people and they've, ⁓ Bo-Tech has released their contingency plan for this year and it's changed significantly for what it was the past two or three years. And ⁓ a lot of the people that I've talked to would almost consider picking back up a Bo-Tech or picking up a Bo-Tech and trying to shoot one based on their new contingency plan. But they've released information, they're releasing a new target bow. And so here we are getting into our second ASA of the year and they haven't released this new bow yet. And everybody's like, why would I go and buy last year's flagship? Right. When they're fixing to release a new one, but here we are almost, you know, we're a fourth of the way through the season as of this weekend and they haven't even released it yet. And everybody's like, well, I'm, I'm already shooting the, you know, I've committed to the Matthews this year. So I'm gonna shoot it. And I'm like, cause And Bo-Tek's had a rough go of it. I'd love to see, on the target side, I'd love to see them get picked back up and that contingency plan they put out strong this year. So I'm curious to see what happens next year and see what they do with that. Yeah. So I'm actually excited. Like, I'm not going to sit and say that I'll shoot this for a couple of years, you know? But I would say in time. I wouldn't mind upgrading. Oh yeah. You know? It's in the works. Trying to get something that's a little more modern, a little more up to par with current biotechnology and things like that. To be able to start fresh with a new setup. And I don't know what that looks like. I can tell you right now that if I were to go buy one tomorrow, I'd get a title. I'd get a title 38. And I love them. The titles are awesome. I never shot one, but man, just to see the title and how just fresh it looks in comparison to even like the third gen TRX. ⁓ yeah. Even then, you you're talking about the title being just ages ahead of it. ⁓ yeah. In the technology that it offers. Yeah. As far as like your vibration dampers and that. The new Atlas, the Atlas is a phenomenal looking bug. Yeah. mean, that would be a shooter. So. Yeah, I mean it's definitely safe to say that technology has come light years. ⁓ yeah. Over the last 20 years. It's fun sitting back and thinking about it. Thinking about all the things that I've tried and things that I've done, things that I've seen and... Yeah. You know, heard of, seen people with. And it's crazy too because even myself having gone through a derail, the technology behind these bows can handle that. Yeah. I won't say they can handle dry fires and biting a stretch, but I'm saying you're on let down and you're in the midst of trying to take tension off the bow anyway, but it handled it. All I needed was new strings and cables. There's not a whole lot of blowing up anymore. You used to hear about it a lot, but there's not a lot of that anymore. I think they've got these limbs figured out and the angles and the pressure and what they can withstand. A lot of these bows... don't do it, but you can dry fire a lot of them. I've seen a lot of them get dry fired. mean, Rushy Mountain two weeks ago, we heard one get dry fired. So. Well, it's like I've shot a benefit 3D shoot last year and the group that I was shooting with, I knew one of the guys, but he had invited a couple of his other buddies that I didn't know. And we're probably five targets into a 20 target, like little benefit shoot for a local church. I've never personally witnessed it. But you just get to talking amongst the group and you're not thinking about it and nobody really paid attention. We're just sitting here kind of just shooting the bull. And all you hear is just this thwack. And immediately everybody knew. You turn around and there's just this deer in the headlights look from this guy that we just watched him deep. like dry fire his bow. It didn't come apart. It didn't do nothing. I mean, insane. It was a phase four. It was a Matthews phase four. And I'll be honest, I think my range day would have been over. I would have probably packed my stuff up, even though the bow was intact. I'm done. I would have been going straight to a bow shop. That's it. I'd have been like, hey, let's make sure this thing is okay. But, oh man, this dude, he put an arrow in it, he drew it back, checked timing, timing looked okay, he slung one down range, and it hit where he was aiming. He finished his target, he finished the course out. They're tough, they've definitely changed a lot. I don't think that if I would've slung a dry fire through my bow madness, that thing probably would've exploded, man. I don't know. I just, technology in Bose has come a long way, but so has the price. And that's something that is inevitable. Well, I mean, look at the times, everything is That's what I'm saying. it's like, you 100 % can go to bat and say that technology has... has just leaps and bounds. But again, so has the price. So when you're talking about dry firing a bow that somebody fronted $1,200 for a naked bow, or $1,300 or even more, some of them, know. Don't do it. No, don't. It's not worth it. you might not get as lucky as the dude that was in that group that day. And that thing might just come completely apart. I don't know how his didn't, but good for him. I'm happy for him. because I mean, you talking about dry firing a bow, that's catastrophic in most cases. So there's $1,200 down the drain, $1,300 down the drain, you know, and then... if for whatever reason the bow survives, you know, most of the time your cams don't. Cams get warped, axles Axles get warped, strings, cables get tore out of crap. Snap a limb. Yeah. So even, you the riser's gonna be okay. But now you've got a $1,300 paperweight and now you've got to get And $600 in limbs, strings, axles, cams. At that point, you you're better off just buying a new bow. Because you're going to be in it about two thirds of what the bow's base MSRP was when you bought it new. So just to get it fixed. I just can't fathom that. So hopefully that doesn't happen to either of us. I'll tell you what though, something that we learned from that day. Every time we shot a target from that point forward, everybody in that group knocked an arrow before. We would pull it out of the target and everybody would re-knock. You'd be walking to the next target with an arrow already knocked. was just chances we didn't, none of us wanted to take going forward. ⁓ So, I mean it's just amazing where it's all started for us and to kind of be here for watching it grow. And now here we are talking about it. So that's different. I never would have thought I'd be doing this. Me either. well, I believe that covers our technology experience and watching the path of technology. Yeah, kind of seeing how it's changed. Lord, it's... not even really knowing where it's going to be. That's what's wild about it. Because I can tell you 20 years ago, man, I'd have never imagined the boat being where it is now. Nope. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, we'll catch you on the next one. Make sure if you're not already, follow us, subscribe. Yeah. Catch us on Instagram. We're gonna make a Facebook or we've got a Facebook, we're gonna make an Instagram. I think we've got a Facebook already. We need to make the Instagram. I do have an email for us already. I have that. We'll put that link below. Yep. So I'll have it on the bottom of the screen. Like I said in previous episodes, if you guys are interested in sharing your story, show us an email and we'll get it set up. Yep. All right guys. We'll see you later. Later.