At this year’s 2002 AMO Show in Nashville, we had a short but meaningful conversation with Leven Industries owner, Bill Leven, and shooting coordinator, Pat Moses. Most of you probably know the company by Doinker. Bill Leven is a manufacturer who is clearly a firm believer in his products. He had no problem with BowCountry.com doing a unbiased review. In fact, he went as far as to say, and we quote "if you find something wrong with one of my products I want to know about it so I can get it fixed!" This is exactly the kind of manufacturer we enjoy for test and tune. Let the chips fall where they may. We respect that attitude. We realize many of you don’t necessarily think of the stabilizer as being that important. Some of the hunters we have traveled with put a stabilizer (any stabilizer) on their bows because the other guys do. Quite honestly, some bows don’t really benefit from the addition of a stabilizer because of the bow design, the stabilizer design, or the shooter’s preference. For most of us however, a stabilizer serves three very important functions; balance, vibration dampening, and its cousin, noise reduction. Believe it or not, there is a lot of science and engineering going on. Which stabilizer design is best for which bow is a matter of great debate and regardless of what you may hear from most manufacturers one size does not fit all and one design certainly doesn’t produce identical results across different bows.
Stabilizers come in a variety of lengths, designs, and characteristics. What’s the best way to know which will work for you? Our advice is to leverage the knowledge base of a good pro shop, who may let you try several different stabilizers, combined with trying what your friends or shooting league partners are using, provides a wide variety of opinion and actual experiences. Remember your requirements for a 3D stabilizer and FITA will vary considerably from a hunting application or league shooting.
We’re going to start with the 7” Doinker stabilizer, but first let’s spend some time on a Leven Industries. Leven Ind. (Doinker), a California based company, was founded in 1993 by owner/inventor Bill Leven. Bill started Leven Industries with one principle in mind, to create the best engineered stabilization products in the archery industry. Leven has now been in the archery industry for almost a decade.
Testing of the 7” Hunter stabilizer was fairly simple and some might even say crude. Since we don’t wear white lab coats with plastic pocket protectors here at
BowCountry.com, we found the best way to find out how well a stabilizer works
is to attach it to a lightweight, heavy poundage bow shooting ultra light arrows. The amount of lab equipment necessary to produce the hard statistics would fill a university laboratory, which is where most of the manufacturers actually go. As we said earlier, testing can be scientific but results will vary widely depending on the bow and the set up.
What the heck is the Doinker made of you ask? We visited the Doinker website for the answer. The long stabilizers, V-Bars and the 3D Carbon Stabilizer use uni-directional carbon fibers with a carbon weave top coat. The 4 Inch Shorty Hunter and 7 Inch Hunter stabilizers use steel inserts and injected molded ABS glass filled outer shell for looks as well as durability. The weights have a 5/16 x 24 hole at the distal end so additional stack weights may be added. These units use the standard 3/4" Doinker. The 5" Armored Hunter is totally encapsulated in elastomer (rubber) and uses the same Doinker technology as the rest of the line. All caps and accessories are made from 6061 T-6 Aluminum.
The first test bow we used was our Parker Ultra Lite 31 set at 62 pounds, shooting a 300 grain arrow. We used a Muzzy Zero Effect rest, a Trophy Ridge Matrix sight and a generic 10" hydraulic stabilizer that is not manufactured by Doinker. After shooting the Parker for about 25 shots we installed the Doinker 7" Hunter and immediately noticed the difference between the two. The Doinker did a much better job of quieting the bow and reducing hand shock. The second bow we tested the Doinker 7" Hunter on was a Buckmasters G2. The G2 we used was set at 74 pound, shooting 375 grain carbon arrows. We used a Muzzy Zero Effect rest, Spot Hogg "Hogg-It" sight and no stabilizer. Many of you have shot the G2 and most of you would probably agree when we say the G2 shoots just fine without a stabilizer. The G2 does have very little vibration during the shoot, but with the addition of the 7” Hunter made for an improved hand feel. What little vibration may have been in the G-2 without the stabilizer seemed to disappear entirely.
The last bow we tested the 7” Hunter on was our Hoyt Alpha Tech set at 85 pounds. For those of you who are not familiar with the Alpha Tech, the grip on this bow leaves the riser exposed to the shooters hand, making vibration much more noticeable. We knew we were pushing the envelope when we decided on the Alpha Tech, but whenever possible we like to give a varied perspective. In this particular test the 7” Hunter did not absorb all the vibration from the bow, which would have been a miracle, but it did make a very noticeable difference. In this case we may require a few more vibration damping products to tame the beast.
According to the Doinker website, the whole thing isn't magic, it is a simple matter of action versus reaction. Because Doinkers are reactive, they transfer the noise and vibration produced during the shot to a weight. Every Doinker product is designed to work alone or in combination with any other Doinker product. We found this a very good thing towards the fine tuning of the stabilizer system. Some manufacturers do not integrate their entire product line well at all. You find yourself with this adapter and it’s corresponding widget and the next thing you know you suddenly are fatiqued after a day at the range from lifting all that weight. Some manufacturers have a one size fits all system, take it or leave it.
Vibration and noise are products of today's super performance bows. As bows become faster they become harsher to shoot. The Doinker system works to quiet the bow by removing vibration and shock on the shot. All of this also means that the bow becomes more consistent and more accurate.
Doinkers completely isolate the stabilizer weight from the stabilizer rod, which is solidly mounted to the bows riser, no vibration or noise is transferred to the riser from the weight. This allows the weight to dampen the vibration and act as a momentum inhibitor. Doinkers claim to be the only truly "360 degree active" vibration reduction units available.
The BowCountry.com test crew found the Doinker 7” Hunter to outperform the hydraulic stabilizer in every test. The overall appearance of the product is basic and rugged, and if you are a camo freak who has to have everything matching, you’ll be relieved to know that this 7” Hunter now comes in MO Break Up and Realtree Hardwoods. We’re certain the construction of the 7” Hunter will provide years of durability.
When we checked the major retail and online outlets to gauge cost, we found a reasonable retail cost between $37 and $45. Here’s a little hint: it seems there is an even mix of retailers and etailers who interchange Doinker and Leven Industries, so make sure you search on both. As in most of our Test and Tune reviews we usually have questions, and without identifying ourselves on the phone, you’ll be pleased to know there is outstanding customer service at Leven Industries. If all Leven Industries (Doinker) products are as good as the 7” Hunter we at BowCountry.com can’t wait to test them. We give the 7” Hunter a **** 1/2 star rating. Visit Doinker on the web at site.
