We're not sure how many of you remember the first Buckmasters bow that was
introduced but there was a lot of hype and a lean mean marketing machine
behind it's introduction to the market. It didn't take long before the
"buzz" caught on and reached a fevered roar. The Buckmasters bow became the
hottest selling product in the industry. A reasonably priced bow with a ton
of features typically seen on much more expensive equipment sent the message
home to archers, good price, high quality, good value. There was one major
problem for archery shop owners and the manufacturer, no one made any money
selling the bow! True, the bow was priced to sell and sell they did but the
margins just weren't there. As a business proposition the original
Buckmasters was a big mistake but as a piece of ground breaking archery
equipment it was outstanding!
Enter the new Buckmasters G-2! Recently Joe White, VP of Sales and
Marketing of the North American Archery Group asked BowCountry.com if we
wanted to "Test and Tune" a new mid year product from Buckmasters, a member
of the NAAG group of archery companies. Mid year product launches are rare
as it is but even more rare is a nearly complete new product. Usually a mid
year product launch is a knock off of another bow in the product line with
some cosmetic changes. While you could argue the point with the new G-2,
there's no denying there are enough differences that we all decided it was
in fact a radically new bow.
When BowCountry.com's, Senior Editor and Feature Writer, Bob Peck said Joe
White at the North American Archery Group was sending me a Buckmasters G2
bow for Test & Tune I gotta honestly tell you, I wasn't really
excited. Don't get me wrong, I have a dream job here at BowCountry.com a
lot of folks would die for. I test all manner of new equipment and tell
my fellow archers what I think from a technical perspective. I'm looking to
cut through some or all of the manufacturer's BS and tell y'all like it
really, truly is. Not a bad gig. I hadn't seen or heard anything about the
Buckmasters new G2. I figured, "ho hum" just another short axle hunting bow.
I've seen some of the older Buckmasters and they were an alright hunting
bow. To be kind, the old Buckmasters bows were not exactly what I'd call a
high performance hunting bow. To top it all off I had just finished the
review on the Parker Ultra 31 the week before I was sure that nothing could
compete with it in the short axle bow class. That Ultra-Lite 31 absolutely
rocked! I loved it! Well, I was wrong! I fell out of love fast.
The G2 (second generation) Buckmasters arrived tucked under the arm of the
UPS guy. Plastered all over the box was a macho face painted mean looking
dude. Hmmm, what's up with the attitude? Maybe it will be cool to review
a mid price bow for the "average Joe hunter". I removed the G2 from its
package. After a close inspection of the G2, I immediately reminisced about
how much this G-2 looked like the Epic Extreme which we liked so much.
I pulled the Epic off the rack and compared the two. I noticed some
similarities but I also noticed many differences, many of which were for the
better. This is where it gets interesting. I'm thinking mid-year knock off
but no, not really.
Overall appearance of the bow is great and at 31" axle to axle this looks to
be a killer treestand bow. For those interested in how we characterized the
"look" wellÉ Like the mean dude plastered all over the box this bow looks
like it has an "attitude" and sex appeal at the same time. The
craftsmanship and engineering that went into the G2 is obvious at first
glance. We know Mike Derris and some of the boys who are responsible for the
design work and they've clearly done a fine job.
One of the first things you'll probably notice is the red striped Sims limb
savers that is built right into the riser. While this particular limb saver
is commercially available off the shelf from Sims, there is no doubt the red
anodizing is a custom deal for the G-2 and there is absolutely no denying
this second generation limb saver technology does an outstanding job of just
eating up vibration and recoil. We'll talk more about that later.
All holes are free of machining debris and camo dip thus ensuring there will
be no problems when it comes time to bolt on your accessories. We have found
that some manufacturers have problems with the dipping process and there are
clearly visible seams that result. Not so with the G-2. They've done an
outstanding job in this regard. The grip is a beautifully laminated and
checkered with G2 laser engraved into its right side. The riser and limbs
are dipped in Realtree hardwoods camo pattern, which does an excellent job
of breaking up the bow. The fully machined perimeter weighted onecam and
idler wheel were free of machining burrs and finished in flat black
anodizing so there will be no chance of a glare spooking your game.
Riser
The G2 riser is similar to it's cousin the Epic Extreme but with several
very important differences. The fully machined aluminum G2 riser is actually
longer than the Epic but the overall bow length is shorter. We found it
interesting to note that the G2 riser has a taller sight window giving the
archer a better view of his quarry. The sight holes are standard AMO as well
as the rest holes. By the way there are two holes. The riser houses an
offset cable guard rod to ensure fletching clearance on even the largest
vanes. The most noticeable feature on the G2 riser is the new built in Sims
next generation limb savers. These built in limb savers do an amazing job of
stopping almost all of the felt vibration when firing ultra light arrows and
are tucked neatly out of the way inside the riser pocket.
At the each end of the riser you'll find machined aluminum limb pockets,
also fully equipped with Sims limb saver material assuring that the limbs
never come in contact with any aluminum. A minimum amount of limb
vibration reaches the riser. The Buckmasters collaboration with Sims on
this G-2 product has clearly paid off in a big way.
Limbs
The limbs on the G2 are Buckmasters compression molded carbon air quad limbs
also dipped in Realtree hardwoods camo pattern. These limbs are about inch
and a quarter shorter than the limbs on the Epic making them a little
stiffer and thus making the return rate faster as well. If everything I know
about bows holds true, this little bow should be a rocket!
Cam
The cam on the G2 is a Buckmasters Perimeter Weighted Onecam with 75%
let-off (65% let-off is available). The Cam appears to be the same cam on
the Epic Extreme, but the upper idler wheel is slightly larger. This cam
does a great job at producing speed on the Epic so it's reuse on the the G2
is no exception. The only difference is the G2 is faster by about by 9-10
fps. Also a nice feature found on the G2's Perimeter Weighted Onecam that
you don't see on many of today's compound bows, is a draw adjustment. This
will allow the user to "fine tune" his/her draw length. This is a great
feature since most of us don't draw exactly 28 or 29 inches.
Performance
This is always the best part of testing bows, at least for me it is. The G2
is not only a short bow but this thing is packed with more performance than
bows price much higher. I must say when I first fired the G2 it seemed ok
not much hand shock and the arrow seemed pretty fast. Then I put the bow on
the scale and found out the bow was set at 70lbs and I thought, wait a
minute, my arrow only weighs 300grs. This is bad, very bad, because I just
shot the bow at under five grains per pound which is not only bad for the
bow but can be very dangerous. Trust me. I did not plan this accident. Sometimes great discoveries just seem to
happen. Take dry firing a bow by accident to find out that someone did
an excellent job of figuring out how to absorb vibration and noise.
Shooting the G2 at this extreme was that kind of discovery. I didn't notice
much vibration and the bow was still quieter than most of today's modern
compounds. Wow! I'm thinking the G-2 is amazing and I haven't even put it
through it's paces! By the way for you techies out there that care, it
shot 324 fps @ 29" 70lb draw which is 4.285grs per pound. Please remember!
BowCountry.com or Buckmasters DO NOT approve of or condone shooting any
bow below 5grs per pound. It was a careless mistake that could have turned
ugly but it didn't and we learned something very valuable.
After the big discovery I start to get excited about reviewing the G2. After
changing the draw module to the 30" module reduced my draw weight and grabbed
my 540gr arrow. At AMO specs of 30" draw, 60lb draw weight and a 540gr arrow
the G2 repeatedly shot 241fps. After turning the draw weight up to 70lbs it
was time for the IBO test. This time firing a 5gr per pound arrow through
the chronograph the G2 shot 311fps and repeatedly 310fps. I was impressed
since Buckmasters only advertised 309 fps. In this day of over inflating
speeds to make sales and a truckload of buzzwords and techno hooey, it's
refreshing to see a company advertise exact specs! When your product is
this fast, I guess there's no reason to lie to make it seem like it's faster
than it is. O.K I know what you're going to say: "There's fast and
inaccurate and then there's fast and pinpoint. Which one is it?"
Like you, we wanted to know if all that speed is controllable. We used our
Hooter Shooter shooting machine donated to BowCountry.com by our good
friend Tina Johnson at Spot Hogg. The G2 shot a respectable group of roughly
2 inches at thirty yards. Not being happy with the results I removed the G2
and did a little tuning work and reinstalled it in the Hooter Shooter. This
time the results were much better. The G2 consistently slammed arrows
together at thirty yards. It doesn't get much more accurate than that unless
you're tubing arrows. Even off the hand, the G2 was extremely accurate and easy
to control with almost no hand shock.
Summary
In most cases "you get what you pay for", But in the case of the G2 you get
a whole lot more for your hard earned money. Like the old Buckmasters that
burst onto the scene a few years back, the G2 packs the performance and
accuracy of a bow priced much higher and in some cases packs even more than
these bows.
The G2 has the all the right engineering and vibration dampening to make
this an excellent target bow or an awesome hunting bow. We are completely
confident the G-2 could do either task with ease. The fact that Buckmasters
is dead on when it comes to their specs is another unexpected bonus. If you
really stop and think about it, why would you want to do business with a
company that lies to you to get you to buy their product?
I couldn't find any visual or functional flaws with the G2 and the
manufacturer was so honest in their advertising specs I gave the G2 a 5 star
rating. I would recommend this product to anyone at nearly any level of
proficiency. I guess it comes down to is whether or not you want a bow that
will do what it says it will do, or a bow that won't come close to doing
what it's advertised to do, but everyone else is shooting it.
Our sincere congratulations to all the people at Buckmasters on a job well
done!
BowCountry.com would like to thank all the companies that help make Test &
Tune possible and ask that you support them as well.
North American Archery Group, Buckmasters G-2
Spot Hogg Hooter Shooter
Apple Archery Bow Press
Special thanks to Mr. Craig Dougherty, Mr. Charlie Palmer and Mr. Joe White
of the North American Archery Group.
