For several years now the archery industry has continued to be a veritable battleground of fierce competitors. Many manufacturers have come and gone because for one reason or another the money ran out, the product sucked or the marketing budget just never adequately got the word out. One thing is for sure, besides building a good quality product, marketing the living hell out of your company and spending a ton-o-cash to be where archers are likely to be, nothing, and we mean nothing sells more than loyalty. Nobody does the marketing better than Mathews! Once an archer gets hooked on a particular product it takes some doing to get them off their mark and considering another brand. You know this to be true, and of course the manufacturers also know this.
Why do you think they spend millions of dollars a year to catch your eye with jazzy ads and buzzwords? Our dearly departed friend, Frank Scott, of the Fred Bear Museum once told us of a time when manufacturers not only shared information, but actually cooperated on building an industry. None of us believe the archery industry will ever return to this folksy era when there was an industry to build. Today, there are billions at stake, market share and ESPN. With billions of revenue on the line it's no wonder the industry and the archers who spend the billions have separated into distinct "camps". Some of the old names like Bear, Jennings and Hoyt are still around today, but certainly in many significant ways they are not the companies they were when they first started.
Mention the name Mathews and you are likely to either enter a spirited smack down debate with a fellow archer or enter a meaningful and esoteric discussion on harmonic dampening. Few manufacturers today engender such rabid loyal fan base as Mathews. It's hard to dispute this long lived company turns out some well thought out and innovative equipment but then there's that "attitude" that tournament archers speak of. There's that burning desire in every print ad to take credit for every meaningful innovation to ever hit the industry . Solo Cam? Enough already! There must be 20 commercially available bows using the single cam design. Who really cares that it was Mathews that pioneered it? Do you care or even know who pioneered the airbag or the 15 mph bumper? Hmmm? Precisely, why should you care so long as they work, right?.
It took nearly a year of professional harassment and some eyeballing at the 2001 AMO show to get Mike Zeibell, Marketing Director at Mathews, to ship BowCountry.com an SQ2 but, by God, patience does pay off! The following is an honest assessment of this unique short axle bow.
In case you haven't noticed, the latest trend in the archery industry, at least as far as bows are concerned, is to make them short, fast, and lightweight. Once again, Mathews is leading the pack. This year, Mathews flagship bow is the SQ2, at only 31" axle to axle, this bow is one of the shortest bows on the market.
For our test, we used an out of the box SQ2 in Realtree X-tra camo. As always, the first thing we check upon receiving any new product is its overall appearance. We removed the bow from the package and were literally blown away by how small this bow looked. The Realtree X-tra camo is the only standard pattern available, does an excellent job of breaking up the bow and will work well in almost any hunting condition. We've never been partial to one pattern over another, and the deluxe fully matching bow hunter in our opinion, while creating an incredible fashion statement, means nothing to the whitetail and does little to break up the outline in the woods. One thing we did notice while examining the Straightline Maxicam2, was what appeared to be a file mark on the cam that apparently took place after the anodizing process. Sorry to be so picky, but this file mark should have been caught by quality control and could have potentially devastating effects on string life. Another thing we noticed with our SQ2, was it wasn't really a 31" bow; our bow measured 30 5/8" draw. What's the big deal? This makes our test specs a little off compared to the Mathews specs, which are done at a 30" draw and 31" axle to axle. Besides these minor observations the SQ2's overall engineering design and craftsmanship was outstanding.
Riser:
You'll find the riser of the SQ2 is fully machined from light weight aluminum measuring 19 13/16". The riser comes complete with both front and rear brass stabilizer bushing, standard AMO sight holes and one burger button hole. All taped holes were clean and free of debris. Also incorporated into the SQ2 riser is Mathews Harmonic Damper System. These dampers do an excellent job of controlling the vibration that is produced when shooting some of today's lightweight carbon arrows. Let's be honest, and try hard to skip past as much debate as possible. Dampening the vibration is after the fact. The arrow has left the arrow rest and is exiting the bow well after any vibration can affect the shot. Dampening is more of a comfort thing for those who competively shoot or for those hunters who actually spend significant time at the range preparing for the season, During our testing session we inadvertently removed the dampers and without realizing it continued to shoot without noticing any difference. Don't ask if there was any difference between the brass and aluminum dampeners provided by Mathews. There was no difference. Blind fold even the most seasoned Mathews pro shooter and we'll bet them a bucket of broadheads that even they can't tell us which is which. Don't get the wrong impression, I'm sure that a scientific evaluation does in fact show a dramatic reduction in vibration and that yes indeed there probably is actually a difference between brass and aluminum bushings, but the staff shooters at BowCountry.com, who have shot everything from Oneidas to Parkers couldn't tell the physical "at the range" difference. The only nuance we can report on these high tech dampeners is, we noticed a slight increase in noise, especially when shooting down around 5 grains per pound.
Grip:
The grip on the SQ2 is an excellent example of beauty and function. The SQ2 grip that came on our test bow is a Mathews slim line one piece competition grip made from a beautiful black walnut. The competition grip comes engraved with the Mathews logo and Solo Cam on one side, and SQ2 on the other side. The grip is just as much functional as visually appealing on the SQ2. We don't go for fancy "natural" grips, or whiz bang ergonomically engineered form fitted grips, as a general rule. Most of us here at ArcheyWorld.com shoot with a relaxed grip with index finger and thumb lightly touching. When your palm rarely, if ever, contacts the grip surface, what the heck difference does it really make? The point here is that, regardless of your preferred grip, the SQ2 grip makes up about one third of the arrow shelf surface on this bow. By using the grip to make up a portion of arrow shelf, Mathews is able to use a thinner piece of aluminum when machining the riser. You're probably wondering why should you care about this? By using a thinner piece of aluminum, Mathews is able to cut the production cost of this bow significantly. This, in turn, allows Mathews to lower their retail prices, which for Mathews is a good thing. We recently saw a nearly new Mathews SQ2 go for near retail on Ebay, which should tell you something about it's relative re-sale value.
Limb Cups:
Limb cups on the Mathews SQ2 are machined from brass instead of the tradition aluminum or plastic. By machining the limb cups out of brass, Mathews is able to put more weight out on the end of the bow. We can tell you this definitely makes the bow much more stable. The archer can definitely hold the bow steadier, thus making it more forgiving. These limb pockets are also machined off center. This, in turn, allows Mathews to use a thinner piece of aluminum when machining risers. If they weren't machined off center they would not be able to maintain a large enough clearance for many of today's broadheads.
Cams:
The SQ2 comes equipped with Mathews Straightline Maxcam2. This perimeter weighted cam was designed exclusively for the Q2 series bows. These cams come in a satin black anodized finished and are draw length specific. While these cams pack a hell of a punch, the Straightline max2 cams have a very short valley. Combine this fact with the inability to adjust your draw length, and it becomes very important you get measured before purchasing a SQ2. The Straightline cam is engineered for straight nock travel while firing. We are please to tell you, the very solid back wall in harmony with the Straightline cam engineering means a short, fast and very accurate hunting bow.
Performance:
Our performance test of the SQ2 was good, but not quite as good as Mathews. We tested the SQ2 using AMO standards and IBO standards. AMO speeds are figured using a 60#, 30" draw bow shooting a 540gr arrow. IBO speeds are figured using a 70#, 30" draw bow shooting a 350gr arrow. We didn't have a 70# SQ2 for testing so we used a 300gr Carbon Impact Ultra Fast arrow and shot it at 60#. This will change the results slightly but the longer draw, 30 5/8" will more than make up for the difference.
For our testing we used a Spot Hogg Hooter Shooter shooting machine donated to Test and Tune by our good friends at Spot Hogg. By using the Hooter Shooter we remove all human error from our test as well as being able to see how well the SQ2 groups arrows from shot to shot. The SQ2 was set up with one nock and a launcher style rest. Once we set up our shooting machine and loaded the SQ2 we were ready to see what this short axle bow was capable of.
At 60#s, 30 5/8" draw the SQ2 will fire a aluminum bullet 225 fps repeatedly. This was only 5 fps slower than the published speeds by Mathews of 230fps. At 25 yards the SQ2 would hold a reasonable group of 1.5" - 2" using the Easton aluminum arrow.
For our next test we used a Carbon Impact Ultra Fast shaft to get down to the 300gr arrow weight that would be necessary for the 5gr per pound IBO test. At 5gr per pound the SQ2 repeatedly shot 290 fps. Unfortunately, this is much slower than the advertised 305 fps. Grouping with the lighter carbon shaft was slightly better than the aluminum at consistent 1" groups. As Chuck Adams once told us, "It ain't the speed, it's the placement!"
Summary:
The SQ2 is a short light weight hunting bow that packs a decent punch. This bow will have more than enough power to take any of North America's big game animals. At only 31" axle to axle the SQ2 is perfect for tree stand hunters and light enough to carry all day stalking elk in Colorado. We found an inconsistency in the Mathews advertised specs and our test specs. We don't buy most of the harmonic dampening jargon, the nick in the cam, the controlled availability of most Mathews products, and the steep retail cost, all translate to BowCountry.com giving the SQ2 a 3 star rating out of 5.
The SQ2 is a fine hunting bow with respectable speeds but, in our opinion, is not a speed bow. At nearly $600+ retail at your local Mathews dealer, we believe, depending on what you are actually looking for, there may be better dollar/feature values in other commercially available bows. Mathews solid craftsmanship and some real world innovations make for a sure bet for the ever increasing and all important loyalty factor.
We'd sincerely like to thank the companies that donated the equipment to make BowCountry.com Test and Tune segments possible. Please support these folks whenever you get the chance! Thank You Mike Zeibell at Mathews (SQ2), Tina Johnson at Spot Hogg (Hooter Shooter), and, of course, Holly Kurtz at Apple Archery (Hercules Pro shop Kit).
Please visit the Mathews web site and check out the SQ2 and other fine Mathews products at www.MathewsInc.com
