The Trophy Master is similar in many ways to the Buckmasters G-2, which most of you know by now, we reviewed and believe to be an outstanding product. For some, the only down fall with the Buckmasters G-2, (if you consider it a down fall), is the fact the G-2 is 31" axle to axle. Shorter ATA lengths are alleged to be great for hunting situations but tend to be less "forgiving" when it comes to bad form. Everything relating to archery can and is debated, but let's face it, the craze to shorter and shorter ATA is just that, a craze. Every technological advancement comes with trade-offs and the inevitable debates. Such is the case with the Jennings Trophy Master. I take for granted that many of you haven't been shooting your whole lives, and although the bow may shoot excellent out of the shooting machine or in the hands of an experienced shooter, it may not shoot as well when put into the hands of a novice or intermediate shooter. For these situations a longer axle-to-axle length would be ideal. Jennings has done an excellent job of identifying this need amidst the din of the shorter ATA hyperbole, and thus may we introduce you to the Trophy Master?

After a few days of anxious waiting, that big familiar brown truck rolled up and after a brief conversation with my UPS driver, who is also an avid bow hunter, I was staring at a new Trophy Master. After removing it from it's package, Dan (my UPS driver) and I were examining the Trophy Master. One word came off my lips, just slightly ahead of Dan, WILD! I think he likes coming to my house as much as I like to see the big brown truck.

The overall appearance of the Trophy Master was excellent. The test bow came in Real Tree Custom Hardwoods dipped camo. The perimeter weighted cam and idler wheel are anodized gray as well as the cable swing arm and end caps. The blue and black string and blue weight in the perimeter weighted one cam are very visually appealing. Not sure the deer would be impressed, but I sure was! I am a little curious why Jennings chose an all black cable. I instantly thought a matching blue and black cable like the string would be a given, but hey, that's an aesthetic observation. The one-piece laminated wood grip is finished with gray laminates. The grip matches the bow beautifully. Those of you who liked the G-2 grip will also like the Trophy Master grip since they appear to be basically the same. The machining on the aluminum components throughout the bow is outstanding. You won't find any burrs or sharp edges that might cut a string, or worse, one of your body parts. Jennings new Carbon Twill limbs appear to be a little wide at first glance, compared to a split limb bow, but they do an excellent job of controlling limb lean. All you serious accuracy freaks know this is very important when it comes to long range accuracy.

At first glance, you'll also notice that Jennings continues to use vibration dampening material in their limb pockets to try to keep felt vibration down. Speaking of felt vibration, the Trophy Master incorporates the use of Jennings new vibration dampening system, the Shock Stop. If you want to see some awesome high speed film on this you simply have to check out TheShockStop.com It'll blow your mind, if not entertain you for a few seconds. I will warn you, if you are on a dial up connection and modem, it will take quite a while to download this movie, but exercise some "tree stand patience" and wait. Trust me, it's worth it! That cliché about seeing is believing may turn even the most skeptical head. This online video speaks mountains! Check it out.

The Shock Stop has been a topic of some strong debate on the web and in other circles. Some people love the system, some are underwhelmed, and some just plain hate it. This is where I believe Jennings has done an awesome job of trying to please all archers by giving them a choice. Every Trophy Master bow comes with the Shock Stop installed and an optional cable rod and slide is included. This gives the archery consumer a chance to decide for themselves which one they prefer. If you hate it, take it off! Besides the dampening material in the limb pockets and the addition of the Shock Stop, Jennings has also incorporated the use of dampeners built right into the riser. Similar to that of the G-2, these weighted shock absorbers are used to cut down the felt vibration that is transmitted through the riser to the archer during the shot. Unlike the G-2, which tucks these dampeners within the confines of the riser frame cut outs, the Trophy Master version actually passes through the riser and hangs off either side.

The Trophy Master performance, according to Jennings, should be 308 fps @ 70# with a 30" inch draw, while shooting a 5 grain per pound arrow. After checking the draw length and poundage, we set the Trophy Master up in the BowCountry.com Hooter Shooter, leaving the Shock Stop installed. Using a 350 grain Easton Redline, we test fired the Trophy Master. We consistently got readings of 300 fps with this particular setup. Next, we removed The Shock Stop and tested the bow again. This time we repeatedly were able to get 302 fps. With the addition of a couple of well placed nocking points to our string were able to achieve 303 fps out of the Trophy Master. Not exactly within our standard deviant of +/- 3 fps to account for scale and chrono calibration difference, but close.

We turned our weight down to 60 lbs to test the AMO speeds. For this test we used Easton 2315's @ 540 grains. The Trophy Master repeatedly shot 232 fps, for those of you who prefer to shoot 9 grains per pound tree trunks. The Trophy Master, when shot from the Hooter Shooter, will group arrows well out to some very long distances. When we removed the Trophy Master from the Hooter Shooter we were very pleased to find that we could get tight groups free handed as well. Pleased? Yes. Surprised? No. We did notice a little bit of forward jump to the Trophy Master when shot free handed. There also seemed to be a little more felt hand vibration than it's sister bow, the G-2. The addition of The Shock Stop didn't seem to do much for this felt vibration. When compared to the G-2, the Trophy Master limbs have a little bit steeper profile angle, which may be causing the forward jump. The vibration most likely is caused from the roughly 30% more limb contact than the G-2, and the fact the weight bolts actually contact the limbs directly, thus transferring the vibration directly into the riser. Dampening material isolates the G-2's limb bolts. No doubt, this reduces vibration passed through the limb bolts to the riser. Is this vibration excessive? No, not by any means. It's just that the G-2 is a hard act to follow. Paper tuning the Trophy Master is fairly straightforward, and relatively simple until we installed The Shock Stop. The Shock Stop is more difficult to get paper tuned due to the fact the string tends to give the arrow a subtle little snap when leaving the string, causing a nock high tear.

Summary

For the most part, the BowCountry.com test team liked the Jennings Trophy Master. We all struggled to keep an open mind during the testing of the Trophy Master, since the last bow we tested was the G-2. The Trophy Master is more forgiving than its sister bow, the G-2. We feel this makes it a better choice for the beginner shooter and 3D enthusiast than the G-2. The 35" axle length, the liberal 7.5" brace height, and slight weight difference (G-2 = 3.9 lbs versus 4.1 lbs for the Trophy Master) should realistically pose no problem during normal hunting situations. This bow, like many in the NAAG product line, comes with adjustable draw length modules which make it real easy to customize the length to suit your taste, and at $500 you'll find a lot of big technology packed into one affordable package.

The Shock Stop, on the other hand, did raise some issues in the tuning department. Honestly, we're really not sure the Shock Stop does much to stop felt vibration, but even that is open for debate amongst our test crew. However, there is no doubt in our minds the Shock Stop does radically affect string oscillation and the transfer of energy in the form of shortened sound waves. All you need to do is watch the video to come to this conclusion. The word on the street, at the range, and online, seems to be split nearly 50/50 on acceptance of this new Shock Stop system. Engineers at NAAG and other manufacturers tell us the sensitivity of the human hand in discerning varying amounts of vibration differs from archer to archer, but generally speaking, the human is not a very sensitive or reliable test instrument. There is some serious science backing up the claims behind the Shock Stop. The University of Florida ran the tests on this bow relative to the entire system of vibration dampening and its overall effectiveness. This University test lab is no slouch in collecting empirical data and the testing department. The marketing claim that comes from their data exhorts vibration is reduced by a whopping 40%. We ask, 40% compared to what? It's all relative isn't it? Due to the tuning considerations that arise when it is installed, we would recommend using both the standard cable rod and slide and the Shock Stop to decide for yourself, which is right for you. Choice is a beautiful thing isn't it? Why, it's downright American! Hats off to Henry Gallops, Mike Derus, and the rest of the gang at Jennings. A big thumbs up for giving archers the choice to decide what is best for them instead of saying "Sorry that's the way it is!"

The Carbon Twill limbs also do an excellent job of controlling limb lean, which is very important when it comes to accuracy. The little oval peek-a-boo clear window located on one of the limbs is a nice design touch that allows you to actually see the Carbon Twill sub-laminates. The general consensus here at BowCountry.com is, we didn't feel that the vibration dampening system on the Trophy Master, as a complete functioning system, was comparable to its sister bow the G-2. The G-2 does an awesome job at reducing the subjective felt vibration. The Trophy Master does an adequate job of reducing felt vibration. The addition of a good stabilizer would most likely bring the Trophy Master rank right up there with that of the G-2 in stopping felt vibration.

We gave the Trophy Master a 4 out of 5 star rating, and feel Jennings is onto something with their new product line and possibly on to something with the new Shock Stop system. The jury is still out on that one. We didn't feel that the Shock Stop alone did much for the bow and since this can be easily removed we didn't hold it against the Trophy Master. The felt vibration and the forward jump of the Trophy Master, and the difference in advertised speeds was why we deducted 1 star. The addition of target colors would also be a nice touch. We also feel that all Jennings has to do is lay the limbs back slightly to reduce the hand shock of the bow and bump the speed up just a little. Laugh all you want or debate this all you want, we feel Jennings is knocking on the front door of rival companies like Bowtech and Mathews. Please, no flaming rhetoric, it's simply our opinion.

Anyway you look at it, the Trophy Master would make a fine choice for a hunting bow and a good choice for 3D. Congratulations to Joe White and the entire crew at Jennings for making another fine product.

Check out the entire line of Jennings archery products at www.FullDraw.net.