These micro bows are more powerful than you may think.
Archery technology is constantly evolving. New hunting bows that test the limits of what a bow are arrow can do are constantly entering the market. Longbows and recurve bows have come a long way recently. Even the crossbow and the compound bow are consistently evolving.
Micro compound bows have been around for a while now, but they still haven't taken off in archery hunting circles even though they offer comparable peak draw weights, let-off, and arrow speeds.
Maybe the near riser-less design is too radical for archery hunting circles. Maybe it's the shorter draw lengths. We're not sure, but one of our favorite YouTubers, Joerg Sprave of the Slingshot Channel, pits three different types of micro bow against each other. At the least, it's interesting to see how they perform.
The design of these bows is fascinating. Putting the arrow rest in the middle of the riser eliminates the archer's paradox to a degree. The downside is that the shorter draw lengths mean the use of a longer release aid to compensate for the shorter bowstrings and limbs. For some people, that may be a big deal, for better or worse. Everything else on this bow seems to be standard, from the peep sight he added, to the simple cam system. Just in a much shorter frame.
The arrow speeds of 225-290 fps he was getting are decent and are comparable to some of the newest Bear Archery, Hoyt, or Mathews models on the market today, albeit with field points and not broadheads. However, it's worth noting that we still haven't heard of anyone harvesting any whitetails or other big game with bows like this. Part of that is probably state regulations about the minimum size of archery gear.
Still, we'd love to see an in-depth analysis of something like the Liberty One Bow and the Gearhead Archery T18's effectiveness as a hunting tool. That smaller size is probably lighter to tote afield and much more compact. We think that would be an advantage in dense, brushy areas. We'd love to see them start simple, perhaps with small game or bowfishing and work their way up from there. In any case, these bows show that we still haven't reached the limits of archery technology. Someone is always waiting around to redesign the wheel!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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