Hurrah For Merlin

[Donald Yeo]

Recently, one of our visually handicap archers bought a Merlin Max 2000 glass limbs bow through a local dealer in Malaysia. Without misusing the bow, the limbs cracked badly. The local dealer was not helpful when contacted. The visually handicap archer then contacted Merlin in UK direct. He was more than pleasantly surprised when Ben and Chris of Merlin offered to help him out. They offered to replace the cracked limbs with a set of carbon limbs normally fitted to the Super Nova bows. It was originally agreed that the handicap archer should pay an extra S$200 with Merlin bearing the transport cost. After a waiting period of not more than 2 weeks the new limbs arrived. Instead of asking for the S$200 as originally requested, Merlin volunteered to it down by another 30%. Now, these limbs are superbly manufactured. They also bore the name of the handicap archer on them. I only have high praise for Merlin for being so considerate and helpful to this visually handicap archer,who is not rich by any standard. Now, in Singapore, the name of Merlin carries a lot of weight and the limbs after they had been set up in the bow, perform very well indeed. Hurray for Merlin! By your great assistance you have made this visually handicap archer a very happy man indeed!!

[Pinwheel 12]

Donald-

I am glad to see after our conversations on another thread that you indeed took my advice, and contacted the factory directly. As I knew it would be, your dillemma was taken care of with the same customer service that as a dealer I have grown to set as a standard with which to compare other manufacturers. I am very happy to hear that he has been taken care of accordingly and is back shooting well and happy! Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

[Donald Yeo]

As the secretary of a club, which has more than 200 compound bow archers, I shall most gladly, of course, recommend Merlin to my members should they think of purchasing another bow or changing to another bow.

It is sad to think that a good bow like the Hoyt bows has a dealer here, who is not very well liked by many archers.

I shall in due course exchange my Hoyt Defiant, which is only 2 years old, with a Merlin Super Nova. But, of course, I have tried out my visually handicap archer's Merlin Max 2000 with the new limbs. We have found that the draw is very stiff compared to my Hoyt Defiant. Someone here, who is rather good in the mechanisms of a compound bow having studied it in Australia for a period of time advised us that contrary to our belief that the limbs are new and stiff, the cams of this bow are of a kind that rotate in a wider and bigger circle. Thus, the stiff draw according to him. One needs to draw the arrow to a length of about 20 inches before the let off takes effect with the Merlin.

Well, apart from that stiffness in the draw, we have found the new limbs give faster and more powerful shots than his old limbs. Breaking in the new limbs, I suppose, would be like breaking in a new car. It takes a couple of months of shooting to get used to the stiffness of the draw. Unlike my Hoyt Defiant with its command cams with the draw is so much smoother compared to my friend's Merlin.

Once again, Pinwheel 12, thanks for the co-operation.

[Jeff Saunders]

Donald, when you get your Supernova, you will be pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of the draw. The eccentrics on the Supernova are very smooth drawing and have no feel of coming through the cam that the max does. Plus, with the different letoff and wall modules, you can play to get the feel you prefer at full draw.

The Max is a very nice bow, and you are right about the cams rotating in a wider circle - this becomes one of the advantages of the Max as the string angle is the same as a much longer axle-to-axle bow, thus avoiding pinch at the nocking point.

[Donald Yeo]

Thank you Jeff for your advice. I shall indeed let you know when I purchase the Super Nova and compare it with my Hoyt Defiant. Yup, indeed, I shall make a note to compare the two.