Athens Vista 33 hand shock?

379 Views 9 Replies 7 Participants Last post by 1/2 Bubble Off, 2 d ago

cuttingedge

Discussion Starter · 3 d ago

Hi all. I've been wanting to shoot a Vista 33, and today I got may chance. The tech set the DL at 28.5" and the bow was 70lb max backed down to just under 63lbs. Note, the string stop had about 3/16" clearance at rest.

The draw wasn't bad, no real humps or dumps, but the 28.5 setting seemed at minimum 1/2" long for me. I don't know what the let off was set at, but it was very easy to hold.

Now the shot. I was "shocked" by the amount of hand shock this bow had. There was a very noticeable forward jump and a good deal of vibration at the shot. I had hand surgery about 7 weeks ago, so I felt every bit of it.

Is this normal for the Vista 33? I would have to say it had more hand shock than any bow I have tried in the past year, and I've shot a bunch of them.

What gives?

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bowtech2006

· #2 · 3 d ago

String stop that far away will cause vibe, softly touching is where I like mine on the vista series.

My v35 has more vibe then Mathews but about the same as the ss34 I had.

I know at 90% let off on the v35 I have is like 1/4 long and at 80 is 1/32 long. I do have stabilizer on and lower weight in rear hole to help and 500 grain arrow.

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1/2 Bubble Off

· #3 · 3 d ago

cuttingedge said:
Hi all. I've been wanting to shoot a Vista 33, and today I got may chance. The tech set the DL at 28.5" and the bow was 70lb max backed down to just under 63lbs. Note, the string stop had about 3/16" clearance at rest.

The draw wasn't bad, no real humps or dumps, but the 28.5 setting seemed at minimum 1/2" long for me. I don't know what the let off was set at, but it was very easy to hold.

Now the shot. I was "shocked" by the amount of hand shock this bow had. There was a very noticeable forward jump and a good deal of vibration at the shot. I had hand surgery about 7 weeks ago, so I felt every bit of it.

Is this normal for the Vista 33? I would have to say it had more hand shock than any bow I have tried in the past year, and I've shot a bunch of them.

What gives?

1) The string stop not being adjusted is the cause for the vibration.

2) When you take turns out of limb bolts you change brace height which changes the DL. 1/2" seems to be a little on the longer side but, I guess it's possible.

If your shop adjusted the string stop to just barely "kissing" and dropped a module size you would've had a completely different shooting experience. (I don't understand how shops try to sell folks a bow without doing these "little" things)

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Alaska at heart

· #4 · 3 d ago (Edited)

That is completely different from my testing experience with the Vista 33. The day I was bow testing, an Athens was not even on my radar.....until I was "encouraged" to at least give the Vista 33 a try. The draw was excellent, the grip fit well, the balance was surprisingly good.....and there was no more feedback at the shot than the Bowtech, PSE, Mathews or Prime I also ended up shooting. Something was not setup correctly on that bow, as the Vista 35 I subsequently ordered shot just as nice as the 33 right out of the box.

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Atchcraft

· #5 · 3 d ago

I would say that it must have been the set up.

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cuttingedge

Discussion Starter · #6 · 3 d ago

Atchcraft said:
I would say that it must have been the set up.

That's what I was suspecting. I love the looks of the bow, and it balanced great. The grip kinda hurt my hand, but narrow grips are just gonna do that until my hand totally heals. I typically like narrow grips.

I may just pick up a nice used one to try, unless there is a major reason to get a new one. I don't have to have picatinny or integrate to be happy with a bow.

I will say at this point it wouldn't dethrone my Revex 2. The little bit wider grip is much easier on my hand.

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Atchcraft

· #7 · 3 d ago

Thats exactly how I got into my vista 35. I found one here on AT and the price was right, so I went for it. It’s very smooth, easy to tune, great customer servic… win. I currently run that, right next to my Mathews V3X. I enjoy both of them, almost equally.

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Smada962

· #8 · 2 d ago

cuttingedge said:
The grip kinda hurt my hand, but narrow grips are just gonna do that until my hand totally heals. I typically like narrow grips.

When I had my Athens I wasn't a huge fan of the bare grip at first, but I put some grip tape on and then it fit me perfectly. If it hurts your hand you could always do that and I bet it would help.

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Rob Red

· #9 · 2 d ago

1/2 Bubble Off said:
If your shop adjusted the string stop to just barely "kissing" and dropped a module size you would've had a completely different shooting experience. (I don't understand how shops try to sell folks a bow without doing these "little" things)

So many folks fail to realize this when testing bows... The personality of a bow can be greatly effected by setup (or lack there of).

How a bow holds, draw cycle, "hump and dump", vibration, noise are all radically effected by sometimes minor adjustments

This is why I am skeptical when I see people telling new archers to buy bows based on what they feel is best.

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1/2 Bubble Off

· #10 · 2 d ago

Rob Red said:
So many folks fail to realize this when testing bows... The personality of a bow can be greatly effected by setup (or lack there of).

How a bow holds, draw cycle, "hump and dump", vibration, noise are all radically effected by sometimes minor adjustments

This is why I am skeptical when I see people telling new archers to buy bows based on what they feel is best.

These same dealers will drop a brand because they "don't sell"... but they'll refuse to take an extra 10 minutes to make these minor adjustments.

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