I‘ve had my Xpedite for a little over a month now and it’s been a hell of a rollercoaster ride so I thought I’d share my experiences with you and do a little review on it.
First contact and initial impression:
The 2021 Xpedite is a sweet looking rig! PSE did away with the curves and batwing looking details and released a riser that looks a lot more subtle but still a little menacing due to its strong reflex and low braceheight. My Xpedite came in Kuiu Verde which on this bow looks a lot darker than my buddy‘s Helix in the same pattern.
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As far as performance is concerned the bow definitely delivers: at my 28.5“ draw with bottomed out limbs (bow came in at ~72lbs) it shoots a 463gr Black Eagle Deep Impact with 297fps. The draw is stiff but not uncomfortably so. It starts off pretty heavy but is very linear with no noticeable dump into the valley. It is similar to the old Xpedite but slightly smoother, my old Xpedite came in a little light at 68.5 and this one feels easier to pull back. It is a far cry from PSE speed bows from days past - anyone remember that Omen double hump? At full draw it is stable and not at all jumpy. Letting down however is pretty nasty because in typical high let off fashion, it feels like you have to push the bow forward at first and then it wants to take off on you. Maybe I’m just too weak but I have a very hard time letting it down quietly without having the arrow bump around.
The struggle
The rubber grip that PSE puts on all their NXT bows feels very comfortable but unfortunately does not fit my hand at all: I couldn’t hold the bow without torquing it to the left. Shooting the bow without the rubber grip helped somewhat but I couldn’t really get it to group well out to longer distances as there always was a bit of left to right variance. I experimented by shortening or lengthening my draw and trying the different let off settings to no avail.
I guess I’m one of two people on the planet who really liked Mathews’ focus grip so I took off the rubber grip, ground my own focusish backplate and wrapped the grip in racket tape:
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This helped clear up my rip through paper and shrunk the groups down somewhat, but the hold on target was not as stable as I would have liked it. I also shoot a Vertix and even without any kind of stabilizer on it, it holds steadier than the Xpedite (it’s also quite a bit heavier though). So I experimented with various stabilizer setups and ended up with a 12” bar on the lower mounting position and an 8“ sidebar. That did the trick: the bow holds rocksteady on target and levels itself out perfectly.
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I then tried to tune it for proper broadhead flight by moving the cable rod towards the riser slightly so I could leave the rest pretty much in the center shot which led to having my arrows touch at 15m (which is the longest I can currently shoot because the range where I am allowed to shoot broadheads has been closed for the past weeks - yay Covid...) and my field point nicking the German Kinetics broadhead.
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All in all getting the bow to shoot well for me was quite a bit more work than I’m used to but in the end I now have complete confidence in it and am looking forward to putting it to good use this year.
Hope this little review is helpful if you are considering the Xpedite NXT for yourself.
First contact and initial impression:
The 2021 Xpedite is a sweet looking rig! PSE did away with the curves and batwing looking details and released a riser that looks a lot more subtle but still a little menacing due to its strong reflex and low braceheight. My Xpedite came in Kuiu Verde which on this bow looks a lot darker than my buddy‘s Helix in the same pattern.
As far as performance is concerned the bow definitely delivers: at my 28.5“ draw with bottomed out limbs (bow came in at ~72lbs) it shoots a 463gr Black Eagle Deep Impact with 297fps. The draw is stiff but not uncomfortably so. It starts off pretty heavy but is very linear with no noticeable dump into the valley. It is similar to the old Xpedite but slightly smoother, my old Xpedite came in a little light at 68.5 and this one feels easier to pull back. It is a far cry from PSE speed bows from days past - anyone remember that Omen double hump? At full draw it is stable and not at all jumpy. Letting down however is pretty nasty because in typical high let off fashion, it feels like you have to push the bow forward at first and then it wants to take off on you. Maybe I’m just too weak but I have a very hard time letting it down quietly without having the arrow bump around.
The struggle
The rubber grip that PSE puts on all their NXT bows feels very comfortable but unfortunately does not fit my hand at all: I couldn’t hold the bow without torquing it to the left. Shooting the bow without the rubber grip helped somewhat but I couldn’t really get it to group well out to longer distances as there always was a bit of left to right variance. I experimented by shortening or lengthening my draw and trying the different let off settings to no avail.
I guess I’m one of two people on the planet who really liked Mathews’ focus grip so I took off the rubber grip, ground my own focusish backplate and wrapped the grip in racket tape:
This helped clear up my rip through paper and shrunk the groups down somewhat, but the hold on target was not as stable as I would have liked it. I also shoot a Vertix and even without any kind of stabilizer on it, it holds steadier than the Xpedite (it’s also quite a bit heavier though). So I experimented with various stabilizer setups and ended up with a 12” bar on the lower mounting position and an 8“ sidebar. That did the trick: the bow holds rocksteady on target and levels itself out perfectly.
I then tried to tune it for proper broadhead flight by moving the cable rod towards the riser slightly so I could leave the rest pretty much in the center shot which led to having my arrows touch at 15m (which is the longest I can currently shoot because the range where I am allowed to shoot broadheads has been closed for the past weeks - yay Covid...) and my field point nicking the German Kinetics broadhead.
All in all getting the bow to shoot well for me was quite a bit more work than I’m used to but in the end I now have complete confidence in it and am looking forward to putting it to good use this year.
Hope this little review is helpful if you are considering the Xpedite NXT for yourself.
