2011 Mathews MR7 Report

[Stinky Coyote]

ordered this winter, just got a few days ago, its ibo rating suggests its a 92 ft/lbs ke bow at 70/30....mine is a 70/30 with 80% let off cam (65% an option) maxes at 68.7 with a 15.4 hold weight (i think that translates into 78% let off?) on the easton digital bow scale, built some maxima 450's and weighed are 449gr and they are going 301 fps for 90 ft/lbs, ordered mine with new focus grip, like it so far but very few shots on it to say how much, very different from usual mathews grips or even the torqueless grip for that matter

keeping my monster xlr8 as i like both for what they are and glad the xlr8 didn't sell over the winter as these two look great backing each other up!....the mr7 feels more like typical smaller hunting bows than it does the xlr8, its balance is neutral with just a hint of roll forward top heavy....a fraction of the beastly xlr8, and i measured ata of both and the mr7 is 33 1/8 and the xlr8 is 1 5/8 more....and its lighter than the xlr8 plus with better balance feels lighter again, in the picture there are no rests installed but i put 7 arrow on mr7 and 5 arrow on xlr8 and also added the sling braid and stabilizer quick detach and still came in 1 oz lighter than the xlr8....as pictured its 1 oz lighter, they both wear same sight and anchor sight

oh and the draw on the mr7 is completely different than the xlr8, way way smoother to draw and let down, no big jerk on the let down like the xlr8, after drawing and letting the mr7 down there is no way i thought it would be capable of 90 ft/lbs at 68.7 lbs of draw...just feels like a *****cat to me, its so different from the xlr8 in all areas its hard to believe they are the same family...anyhow, i'm happy, nice strong but safe bow and my hotrod, still love the xlr8, its a powerhouse and i'm going to go limbdriver on it this year same as the mr7 and shoot it at its max of almost 73 lbs instead of the 69 i shot it last year with a bisquit, plus go up to same 449 gr arrows instead of the 378 gr i shot last year at 96.5 ft/lbs....i'm guessing i'll be at least 102 ft/lbs with the xlr8 when its set up, will keep you updated

here is picture of both together....dimensionally the mr7 is way smaller than i expected when i ordered it...very happy with both bows, oh yeah, i took the dead end string stop off the mr7 figuring with 7" bh i wouldn't need it, may play with it but just don't see the need, i'll leave it on the xlr8

both will be set up same, sling braid, quick detach stabilizer for the one b-stinger i have, same sights etc. one will just have two more arrow capacity than the other and one wears a custom 7 pin axcel and other with 8 pins

[Mr.twister]

Very nice, I see you have that focus grip, is it just thiner or whats the deal with that??

[ishootbambi]

stink....when you give these reviews, you cover the little things that never seem to be discussed by manufacturers. you seem to be able to use good real world descriptions of what things are rather than the typical "i have this and its the greatest" followed by a few reworded quotes from the company website.

so far, you havent tested out anything i am looking to purchase myself....but if it happens i know i can count on you for some solid advice.

[Stinky Coyote]

Originally Posted by Mr.twister

Very nice, I see you have that focus grip, is it just thiner or whats the deal with that??

its thinner, thinner than the riser itself, and it is not flat with square edges, it rounds out to a point, which with how skinny it is you'd think it would hurt or be uncomfortable but it will surprise you in its comfort....sure did with me, plus its made of what seems to be a blend of rubber and plastic, its a warm feeling grip but not slippery but not too grabby either, its got a bit of cushion to it, i had no idea what to expect but i can tell you it is very comfortable and nothing like anything thats ever been on a mathews before, its much more like the skinny grips you find when you try bowtechs or pse's etc. its much closer to that feel you instantly sort of like as soon as you grab a new bow off the rack.....i have only a few arrows on it and appears the writing is on the wall that i'll be ordering up another for the xlr8

even thought the material seems a bit grippy vs smooth wood, the shape or design seems to lend well to consistant hold, it feels really good and warm plus very comfortable and natural, i really like it...its flexible too, they only have the black goo running down the ridge so you can actually peel back the tops and look down....i like to build an arrow shelf with fuzzy stuff when using drop away so i put more goo along the top edge and taped it together for a day or so to set up solid so i had a solid non-moving flat surface on the shelf to do that with, i switch grips so i keep a tube of that same black stuff around...so it came in handy for this grip

hope that helps, best grip from mathews imo, it almost instantly making me really dislike the torqueless on the xlr8, the torqueless now feels like a fat clumsy square edged chunk of uncomfortable 2x4....and i said before that the stock xlr8 grip was more comfortable than the torqueless but the anchorsight didn't lie in back to back testing, the torqueless really was more 'torqueless', the focus grip seems to have the anchorsight lining up consistant so far

[Stinky Coyote]

Originally Posted by ishootbambi

stink....when you give these reviews, you cover the little things that never seem to be discussed by manufacturers. you seem to be able to use good real world descriptions of what things are rather than the typical "i have this and its the greatest" followed by a few reworded quotes from the company website.

so far, you havent tested out anything i am looking to purchase myself....but if it happens i know i can count on you for some solid advice.

thanks bambi, oh to be a gear junky....i like reading these sorts of things when researching gear so i'm glad others do similar stuff, just giving back so guys also on the hunt can read thru the lines and see if its what they are after, can i get a job doing this sort of gear testing etc.? Guns/bows/hunting stuff and i'm in!

[Stinky Coyote]

one last thing, i really liked the numbers/specs of that new bowtech invasion and it tempted me but i thought it could use a touch more ata length and the only other clincher for me were quivers, mathews makes such kick arse quivers, i'm a fixed two piece guy, and the mathews quivers fit so well and tight to the bow, rock solid etc. that its just one more little thing that keeps me to mathews

i handled the invasion the other day while in the shop and the fit and finish also didn't seem as impeccible to me, it had sort of a pse feel to it imo, i'm quite used to the quality level etc. of the mathews and the only other bows i've handled that seem to have that feel to me are hoyts....i haven't handled any of the newer smaller manufactured bows though....just talking about pse/bowtech/hoyt/mathews as all i've handled

if the invasion/bowtech had well developed accessories/quivers and maybe another inch of ata i might have gone that way sight unseen but handling both i'm happy with my choice in all areas, its a pricy bow but it seems worth the extra to me over the invasion...i'm used to mathews fit and finish, feel, etc. and no dissappointments....its old home, but the invasion sure has great features and specs

[Mr.twister]

So i take it the focus grip helps with shooting too??
I should definatley try it out now that you say its comfortable!!, i really thought it wouldnt be as comfortable as i thought.

[Stinky Coyote]

do some googles on it, found a few threads on archerytalk, seems lots of guys like them over the torqueless but a few still prefer the torqueless to it, note, just measured bh and its 1/8 to 3/16" longer, is it product of the grip? i'll find out more later, going to see if i can get on a machine and measure its true draw length, i believe its supposed to be 7" bh but i'm getting 7 1/8 to 7 3/16.

[Mr.twister]

I should of thought of archerytalk......i wasnt thinkin

Anyways thanks for the help!!

[Stinky Coyote]

update, had a buddy mess with bow a bit, did d-loop and centershot and maybe he did something else with strings i dunno and Jim brought in some 29.5" draw length modules and i check brace height now with focus grip and its bang on 7" exact...draw pull has reduced .7 to 68.0 even with the 29.5 modules also and ft/lbs is down to 85.75 now...so i'm going to spend some time shooting it this way while i compare blazers to fobs and higher foc than i've shot before to see if my consistancy extends beyond 70 yrds for the amount of effort i put in setting up/zeroing each season...i have regular limb driver set up but see they have a new pro-v model which seems to combine the best attributes of a whisker bisquit with the best of a drop away in one rest so i'll bring one of those in also and a little fuzzy stuff inside and out should be dead silent loading/fumbling arrows and dead silent on the draw with the new v-bar arm with fuzzy stuff already on it...looks about as good as it gets for a drop away imo

if i don't gain any yardage consistancy on the buck past 70 i may consider going back to bombproof bisquit/blazers but i have a feeling that i'll get things perkin along to further with this combo of gear

so i shot 406.5 grains at 308.5 fps average today at 68.0 lbs draw weight, 29.5" draw length, 7" brace and focus grip, i also shot 455 grains and 400.5 grains and averaged out almost the same between them...for 85.75 ft/lbs

happy with this bow, enjoying everything about it so far, once final set up achieved i will mirror it with the xlr8 so i have choice for safe bow or hot rod depending on the hunt or mood

i like the module changes for draw length, no press needed, two screws and flip out the new ones and put other ones in, seem so much better than changing out whole cams!!! both the mr7 and xlr8 are this way

[Stinky Coyote]

June 23rd update, didn't give the fobs or drop away much of a chance, the limb driver and limb driver pro-v i have brand new are very nice, the pro-v once 'fuzzy stuffed' everywhere is the quietest ultimate hunting drop away going imo but end of day i just don't like the amount of stuff going on with a drop away so jerked it off before i could even really test fobs against blazers at distance etc. I re-chronied going back to the bisquit and lost 2 fps....i'll take it.

So current configuration is:

2011 MR7 RH
29.5" mods
67lbs draw weight
400gr Arrows (maxima 350 bluestreaks)
308 fps (84 ft/lbs or 17 ft/lbs more ke than pull weight)
Axcel 8 pin custom sight
Anchor Sight
Whisker Bisquit
Very tight/small D-loop
Choc-lite 3 finger
Mathews fixed two piece 5-arrow
Everything is black in color

Little changes i've made here and there, i tried wrist sling, b-stinger stabilizer and shot worse, so back to how i shot before, no stab, no wrist sling, fingertips on front of riser, so much happier this way and important to have a very neutral balancing bow for me to be happy with this and the MR7 doesn't move or rock at the shot, i don't have to 'grab it' in any way. I shoot with four arrows in quiver for set up and practice to simulate how it will be hunting. I also moved the sight in closer (its closest of 3 sets of mounting holes) so the overall footprint of the bow is more compact and nothing sticking out here or there, i do like shooting sights way out front of the bow but now its more in line with the limb pockets and you can set the bow straight down and it will stand there on its limb pockets and seem to be shooting well enough with the sight in closer, it does have a very long throat between the close mounting holes and sight bracket as compared to lots of sights anyhow.

My anchor sight is mounted above the sight, the axcel sight had bubble level on bottom of bracket but can be moved to top and now at draw my eyes quickly go from anchorsight to bubble level to pins and on zee target and thwack. I've never had anything set up so well that draw to shot speed was this fast. It takes a bit of tuning and giving things a break and re-checking and aligning the anchor sight and level etc. so that its all right there on your eyes closed cold body anchor but its magic when its set up!

End of day, this bow at 67 lbs is a ***** cat to draw, nothing jumps, no hard turn over, just easy easy easy drawing at this weight for me, it feels like 5 lbs less draw weight to me than it is. I am not worried about long stints in super cold on stand. At 68.0 or above though it seemed more noticeable to me and a little stiffer to draw, maybe i just got used to it i dunno but 67 is my easy number.

THE FOCUS GRIP....now that i have a few hundred arrows down the pipe i can comment more on the focus grip, hands down the best grip mathews has ever put on a bow! It kicks the crap out of the torqless grip and factory grip by miles and miles....it is awesome, do not get another mathews without this grip!!!!

I love this bow. All done my 40 yrd set up, shot field tips, reapers and reaper practice heads to 40 and all go same spot so just going to fine tune in my longer pins now and ready for upcoming opener. Note, had lots of arrows slapping in the 20-30 yrd shooting when i chose same aim points, the 20 yrd shooting no problem for 1" groups. I don't tend to use same dots from habit as i don't want to re-fletch or bust anything but i shot some groups for fun and it stacks them. Holds very well on target.

Also note: it does 310 fps with that set up if pulling hard into the wall but just regular anchor lazy into the valley it does 308 fps

pics of final config coming

[Stinky Coyote]

if you notice some 'matte' or fuzzy lookin stuff on the sight etc. its just where i put small strips of fuzzy stuff wherever an arrow might 'clang' if i miss the slot into the rest when all heck breaks loose etc. so if i miss the slot high or low there is fuzzy stuff on the rest itself or on the sight etc. to make sure i don't get any noise while loading an arrow should i miss the rest

there is even some fuzzy stuff on the back parts of the rest where the arrows are in the quiver as you can get contact pulling an arrow out as the quivers are tight to the bow so the shafts get pretty close to the back side of the whisker bisquit bracket...kinda picky i know but its hunt ready to my satisfaction now

i'd weight it but the scale got loaned out, will try to remember to do that when we get it back and put the final bit of data into this thread