# Darton Archery



## breedlove90 (Dec 26, 2005)

Darton Archery...A company's name that is recognized by nearly all older archers but only as a memory of a bow of yesteryears. Many beginning archers have never even heard of Darton Archery and are unaware of the company's deep history in the archery industry. In this article I want to introduce the Darton Archery of the present and future.

This past summer I myself was introduced to Darton Archery. At the time I owned 3 Mathews bows and 2 Bowtechs and was shooting a Bowtech Guardian as my primary bow. Knowing very little about Darton and its products to say I was hesitate to explore at first is an understatement. After a good friend encouraged me to try their new line I ordered an AS300.

After I pulled the AS300 out of the box I concluded that it was a short ATA parallel limbed hunting bow comparable to any of the markets top manufacturers hunting lines. After tightened the 6 allen screws that secure the 30.0" modules on to the cams I set the ATA at 31 3/8" in just a few minutes. Next using the cam timing marks located on each cam the timing was set in a instant and I scaled the bow at a perfect 70.0#. The QAD HD was set dead even with the Berger button hole and the centershot was set dead even with the string using a EZE laser tool. I set the nocking point dead level and tied a string loop on and went out to paper tune.

To my amazement the first shot at 3' was a bullethole. The arrow was a GT XT Hunter 7595 cut at 28 3/8" raw shaft length with a 125 gr field point fletched with Blazer vanes. It also shot bulletholes at 6', 9' and 20 yards. Ok...I was starting to get impressed.

After 20 shots I started to realize this was indeed a spectacular product. A bow that rivals any of todays " name brands" top bows. The back wall was super solid, the draw was unbelievably smooth, the shot was very silent and shock free. The more I shot the bow the more I grew to love it. Since that summer day I have hunted in 5 different states and have taken 3 Colorado grouse, an Illinois public land doe, 5 North Carolina whitetails, a Florida boar, and 4 Texas whitetails including a 142" 9 pointer with my Darton.

*LADIES AND GENTLEMEN....THIS IS DARTON ARCHERY.*


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## bigtree67 (Jun 5, 2005)

*Well Said*

:*ladies And Gentlemen This Is Darton Archery*


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## drtnshtr (Jan 20, 2003)

I have to agree with you...I shot Darton bows for years strictly in National 3-D events and worked my way up to the top 10 in semi-pro class with my maverick and rampage...since then I switched to the high dollar mathews and hoyts but have never truly been as happy with them as I was my dartons'.


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## Mizzoukispot (Feb 4, 2006)

I will take the devils advocate point of view on this one. I have shot hoyts, elites and bowtechs. The AS 300 that I bought came at 74 lbs. The timing was way off and the string and one cable had creeped very badly. It is a pretty nice bow and I am considering either selling it or putting new cables and a new string on it. But to me, Darton should not ship out a bow to a shop that is this far out of whack. Even in specs, the dl is a half an inch long....


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## Tecumseh (Jan 14, 2007)

...I believe Proline was an even older bow manufacture. Then Darton acquired Proline. They are/were good bows. My Bro used to shoot both of their bows and shot them well. At that time I was shooting the Martin bows. Man I miss the old days and miss my brother. :sad: Cherish the days with you loved ones. When they/you are gone the only thing that is left is memories. I hope I never loose them.


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## bigdawg (Feb 26, 2003)

I was a beginner in 2000. My first target bow was a Darton. I won 2 Canadian National championships with it, and set many records with it. I eventually owned 3 from 2001-2005. It was the only Darton at the 2005 World Fita Outdoor Championships. It was a great shooting bow, but I was always changing limbs as they seemed to crack every year, and when it came time to replace them under warrenty, dealing with the company was a royal pain. This is now why I shoot Mathews. I don't mean for this post to be a jab at Darton, as I belive they make a good product. I just want to point out that sometimes a good product is not backed with good service.


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## IChim2 (Aug 20, 2006)

Good Post Breedlove.Ive shot Dartons for 10yrs and still do,still have 4 of them...Luckly there's a dealer south of me.Darton has always been a top notch bow and probably always will be.


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## IChim2 (Aug 20, 2006)

bigdawg said:


> I was a beginner in 2000. My first target bow was a Darton. I won 2 Canadian National championships with it, and set many records with it. I eventually owned 3 from 2001-2005. It was the only Darton at the 2005 World Fita Outdoor Championships. It was a great shooting bow, but I was always changing limbs as they seemed to crack every year, and when it came time to replace them under warrenty, dealing with the company was a royal pain. This is now why I shoot Mathews. I don't mean for this post to be a jab at Darton, as I belive they make a good product. I just want to point out that sometimes a good product is not backed with good service.


Sorry to hear that.I've shot them since 97 and never had a single problem with any of them and their CS has always been Excellent+....anytime i needed to order new strings.I still have my 98 cyclone R/C and couldn't even guess how many times i've shot it and still looks/performs like new,just like the other 3.Those pre loaded energy limbs they use are some of the best on the market....same with Bear presure molded limbs....What titles have you won.


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## drtnshtr (Jan 20, 2003)

IChim2 said:


> Sorry to hear that.I've shot them since 97 and never had a single problem with any of them and their CS has always been Excellent+....anytime i needed to order new strings.I still have my 98 cyclone R/C and couldn't even guess how many times i've shot it and still looks/performs like new,just like the other 3.Those pre loaded energy limbs they use are some of the best on the market....same with Bear presure molded limbs....What titles have you won.


I have to agree with Bigdawg on this one...I had problems with my limbs constantly on my rampage...most guys dont ever see the cracks up in the V part of their limbs because they are hairline cracks and hard to point out even when you know they are there...I shot co-op out of our local shop for Darton and still had a heck of a time getting limbs from them...I always kept a back up rampage just in case...I have never won any titles but I was in the top ten consistently in semi pro class with my rampage. I think I was the only one in semi pro shooting a darton at the ASA Pro-ams.


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## whitetail99 (Feb 1, 2003)

Yes the AS300 cam system is very nice but the Darton Pro-series cams on the Pro2000 and Pro3000 are better. I guaranty that.


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## MIKEY CUSTOM-G (Oct 5, 2002)

*i agree*

darton was an awesome bow,,,,the lightning was one of the first bows i ever saw that hit 300 fps way back in the late 80's...

darton has alot going on with innovation that other companies have popularized,,,notably the binary system that bowtech uses,,,bowtech "tweaked" but yet uses.

my older brother who also has a guardian and has owned every popular bow known to mankind,,,,is shooting a darton 3000 for hunting. the bow gives him 320 fps with an ibo arrow and only 60 pounds and 28.5 draw. and the bow is dead quiet. i dont care for its rather thick grip,,,but i am tempted to buy one myself...


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## EldredArcher (Jan 21, 2007)

*As 400*

Every AS 400 in the shop i worked at either the cables and or the strings were wore threw the serving and cut threw the string material........their excuse(they were pre production models we sent you).....since then i re served a terminators cable twice and they sent the owner a new cam....so why did the the first one cut it in the first place....was it a "PRE PRODUCTION MODEL DARTON"..........mathews and hoyts wear threw serving at sharp cam angles but not also threw the string material in a matter of two weeks............darton gets the thumbs straight up(if they were middle fingers)........if you want factory quality buy anything else......and the ad campaign is enough to make anyone laugh(The Prophesy of Crap Quality Coupled with Lame Advertisement is Fullfilled!!!!!)........customer service great for such a piece of s**t bow(are they all pre production s**t or should we just refer to darton as early stomach contents?)


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## Rosco (Nov 21, 2007)

EldredArcher said:


> Every AS 400 in the shop i worked at either the cables and or the strings were wore threw the serving and cut threw the string material........their excuse(they were pre production models we sent you).....since then i re served a terminators cable twice and they sent the owner a new cam....so why did the the first one cut it in the first place....was it a "PRE PRODUCTION MODEL DARTON"..........mathews and hoyts wear threw serving at sharp cam angles but not also threw the string material in a matter of two weeks............darton gets the thumbs straight up(if they were middle fingers)........if you want factory quality buy anything else......and the ad campaign is enough to make anyone laugh(The Prophesy of Crap Quality Coupled with Lame Advertisement is Fullfilled!!!!!)........customer service great for such a piece of s**t bow(are they all pre production s**t or should we just refer to darton as early stomach contents?)


 Well now I am a little concearned, I just bought a AS400 at the beginning of the new year. I have shot about 600 arrows on it.

Last week at a shoot I noticed the string already freying at the anchor point on the cam(sorry if teminoligey is wrong I'm a newb:wink:


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## Reed (Jun 18, 2002)

rosco, take it in have have Ron look at it. Was it a scorpion sting or the stock string?

I had several 1000 on my stock string, and you would never know. I have lost count of the number of shots on my scorpion string. with no problems

reed


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## Rosco (Nov 21, 2007)

Reed said:


> rosco, take it in have have Ron look at it. Was it a scorpion sting or the stock string?
> 
> I had several 1000 on my stock string, and you would never know. I have lost count of the number of shots on my scorpion string. with no problems
> 
> reed


Yes Reed it was a stock string, took it into Ron Last night and he put on new string and cables, they wern't scorpions, but he said they were a top of the line set made in the U.S.


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## celticgladiator (Feb 13, 2008)

i finally put aside my Darton, it is about 15 years old. i still love it but it is slow and loud by todays standards, i think i will use it for bow fishing now. i thought about getting one thier new bows but i fell i love with the Bowtech commander and decided on trying one of them instead. can't complain about the darton though.


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