# Mathews Conquest 3 or Conquest Apex?



## luckyhit (Dec 8, 2006)

CAZ, I've been looking at almost the same list of possibilities that you have come up with.

I don't think that you could shoot the Monster Pheonix with fingers. They do have a longer bow in thier plans, later this year, I think. I handled the Ross 377. It felt too short for me. But guys are shooting them with fingers.

My shortlist is pretty much everything else that you mentioned. The Oneida Pro Eagle is rising to the top just because it is the only bow that I can find that still gives you letoff options down to 50%. 

I'd be really interested to hear from somebody who is shooting the super soft cam on the longer ATA mathews bows.


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## Manhunter50 (Oct 23, 2006)

*My .02...*

CAZ, I owned a Conquest 3 with the Super Soft cam and didn't like it at all. Can't really explain why, but the bow never felt particularly stable in my hand (not a lick on Mathews at all, I shot them for almost 12 years), I didn't like the feel of the Super Soft cam, and I never shot it as well as I thought I should. I considered and shot the Apex and didn't like it a bit. (Yes, I know there are guys shooting the Apex very well, but it wasn't for me.) Mathews doesn't make a grip that feels comfortable to me; if I bought a Mathews now, it'd be a Conquest 3 with the 65% Max Cam and I would immediately replace the string, cable and grip. I'd go with a Shrewd, a Hicks, or one of Tronjo's low-wrist grips. I always had trouble with the Zebra strings rotating, so I got in the habit of going with after-market strings and had no trouble with them.

I've shot the Constitution quite a bit. My brother owns two of them and I shoot with some release shooters who shoot them very, very well. Two guys I shoot with are shop shooters for a Bowtech dealer and they average 597 and 598/600.

I now shoot the Ross CR337 and a Ross Competition. I have a 28.5" draw length and shoot them pretty well. Lately, I've been shooting in the 560 range, which is better than a lot of our release shooters, but still not as good as the bow is capable of. If your draw length is longer than 29 inches, you may find the 337 a little short. Although it has an ATA of 37 inches, the size of the cam and idler give it the feel of a bow of about 41 inches. I shoot the 65% letoff mods on both of my bows and I really like the smooth draw and overall feel of the bow. I could go into Ross's customer service, but my experience with them hasn't involved any work on either of my bows (which is the way I like it), just answering stupid questions on setup, etc. Doug Hutchison freely admitted to me that they were not designed for finger shooters, but that a number of guys are doing very well with the 337 with fingers. He even asked me to call back with any useful observations I had about shooting the 337/Competition with fingers, which I've done a couple of times.

My advice, don't buy one without shooting it - and that applies to all of them. I'm just glad I got to shoot the Apex before I dropped a grand or more for one, because I like the Conquest 3 much better with the aforementioned modifications.


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## susitnaak (Jan 3, 2004)

*cam*

Kriss I have a SSddr Cam for a conquest, on my shelf, I tryed, Is smooth but slow,and didn,t like where i had to put knock for arrow, flight, almost 1/2 high. Also the back wall is just to soft for me now.


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## longbowjll (Mar 14, 2005)

caz i cannot say about the other brands but i know the mathews are great finger bows. i have shot the con3 apex and ovation and all shoot well. on the 3 i shot max cam and on ovation i shot 80%. the ovat. is hard to shoot at 65%. i now shoot the apex mostly and feel that it is the best that i have ever shot. with that being said it took me a while to get the feel that i wanted. what is your draw i may have something that tou can try. jesse l. lane


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## thumper-tx (Dec 19, 2006)

I have both Mathews bows that you mentioned. The Apex is slightly louder but not enough to worry about. I like the grip on the Apex much better. The speed is about the same on both bows. I think the Apex is a little more forgiving and is VERY smooth at the 65% let off. Both are great finger bows, very hard to beat. I hunted with the Apex this fall most of the time because I liked the grip.

With that said, the conquest 4 just came out and it has the same grip as the Apex of at least it looks the same in the photos. I think with the new grip, the new conquest would be my pick but it gets down to splitting hairs... both are as good as any finger bow you will ever find and my Conquest with heavy hunting arrows is as quiet as my recurves.


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## Limey (May 6, 2005)

I love the whole Conquest range and I would take an Apex over a Con 3 not sure if I would go for a Con 4 over an Apex.

Having said that I waitng for my dealer to get a Constitution 07 in left handed to try, this is probably what I will go with as I like the Old Glory which I shot.


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