I'm a big fan of Bowtech bows, but they do have a few bow lines that just aren't up to snuff. One bow in particular is the General, produced in 2008.
The General simply has too many negatives against it to make it even a good bow. The first and second things they did wrong was placing the string stop at the end of the arm that houses the cable rollers. This creates an obstructed view through the string peep to the front sight. The other thing wrong with this string stop is the rubber insert that cushions the string when the bow is shot. This rubber piece is molded in a way that causes the string to kick to either the left or the right, throwing off the nock end of the arrow as it leaves the bow. Due to this, the General is a hard bow to paper tune. If it were up to me, I'd remove this string stop and install an aftermarket one in the rear threaded bushing.
Third, the cables rollers don't come with a fence that ensures the cables don't jump off the rollers. I've seen many longer-draw Generals come in where the cables derailed from the rollers. I've had to fabricate cable fences from aluminum stock to install on the General.
Fourth, the cable rollers don't pull the cables far enough away from the arrow shelf, so that an arrow fletched with a Blazer or Predator vane is most likely to hit a cable, deflecting the shot.
In my opinion, Bowtech should have recalled the bow and rectified these problems, because it would have been a great bow if they did.
If that General I tuned today belonged to me, I would have made it right.
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2 years ago
im also a big fan of Bowtech Bows all their bows are really great..
ReplyDeleteI HAVE AN 08 GENERAL 29.5 DRAW AND IT HAS NONE OF THE PROBLEMS YOU HAVE DESCRIBED.DID YOU TEST YOUR ONE ON AN OFF DAY.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you got lucky with your General. The one that came into the shop belonged to a customer and I had to custom fabricate a cable fence so the cables didn't jump off the rollers when it was shot - something that was known to happen. It just happened to happen on this one. The string stop was also poorly designed in that the groove down the middle had to line up perfectly with the string when it hit or it would throw the string to the left or the right.
ReplyDeleteI see these bows all the time and have owned one for three years. I have never seen a single problem with one. I own many bows and this is the smoothest, quietest, and most accurate I have. The only thing I can say is it slower than a lot of other bows but for as easy as the bow shoots its worth it.
ReplyDeleteI have an 08 General and have not had any problems with it. I have blazer vanes on my arrows and have not had any problems.
ReplyDeleteI also have an 08 General with no problems, its been shot thousands of times with no deflection of arrow or jumping of string. It sounds to me that who ever set up that bow didn't know what they were doing if set up properly while a little slow the general is an awesome shooting bow.
ReplyDeleteI own a Bowtech General and absolutely loved it. No issues tuning it and have dropped everything I have shot at with just one arrow. I have never experienced any of the issues that were stated in this review. Try owning bow and actually using it before you give it a bad review.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have any problems with your General because you probably don't know enough about bow-tuning to realize there are any problems with that bow.
ReplyDeleteI own a 2008 general. Have put at least 5000 arrows through it. Only issue was the recall for the limbs. Have never had a problem with it and i will never get rid of it. Extremly smooth and quiet bow. Draw cycle is very easy.
ReplyDeleteGood comment. Too many people panic and get rid of a good thing. In the old days we just fixed things when they broke. The new generation just throw it away and buy something new to brag.
DeleteI have an 08 general that was recalled. Bowtech fixed the problem and I have since taken many big game animals. It has never let me down. Without trial and error there is no success. Insanely smooth and quiet. A dream to shoot. Next bow will be the CPX.
ReplyDelete