New this week at the big archery trade show in Nashville, the Hoyt Stealth Shot. Essentially a set of recurve dampers, similar to that attached to (and often removed from) many compound bows for years, it promises a 1/2 to 3/4 feet per second increase in arrow speed, consistent arrow separation, better post shot reaction, less noise, increased accuracy and feedback and who knows what else. It’s apparently World Archery legal as long as the string isn’t actually touching the dampers at rest (i.e. at brace height). But it’s adding two more variables (which will wear), and obviously changing the bow balance and weight. And separation isn’t an issue anymore with the Beiter nock system. Anyway, watch it here:

I am grateful (not for the first time) to John Magera over at A.T. for his clear and cogent thoughts on the subject: “I think if folks have been paying attention over the past few years, there are a few top archers who are constantly tinkering with gear, and then there are one or two who use pretty basic setups, and they don’t change much. It’s especially worth noting that the archers in the latter category are consistently higher ranking than those in the former… As with anything new, there is a small group of world class archers I watch to see whether they adopt it permanently. If not, then that’s all I really need to know.” I’m guessing Jake Kaminski is stuck with them for a while though… 🙂 But I also wonder if it might help passable/intermediate archers like me more than it might help national team members. Possibly.

What do you think?