Favorite front and rear stabilizer setup for hunting and 3d. Light,effective and small diameter

Joined
Nov 12, 2019
Looking to see what everybody likes for a stabilizer setup. Want it to be as lightweight as it can, small diameter and look good. Have always just used a front bar. Gonna do a front and back kit. What works for you? Thanks guys
 
Lightweight and stabilization don’t really go together. There is very little gain using a stabilizer under 60 yards for hunting accuracy, if your shooting targets it may mean the difference between a 10 & 8 but that could only be a 1/4” at 20 or 1” at 50.

If you want a light stabilizer to be effective it will need to be long and a back bar won’t do any good without weight in it, that is the whole point.

I use an extendable crossroads stabilizer, I’d I’m shouting 3D or tuning my bow I’ll use it. For 90% of my hunting it stays in the truck because I don’t like to pack the extra weight and for me it makes very little difference. Even at 100 yards I can shoot well without the stabilizer. If I’m shooting a lol it helps when my form starts breaking down and I start torquing the bow but it also causes my form to break down faster due to the extra weight.
 
I tired front and rear bars for awhile. I ended up picking up a 15" BeeStinger Counterslide and I love it. So much more compact, way more adjustable and I got the same balance. There's a tradeoff needed for a hunting setup. I think this nails it.

Tim Gillingham hunts with this setup (granted he runs or is highly involved in BeeStinger)
 
@Bump79 this looks pretty slick. You think you could send a pic of how it looks on your setup. Whenever you can. And what length are you using. Thankyou!
 
I use a 12 inch front and a 10 inch back bar, bath mountain series from AAE. 3 oz front, 6 back. A little ungainly and a little heavy but I love how it shoots. It would be very hard for me to consider dropping a side bar at this point.

That being said, my next set of bars will be more compact- a 12 and an 8. I like the AAE bars fine but the quality is so-so; but they’re affordable and microdiameter, you get what you pay for. Looking at cutter or shrewd bars for my next set.
 
I’ll also disagree that stabilizers have no place within 60 yards- if you’re shaking, tired, there’s wind, or shooting at severe angles, I really think it helps settle down my shooting.
 
I like the Shrewd RevX bars myself. I think Shrewd makes the strongest v-bar mounts, at least that I have used, not going to be the lightest mount tho.


Pretty easy to have stiff bars when they are short, so really you probably have lots of options, if short I doubt the diameter will matter much for wind.



I frequently don't put bars on my hunting bows tho. Carrying the extra weight all day hurts my shooting more than what bars will help, just depends on the hunt. Don't mind them at all in the East.
 
You're always going to sacrifice something with stabilizer setups - either lightness, or compactness, or price, or stability. And giving up stability is stupid, just don't use a stabilizer at that point. If you go long, light bar with a little weight up front, it's going to be expensive and more cumbersome to carry around. If you go shorter bar, you need more weight to hold the same stability.
 
I have been using a 10* down with a 10” stabalizer and 5oz out front. It sits the bow very well with no back bar.
 
Looking to see what everybody likes for a stabilizer setup. Want it to be as lightweight as it can, small diameter and look good. Have always just used a front bar. Gonna do a front and back kit. What works for you? Thanks guys
I have recently switched over to running only a back bar with my Mathews vertix. Its an 11" quattro archery stabilizer. I have 3 oz on it which perfectly balances out the bow.
 
I use a Titanium Archery Products (TAP) front bar, 15inches, and use a bee stinger microhex 8inch for back bar (because i've owned it for awhile). Was going to change the bee stinger to a TAP 10inch for a back bar. Pretty small diameter and economical. I like them better than the stokerized I was using as a front bar. I tried the counterslide type of thing and couldn't get the balance as good as a dedicated front/back set up. I notice a difference at 60. The bow settles at full draw and it slows down the float over the target with a longer stabilzer for me. I have experimented with all different lengths and even just a back bar with no front and the speed of the float is too fast and my groups suffer, but more so at 0-40. At longer distances or with wind the longer bar makes a big difference.

I have shot out of tree stands and blinds with a 15inch front and it's been fine for me. It's worth it for me to carry the weight and sacrifice some maneuverability for the accuracy I gain.
 
Have had the quivalizer on my bow since I got it a few months ago and have only just put the Shrewd rear bar on it. It behaves a little better now. I had the bar for my recurve already so all I needed was the bracket. Group is 50m.

 
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